Rights Movement Themes

The Civil Rights Movement: A Recurring Theme

Over the course of many years, black Americans have stood up for what they believed in, and strived for equality and social justice. They’ve made great leaps and bounds, from slaves picking cotton, to protests with 1000s of black Americans and white Americans battling for civil rights. Rosa Parks, The Greensboro, and Grandmama from Grandmama’s Pride, have all made large and small contributions to the Civil Rights movement. Looking closer, a common theme can be found across all three sources. All were willing stand up for what they believed in.

On December first 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her front seat on a bus to a white passenger. This was unheard of at the time, as

The Greensboro Four were four black men, who in 1960, sat at the Woolworth Lunch Counter, meant only for whites. Many whites protested, a police officer even arriving, but the men did not move. These noble actions caught on, and many blacks in, according to the video, 54 cities in the south, started sitting in white only bars. These sit-ins would later be called “The Woolworth Sit-ins” and continued, as the video states, for six months. Similar to Rosa Parks, many threats were made against the four brave men, but they continued to sit. The movement was successful, and the F.W. Woolworth Company “ordered the store to give in”. From this, it can be seen how determined these four men were to make their vision of equality become a reality. It is apparent that The Greensboro Four stood up for what they believed in for several reasons: The men were willing to take a stand and had a voice, they continued to sit even after many threats, and not once did any of the four men back down. And as Franklin McCain, one of the original four sitters, said, “We wanted a place created that was really a dichotomy of… respect of people, simply based on their

The Grandma’s grandchildren begin to notice how prideful Grandmama is. She did not accept the current social status of blacks, unlike many other people at the time. She “refused to take the downtown bus”, where blacks had to sit in the back. “Grandmama’s pride was too tall to fit in the back of the bus.” The Grandmother was too humble to be treated as if her race was inferior. Grandmama did not have a large impact in the grand scheme of civil rights, but she did to her grandchildren. And although she may not go down in history as one of the great pioneers of civil rights, her attitude and pride towards equality, and her unwillingness to accept that she was inferior were essential during the Civil Rights