Students and the Civil Rights Movement During the 1960's Essay

The 1960’s era was known as being called the “Golden Age”. The 1960’s were a time for change, counter culture, and political movements. One of the most important events that occurred during the 1960’s was the presidential election between Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy. During this election, the Cold War between the Soviet Union and United States was the main focus. Also at this time there was a rise in the civil rights movement. The election of 1960 was a changing point in American history.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the famous and landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 set a precedent for desegregation in schools. But even still, southern activists worked to defend the practice of segregation. Following the Brown decision, grassroots African American activists began challenging segregation through protests continuing into the 1960s (Aiken et al., 2013). During the Eisenhower administration, Congress passed two measures that proved to be ineffective: the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. African Americans demonstrated their frustration with lack of progress on the issue through non-violent means and campaigns led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (Bourne,

African Americans have been struggling for equality for many decades. It only seems that during the 1960?s is when there were actual significant advances made. This was about the same time that civil rights came into the political scene. Throughout the South, Blacks were still in the majority, but had no political power what so ever. The Civil Rights Movement gave African Americans a voice and a chance to make a difference. The 1960's helped open up hope and expectations for Black Americans.

The 1960s was crammed full of many impacting events and important figures. From Hitchcock releasing one of the greatest thrillers of all time, Psycho, to Marilyn Monroe’s untimely death, to the infamous Woodstock festival. This era changed history completely and made the United States think twice about its youth. Events of the 1960s are still impacting our country as we know it today. The sudden pull from the conservative ‘50s changed America’s views on all aspects of life, including fashion, entertainment, and lifestyles.

The Black Studies Movement was an incredible time in history for student advocacy. There are many different proposed timelines, but essentially the Black Studies Movement happened in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The movement is often swallowed in discussions of other movements at the time, notably the end of the Civil Rights Movement and beginning of the Black Power Movement. It is also addressed somewhat in discussions of late 1960’s and early 1970’s college campus activism.

The 1960s in the United States of America was an era of protests. Americans from the 1960s era experienced social changes that caused Americans to revolt of the Establishment of the 1950s. Racial discrimination, gender equality, and poverty are certain specific of the problems that Americans sought the need to identify of what caused the rise of protesters throughout the 1960s. The youth generation from the era “baby boomers” were the causes for the determination for the 1960s. The parents of the “baby boomers” were traditionally from the era of the “Happy Days” from the 1950s, which was after World War II has concluded and the United States became a global superpower. Activism in the 1960s, Terry H. Anderson describes that the activism of the 1960s has a significant positive change in American politics, culture, and society. New Left, a political movement consisting of educators, and not others who sought to implement a broad range of reform on issues such as gay rights, drugs and so on, had an impact in the 1960s. On the other hand, Peter Clecak issued that during the 1960s, the society failed to revolutionize themselves, and without the specific program 's movements American becomes powerless. The activism of the 1960s transformed the United States of America into an excellent democratic nation, because of the altercation of American politics, foreign policies, culture, and society.

Victory was seen months later when the same four students that initiated the movement were served at the counter. Prior to the sit-ins, youth showed their strength during the movement. The Little Rock Nine, a group of nine black high school students, were the first to integrate into an all white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. These nine students, despite being blocked from attending the school by the governor, showed how serious the United States was about educational integration; President Eisenhower himself issued an order for federal troops and the National Guard to make sure that the students made it to school safely. In 1962, success came in the form of James Meredith when he became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Although he was also met with resistance, 5,000 governmental troops were sent by the president’s orders to dispel the chaos. SNCC or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed in favor of youth and inspired by the SCLC. This organization gave young African Americans an important role to play in the movement and increased the peaceful, unified nature of the Civil Rights Movement. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee initiated events like “freedom rides” where student volunteers tested laws prohibiting segregation on public transportation and was not just for blacks, but other people with the same

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.

They struggled for equality and took part in some of the greatest civil rights movements ever known. Although the civil rights revolution came as a surprise, the causes fought for were necessary. According to Foner, “the United States in the 1950s was still a segregated, unequal society with half of the nation’s black families living in poverty.” (902) Many whites paid little attention to segregation because they felt it had no impact on their everyday lives. Segregation impacted blacks, especially in the South, on a daily basis. They had separate restrooms, drinking fountains, schools, entrances to public places, and were unable to enter many public institutions altogether. (902) The arrest of Rosa Parks sparked a year-long bus boycott and marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the South. (904) With Martin Luther King Jr. leading the movement, the freedom of justice and equality finally seemed within reach. According to the text, “King was a master of appealing to the deep sense of injustice among blacks and to the conscience of white America. He presented the case for black rights in a vocabulary that emerged the black experience with that of the nation.” (906)

How did the student sit-ins change the Civil Rights Movement? Students showed that they have power and by banding together they would be able to change their world for the better. “…the philosophy of nonviolent resistance, is the philosophy which says that the means must be as pure as the ends, that in the long run of history, immoral destructive means cannot bring about moral and constructive ends,” says Martin Luther King Jr. when defending the student’s actions. Students created change by starting, spreading, and organizing sit-ins. Those same students would be able to live in a United States without racial segregation in restaurants.

The civil rights movement in the United States was the start of a political and social conflict for African-Americans in the United States to gain their full rights in the country, and to have the same equality as white Americans. The civil rights movement was a challenge to segregation, the laws and ordinances that separated blacks and whites. This movement had the goal to end racial segregation against the black Americans of the United States.

The 1950’s and the 1960’s was a time of change and evolution. It brought on the Civil Rights Movement. This was a very influential time period were these new ideas were incorporated into everyday life and they

The 1960’s was a decade that forever changed the culture and society of America. The

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.

The 1960s are frequently referred to as a period of social protest and dissent. Antiwar demonstrators, civil-rights activists, feminists, and members of various other social groups demanded what they considered to be justice and sought reparation for the wrongs they believed they had suffered. The decade marked a shift from a collective view on politics, to a much more individualistic viewpoint. The 1960s could easily be characterized as a period during which political, ideological, and social tensions among radicals, liberals, and conservatives in American society are seen to have rapidly unfolded. Due to this, the decade has had an overwhelming effect on the decades that have followed. The sixties have had the greatest impact on American society out of any decade in recent history. Whether for better or for worse, the decade has had a profound influence on politics, society, foreign policy, and culture.