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History essay civil rights
History essay civil rights
Freedom riders civil rights movement
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Freedom riders were a group of men and women young and old who boarded buses and planes bound for the south. There main aim was the get rid of the Jim Crow laws. They would ride through the towns sitting wherever they liked regardless of their race (this was breaking the law in Southern States) A few times, the freedom riders would be met with no resistance, but more often angry racist mobs awaited their arrival at the stations. As a non-violent group, the freedom riders would not fight back to the abuse they received. The Second World War helped develop the Civil Right movement due to the fact that it brought Blacks together with Whites. During the Second World War Blacks where able to fly planes, Roosevelt set up the FEPC. This meant that discrimination against Black Americans was ended in government agencies. Things like this helped the Civil Rights Movement as Blacks felt they should get the same treatment in other aspects of life. Black Americans fought not only for America, but for their human rights back home, this was called the Double V campaign. After the war, Black Protests started to happen all over the country (Brown v Topeka, Montgomery Bus Boycott) sparking the real start of the Civil Rights movement. During the 50’s and 60’s one man helped improve the treatment of Black Americans using no violence whatsoever. Martin Luther King believed in non-violence, he said that this was not cowardly but that it was a method that did resist. King set up various sit-ins in and around southern states such as Georgia and Atlanta. King also encouraged boycotts, one of the most publicized being the Montgomery Bus Boycott in... ... middle of paper ... ... was time to stand up for themselves and fight back. Many Blacks were impatient with Kings approach. They preferred Malcolm X's more militant stance and their anger and frustration caused a split in the movement. Things came to a head in an area of Los Angeles called Watts. With the split causing an even bigger divide in USA, many protests ended in sheer violence, raising questions of Malcolm X’s beliefs. Eventually the movement came to an abrupt halt as Malcolm X was assassinated in February 1965, and then the peace protest collapsed as Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis on the 4th of April 1968. So America had come along way since the start of the Civil Rights movement in 1954. From Little Rock High school to the Protests in Birmingham the United States had had, and still has a very difficult race division.
Martin Luther King led the boycott. turned out to be an immediate success, despite the threats and violence against white people. A federal court ordered Montgomery buses. desegregated in November 1956, and the boycott ended in triumph. King led several sit-ins, this kind of movement was a success.
After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, king wanted to end the humiliating treatment of blacks on city bus liners. He decided to start the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 382 days. Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Montgomery bus segregation laws illegal. King showed great inspiration despite receiving several threatening phone calls, being arrested and having his house being bombed, he still firmly believed in nonviolence. The boycott was the first step to end segregation, king displayed great leadership and educated the whole nation that nonviolence was the best possible was to end a problem, even if it took a while for people to notice your protest.
(Ansbro, 231) instead of promoting love and violence among all races. King’s purpose in promoting nonviolence direct action was to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiations. He felt that practicing nonviolence would portray his followers as moral beings while making apparent the brutality of the segregationists. King’s preaching of nonviolence was monumental in succeeding in demonstrations such as the Montgomery bus boycott and the desegregation of public schools. King’s reaching of nonviolent direct action furthers the arguments that King is the most influential person of the twentieth century.
A few years after this the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King, who used non-violent means such as sit-ins, boycotts, and speeches to obtain equal rights for African-Americans.
For many, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement, campaigning for conversion and sought to impact race relations. However, further triumphs for the Civil Rights Movement, reduced following the year 1965. These crusades led to, vain progress, hostility and King was a constant target for segregationists, ultimately resulting in his assassination. With increasing opposition towards his methods of nonviolence, other civil rights leaders criticised King for the slow progression and deprived undertakings.
The 1950's and 1960's were a time of racial turmoil throughout most of the United States. Segregation between blacks and whites was still in full effect, African Americans had to drink from different water fountains, eat at different restaurants, and even shop at different stores than their Anglo "neighbors". Many people and organizations fought valiantly for equality in the U.S. such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King jr. and the NAACP. The roles they played were critical in the civil rights movement were critical, the actions they took included peaceful demonstrations and marches, public speeches, and boycotts such as the one that took place in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. One man stands out among all of these leaders though, Malcolm X. Although fighting for the same thing as his colleagues in the civil rights movements, he was considered by many to represent the more extreme side of the battle for equality in the United States. It is his standout views and beliefs that make Malcolm X one of the most prominent and fascinating African-American leaders in the 1950's and 60's.
They drew “national attention to the harsh reality of segregation and put pressure on the federal government to enforce in law,” (“Freedom Riders”). Who were ‘they’ exactly? The Freedom Riders. The goal of the Freedom Rides was to gain attention from the Kennedy administration to enforce a ruling that would make segregation of bus terminals and stations that served interstate travelers illegal (Layman 320). Despite the problems and cruel torture they received, the Freedom Riders had many goals they wished to accomplish, did many dangerous things, and overall had successful long-term effects on society and people in general.
After the death of Malcolm X the movement started to get funky. It seemed as though after the assinaition of Malcom X, the revolution’s focal point began to change. The movement began to head towards a more intense, and nitty gritty level. It seemed as though all the non-violent organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, as well as the Christian Leadership Conference had little hold on what was about to happen to the movement. The death of Malcolm X brought a new direction in the movement.
