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Civil rights movement to end segregation
U.S. segregation from the 1950s to the 1970s. The Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights segregation
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In the1960s, there was the Freedom Rides and Selma, Alabama. In May of 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) placed civil rights activists on greyhoud buses to travel the deep south in order to show segregation was still around. In Aniston, Alabama, the mob caught up to a bus, slashed the tires, and a fire bombed thrown onboard bus. All riders on the bus ran off and were beaten by violent anti-civil Right individuals. In Birmingham, Alabama, Jim Zwerg, a white activist for desegregation, got off the bus first. He was badly beaten and sent to the hospital for four days. Freedoms rides stopped shortly after that for a little bit. In 1965, in Selma, Alabama, a five day march was took place. The group marching was seven hundred strong and
Black liberation was stalled once again in 1961 and 1962, as white savagery reared its head again and black people were forced to deal with the reality that success was not inevitable, yet. Still more "sit-ins", "shoe- ins" were led to combat segregation in public places which were met with violent responses from some white people. These responses ranged from burning down a bus with black people to assaulting black passengers on a train car in Anniston. These racist white people also targeted other white people who were deemed as sympathizers to black struggle or "nigger lovers". Police refused to arrest the white aggressors and in some cases also refused to protect the black people. The Freedom Rides resulted in both losses and gains in the civil rights movement. People came to the realization that justice will not be won through merely trying to persuade Southern whites with peaceful protest but only "when
... throughout the South and the free schools for African Americans movement. The freedom rides also inspired black people in the south that were kept in isolation and fear due to political and economic bondage. Additionally, these freedom rides forced the media to uncover the true depths of southern racism to America at a time when the American government was busy testing its Nuclear Weapons after the Cold War. After five months of this nonviolent protest by the Freedom Riders and Nashville Student Movement, the federal government finally gave up in front of these activists. On September 22, 1961; the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ended the segregation in bus and rail stations eliminating the Jim Crow Law. The Congress of Racial Equality also became the most important active civil rights organization working for equal rights and justice for African Americans.
On May 4, 1961, the Freedom Riders left the safety of the integrated, northern city of Washington D.C. to embark on a daring journey throughout the segregated, southern United States (WGBH). This group of integrated white and black citizens rode together on buses through different towns to test the effectiveness of newly designed desegregation laws in bus terminals and areas surrounding them (Garry). Founded by the Congress of Racial Equality (Garry) , or CORE, the first two Freedom Ride buses included thirteen people as well as three journalists to record what would become imperative historical events in the Civil Rights Movement. This group of fifteen people would begin to emerge as an organization that would eventually reach 400 volunteers (WGBH). Those involved were mostly young, college students whose goal it was, as said by the CORE director James Farmer, to “…create a crisis so that the federal government would be compelled to enforce the law.” (Smith). But on their journey throughout these southern states, the Freedom Riders faced many challenges, threats, and dangers.
Events like 1954 Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregated education, and 1956’s, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat, which stemmed the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
Arendt, Hannah. “What Is Freedom?” Eight Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Penguin Group, 2012. 142-69. Print.
The Freedom Rides took place in the early May, 1961 where two groups of students riding in integrated Greyhound buses would stop at rest stops and blacks would go into white only bathrooms and whites would go into black only bathrooms. These bus rides were supposed to start at Washington DC and go on straight through the Deep South. These students were trying to protest interstate segregation laws and put an end to them. The trip went smoothly at first, but later everything went south as one bus got burned and the people inside were beaten. The second bus was stopped not to long after and everyone onboard was beaten and put in a hospital. Neither bus made it to their destination but it did put an immense amount of attention on them as a multitude of people followed in their footsteps and over a hundred buses became dragged into a freedom ride. (A Time for Justice )This shows how much these students were willing to take as in being beaten without fighting back and it also shows the amount of dedication involved.
In New York during the 1940’s a non-violent act of civil disobedience occurred among blacks to protest segregation laws. Blacks were not allowed to live in white neighborhoods, had to ride in the back of buses, lived in poverty with poor schools, and were frequently beaten by police.
Success was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. Starting with the year 1954, there were some major victories in favor of African Americans. In 1954, the landmark trial Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruled that segregation in public education was unfair. This unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned the prior Plessy vs. Ferguson case during which the “separate but equal” doctrine was created and abused. One year later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. launched a bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama after Ms. Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored section”. This boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the desegregation of buses in 1956. Group efforts greatly contributed to the success of the movement. This is not only shown by the successful nature of the bus boycott, but it is shown through the success of Martin Luther King’s SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was notable for peacefully protesting, nonviolence, and civil disobedience. Thanks to the SCLC, sit-ins and boycotts became popular during this time, adding to the movement’s accomplishments. The effective nature of the sit-in was shown during 1960 when a group of four black college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in hopes of being served. While they were not served the first time they commenced their sit-in, they were not forced to leave the establishment; their lack of response to the heckling...
The 1960’s were a time of freedom, deliverance, developing and molding for African-American people all over the United States. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of black people in the south fighting for equal rights. Although, years earlier by law Africans were considered free from slavery but that wasn’t enough they wanted to be treated equal as well. Many black people were fed up with the segregation laws such as giving up their seats on a public bus to a white woman, man, or child. They didn’t want separate bathrooms and water fountains and they wanted to be able to eat in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted to and be served just like any other person.
The focus of the video documentary "Ain't Scared of your Jails" is on the courage displayed by thousands of African-American people who joined the ranks of the civil rights movement and gave it new direction. In 1960, lunch counter sit-ins spread across the south. In 1961, Freedom Rides were running throughout the southern states. These rides consisted of African Americans switching places with white Americans on public transportation buses. The whites sat in the back and black people sat in the front of the public buses. Many freedom riders faced violence and defied death threats as they strived to stop segregation by participating in these rides. In interstate bus travel under the Mason-Dixon Line, the growing movement toward racial equality influenced the 1960 presidential campaign. Federal rights verses state rights became an issue.
For many years after the Civil War many African-Americans did not truly enjoy the freedoms that were granted to them by the US constitution. This was especially true in the southern states, because segregation flourished in the south wwhere African-Americans were treated as second class citizens. This racial segregation was characterized by separation of different races in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. In addition, Blacks were not afforded justice and fair trials, such as the case of the murder of Emmet Till. This unjust treatment would not be tolerated in America any more, which spurred the civil rights movement.
In the sixties, many Americans tried to stop the progress minorities were making with the civil rights movement. In 1961, a group known as the Congress of Racial Equality was attacked by mobs, while the group was testing the compliance of court orders banning segregation on interstate buses and trains and in terminal facilities (Foner 914).
The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.
Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett Till in 1955 in which the main suspects were acquitted of beating, shooting, and throwing the fourteen year old African American boy in the Tallahatchie River, for “whistling at a white woman”, this country was well overdo for change.
Some of the struggles include “civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954.” The Montgomery bus boycott happened on “December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks. who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus” she was arrested. Later, the Supreme Court ruled “segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956.” Works Cited History.com-History Made Every Day.