The civil rights movement influenced the women’s liberation movement in four key ways. First, it provided women with a model for success on how a successful movement should organize itself. Second, the civil rights movement broadened the concept of leadership to include women. Third, by fighting for equality, the civil rights movement changed the culture of advocacy and made social justice a legitimate cause. Finally, by eventually excluding women, the civil rights movement spurred women to organize their own movement. Without the civil rights movement, the women’s movement likely would never taken off on its own. The civil rights movement (and the activists involved) gave women a model for success. The method the civil rights movement used demonstrated the power of solving social problems through collective action. By using lunch counter sit-ins, organizing into national networks like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and reaching into college campuses through the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the civil rights movement was able to bring together northerners and southerners, older and younger citizens and men and women to work for a single cause. Women took inspiration from this in the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other feminist groups – NOW even states in its Statement of Purpose that “there is no civil rights movement to speak for women, as there has been for Negroes and other victims of discrimination” and that NOW must take on that responsibility. Similarly important was the role black women on an individual level played in offering a model for white women to follow. Because black men had a harder time finding employment, black women had a history of working ou... ... middle of paper ... ...on: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 59-62. Print. Lawson, Steven F., and Charles M. Payne. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 140. Print. Lawson, Steven F., and Charles M. Payne. "This Transformation of People": An Interview with Bob Moses. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 170-188. Print. MacLean, 11. Murray, Pauli. Women's Rights Are a Part of Human Rights. The American Women's Movement, 1945-2000 a Brief History with Documents. Comp. Nancy MacLean. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 69-71. Print. Hayden, Casey, and Mary King. Sex and Caste. The Movements of the New Left, 1950-1975. Comp. Van Gosse. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. 99-103. Print. Lawson and Payne, 150. MacLean, 10. MacLean, 14. MacLean, 14. MacLean, 16.
In 1955, C. Vann Woodward published the first edition of his book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. The book garnered immediate recognition and success with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eventually calling it, “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” An endorsement like this one from such a prominent and respect figure in American history makes one wonder if they will find anything in the book to criticize or any faults to point out. However, with two subsequent editions of the book, one in August 1965 and another in October 1973—each adding new chapters as the Civil Rights movement progressed—one wonders if Dr. King’s assessment still holds up, if indeed The Strange Career of Jim Crow is still the historical bible of the civil rights movement. In addition, one questions the objectivity of the book considering that it gained endorsements from figures who were promoting a cause and because Woodward had also promoted that same cause.
Younge, Gary. "America dreaming: the horrors of segregation bound the US civil rights movement together. Fifty years on from Martin Luther King's great speech, inequality persists--but in subtler ways." New Statesman [1996] 23 Aug. 2013: 20+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
I have read Kathryn Kish Sklar book, brief History with documents of "Women's Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870" with great interest and I have learned a lot. I share her fascination with the contours of nineteenth century women's rights movements, and their search for meaningful lessons we can draw from the past about American political culture today. I find their categories of so compelling, that when reading them, I frequently lost focus about women's rights movements history and became absorbed in their accounts of civic life.
