The Civil Rights Act Of Selma And Taylor Branch 's Novel The King Years

In the essay “Let Justice Roll down”, Martin Luther King Jr wrote about the difficulties and social injustices faced by the negro population in America during the 1960’s. The main theme Dr. King was writing about in his yearly essay was the fight for civil justice and equality for all men and women. The essay chosen was written in 1965 and made very good points to the argument for equality made by Martin Luther King Jr. Three of these points included in the following paragraphs are the importance of Selma, AL to the rights movement, the importance of demonstrations, and a stronger focus on the Civil Rights Act.

The Civil Rights Movement was a pivotal time in American history, leading us toward the acceptance and advancement of African Americans in society, and eventually the same for other minority groups. The movement as a whole spanned from around the beginning of the 1950’s to around the beginning of the 1970’s. All across the nation, African American people fought for their rights through numerous protests and boycotts. Some notable events are the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins. Many forms of legislation and many judiciary decisions were made during this era, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Brown v. Board of Education (“A Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement FOOTSTEPS OF COURAGE”).

The brutality from this event can be summarized by one marcher who was reported saying, “My God, we’re being killed.” This malevolent act sent the entire nation in an uproar, sparking riots in major US cites and even in Toronto. The protests and riots gained so much popular support as to gain the attention of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declared that he “deplored the brutality.” King was also determined to march from Selma to Montgomery in order to present the governor with the proposal for voting rights and to continue fighting the oppression (“Central Point” 24).

The movie Selma is about African Americans and even some white people who marched in the 1960s from Selma to Montgomery. They had a struggle to achieve equal rights and equal treatment in southern states that placed restrictions on who was able to vote. MLK was the leader of the nonviolent civil rights movement. Many African Americans followed him and looked up to him as he led the marches. The first march failed and ended with many African Americans beaten or even killed by white southerners. The second march he had more support form white people in the north who participated in the march, but MLK turned around and decided not to march. The third march he made it from Selma to Montgomery.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a law passed at the time of the Civil Rights Movement. The law eliminated various devices, such as literacy tests, that were used to restrict African Americans from voting. Before the law, many African Americans were deprived from their political powers in many ways. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act it is important to know how the right to vote was won by civil rights activists who participated in non violent form of resistance to achieve change.

“After the end of Reconstruction in 1877, southern states and local communities began to enact laws known as segregation or "Jim Crow" laws. These measures separated the races in public accommodations. Rather than passing one sweeping law, local and state legislators in the South passed a series of laws between 1881 and 1910 that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites in public spaces. These laws were indicative of the hardening of the philosophy of white supremacy throughout the South during this time.”(Cassanello). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the most influential event in the Civil Rights Movement because it paved way for ending discrimination and segregation, and giving more rights to African- Americans. During the Civil Rights Movement African- Americans were fighting to get their rights that were being taken away from them little by little. Starting in 1955 and going well into the late 1960’s early 1970’s, African- Americans started to protest against discriminatory laws and acts such as Jim Crow Laws and various requirements to vote. They did this because they wanted to be treated as equals and not to be judged because of their race(Mayer).

According to Jennifer Keene, “Thirty thousand protesters walked from Selma to the state capitol building in Montgomery.” The protesters did not walk alone as they were joined by federal troops that Johnson had sent to protect them. Another fifty thousand supporters joined the marchers in Montgomery (Lindsey). In the speech he presented during this march, King demanded that African Americans be given the right to vote without unjust restrictions posed by Jim Crow laws and policies. On August 6, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Keene). This act banned the poll tax as a voting requirement and placed federal oversight over Southern voting practices, such as difficult voter registration requirements. One million African Americans, who had never been allowed to cast their ballot before, voted between 1965 and 1968 (Keene). In 1965, President Johnson continued to alleviate discrimination. Banning it was not enough to legally end enforced discrimination in the South, so he pressed to end Jim Crow discriminatory social customs through affirmative action programs (Keene). Affirmative action programs opened up opportunities in education and employment that were denied to minorities in the previous years. Affirmative action programs required that employers and schools favor minority and female applicants to create a more socially diverse workforce or student body. To show he truly believed in

