The Origin of the Civil Rights Movement

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Before one woman refused to head to the back of the bus, before there was a voice to peacefully express the dream, before Jim Crow was scared away, there were organizations, fighters and events that contributed to the advancement of African Americans. As W.E.B. Du Bois provided the diving board that would allow blacks to dive into the pool of equality, he is found at the origin of the Civil Rights Movement. The Pan-Africanism movement, the rage following the Red Summer, and the Great Migration continued the efforts of W.E.B. Du Bois. The bold and striking words and actions of Marcus Garvey showed whites that blacks would not be called an inferior race any longer. Following World War II, many bounds toward racial equality were made and Brown versus the Board of Education poured gasoline onto the civil rights fire. Around 1900, many U.S. historians released theories proclaiming the racial inferiority of blacks, and discrimination against southern blacks became even more widespread throughout the early 1900s. Every southern state required racial segregation on trains and in churches, schools, hotels, restaurants, theaters, and other public places. The southern states also adopted an election practice known as the white primary. This process banned blacks from voting in the Democratic Party’s primary election by calling them “private affairs.” By 1910, every southern state was, if they had not already, in the process of revoking suffrage from African Americans, and the Ku Klux Klan enforced this (Forces). The Ku Klux Klan attempted to keep blacks from voting through an increased use of threats, beatings, and killings. More than 3,000 blacks had been lynched during the late 1800s, and hundreds more ... ... middle of paper ... ...rmined to keep and expand these gains. NAACP membership soared from 51,000 in 1940 to 351,000 in 1945; this made it possible for the relentless organization to expand its activities. Because of both rising black income and the efforts of the United Negro College Fund, founded in 1950, giving blacks a much broader base for their future leadership. As the years slowly passed by, black triumphs added up (Levine 171) The most significant victory for African American civil rights during the 1950’s was the Supreme Courts ruling in the Brown versus the Board of Education ruling, which declared separate but equal unconstitutional. It was a great victory for the NAACP and for Black America. The victory in the courtroom, however, was not manifested until many years later as the majority of school districts continued their segregationist policies across America.

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