The Civil Rights Movement And The LGBTQ Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Suffrage Movement are historically influential events that are still perpetuating different convictions in today’s society. The Civil Rights Movement established a foundation of equality and civil liberties for African Americans while the Women’s Suffrage Movement granted women the right to vote and contributed a sense of equality among genders. Both movements were in need of empathy and aid in order to bring about equality and change, in which were difficult to find with the majority of the appropriate public being white males who disagreed with the movements. The activists of both the Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Suffrage Movement were on the wrong side of public empathy, yet the discrimination of the public view, the protesting of the victims, and the equal rights being fought for demanded a change in the conduct and the way in which the public empathized with these people.

Fredrick Douglas once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” During the 1960’s in America, there were major movements the promoted change throughout the country. The Civil Rights movement, which got its start in the 1950’s, strived for racial equality for African Americans. Meanwhile, the Women’s Rights Movement, focused on battling for better pay and equal opportunities for women. While the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement differed in their initial purposes, both groups worked to promote equality in the United States and made a profound impression for the decades to come.

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.

Freedom is a fundamental human right that all Americans enjoy today. Foner defines freedom as the ability of an individual to do as he/she wishes as long as long as the actions are within the law and respect the right of others (2). Accordingly, freedom is among the rights that are anchored in American constitution to protect the civil liberties of all Americans. Today, America is regarded as a democratic country that operates within the rule of law partly because of its respect for human rights (Romano 3). However, history shows that the freedom that African Americans enjoy today did not come easily; rather came after a long and enduring struggle by Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968). It is noted that, unlike white Americans who enjoyed freedom to do as they wished in the early 19th century, African Americans were denied the freedom to operate freely like their white counterparts (Foner 6). Therefore, because curtailing the freedom of African Americans were denying them the opportunity to advance socially, economically and politically, the Civil Rights Movement was formed by Martin Luther King Junior and colleagues to fight against racial segregation and to ensure that African Africans gain equal rights as the whites. This essay seeks to explore the Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968) struggle for freedom and

Imagine a world in which all men weren 't created equal. A world where skin color, ethnic origin, gender, and sexuality was what defined a person rather than character. “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood”(King). Through the decades of the 1940s-1960s, America built the foundation for civil rights, a movement in which minorities fought for equality. Groups that previously had been discriminated against began to defend themselves with greater strength and success. The civil rights movement inspired African Americans, Native Americans, women, queers, and Latinos to fight for equality. Although each social group faced their own unique challenges during the civil rights movement, each group shared a common connection through their struggles for equality.

There was a time when social classes were most easily identified through material goods and possessions. Whether wealth was gained through inheritance or hard work, it was the luxury items that made the most visible and tangible statement regarding a person’s social status. Men could rely on a large house or expensive car to proclaim the success they had earned. It was much more common to see women adorned in jewels, designer clothes, and furs as symbols of her upper class status. The extravagance of a woman’s appearance was a reflection of the success of her husband, so it was natural to indulge her desire for expensive material possessions.

During the 20th century, male and females were not being treated equally a lot of women started getting mad because they weren’t getting jobs or the right to vote as men, so it led to the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights Amendment was involved, because women weren’t treated equally or given the same rights as males. The Civil RIghts Movement was when there was a lot of racism and black and white people weren’t given the same rights, it was unfair to the black because they couldn’t do so many things like vote and also there was sex discrimination. In 1923, Alice Paul, leader and founder of the National Woman’s Party, considered that ERA should be the next step in the 19th Amendment in granting equal justice under the law to both sexes, male and female, in the U.S. Alice Paul said “ We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.” A text from the amendment said “Equal of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

The struggles not only happen by outsiders for African Americans LGBTQ individuals, but within their own communities. Yet the LGBT movement’s lack of substantive work on issues most relevant to people of color leaves the movement vulnerable to irrelevance and division—and leaves fully one-third of the members of the LGBT community underserved.

The Stonewall Riots in 1969 leading to the first Gay Pride Parade in 1970 started a public discourse on LGBT rights (The Stonewall Riots). In the years to follow, two opposing mass movements manifested: the LGBT movement and the Religious Right movement. The LGBT movement aimed to get equal rights for homosexuals. The Religious Right focused on stopping the perceived moral decay of America and protecting children from lesbians and gays. While these movements had polar opposite goals, they used surprisingly similar methods to get their messages across.

The LGBTQ+ community had fought for rights throughout history so that they would be able to live “normal” lives. By the end of the 1960’s the Stonewall riots created a movement that inspired people of the

As I was browsing the internet I discovered this article (McWhorter, 2013) comparing the gay community with the African American community. At first glance, I felt how can the two be compared? So, I decided to give this article a read. The purpose of the article was to bring attention to the civil rights movement of today dealing with the homosexual community’s civil rights and how it compares to the historic civil rights movements made by the African American community from 1955-1968. In my mind as an African American, my pride was not allowing me to see the comparison for what it really was. African Americans have endured a longer, more violent time frame of inequality than those of the gay community. This is how I see and feel it to be. I had to do some more research to see exactly how this era’s civil rights movement became an understudy for comparison to the civil rights movements by black Americans during the time span of 1955-1968. Us as African Americans need to support the gay civil rights movements of today because we should understand and realize the struggles we went through and help this nation become more equal. Gay is the new black in America, not all aspects of the two relate such as the level of violence endured by the African Americans as they fought to obtain equal rights but the fight to be seen equal is the same.

The Civil Rights Movement was a time when minorities banded together to stand up for racial inequality. Many African Americans faced discrimination from white people, causing a series of protests throughout the country, including the Walk on Washington, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and other demonstrations to show the country of the injustices. During this time, the active voices that demanded to be heard came from a wide variety of people. The mixture of individuals that stood up, spoke and fought for their rights allowed for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the favorable rulings in many Supreme Court cases. Of the many stand-out leaders of the time, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior acted as the most influential civil rights activist, this is due to his continuous promotion of nonviolence and peace.

The American Civil Rights Movement is personified through several prominent personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights activist in the African American and LGBTQ communities whose experiences exemplified the hardships faced by American minorities. His career was defined by perpetual conflict and confrontation as both sides of the Civil Rights Movement attempted to demonize and discredit him. Despite this obstacle, Bayard Rustin’s controversial decision-making and sheer tenacity made him an influential force in the ongoing fight for equality in the United States of America.

The Civil Rights movement is one of the most important acts to change the way not only African Americans were able to live their lives but all races and colors. It would slowly break down the social, economic, political, and racial barriers that were created by the The Age of Discovery and Transatlantic Slave trade. I believe without the Civil Rights acts our country would result to be no better than what it was when the Emancipation Proclamation just took effect. In the 1950s and long before, Southern folk, who were white had created a system that would interpret them as a superior race over blacks. The system would defend whites rights and privileges from being taken away from them while establishing terrible inhumane suffering for African Americans. In the South blacks were controlled in all aspects economic, political, and personal, this was called a “tripartite system of domination” - (Aldon D. Morris) (6) Though it isn’t as prevalent racism and discrimination towards other races that aren’t white is still found in America and can be in schools, the workplace, even when you are in the general public but you no longer see discriminating signs saying “Whites” or “Blacks” or Colored” along the front of bathroom, restaurants, and shopping malls doors. Nor do you see people being declined the right to buy a home based on their color or access to school and an equal education being declined because one didn’t meet racial requirements. The acts of violence towards

As the civil rights movement progressed, members of the movement who belonged to other minority groups, such as the homosexuals of all ethnicities and classes , were inspired and began organizations of their own; thus, the beginning of the gay liberation movement arose, promoting the rights and equality of those discriminated because of their sexuality, including but not limited to: lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people (LGBT). To be part of the LGBT community was legally a crime; homosexuals