The term civil rights is very broad when it is to be defined. It has many different aspects as in to what it can mean, from integration all the way to voting rights of African Americans. My main point is to focus on the Selma Marches from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama, but also to dig deeper into it to find the significance of a certain day, the day was called “Bloody Sunday.” I want to find out the historical situation behind the marchers who were beat and killed on that day and also look at John Lewis, and the key part that he played into the events that happened on that day and to also look at the reasoning behind the whole march. Racism is defined in many different variations and means different things to certain people; …show more content…
On March 7, 1965, a very famous five day, 54 long mile march of about 600 peaceful protestors took place from Selma, Alabama to the state capital Montgomery, Alabama. This was a very peaceful march that was caused by the Voting Rights Movement for African Americans in Selma. In Selma, African Americans made up more than half the population, but only a mere two percent were actual registered voters. Discrimination and intimidation tactics aimed at African American kept them from registering and voting. The demonstrators marched to demand fairness in voter registration. With over half the population of Selma being African American there is no reason or excuse besides ignorance for why only two percent had the right to vote. To give sort of a background to leading up to the march, in 1963 a group of community activists formed the "Dallas County Improvement Association" Dallas County being the actual county that Selma is in. With the goal of having "White" and "Colored" signs removed from public buildings, an investigation of police brutality against Africans Americans, and increased access to jobs and voter registration. Local officials ignored the Association 's concerns.
At the invitation of the Improvement Association, Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference also known as the (SCLC) chose Selma as a focus for civil rights demonstrations in 1964. The mayor of
What is the Selma March – On the 2nd of January 1965 Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Dallas Country Voters and other local African Activists who were in a voting rights campaign, and they decided to make Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South because there was infamous brutality of law enforcement under Sheriff Jim Clark.
A: INTRO: In 1965, Martin Luther King and the southern Christian Leadership group made Selma, and Alabama the focus of their efforts to register Black people to vote. That March 1965, protesters were attempting to march from Selma to the State Capital of Montgomery. As the world watched the protest go on. King’s participation helped raise awareness of difficulty faced by Black voters. The need for a voting rights ACT, passed later that year.
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.
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.
Martin Luther King Jr. wanted a demonstration, or protest, of the situation of the blacks and whites to be held in the most segregated city in the United States, Birmingham, Alabama. The Birmingham March took place between April and May of 1963. The protests and rallies were both peaceful and nonviolent. However, the police got tired of the daily protests and arrested hundreds that they found to be responsible for taking part in them and used unnecessary force, such as high pressured
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement, was passed in order to ban discrimination in public places as well as strengthen the role of the federal government to end segregation in public places. Also included in this act was the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which was established in order to ensure racial discrimination was not occurring within employment. The aspect of desegregation was not occurring rapidly in Southern states, such as Alabama. Not only was desegregation not occurring quickly under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but also the act did not address any issues with voting rights among the African-American community. The civil rights movement grew strong in southern regions especially racially tense areas such as Selma. In the city of Selma as well as a variety of other southern regions, African-Americans were harassed when attempting to practice their fundamental rights of voting through poll taxes and literacy tests. In 1965, only 1% of African-Americans were registered to vote in Selma but 50% of Selma’s population was African-American. In order to address the lack of voting rights, Martin Luther King and the SNCC worked vigorously on setting up marches to overcome the injustice that was occurring in Selma. Due to the overly aggressive authorities in the South, a majority of the marches ended violently thus increasing public support for new legislation to ensure the basic right of voting to the African-American
The Civil Rights Movement began in order to bring equal rights and equal voting rights to black citizens of the US. This was accomplished through persistent demonstrations, one of these being the Selma-Montgomery March. This march, lead by Martin Luther King Jr., targeted at the disenfranchisement of negroes in Alabama due to the literacy tests. Tension from the governor and state troopers of Alabama led the state, and the whole nation, to be caught in the violent chaos caused by protests and riots by marchers. However, this did not prevent the March from Selma to Montgomery to accomplish its goals abolishing the literacy tests and allowing black citizens the right to vote.
The African American civil rights movement was a long journey for African American nationwide. The success involved many people, hardships and time in order to advance the African American community in America. The purpose of the movement was to achieve their rights, cease discrimination, and racial segregation.
The 1965 Selma protest led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. However, there were three protest marches that attributed to the civil rights movement during this time. It was a 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery, which took place from March 7-21, 1965. The protest movement in Selma was launched by local African-Americans, who formed the DCVL. It was later joined by organizers from the SNCC, they began
In Selma, Dr. King continued to organize and motivate blacks to march peacefully until they get the right to vote. On February 10, 1965, a group of students banded together and protested in front the courthouse where they were beaten with clubs, hit by police cars and electric cattle prods and held in jail for several days. Every day, there were marchers and arrests, many people were often beaten by the police. Dr. King announced that a march will be held on March 7, 1965 from Selma to Montgomery to voice their grievances. Marchers gathered at the Brown Chapel and around four in the afternoon, led by SCLC workers, Hosea Williams and John Lewis started their journey. As they approached Edmund Pettus Bridge, there stood Sheriff Clarke and State
Jury duty is a constitutional and fundamental right guaranteed to American citizens. Jury service is a way for citizens to directly participate in the judicial system. Jury duty and jury trials have been around for so long that people take it for granted. The jury was one of the factors that caused the American Revolution because the English common law system did not allow alleged criminals to have the sixth amendment rights that the United States has today. In fact, The Declaration of Independence charged that King George III deprived the colonists of a trial by jury (United States Federal Judicial Center, n.d). The Founding Fathers of the United States established the role of the jury and the right to trial by jury in most criminal and civil cases in the Constitution but that clearly cannot be fulfilled unless there are people serving on a jury.
For centuries African Americans have been treated differently because of the color of their skin. They’ve been slaves, segregated, and discriminated, and been forced to fight for equality. Till this day African Americans are discriminated but yet have accomplished a lot from changing laws to changing the way they are viewed.
During the twentieth century the judicial system extended the spectrum of civil rights to the black population based on constitutional provisions and its universalistic scope (Kluger, 2011). The profound racial division of American society started to change in the courts, particularly with historical rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice which promoted the abolition of segregation and a real equal access to social security and services (see Chafe, 2003 and Dudziak, 2004). Amongst the most emblematic cases can be mentioned the "Brown v. Board of Education" case in 1954, were was defeated the former doctrine of “separate but equal” in access to schooling facilities; the case of "Montgomery Bus system" in 1956, where segregation in public transport
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