The Civil Rights Movement Of The 1950s And 1960s

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

The 1950s and 1960s was a period of growth and prosperity in America. Features of the common life included innovations such as television, dishwasher, and home air-conditioning. However, not all Americans equally benefited from the economic growth of this period of time. In addition to Jim Crow laws and unequal economic opportunities, America’s society became further segregated as many whites moved to the suburbs while blacks remained in run-down city neighborhoods. These many inequalities sparked the civil rights movement, where African Americans stood up and fought for their rights using nonviolent methods. The movement influenced the emergence of many prominent figures including Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was successful in achieving equal rights for African Americans through nonviolent protests such as the Montgomery bus boycott, sit-ins, and marches.

Because of the outcome of the Brown case a lot of African Americans took matter into their own hands and wanted to end forms of racial segregation. December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks, a black seamstress and a NAACP activist denied giving up her seat to a white man. This caused mayhem and sparked a bus boycott due to the fact that Rosa Parks got arrested for not wanting to get up. This was a tactic that the civil rights movement leaders used to stop racial discrimination between blacks and whites in the United States. After more than a year of conflict, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the complete desegregation of Montgomery buses. (Hewitt and Lawson

In this research paper, we will be discussing the African American racial and prejudicial issues during the civil rights movements in the 1950’s and 60’s. Racial injustice goes way back since the Emancipation Proclamation which took place on January 1, 1863 issued by president Abraham Lincoln, was first created for states in the South who seceded from the union to abolish slavery during the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws due to issues related to slaves during the Civil War. Although slavery was not around almost a century later African Americans were still being treated unfairly in the 1950’s and 60’s. Major Icons such as Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Black Panthers, Malcolm

The African Americans managed to solve their conflict and resolution through acts of non-violence and struggle. Even though the actions taken by Malcolm X were of good intentions, they ended up causing a ripple between African Americans. On the other hand Martin Luther King Jr. identified that if people were going to respond to hatred with more hatred then there will be little chances for change and substance which was never understood by Malcolm. He was, of course, powerful and strong as an Africa American commanding huge followers and believers, but things did not end well as Malcolm X dies in the hand of his own people. This meant that change cannot be made through dividing a nation but through uniting the people. Therefore Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s would have not had the same impact if they had been led by Malcolm X instead of Martin Luther King.

Because of the master/slave relationship, African Americans were seen as an inferior race. They had to put up with racism and segregation, among other things. In order to be treated as equal citizens of this country, they had to fight for their civil rights. From 1955 through 1968, African Americans faced an up hill battle. It all really started on May 17, 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that it was harmful to colored children to be segregated from white children in school. Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” was deemed unconstitutional. The court said that by separating the races, it signifies that the Negro group was inferior. Then Rosa Parks refusal in giving up her seat on a Montgomery, AL bus in 1955, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. With the help of Dr. Martin Luther King, the 382-day boycott succeeded in a

4. Evaluate the progress towards racial equality in the United States since the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began with the remarkable effort to attack and dismiss the principle of separate but equal (Piven and Cloward 1979, p. 207). Credited to the aftermath of the effort, Frances Fox Piven denoted, “Protest had become possible; victories had become possible” (Piven and Cloward 1979, p.208). The significance is laying the groundwork to reject any type of possible segregation in the future, making equality in society tangible rather than abstract. The civil rights movement later went to display tactics more in the public grounds, on highly influential boycotts. Rosa Park’s arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, a large scale boycott led by Martin Luther King (Piven and Cloward 1979, p. 209). The successful Montgomery boycott was then followed by the similarly successful Tallahassee boycott of 1956 (Piven and Cloward 1979, p. 212). Both successful boycott demonstrated the expansion of power that the movement needed to gain political influence. The wide variety of actions by the protest groups ignited the success of the civil rights

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is one of the most significant periods of American history, but the struggle for equality began long before any March on Washington. The passage of the 13th Amendment in the 1860s was followed by a chain reaction consisting of black codes, Jim Crow, and the formation of the KKK and NAACP (Aiken et al., 2013). The 1900s saw progress in the form of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Little Rock Nine, successful bus boycotts, and a nonviolent protest movement emboldened by wartime hypocrisy (Aiken et al., 2013). The movement came to a head with the passage of the CRA in 1964, which President Johnson pushed through after the tragic assassination of President Kennedy, a vocal supporter of civil rights (Aiken et al., 2013). This legislative success was followed by yet another tragic assassination, this time of peaceful community leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 (Aiken et al., 2013).

IN 1964, with increasing national attention focused on the civil rights drive in the South, COFO launched "Freedom Summer," a major drive to educate and register voters, including the use of northern volunteers. On June 20, 1964, 200 recruits left from Oxford, Ohio for Mississippi. On June 21 three workers -- James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner -- were reported missing. The long search for their bodies (they were not found until Aug. 4) focused national attention on the civil rights movement and helped build public opinion in support of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, signed by President Johnson on July 2, 1964.

During the 1950s to 1970s, many Americans strived to solve problems that existed in their society. The reformers used similar methods to make people became aware of these social problems. Such as African-American civil rights movement that African- Americans were struggling in racial discrimination and the Modern Environmental Movement that advantage technologies make terrible living conditions. The two movements are significant because they gave long-term positive effects to the nation.

In what ways, and for what reasons, did the African American struggle for civil rights in the United States change between the early and late 1960s?

Despite the racial struggles in this period education remained a critical center point for civil rights upheaval during the 1950’s and through the following decade. Godfrey made a great impact at Penn State. Her former advisee and student Brenda Binns, describes her as magician, a people person and skillfully attune to the practice she taught. Binns said “I never thought of her as I have a black lady as an advisor, it was never part of it. She was a wonderful person who, at least, I didn’t sense any color bias at all” (B. Binns, personal communication, April 7, 2016.

The Montgomery Bus Boycotts contributed to many changes in the perspectives of many black people during the civil rights movement. When Rosa Parks was arrested for not moving her seat on a bus in Montgomery, there was a spark in anger which caused the boycott of all buses in Montgomery (“New York Times Article, January 1956 negroes”).After this, the blacks who participated got inspired and started to change their perspectives on the civil rights movement. These people now thought that the movement was not fighting for enough and that they needed to fight for not just civil rights, but economic, political, and social justice. They were also questioning the path of the movement that had a nonviolent agenda. The discontent with the fact that the

In the history of the United States there have been many social changes that have occurred such as black Americans gaining their rights and freedom, the new generation of civil rights movement called the black lives matter movement, civil disobedience and many more. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s was one of the most significant and important movement that caused a great change to America. They fought for the equality of black of Black Americans and also against segregation and discrimination. Since the abolition of slavery in 1863, there had been a conflict between the races of people who live in the United States. Peoples rights were being violated on a consistent basis, just because of a person’s race. Everyone’s class, religion, and even their level of knowledge was judged by the color of each person’s skin color. Many of the changes that the movement fought for brought on a violent opposition from many white people especially the southerners. This led to the violent deaths of some of the famous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement such as Martin Luther King. Jr and Malcom X. Not only that but it also led to two pretty distinct groups of black activists. On one hand, there were group of black activists who were rather violent, and on the other hand, the group that believed in peaceful nonviolent resistance but this did not cause any big conflict since both group had the same goal.