Women had been “denied basic rights, trapped in the home [their] entire life and discriminated against in the workplace”(http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/). Women wanted a political say and wanted people to look at them the way people would look at men. in 1968, many women even protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant because it made it look that women were only worth their physical beauty. A stereotyped image was not the only thing they fought, “Women also fought for the right to abortion or reproductive rights, as most people called it” (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/). These were the reason why the Women started the Women’s Liberation. African Americans, however, had different causes. After almost a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black men are still being treated unfairly. They were being oppresed by the so-called “Jim Crow” laws which “barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures” (http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/). They wanted equal rights, equal facilities and equal treatment as the whites. This unfairness sparked the African American Civil Right’s Movement. This unfairness was seen in the Women’s Liberation as well. Both were treated unfairly by the “superior”. Both wanted equal rights, from the men or whites oppressing them. They both wanted equal treatment and equal rights. During the actual movement
3Branch 139 4 Branch 143 5 Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987) 89
The civil rights movement was a popular historical movement that worked to allow African Americans to have equal rights and privileges as U.S. citizens. The movement can be defined as a struggle against racial segregation and discrimination that began in the 1950s. Although the origins of the civil rights movement go back to the 1800s, the movement peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. African American men and women, along with whites, organized and led the movement from local to national levels. Many actions of the civil rights movement were concentrated through legal means such as negotiations, appeals, and nonviolent protests. When we think of leaders or icons of the movement we usually think of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Even though Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. are important figures, their participation in the movement was minimal compared to other unknown or forgotten figures. Howell Raines’s, My Soul Is Rested, contains recollections of voices from followers of the civil rights movement. These voices include students, lawyers, news reporters, and civil right activists. Although the followers of the movement were lesser known, the impact they made shaped the society we live in today.
Kirk, J. (2007). Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement: controversies and debates. Basingstoke New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
...War and the Civil Rights Movements in order to illustrate how the 1960s was a time of “tumult and change.” To Anderson, it is these events, which sparked the demand for recognition of social and economic fairness. He makes prominent the idea that the 1960s served as the origin of activism and the birth of the civil rights movement, forever changing ideals that embody America. The book overall is comprehensive and a definite attention grabber. It shows how the decade had the effect of drastically transforming life in America and challenging the unequal status quo that has characterized most of the nation's history. Despite the violence and conflict that was provoked by these changes, the activism and the liberation movements that took place have left a permanent imprint upon the country.
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
The involvement of peaceful and violent protest brought change to legislation that allowed for the permanent removal of discrimination and the prejudices of white America closely related to it. Hence, the civil rights activists of the movement have altered history for the betterment of a nation and successfully gave equality to the African American community, previously oppressed to slavery and later segregation. In conclusion, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s progressively influenced today’s society by unifying the United States of America through protest and legislative
Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015.
Yet, as the movement begins to develop more of an organizational structure, women are seen to fade out of the picture and often do not reemerge until declining phases of the movement, when personal costs tend to be high” (Blumberg 134). A key example cited by Blumberg is of Ella Baker, an NAACP activist, who was asked to assume the administrative duties of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SNCC) until someone with qualified credentials could shoulder the position; however, as Blumberg notes, those credentials were “male” and “minister” although Baker possessed the experience and ability to retain the position (Blumberg 134). Likewise, despite the significant role that women activists such as Diane Nash, a Nashville sit-in leader, played in the SNCC as well as the crucial contributions that they made, “no woman was elected to the top leadership post in SNCC” (Blumberg
Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Year, 1954-1965. New York: Viking Penguin, Inc., 1987.
When discussing the American Civil Rights Movement, the names that seem to come up are those of prominent black men. While these men did enormous amounts of good during this movement, there are many women who seem to be poorly represented or credited. Black women had a huge amount of influence during the Civil Rights Movement. While many of the protests and movements were led by men, the women were behind the scenes organizing and promoting and popularizing the ideas themselves. Many women were heavily involved in political organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and many others. Even if they were not directly involved in organizations, however, many black women became informal leaders of movements and/or enthusiastic participants. A few famous example of black women’s involvement are: Citizenship Schools in South Carolina, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, And various women’s involvement in political groups and organizations.
Women have been thought of as housewives who are not supposed to be independent. Women used to be seen as the ones who cook for their husbands and their children, clean the house, make sure the children are taken care of, while they let the men do all of the work. Women can be just as strong and as smart as men, and they can be independent. Women have realized that they could do whatever they want and that they do not need to be dependent on anyone, and that all they need is theirself. All people deserve basic human rights, regardless of sex. A woman is of equal worth to a man, they are not superior, and they are not inferior.The Women's Rights Movement is an important movement in history. This paper will include background information