The Civil Rights Movement Essay

African American people have come a long way from the illiterate slaves, who were once picking cotton in fields, to powerful political leaders. A prime example would be President Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States of America. But first we must ask ourselves, how did this occur? Who lead African Americans to better living standards? Civil rights leaders, such as Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks, just to name a few. However, among these great names in history, there is one that stands out, and that man is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King gave hope to those in need with his awe inspiring sermons he performed at the church his grandfather founded. He changed foes to

The idea of peacekeeping and the maintaining of order began centuries ago. However, long ago women were not involved in this. As women did enter within 20th century their role was limited. As time passes, change takes place.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was significant to African Americans because the act ended segregation in public places and ended employment prejudice based on the pigment of skin, national origin, gender, ethnicity, or/and religion. The Act was one of the most momentous events to impact African Americans on the account of bringing equality to minorities on paper and giving them opportunities to voice their political and community concerns. However, there were unforeseen consequences that added to the suffering of the community which they expressed through riots and protest marches in efforts to ensure their new protections were enforced. The advancement of the Act helped the African American civil rights group in their awareness and voice in government, made tremendous strides in their group, and contributed to other minorities to gaining equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 affected African Americans both positively and negatively through federalism, minority rights, and judicial review.

The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American high school students who, in September of 1954, enrolled in the all-white high school, Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The students enrolled in order to test out the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling to unsegregate public schools. The members of the Little Rock Nine were Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls. They were trained by members of the NAACP on how to deal with the aversion that they would face upon trying to enroll in Central High School. The students upon approaching the school on what was supposed to be their first day of school were met with a group

Voting is one of the most commonly discussed things in America as of now. The  two main candidates that we have to vote for are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. We will find out our new president in just a couple of days. It is kind of sad seeing our president for 8 years leave after all the great tasks he has accomplished for America.

Although states took advantage of the Court’s vague approach, the decision in Brown led to a series of protests by African Americans inspired by Brown. On February 1, 1960, four African American college students at the lunch counter of Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina and asked to be served. When the students’ request was refused and they were asked to leave, they remained seated in silence. Their passive resistance ignited a youth-led movement around the country to challenge the racial inequalities throughout the South. The six month long protest led to the desegregation of the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter on July 25,h 1960. (Edwards, 2010) However, these students faced violence from whites who believed that the students did not

With all that has been examined, it is somewhat troubling to see that 21st century America today is very similar to America from the 1960’s. While it is true that Black Americans have gained civil rights and liberties, it is the current state of American society itself—as well as white fright—that dismisses these rights. The most infamous example of this is, of course, police shootings. Since the Trayvon Martin case, the United States seems to have exploded with more police shootings in which white police officers shoot unarmed black men. According to Mapping Police Violence, “Police killed at least 102 unarmed black people in 2015, nearly twice each week” (Police Violence). Indeed, America is now like the 1950’s because while Black Americans are now free to vote, walk in public, and partake in public programs of U.S. society, certain institutions still attempt to suppress their rights. This attempting at suppression of Black civil rights, moreover, can be attributed to white fright.

On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery in the United States. This guaranteed everyone’s freedom against slavery and involuntary servitude. However, this did not free people from racial discrimination and equal rights. A perfect example of racial brutality was the summer of 1955 when Emmett Till was brutally murdered by two white men. This murder case promptly seized the attention of millions and modified the history of the United States. The Emmett Till murder case established itself as a defining event in the United States history because it became a spark to the Civil Rights movement, transformed people’s hearts and minds into realizing how dangerous segregation was, and it proved how African Americans did not receive justice during that time period. Emmett Till’s barbaric homicide was evidence used to represent racial discrimination and segregation.

The start of the Civil Rights Act was a start of something that affected our country forever. In the early 1960’s being different from the majority of citizens, wasn’t considered a good thing, and you had no control over it. The Civil Rights Act was against “discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (Civil Rights Act of 1964). This act is a series of protests in mainly the 60s. Citizens argued for equality. People nonviolently marched from state to state to prove they were serious about this issue. These nonviolent protests were an amazing, and safer way of expressing opinions.

The United states has been called the, “Land of The Free” since its independence was won from Great Britain, however, until 1965 “Free” only applied to a select demographic, white, land owning males. The most largely discriminated demographic before 1996 and somewhat even so today is the African American population. In 1619 the first African American slaves were introduced into the colony of Jamestown, Virginia 1. Then after many years and revolts, in 1831 slavery was finally abolished and all freed slaves were given 40 acres and a mule to help these newly freed slaves begin their new lives 2. Although this was helpful, many conflicts arose from this new found freedom and the struggle didn’t get any easier. It wasn’t until 1965, after the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), World War II, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and several supreme court cases, that African American finally achieved the right to vote3. Even after these several legal advancements and many different civil rights movements the playing field, after many attempts to be leveled out, was still uneven and the day by day struggles continued. Even today, 396 years later, there are still racial bias and inequalities toward the African American community. While in the past or present changes have been and are being made by either the executive, legislative, or judicial branch to help African Americans achieve universal freedom and equality, but it is unclear

The Civil Rights Movement lead nonviolently by Martin Luther King in the 1960s is an important era to examine when analyzing the extent to which the ideology of Carl Schmitt remains relevant to domestic conflict outside of the interwar period. Schmitt’s theory assists in understanding the racial segregation in the United States as political. However, while King identified similar critiques of liberalism as Schmitt, he believed that nonviolent direct action was an effective, politically engaged method which sought to obtain equal civil rights for African Americans as opposed to usurping power from the state. While not inherently political, Schmitt argues that societal realms such as economic, religious, cultural, and for the purpose of

The Civil Right’s Movement of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, was a nation-wide movement for equality amongst races. The website, http://starkvillecivilrights.msstate.edu, features a detailed history of the Civil Right’s Movement in Starkville, Mississippi. The website discusses the reasons behind starting the website, writes about the history and demographics of Starkville, Mississippi, lists interviews of witnesses, and gives detailed accounts of the events that took place. The website also features tool for teaching resources and has multiple areas for feedback. All of these things make this website a good source for information about the Civil Right’s era. After spending a little bit of time on the website, readers could easily learn a great deal about the Civil Right’s Movement and the role Starkville played in the movement.

While there are many histories of the Civil Rights Movement (including books and online sources) that I might have consulted, I deliberately restricted my search to three sources?Facts on File, The New York Times Index, and The Reader?s Guide to Periodical Literature?in order to assess how magazine and newspaper coverage of the time reported events that we now understand as historically significant. One of the first things I discovered was that ?Civil Rights Movement? wasn?t a heading in the Times Index: this suggests that the various attempts to boycott businesses and local bus services, or integrate lunch counters, were still so separate and so small as to gather

The struggle for civil rights in the United States came to have wide repercussions worldwide from the second half of the twentieth century. This struggle had several targets, from those who opted for a peaceful demonstration to others who defended an armed struggle and a creation of a separatist black state.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches.