Civil Rights Upheaval Of The 1950's

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

The 1950s and 1960s was a period of growth and prosperity in America. Features of the common life included innovations such as television, dishwasher, and home air-conditioning. However, not all Americans equally benefited from the economic growth of this period of time. In addition to Jim Crow laws and unequal economic opportunities, America’s society became further segregated as many whites moved to the suburbs while blacks remained in run-down city neighborhoods. These many inequalities sparked the civil rights movement, where African Americans stood up and fought for their rights using nonviolent methods. The movement influenced the emergence of many prominent figures including Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was successful in achieving equal rights for African Americans through nonviolent protests such as the Montgomery bus boycott, sit-ins, and marches.

In this research paper, we will be discussing the African American racial and prejudicial issues during the civil rights movements in the 1950’s and 60’s. Racial injustice goes way back since the Emancipation Proclamation which took place on January 1, 1863 issued by president Abraham Lincoln, was first created for states in the South who seceded from the union to abolish slavery during the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws due to issues related to slaves during the Civil War. Although slavery was not around almost a century later African Americans were still being treated unfairly in the 1950’s and 60’s. Major Icons such as Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Black Panthers, Malcolm

Discrimination,segregation,and violence these are things that happened to african americans in 1950-1960. The purpose of this paper is to inform people about the civil rights movement and I think everyone that reads it likes my paper.

In 1894, the US Supreme Court gave legal consent to state laws segregating black people and white people with its decision concerning the Plessey v Ferguson case. The decision stated that black and white should be separate but equal, meaning the same standard of facilities for both. In reality it legally enforced a state of affairs that assured that blacks would never be equal, and couldn’t get equal treatment, status or opportunity in their own country. During the Second World War, the black American Gi’s realised that they were fighting for a democracy abroad, which they did not have at home.

The American South in the 1960 's and Ancient Thebes both had a rigid social and legal system that did not effectively and legitimately represent the majority of its citizens. In both eras, an antihero rose up to defy the establish system. Dr. King, in the 1960 's, protested unjust laws and was jailed and viewed as an antagonist. Similarly, in Ancient Thebes, Antigone is sentenced to death for doing what she believes is right, regardless of the law. If Dr. King failed, he stood to lose, in addition to his life, his reputation as someone who wanted true change for all African Americans. Furthermore, future generations of colored people would have to endure the same injustice that he was protesting against. Also, if his nonviolent ways failed there were people ready to take the civil rights movement in a violent direction. If Antigone 's defiance had failed, her brother will never find peace in the afterlife, and Thebes will never find unity and solace after its civil war. Additionally, she too could lose her life for her outward defiance. Therefore, both Dr. King 's nonviolent resistance, along with writing his letter from Birmingham Jail, and Antigone 's violation of Kreon 's edict are justified by what they stood to lose if they did not take their respective actions.

Civil Rights are the government’s guarantees that you will be treated equally no matter your race, religion, or gender. “The proclamation that “all men are created equal” appears in the Declaration of Independence, and the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that the federal government treat people equally”. “No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Thus, between the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, neither state governments nor the federal government may treat people unequally unless unequal treatment is necessary to maintain important governmental interests, like public safety (154). Everyone has rights under the constitution, but only when

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is one of the most significant periods of American history, but the struggle for equality began long before any March on Washington. The passage of the 13th Amendment in the 1860s was followed by a chain reaction consisting of black codes, Jim Crow, and the formation of the KKK and NAACP (Aiken et al., 2013). The 1900s saw progress in the form of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Little Rock Nine, successful bus boycotts, and a nonviolent protest movement emboldened by wartime hypocrisy (Aiken et al., 2013). The movement came to a head with the passage of the CRA in 1964, which President Johnson pushed through after the tragic assassination of President Kennedy, a vocal supporter of civil rights (Aiken et al., 2013). This legislative success was followed by yet another tragic assassination, this time of peaceful community leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 (Aiken et al., 2013).

The 1950s was a crucial time period when it comes to discussing racial topics because this was when a lot of civil rights movements began to take action and get the ball rolling on achieving equality between different races. There was a lot of tension between blacks and whites because although blacks were considered free they ran into a lot of problems with segregation and equality. For example, blacks weren’t allowed in certain restaurants, bathrooms, only allowed to use certain water fountains, etc. Also there was great deal of injustices when it came to dealing with the law. An example of one of the major civil rights movements that took place during this era was the Brown v. Board in 1954, which resulted in the removal of segregation in

Sometimes a single issue can cause a rift between a political party and its members. Due in large part to this Civil Rights movement during the 1960s, there was a switch in the Democratic and Republican parties in terms of region and race of the parties' supporting coalitions.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” (Martin Luther King Jr.) People say that the 1950’s were a decade of social upheaval and a time of change for the United States. In 1969, the riots of the Stonewall Inn forced the advancement of civil rights for the LGBT community and other intersectionalities of the sort.

Disobedience is man’s greatest trait because without disobedience there is no progression. It helps make new strides in mostly everything we do.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the most notable event that a multitude of people would know about would me the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Movement, a social justice movement that took place for African American peoples could gain equal rights in the United States. Although this was a difficult for the African Americans due to those who believed that there should not be equal rights. There are many events during this movement that showed the racial injustice. Frank Morris is an African American man who owned a shoe shop in Ferriday, Louisiana was attacked December 10, 1964 when two men broke into his store a caught it one fire. Morris was severely injured and died four days later after being in the ICU for third degree burns over one hundred percent of his body (cold cases...). Some believe the attack on Morris was on the hands of the Ku Klux Klan due to the racial barrier of the 1960s. Numerous amounts of events were happening that same year; to start off, the Freedom Summer was bringing hundreds of young people to Mississippi to push social justice. The Klan had been upset by this and struck out with violent retaliation and killed three civil rights workers.

As society redevelops as we go further and further into the 21st century, Society itself, progresses to keep up with the ever-changing dynamics of its citizens on a daily basis. Social movements are popping up all over the world today as an outlet to hopefully bring change within the law. Social movement is a broad term that many people hear from media sources, they have specific goals and targets in mind, in which they have a specific outcome that they are hoping to desire. They are collective groups that seek a common goal or express a common identity; targets that may include states, society, corporations, and or social norms and values.

Black Americans were discriminated against on a daily basis creating all sorts of difficulties in life, so the Civil Rights movements in the 1950s sparked optimism in many Black Americans.