The Civil Rights Movement and the Decline in Racisim

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Throughout the 60's, racism changed dramatically in a various number of ways. Changes involved the passage of bills into laws as well as involving the overall attitude of the people. Racism was largely based on white people's hatred towards blacks until the 1960's, when several major events increased problems both from whites towards blacks and from blacks towards whites. The biggest Social protest of the 1960's was the civil rights movement. It began on February 1, 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina when four black students seated themselves at the whites only lunch counter and refused to leave until they were served. After the first sit-in, it began happening all over the country and by the end of the year, 70,000 blacks staged sit-ins. Throughout this, over 3,600 people were arrested. This movement was successful, but it demonstrated non-violent protests. After this movement began, several organizations developed. Such programs include; The NAACP, SNCC, SCLC, CORE, and the Black Panthers. The NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, while the SNCC stands for the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee. The SCLC stands for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who started a segregation protest traveling to Birmingham, Alabama who had the reputation of one of the most segregated cities in the United States. On May 2, 1963, over six hundred protesters were arrested, and the majority was teenage high schoolers. The next day, the police chief, Bull Conor, ordered his police officers to shoot the protestors with high-powered water hoses ordered their dogs to attack them. By the end of the march, only twenty people reached the City Hall. After the Birmingham demonstrations, the blacks gained support from the people from the North because they witnessed how violent the South was towards the black protestors. The CORE is for the Congress of Racial Equality and started the first series of Freedom Riders in May of 1961. They traveled on two interstate buses starting in Washington D.C. and traveling to New Orleans. The people who disagreed with this movement threw stones and burnt these traveling buses in order to show their dislikeness of the blacks. All of these programs promoted rights for African Americans. The Black Panthers was organized by the SNCC and became popular in the late 60's. It was founded in Oakland, California after they protested the bill that outlawed carrying loaded weapons in public.

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