Greensboro Civil Rights Case Study

In Civilities and Civil Rights, William H. Chafe analyzes Greensboro, North Carolina in order to understand how the city’s progressive mystique operated when approaching the stages of crisis with black protests demanding integration for educational, working, political, and social purposes over a span of thirty years. Greensboro, North Carolina in the twentieth century carried a reputation for being progressive especially when dealing with racial relationships, but the social and economic statistics countermanded the complexion presenting inconsistency with civility reports. The city of Greensboro acknowledged benign order rather than facilitating the demands for racial integration and equality which exhibits civility being discordant with civil

African American’s experience prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 can be explained with the use of the sociological imagination. African American people were troubled. Troubled by the inequalities of their fellow man, some trying to survive and some looking for self-advancement. The feeling of inequality is what led Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in 1955. Rebelling against inequalities such as this by the African American people is what drove the Civil Rights Movement. The greater issue was not that Ms. Parks was not allowed to sit in the front of the

When many people think of the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders, the first names that comes to mind are Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, there were so many people that were just as influential and deserving of recognition as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. One of these people, Claudette Colvin, was “Rosa Parks before Rosa Parks”. Claudette Colvin grew up in King Hill, Alabama- a close-knit community that was stuck between two white neighborhoods. She attended a one-room school, with one teacher teaching all six elementary grades. When she refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a Montgomery bus, she was only fifteen years old. Claudette was arrested, and seen as an outsider by her classmates. She suffered

The legacy of the Greensboro Four radiates in history as one of the greatest nonviolent movements during the civil rights era. The young college students took their frustration and fear and turned it into a means for their voices to be heard. What followed would be changes so great that a nation would see the uprising of marches, desegregation laws, and changes in attitudes. McNeil, Blair, McCain, and Richmond will forever be hailed as the four African American men that came together to uphold the rights for all African

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore’s book Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950 shows the Civil Rights movement in the same light as those writers like Jacquelyn Dowd Hall who believed in “The Long Movement.” Gilmore sets out to prove that much more time and aspects went into the Civil Rights Era and that it did not just start at the time of Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights acts of the nineteen sixties. The book adhered to the ideology of “The Long movement” aspects of the civil rights era during its earlier times. However it also differs by displaying the more unorthodox, often unseen origins of the movement in Communism, labor, and fascism. She also shows that Black civil rights is not a problem faced by many

Post-Civil War North Carolina, as a part of the “New South”, was supposed to be an economically and morally prosperous state that was no longer reliant on slave labor. Unfortunately, the abolition of slavery did not abolish the misfortune of black and white North Carolinians alike before 1900. Racism was still very much alive, blacks did not enjoy the rights they supposedly acquired after the war, the same rich families from before the war were still rich, and the people that were poor before the war were still struggling.

To understand the present and the future one must understand the past.  The book Civilities and Civil Rights by William Chafe provided a detailed look at North Carolina, specifically Greensboro between the years of the 1930s through the 1960’s. The state of events that occur can be linked to many of the events that one sees today due to the fact that the foundation and structure of the south was built on racism. No one came straight out and said they were racist, instead the problem was covered up with civilities. Few leaders wanted to rock the boat or change things that would allow African Americans rights. This report will show how the civilities during this time hindered the success of civil rights in Greensboro, and also how it was harder for activists in Greensboro to win support and accomplish their goals.

Unlike before real organizations were helping to expose the blatant discrimination towards African-Americans. New strategies to obtain legal equality like nonviolent sit ins, the "nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. "(Doc 3) These nonviolent protest helped add momentum to the legal action from reconstruction that were not taken seriously.

Do you feel that there is equality in North Carolina? If you say yes, this is partially due to the Greensboro Sit Ins and the Civil Rights Movement. Many in North Carolina were impacted by the audacity of what started as some students and the black community members who protested for equality of races even right here in North Carolina, where we call home. “Despite advances in the fight for racial equality (including the landmark 1954 Supreme Court verdict in Brown v. Board of Education and the Montgomery Bus Boycott), segregation was still the norm across the southern United States in 1960.” Depending on whose perspective is looked at, some may still feel segregation is the norm in some cases. These racial segregations have been an issue longer than one can imagine, but from these certain events, life has improved and has become a lot easier for everyone in that case. We no longer have to worry about where we sit or who we can or cannot serve or who we can or cannot talk to.

The specific examination of the Greensboro, N.C. lunch counter sit-ins that ignited a wave of similarly executed sit-downs throughout the 1960 was accredited to the strong personal ties amongst the initial Greensboro students. Two were roommates and all had gone to the same high school and shared a wealth of common experiences ranging from smuggling beer into the dormitory to the remembering the injustices of Little Rock. The idea of a month long Woolworth sit-in was initially discussed in the dormitory in a most informal manner. This evidence inexplicably presented by Mr. Gladwell is in complete contradiction to his statement requiring a hierarchy in which national or local leaders and organizations operating in a hierarchical arraignment were essential to the development of significant social change.

Vermont has helped to lead the nation with many political ideas which were ahead of their time. For example, Vermont was one of the first states to abolish slavery, in its 1777 Constitution. http://slavenorth.com/vermont.htm

“By the summer of 1964,” David Cunningham writes in “Klansville, U.S.A.,” “the Carolina Klan established a demanding schedule of nightly rallies across the state, where they enlisted thousands of dues-paying members.” More than that, “at its mid-1960s peak the Klan’s presence in North Carolina eclipsed klan membership in all other southern states combined.” (Cunningham most likely put “klan” in lowercase because of the groups’ disorganization.)

Another significant transformation took place in the Civil Rights Movement in terms of its strategies. In analyzing this facet of the movement, we notice a great shift from nonviolent demonstration to forward, forceful action. Specifically, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, lunch counter sit-ins were evident throughout the nation, as were Freedom Riders. Starting in Greensboro, North Carolina at a luncheonette called Woolworths, young black citizens would seat

In the reading “Small Change : Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” Malcolm Gladwell discusses the act of four brave college students and their act of social activism. The four freshmen from a local all black college sat down at a counter in a diner near Greensboro, North Carolina and were denied service because of their race. The students refused to leave and instead started a protest there at the restaurant. The numbers of people protesting with the four young men increased as the story spreaded across states. The story of the sit in was done without the use of any technology or social network. Gladwell discussed the effectiveness of the sit-in because of the relationship between

Martin Luther King Jr.’s failed housing campaign and the Bronzeville Project exhibit this disjointedness through black middle class Chicagoans ignoring the socioeconomic class divisions within Bronzeville by using institutionalized racial barriers as a conduit to produce a narrative of collective discriminatory practices faced by all blacks preventing social and financial equity for the race. However, these