The Individuals and Movements that Made the Civil Rights Change Possible

Civil Rights activist used a non-violence approach to bring back peace and clear out all tension between blacks and whites. Many African Americans rose on the behalf of the blacks to bring back equality and freedom to the black community, and many of them lost their lives in the process. The civil rights movement was a mass media for racial equality in the United States, The civil rights was started in the 1950s and fought with non-violent protests. The movement also achieved the passage of landmark equal rights laws in the 1960s intended to end discrimination against people because of their race. It started in the 1950s and ended in the mid to the late 1960s when Dr. King was killed.

The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the supreme court in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional as well. (History.com Staff). A big difference between the 1947 Journey of reconciliation and the 1961 Freedom Rides was the inclusion of Women. (History.com Staff).The Freedom Riders way of getting everyone's attention, that was very successful, was to use whites only restrooms and lunch counters. CORE leader James Farmer, Jr., expected the “ racist of the South to create a crisis.” (David 9).

After being freed from slavery, the blacks thought they had achieved their freedom, but soon realized that was only the beginning. During the Civil Rights Movement, racism began to play a large role in how the blacks were treated. They were segregated and discriminated against causing racial violence to stir up and add to the many other problems the blacks faced on a daily basis. It took several years before the blacks would take a stand and fight for their rights, but until then, they continued to face suppression. Around 1876, Jim Crow Laws came into effect and demonstrated a system of segregation which separated the blacks and whites, primarily in public facilit... ... middle of paper ... ...ivil Rights Movement, a large social movement, paved the way for changes in black freedom and how the blacks would be viewed.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. The law said that black people had to sit in the back of the bus while the the white people sat in the front. Bus drivers often referred to black people on the bus as nigger, black cow, or black ape. Blacks had to pay in the front of the bus and they had to get off to go threw the side door to sit in the back. Dr. Martin Luther King jr., was born on January 15,1929 but died April 4, 1968.

In December 5, 1955 King began to be significant in the changing of the Black man's way of life. The boycott of the Montgomery Bus was begun when Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a bus to a white man on December 1st. Two Patrolmen took her away to the police station where she was booked. He and 50 other ministered held a meeting and agreed to start a boycott on December 5th, the day of Rosa Parks's hearing. This boycott would probably be successful since 70% of the riders were black.

King was a part of many groups and organizations that dealt with segregation. On December 1, 1955 the bus boycott began. An African American woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. After hearing of the situation, King decided to lead a bus boycott. During the spring of 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama M.L.K was arrested and sent to jail; from there he wrote a letter which he called his “Philosophy of Nonviolence” (“Martin Luther King, Jr.”1).

Rosa Parks was the secretary of Montgomery’s NAACP (National Association for the Advancement for Colored People). After her arrest the local activist in the area formed a bus boycott which lasted 381 days. This boycott put a big damper on the economic growth of the public transit system and on the downtown business owners. The protest leader and official spokesperson for the boycott was no other than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The world renowned Baptist minister and social activist had a massive impact on the American civil rights movement from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr was born on the 15th of January, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, known as Michael Luther King Jr and was than assassinated on the 4th of April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States and has still left a footprint on many people

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.

These states claimed that it did not break the 14th and 15th amendments because they were 'separate but equal' and in 1897 the Supreme Court found in favour of segregation in Plessey v Ferguson. Black pressure groups were formed such as the Niagara movement and the NAACP. To combat this, the NAACP had more middleclass members. They investigated lynchings, publicised injustices, tried to prevent violations of the constitution and tried to ensure that segregation was equal. Their membership went from 329 members in 1912 to 500,000 in 1946 and they were a major participant in the civil rights movement in the 1950s.