Throughout the 1960’s, there were two people who ran the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Both had completely different ideas on how to get these rights and both had different outcomes from all of this. One was violent and did not succeed, and the other was peaceful and successful. Both had a big following, but one stuck until the end and helped reach civil rights for African Americans.
MLK would always preach about the nonviolent way being better and this was true because it showed the white moderates that they meant no harm. Whenever violence broke out they would be able to easily tell who was the one who started it. His methods inspired the Cngress of Rational Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to ride a bus throughout the southern states to see if there were any problems and if they had any desegregated buses. In Alabama they encountered a white mob who lit the bus on fire and beat the passengers. This made world news so it started the conversation and encouraged JFK to take action. JFK then started brings up a strong civil rights bill to congress called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned different voting standards for blacks and whites, witheld federal funds from public/provate programs that practiced discrimination, and banned discrimination based on religion,sex,or national origin by employers and unions. MLK's peaceful method was the effective in inspiring change in
From the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the Civil Rights Movement and the Pro-Life Movement of the 1960s, to the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Wall Street Movement of current times, “those struggling against unjust laws have engaged in acts of deliberate, open disobedience to government power to uphold higher principles regarding human rights and social justice” (DeForrest, 1998, p. 653) through nonviolent protests. Perhaps the most well-known of the non-violent protests are those associated with the Civil Rights movement. The movement was felt across the south, yet Birmingham, Alabama was known for its unequal treatment of blacks and became the focus of the Civil Rights Movement. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, African-Americans in Birmingham, began daily demonstrations and sit-ins to protest discrimination at lunch counters and in public facilities. These demonstrations were organized to draw attention to the injustices in the city. The demonstrations resulted in the arrest of protesters, including Martin Luther King. After King was arrested in Birmingham for taking part in a peaceful march to draw attention to the way that African-Americans were being treated there, their lack of voter rights, and the extreme injustice they faced in Alabama he wrote his now famous “Letter from Birmingham.”
Throughout his education, Martin Luther King Jr. tried to find a way to demonstrate his belief of racial equality with the most effective means possible. He quickly realized that the best strategy to end segregation was to use nonviolent forms of protest. At Crozer, Morehouse and Boston University, he studied the teaching of Mohandas Gandhi, who used nonviolent methods to help India claim its independence from Britain. King read several books on the ideas of Gandhi, and eventually became convinced that his methods could be employed by African Americans to obtain equality in America. King knew that any violence on the part of African Americans would lead to violent responses from segregationists, which would lead to injury or maybe even death for his followers. He had to teach his followers not to respond violently to cruel attacks from segregationists. King decided to sponsor workshops to train African Americans in nonviolent beh...
The civil right movement refers to the reform movement in the United States beginning in the 1954 to 1968 led primarily by Blacks for outlawing racial discrimination against African-Americans to prove the civil rights of personal Black citizen. For ten decades after the Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans in Southern states still live a rigid unequal world of deprive right of citizenship, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels. The nonviolent protest and civil disobedient were used by the civil right activist to bring change. The civil right movement produces many great leaders and many social changes that resulted as organized civil rights events that were staged throughout the south by organizations dedicated to finish segregation. The civil right movement help the African American people the urge to pursue their American dream. The distinguish civil right leader during the time was Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and the most memorable events that took cause during the movement was the fight to gain equality in voting rights for the black. The cause and effect to the civil rights movement were initiated by the African American teen visiting relatives in Mississippi from Chicago, the intensity in Selma, Alabama, Rosa Park refusal; integrate Little Rock central high school and James Meredith.
Later, however, they accepted Gandhi’s principle, stating that any retaliation or violence was hurtful and could not be justified. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's success with nonviolent activism, Martin Luther King Jr. pushed forward his Civil Rights Movement with nonviolent activism as well. Although the two have personally never had contact, Dr. King learned of Gandhi's discipline while in the seminary. His first application of the nonviolent campaign came in 1955 during the Montgomery bus boycott. Here, he witnessed firsthand the power of a peaceful protest.
Malcolm raised awareness for the mistreatment and oppression of the African Americans in the USA ghettos and influenced the New York Race riots or Harlem riots in 1964 as well as the Watts riots that raged for six days in 1965. In a street meeting in Harlem, Malcolm responded to criticism in a speech for not adopting nonviolence, instead offering militancy, “If we react to white racism with a violent reaction, to me that’s not Black racism. If you come to put a rope around my neck, and I hang you for it, to me that’s not racism. Yours is racism….My reaction is the reaction of a human being reacting to defend and protect himself.” He then confronts the public with the reality that, “They want you to be nonviolent here, but they want you to be very violent in South Vietnam.” Malcolm’s speeches played a vital role in the Civil Rights Movement for it effectively brought attention to the mistreatment of African Americans, encouraging them to stand up for freedom and human rights. He revealed and demonstrated that African Americans were just as worthy and equal, even superior to the Anglo-Saxons. This influence inspired African Americans to be more courageous and fight back, assisting them in achieving civil