Civil Rights

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Rights have been something that has been fought for all throughout history. People want to live fairly and be treated like everyone else. Having Civil Rights is a basic human right, “to cheapen the lives of any group of men, cheapens the lives of all men, even our own. This is a law of human psychology, or human nature. And it will not be repealed by our wishes, nor will it be merciful to our blindness” (William Pickens), it is what makes us human. When we think of Civil Rights we tend to think of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This movement was a very big step for our country on paper, but in person it took a long time for some people to change. Many people think Civil Rights is only referring to rights for African Americans. Although it does apply to them and that is a large part of the history it is not the only thing acknowledged. The Civil Rights Act was a movement to make everyone equal and it did, but many people didn't accept it and some even still don't. The Civil Rights Act was created to make everything equal to everyone, no matter your skin color, gender, religious affiliation or country of origin. It was supposed to make the country a fair place to live. On June 11, 1963 president John F. Kennedy gave is Civil Rights Speech and asked congress to “give all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments”, as well as “greater protection for the right to vote”. Kennedy wanted to change the country and he tried his best to do so, but you can't change the mindset of people, you can only change the laws around them. President Kennedy then gave a bill to two republican congressmen who then, two days later, voice... ... middle of paper ... ...uctant people were to accept the change that was right in front of them. Many Americans, especially in the South did not want to change their ways, once you are so used to something after hundreds of years change seems scary. For African Americans, some took full advantage of the new law and did everything new that they couldn't do before, on the other hand some were so used to being looked at one way they didn't want to try to change their and their neighbors ways. Everything could be different now that the bill was a law but it wasn't everywhere. Over the years people have taken our civil rights for granted and they don't realize how hard and how long some families fought for their right to be equal. We need to look into the past so as to not discriminate against others in the future. We can learn from our ancestors mistakes so that we can fix our future.

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