Archival Description

Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963 is a description about the civil rights movement that focuses on Martin Luther King Jr and incorporates the lives of other civil rights activists, organizations, and takes a deeper look at the era from the Supreme Court Ruling of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to President Kennedy’s assassination. Furthermore, Branch introduces numerous people within the African American communities that gave rise to the civil rights movement as well as those individuals that came into being as the movement surged forward.

Comparison and contrast of civil rights during the Reconstruction Era (1863-1877) and the Civil Rights Movement of 1945-1966

For this oral history paper, Judy Barnhill was interviewed to convey her experiences during her childhood and adolescent years relating to African American history. She was born in 1945, and she is a white American woman. This paper will be discussing the time periods of Jim Crow segregation, the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation. Jim Crow segregation began during the late 1800’s and continued on until about the 1960’s. It was a time of racial tension and inequality. Many southern states of the time would enforce local laws of segregation on African Americans, which would separate them from the whites in public places such as schools, restaurants, trains, bathrooms, etc. The facilities set up for African Americans were always

It was written after the time that the primary source, the 13th Amendment, was written. The topic of this article would be that it focuses on the movements, events, and causes leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Another topic would be how John F. Kennedy addressed his opinion in civil rights and how at first he was slow about progressing the civil rights movement, but then he saw the violence stirring up in the South and gave one of the best civil rights speeches ever.

America has a long history of oppression, discrimination and injustices towards African Americans, however the 1960s has brought important political and social changes. People who have not lived through this decade of change can gather some information of this time through historical documents such as letters and films that portray true events. An example of a film that is based on a true story is “Mississipi Burning” and a powerful historical document is “A Letter from Burmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther king. Each of these materials describes/portrays some of the issues African-American faced during the 1960s, specifically in the south. After analyzing these materials, we are able to understand some of what African-Americans endured during the 1960s.

The Civil Rights Movement is understood as the collected efforts of many different groups and individuals struggling to achieve justice and equal treatment for all Americans. Several events shaped the time period, particularly those that either showed the extent of injustice and unfair or violent treatment, as well as took direct action against injustice. Additionally, significant events were those where Civil Rights leaders could celebrate a concrete victory, such as a court decision or a change in law. Moreover, the organizing principles and philosophies of the movement changed as different leaders and

Analyze the changes that occurred during the 1960’s in the goals, strategies, and support of the movement for African American civil rights.

In Document two, it explains the act passed called the “black codes” which were meant to preserve public order and keep the former slaves to have “comfortable and correct” behavior. It continued white supremacy and hierarchy following the 13th amendment and since the president at the time, Andrew Johnson, didn’t stop this, it was legal. The audience of this document is the South because these codes allowed people to have control over freedmen which benefited them since they didn’t have to pay them to do labor and could keep tight restrictions on them at all times. Document four is two photos showing whites having authority over African Americans. Under the photo it states, “Everything falls to democratic victory this fall.” This photo was in 1874 which was during Grant’s presidency which fuelled the growth of Democratic strength. It was also during the financial decline and global panic of the Republican party since there was a major decline of jobs and production in most parts of the country. Document seven portrays headlines and excerpts from front page news stories in November 1874 that are called “Democratic Victory” and “The Republican Defeat.” This shows the decline in the Republican party and the increase in the Democratic Party means there were

In Document H, the changes brought to the country are being recognized as something different saying, “To impose the duty of protecting life and property on the Federal Government is…[a] distinct and well-marked…novelty.” It was unfamiliar for people to think of African Americans as “free” or as “not property”. The Ku Klux Klan and the White League are depicted in Document I by Thomas Nast to show the African American’s experience during the Reconstruction. This document is trying to show that life during the reconstruction was worse for blacks than it had been when they were still slaves. This is shown in the picture with a man hanging from a tree because he was lynched, also the implication that African American schools would be burned down, as well as other images within the document showing the clear racism that these two terrorist groups had toward the newly freed African Americans. The discrimination and intimidation towards African Americans was also revolutionary and caused the civil rights movements to come into play, which started with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The 13th amendment abolishing slavery, the 14th amendment allowing African Americans to become citizens of the United States, and the 15th amendment allowing black males to vote. Black reconstruction impacted African American lives and revolutionized American

The Reconstruction Era is a suitable starting point for African Americans. “Reconstruction- the effort to restore southern states to the Union and to redefine African Americans’ place in

I took another visit to the Library of Congress, located in Washington D.C. I went to James Madison building. My purpose at the library was to research The Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Police-Community Relations in Urban Areas, 1954–1966 and obtain information from the Newspaper and Current Periodical reading room. I was really disappointed that the librarian directed to me to ProQuest periodical. There was no other access of information. When I enter the manuscript room, it was the first time for me using microfilm and I was watch intensely by the staff when I was using the reel machine. The microfilms are located in the Madison building. The records focused on Black Americans, civil rights, Commission on civil Rights, police, race relations, racial discrimination, and urban area. The records were generated to disclose the tense relationships between police enforcement and the black communities they served in. This collection included reports on police brutality, dishonest arrests, and police failure to act for protection, race relations, and police training programs in cities including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Baltimore. I focused on the city of Baltimore. Some of the materials were written or received by Roy Littlejohn, he was the staff attorney for the Commission on Civil Rights. Some of the other materials were issued by local

interviews of people who have or know people who have experienced historical events of the past. For this essay, I chose to take an oral history of the civil rights movement and the great migration. Preserving the memories of the individuals that lived during these historical events allows for many things in addressing the silence of African American experiences within U.S. History. First, memories and recollections taken from oral histories may differ from the perspectives of those who have appear on historical records or may be completely absent from any other documentations. Also, because cameras and video cameras were not as easily accessible as they are today, the majority of history is documented from peoples’ memories through letters, diaries, and oral history interviews. In addition, taking an oral history allows me to ask specific questions towards what I am are interested in documenting about the civil rights movement and the great migration. Lastly, oral histories are somewhat viewed as a “revisionist” to the study of both the civil rights movement and the great migration because it takes firsthand accounts of those participating on campaigns and protests and also of those were watching from afar and allows readers to understand each individual part of what made the movement as a whole.

Within the eleven chapters that comprise Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour lays a treasure chest of information for anyone interested in Black or African American history, particularly the civil rights movement that took place during the 1950’s and 1960’s. I am a self-professed scholar of African American history and I found an amazing amount of information that I was not aware of. Like most who claim to be Black History experts, I was aware of the roles of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. However,

3. Write an essay on the civil rights movement since 1953 in which you discuss the major factors that have contributed to its success and its major gains. Be sure to discuss more than one group and to cite examples from each decade of the 1950s through the 1990s.

The documentary technique did work, i have seen other documentaries which throughout the