Lara Walweel Selma Selma is a movie Directed by Ava DuVernay talks about Blacks’ historic struggle to secure their rights of voting and prohibit discrimination based on race or color. Early in 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a dangerous campaign in the city of Selma; which had a 50 percent black population. They were treated unequally, with no rights to vote like other Americans. A lot of blacks had a violent treating, killed by the Ku Klux Klan movement, treated of violence by whites, and couldn’t walk freely in the public places. This discrimination and violent treating of blacks moved King’s feelings to demand and secure their rights to be treated equal and vote as any other white in the country.

During the time of the civil rights movement, there was a constant struggle between racial parties. The civil rights movement took place during the 1950’s and 1960’s, it aimed to secure equal access for African American people and it also attempted to gain them the basic rights and privileges of a U.S. citizen. Leaders such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcom X all played an important role in trying to resolve the racial problems that were present during this time period. Articles such as Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16th, 1963 allow the reader to fully understand where these leaders stood in such a controversial time period. In this essay I will specifically be focusing on Baldwin’s effort during the civil rights movement and the actions he took in order to attempt to end racial segregation as a whole.

In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The focus of his efforts was to register black voters in the South. Protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital were met with violent resistance by authorities. The violence forced President Johnson to introduce a federal voting-rights bill. Johnson introduced the bill in a speech to Congress, and using the language of Civil Rights singers saying, "We shall overcome." This was a legal decision that would shape public education from that time on.

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)

The film Selma focuses on the struggle for african-americans who still faced discrimination, even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had legally desegregated the South. In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought alongside other civil rights activist to make the march from Selma to Montgomery, despite opposition from the police and mobs. The film focuses on MLK and other SCLC leaders, and black Selma residents who march to register for their right to vote. However, they are often met with force by the white crowds and police who often stop them with violence and even fatal deaths for the peaceful protesters. As MLK, the SCLC, the SNCC and other marchers prepare the Selma to Montgomery March across the EDmund Pettus Bridge, they are brutally

During the 1950s and 1960s, the southern half of the United States of America was segregated in every way of life you could possibly imagine. People of color were treated as less than human, and were denied even the most basic God given rights. African Americans were barely considered human by some, and were physically, emotionally, and psychologically harassed day in and day out. The March trilogy, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, shows us how civil rights activists such as John Lewis led the fight against racial segregation in the US. Strong ideals were the only thing that allowed these men to stay inspired during their peaceful protests.

The movie of Selma narrates a surge of nonviolent movement during the 1965s. It also called “the Voting Rights Movement underway”. This surge is to revoke the segregation of blacks, and also to enforce the legal rights to vote. Alabama, the city of Selma, the population of backs were more than whites, yet African Americans still only had 1% right to vote. Therefore, Dr. Martin Luther King led his people to march from Selma to Montgomery.

The history of United State has shown many racial discriminations since colonists arrived America. African Americans have suffered unequal treatments and punishments in comparison to white people and European immigrants. Even when slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans were still victims of many inequalities like employment, rights, housing, and transportation. However, due to these inequalities and mistreatments like the Jim Crow Laws, many African Americans started to make a change during the 1950’s, also called the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks, that was arrested for sitting in the front of a bus in Alabama. Rosa Parks case made the supreme court to ban segregation in public transportation. The social difference during the 1950’s was very notable and obvious, and voting was a big example of the huge discrimination suffered by African Americans and minorities. In the south, white people would take away minorities’ right to vote by making them take a test that would decide if they were or not capable to make a political decision. Fortunately, big characters like Martin Luther King vouched for the end of this inequalities. Martin Luther King played a big role in the 1960’s making everyone aware about the change that was about to come.