The Civil Rights Movement

Many changes occurred during the late 1950s into the early 1960s in

the goals, strategies, and support of the movement for African

American civil rights. Many strides were made for racial equality in

the United States. However, while changes were made, they did take a

considerable amount of time to achieve. This made some leaders of the

civil rights movement frustrated and caused them to divert from their

original goal of integration. They instead strove for black separatism

where blacks and whites would live segregated. The civil rights

movement started in 1955 with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks,

a black woman, sat in the front of a public Montgomery bus. According

to the Jim Crow laws enforced in the South, the front of buses was

reserved for white people. When a white person approached Rosa Parks

for the seat, she refused to get up. She was arrested for violating

the Jim Crow law. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. contacted Rosa Parks and

asked her if she was serious about starting a civil rights movement.

When she said yes, King organized a boycott on public buses in

Montgomery, Alabama. As a result, the bus company agreed to allow

blacks to sit wherever they wanted to on their buses. This was the

first step in a long process that eventually resulted in racial

equality in the United States. In 1960, Stokley Carmichael organized

Lunch Counter Sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was the head

of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee(SNCC). Restaurants

in the South had separate counters for blacks and whites. Carmichael

had black students sit down at a counter designated for whites only.

When the owner of the restauran...

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... candidate was Richard Nixon, the Democratic candidate was

Hubert Humphrey, and the Independent Party candidate was George

Wallace. Amazingly, George Wallace won 46 electoral votes. He won 5

states outright and got partial votes in another state. An independent

party candidate never wins electoral votes. Wallace was in favor of

segregation and he won most of the vote in the South. This event

showed the feeling toward segregation in the South even with the

increasing civil rights of blacks. All in all, there were many changes

during the 1960s in the goals, strategies, and support of the movement

for African American civil rights. Many people changed their views on

segregation and others remained the same. Civil Rights for all took a

long time to achieve and even though the South heavily opposed it, it

finally succeeded.