The 50s, 60s and 70s were a tumultuous time in American society. Roles were constantly being redefined. Events like the war created upheaval in the lives of many individuals and everyone was scrambling to find his or her place in society. The same was profoundly true for blacks in America. No societal movement had a more profound effect on the lives of Black Americans than did the Civil Rights Movement. The status of Black Americans would be redefined to a revolutionary degree. Civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X would bring the cause to the national stage. Although the movement was plagued with violence and death, it was eventually successful. The South was radically changed from a society of Jim Crow segregation to a South where all men (and women) are truly created equal.
The African American civil rights movement was a long journey for African American nationwide. The success involved many people, hardships and time in order to advance the African American community in America. The purpose of the movement was to achieve their rights, cease discrimination, and racial segregation.
The Civil Rights movement in the 1960s is a struggle, majority in the South, by African Americans to achieve civil rights equal to those of the whites, including housing, education, and employment, as well the right to vote, have access to public facilities, and the right to be free of racial discrimination. The federal government generally stayed out of the civil rights struggle until 1964, when President Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through congress prohibiting discrimination and promised equal opportunities in the workplace for all. The year after this happened the Voting Rights Act eliminated poll taxes and other restraints now allowing blacks to vote. These laws were not solving the problems African Americans were facing.
The 1960’s were one of the most significant decades in the twentieth century. The sixties were filled with new music, clothes, and an overall change in the way people acted, but most importantly it was a decade filled with civil rights movements. On February 1, 1960, four black freshmen from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College in Greensboro went to a Woolworth’s lunch counter and sat down politely and asked for service. The waitress refused to serve them and the students remained sitting there until the store closed for the night. The very next day they returned, this time with some more black students and even a few white ones. They were all well dressed, doing their homework, while crowds began to form outside the store. A columnist for the segregation minded Richmond News Leader wrote, “Here were the colored students in coats, white shirts, and ties and one of them was reading Goethe and one was taking notes from a biology text. And here, on the sidewalk outside was a gang of white boys come to heckle, a ragtail rabble, slack-jawed, black-jacketed, grinning fit to kill, and some of them, God save the mark, were waving the proud and honored flag of the Southern States in the last war fought by gentlemen. Eheu! It gives one pause”(Chalmers 21). As one can see, African-Americans didn’t have it easy trying to gain their civil rights. Several Acts were passed in the 60’s, such as Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. This was also, unfortunately, the time that the assassinations of important leaders took place. The deaths of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., all happened in the 60’s.
Fighting for Civil Rights during the 60's
The struggle began with non-violent protests. Backed by students, the civil rights movement trudged onward. African Americans staged mass protests to show their support. Despite all this, many racial barriers still remained in the South. Black objectives were redefined in the 60's when militant black consciousness developed.
Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925, and he was assassinated on February 21, 1965. Malcolm X was a Muslim leader and Civil Rights leader. He was born Malcolm Little to Earl Little and Louise Norton, who were both activists in the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Malcolm X was a bright student but was very bitter towards white authority figures. X quit school after a teacher said that his desire to become a lawyer was not a “realistic goal for a nigger.”
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.
During the civil rights movement, individuals including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, American youth and women along with civil rights organizations challenged segregation and discrimination with a variety of activities, including protest marches, boycotts, and refusal to abide by segregation laws.
What was the Civil Rights Movement? The Civil Rights Movement was a social
movement in the United Stated of civil liberties and rights. The goal of this movement was to
end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. This movement also was to
enforce constitutional voting right to them.
Man-made constitutions once created a society based on hierarchy, separating black from white, Latino from Asian, and rich from poor. Through the significant decades of the 1940s-1960s, America laid the groundwork for civil rights, a movement through which minorities fought for equal opportunity. How could America call itself “land of the free” when only the white man could socially and economically move upward? For minorities, this represented an immobile society. Yet, equality elapsed over time, and due to pivotal events in American history such as the Cold War and WWII, the Civil Rights Movement molded the road toward change and challenged America to redefine their core values.