The Importance Of The Right Movement During The Civil Rights Movement

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.

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”).

African Americans were able to gain much attention and sympathy through their various protests and they were also able to advance politically and economically with their enactment of civil rights laws. In the 1960s nonviolent protests were prevalent among African American; in 1960 students in North Carolina started the sit-in movement after being denied service at Woolworth’s lunch counter (which was segregated). Thereafter the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed to maintain this movement where students would deliberately get arrested for sitting in restricted areas. This movement facilitated the

The African American Civil right movement in the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s was a powerful fight for equal opportunities to the basic rights and privileges outlined by the US government. During this movement thousands of African American individuals and those who believed in the power of the movement, battled against the piercing white supremacy through various tactics including grass root movements. The grass root movements in the 60’s was characterized by organizations of individuals fighting for equality on the behalf of the African Americans, ultimately shaping American history. Such movements helped to raise awareness on a political level, of the injustice all African American’s endured. Grassroots activist during the 60’s were able to organize marches, rallies and protests in order to mobilize and strengthen the Civil Rights Movement. Grass rooting activism during the Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s shaped American History by aiding in the abolished laws restricting African American’s freedom to vote, the abolishment of segregation in school, and the passage of the Civil Rights act outlawing discrimination.

Throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, civil rights activists started protesting for change. In the US and Australia there were many significant protests undertaken by different groups of brave individuals all to invoke change. Some of the most influential protests were the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the American and Australian Freedom Rides. These protests mainly used the tactic of non-violent protests however, they also used boycotts and demonstrations. These protests brought great change to the way that the African Americans were treated in the US and the Indigenous people in Australia, because it forced the public to acknowledge the hardships that they had to face from segregation.

The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s to the 1960s was a period that significantly changed America forever. African-Americans did not have the same rights as white men, and were faced with segregation and discrimination. Under the Jim Crow Laws, blacks did not have equal access to public facilities and were treated as lower beings than whites. After many years of pain and struggle, all the while remaining silent, blacks finally decided to stand up for themselves and refuse to be compliant. Many acts of civil disobedience took place during this time, some were peaceful, while some were violent. An example of a civil disobedience from the Civil Rights Movement was Robert Williams’ protest to integrate facilities, where he uses armed self-defense, so that blacks were able to have equal access as whites. This was an effective form of protest because without the arms to protect themselves, the African-Americans wanting their voices to be heard would be suppressed by the brutality of racist white men.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) used a form of protest by union workers called sit-ins. After it was successful with CORE 4 African Americans Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr, David Richmond and Franklin McCain suggested a sit in Woolworth department store. They were afraid, but they did it. They entered and bought supplied, then sat at the lunch counter and ordered coffee. The people there wouldn’t service them, but serviced them on the other counter. The four stayed until they closed and said they would do that every day until they were serviced. They left the Woolworth exited and persuaded by what they did. This convinced more and more African American to sit-in and wait until they were serviced. The NAACP and SClC were nervous about the sit-in campaign.

The Greensboro Sit-Ins were another way that people progressed the Civil Rights movement. These took place in North Carolina, in the year 1960. They had many people participate in this nonviolent protest. The interview with Franklin McCain states, “We actually got to the point where we had people going down in shifts” (My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered). The movement was

“We want the world to know that we no longer accept the inferior position of second-class citizenship.” (“Martin Luther King Jr. And The Global Freedom Struggle”). The sit-in movement was vital to the civil rights movement because it showed that African-Americans felt that they were not being treated as true Americans. The most important conclusion that I have drawn from my research is that African-Americans were treated differently because of the color of their skin, and because of that, they weren’t served at lunch counters, restaurants, or cafes (“Martin Luther King Jr. And The Global Freedom Struggle”).

African Americans fought long and hard to achieve racial equality during the Civil Rights movement through protests and boycotts. But, not all forms of protest were violent. Sit-ins were a non-violent form of protest and proved to be a very effective. Students would go into a restaurant or cafe, order food, sit-down at the “white” area, demand service, and not leave until they got served. They never got served; this form of protest would go on for weeks.

The Civil Rights Movement was a period of time (about 15 years), were African Americans struggled with equality against whites. One of the events that happened during this period of time was the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins (Greensboro Sit-Ins). Four men by the names of : Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Ezell Blair Jr. took place in the sit-ins. The all-black group of men wanted to end segregation in lunch counters so blacks and whites could sit united

First of all nonfiction articles has more descriptions. In the article “The Birmingham Church Bombing” by Jennifer Kroll, on paragraph two it states that “The civil rights movement was at its height, and all around the country, protesters were trying to raise awareness… by staging peaceful protest events, such as marches and sit ins. This means that they did marches to get freedom to do whatever they want without people saying no because of their skin color. This explains

The 60s were the years were the fight for the civil right for African Americans was at its peak, sit-ins were regularly used by congress for racial equality such as CORE and SCLC. The sit in that occurred on February 1,1960, at Woolworth’s i Greensboro, North Carolina was made by four African American college students, Ezell A. Blair, Jr., Franklin E. McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David L. Richmond, when the sat at a counter lunch, and politely asked for lunch. Their request was denied because the counter had a strict “whites only” policy. They were asked to leave, but the four young adults refused to do so. Even though they were beaten up several times by white people their passive resistance and peaceful Sit-down demand helped ignite a youth led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South, and was a contributing factor for the SNCC to be created.

Another significant transformation took place in the Civil Rights Movement in terms of its strategies. In analyzing this facet of the movement, we notice a great shift from nonviolent demonstration to forward, forceful action. Specifically, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, lunch counter sit-ins were evident throughout the nation, as were Freedom Riders. Starting in Greensboro, North Carolina at a luncheonette called Woolworths, young black citizens would seat

Civil disobedience was key in the pursuit of equality for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Through forms of peaceful protest, African Americans were able to bring to light the socio-economic inequalities they faced and forced the government and general public to do something about it. Sit-ins, one method of practicing civil disobedience, took root in the early 1960s and quickly became a popular and effective form of peaceful protest. James Baldwin makes a very brief note of sit-ins in his essay “Down at the Cross”. Its brief mention is probably due to the time at which the essay was written, just before sit-ins became a national phenomenon. At first glance, one may think that Baldwin doesn‘t think