Key Events in the Civil Rights Movement Essay

The movement started after the Civil War, but it began to worsen in the 1950s. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was illegal in schools. This resulted in several major events in the fight for the rights of African-Americans. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white person on a bus. This started the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted over a year and led to Martin Luther King Jr. to leading the movement. He led a number of non-violent protests including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington. In 1964, The Civil Act Right was signed into law by President Lyndon johnson. This outlawed segregation and discrimination based on national background, race, and gender. Although there were still problems, it gave organizations the right to fight discrimination in court. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed to let everyone vote. This outlawed literacy tests and poll

Four years later, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. In response to Rosa’s arrest, the black community of Montgomery, Alabama established a boycott, which lasted for over a year.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not standing and letting a white bus rider take her seat. She was found guilty for disorderly conduct and fined fourteen dollars. The city law stated that all African Americans were to sit in separate rows on the buses. African Americans had to sit in the back rows of the bus because the front rows of the bus were reserved of the white passengers. Rosa was tired of all the horrible treatment her and her fellow African Americans were receiving everyday of their lives.

The start of King's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement began in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger and was jailed. Community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and asked King to be the leader. The organization would urge blacks to boycott the buses and use other means of transportation. The boycott lasted 381 days. On November 13, 1956 the Supreme Court declared that Alabama's bus segregation was unconstitutional and on December 21, 1956 buses were desegregated. (Michael).

For more than a year, the African-American community in Montgomery successfully boycotted the city bus company, Montgomery City Bus Lines, which resulted in the loss of much needed revenue to support the city expenses. The Bus Boycott was the impetus for many whites to act violently towards African Americans in Montgomery. Being an avid member of the NAACP, King became much involved in the boycott. King's non-violent approach towards the boycott obviously drew a lot of attention. King's home in Montgomery was firebombed by openly racist members of the Ku Klux Klan [KKK] (Norrell 1). Seeing that the bus

As a few white passengers boarded the bus and the white sections were already full so the driver shouted back at four black people including Rosa Parks “Move y'all, I want those two seats”. As this demand was made by the driver 3 of the bus riders obeyed to what was shouted back, however Rosa Parks remained in her seat and was determined not to move. She was arrested following the bus drivers order and fined ten dollars. This, however small incited a great wave of bus boycotts which in Montgomery black people chose not to ride the bus for a period of 381 days. This still to date is known as the moment in which the civil rights movement started to gain headway. It was the will of one woman who decided it was time for black people to take a stand and from this point on Martin Luther King was assigned to take this boycott on. Although he was assigned to take this on people also felt as he was young, fresh and people had not formulated enough of an opinion of him, there was little room for him to be hated yet so he posed as the right figure to lead this. After the many days of boycotting the case of this transport issue in Alabama went to the Supreme Court. Here it was decided that segregation was declared as unconstitutional so segregation by law was no

During the 1950's African Americans were technically equal in the eyes of the law, but not to most of the southern citizens. Segregation was a time of division between whites and African Americans in regards to bathrooms, public amenities, schools etc.&t all of the country was like this, the occupants ofnorthern America were open and not as racist towards African Americans. In 1955, African Americans obligated by Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back city buses and to give up their seats to white people ifthe front half ofthe bus was full. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was going home from her job on the Cleveland Avenue bus. She was seated in

Black merchants began to supply food to those in jail. Home owners put up property for bail money.The City’s head black lawyer headed up the defense. The court found the students guilty of disorderly conduct. John Lewis refused to pay the $50 fine and chose 33 days in the city workhouse. Most of the other students joined him in jail. They thought it was like a badge of honor spending time in jail. The black parents stopped spending their money at the downtown retail merchants. They hoped the boycott would put pressure on the Mayor to change the rules. The sit ins had spread to 69 cities and over 2,000 had been arrested. The boycott was organized nationwide for stores that discriminated. The boycotts had economic problems with the chain stores. It was encouraged that all people who were interested in democracy boycott the

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because the protesters used nonviolence, the community helped each other, and the car pool was a major step in outcome. First of all, on March 22, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. gives a speech and he states, “Democracy gives us this right to protest and that is all we are doing. We can say honestly that we have not advocated violence, have not practiced it, and have gone courageously on with a Christian movement”. This statement exemplifies that the protesters have done nothing wrong and they don’t plan on using violence. To continue, in a letter by Virginia Foster Durr written on January 30, 1956, she writes,“I think it is the first time that a whole Negro community has ever stuck together this way and

Since the Supreme Court case of Plessy Vs Ferguson way back in 1892, which ruled the separation of blacks and whites constitutional as long as all public facilities provided were “separate but equal,” the United States had been segregated. As with all other public facilities at the time, the busses in Montgomery Alabama were also subject to this segregation, and it wasn’t until 1956 with the beginning of what became to be known as the “Montgomery Bus

There were an additional three major events that helped end segregation. The first being the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which had started because of the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1st, 1955. It started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white person, and because of this she was arrested, tried and convicted of disorderly conduct. The outrage sparked by her arrested led to a 13-month mass boycott of Montgomery buses. This boycott led to the Supreme Court’s decision to ban segregation on buses in 1956. The second event was on September 24th, 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal Troops and the National Guard intervened and escorted a group of nine African American children, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, to Little Rock Central High School and ensure that they were safe, which aided in ending the segregation in schools in Arkansas. The third event was the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-on which occurred on February 1st, 1960. This event while prompting similar non-violent protests all over the South, also ended segregation at the Woolworth department store chain in the Southern United States.

One method that was used to advance the cause of Civil Rights was the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, in the year 1955. On December 1st, Rosa Parks was arrested “after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man” (New York World-Telegram and Sun). The community boycotted the bus system until December 20th 1956, when Browder v. Gayle took effect. In Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional. By boycotting the buses, the people put pressure on the community and the legislators.

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution form what is known as the Bill of Rights. In essence it is a summary of the basic rights held by all U.S. citizens. However, Negro citizens during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950-70’s felt this document and its mandate that guaranteed the civil rights and civil liberties of all people; were interpreted differently for people of color. The freedoms outlined in the Constitution were not enforced the same by the government of the United States for the black race as it did for the white race.

Despite the great efforts put forth during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 in which the black community and its supporters refused to use public transportation, transport segregation still remained in some southern states. As a result

First of all, It was succesful because African Americans had other ways of transportation besides the bus. Secondly, there is a threat to the city’s government because the bus companies are losing money;due to three fourths of the riders that are black.This was succesful because it made the bus companies lose money. Lastly,It is all over the news and people will eventually start to see it and watch it .Now more and more people heard it and will start to agree with eachother.This is also very succesful because by sharing this news will increase money.As said from Rosa Parks,” You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” -Rosa