The Right Side Of History : The Civil Rights Movement

Throughout the African American civil rights movement opportunities were sought to spark a chance at improving conditions in the south. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the Montgomery, Alabama bus was the fire to that spark. Rosa, standing up for herself something anyone person in today’s world would do, was arrested and put in jail. While Rosa was in jail she caught the eye of many people in the Civil Rights Movement, including the leaders. The Civil Rights leaders protested her arrest and hired lawyers to aid her in her trial. Although she was found guilty and was fined fourteen dollars for the cost of the court case, which lasted on thirty minutes, she wasn’t done yet. Rosa Parks has affected the society we live in today in

In 1960, there were tremendous of social ferment that was responsible for agitation and protest. Through direct protest, many African Americans, women, and homosexuals were able to gain recognition and break down the walls of discrimination and segregations. Out of the numerous elements that arose in the 1960s, there are three movements that truly affected the American society. Firstly, the rise of the civil rights movement was greatly influenced by racial discrimination of colored people in the South. Secondly, the women’s movement aimed to convince the society that women are capable of achieving and maintaining higher waged job like males. Lastly, the gay rights movement aimed to gain acceptance and stop discrimination of homosexuality. The most significant effect on the development of American society was the women’s movement and how they expanded their economic and political opportunities. The common goal among African Americans, women’s, and homosexuals was to obtain their equal rights as citizens of America and to desegregate all the boundaries between white and black population.

The evening of December 1, 1955, one single woman changed the lives of many people and the way that they would continue to live. Rosa Parks exhibited one woman's courage and strength to stand up for what she believed in. Mrs. Parks's decision to remain seated and go against the "Believed way" sparked the beginning of the American Civil Rights Movement. In this paper I will discuss Rosa Parks's background, her decision against standing up, and how she started the beginning of the American Civil Rights Movement.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, one of the leaders of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, despite being reprimanded by the driver (Schulke 166). Montgomery, Alabama was known for its terrible treatment of blacks. The buses in particular had been a source of tension between the city and black citizens for many years (Schulke, 167). As a result of refusing to give up her seat, Rosa Parks was arrested. Rosa Parks' popularity among the black community, proved to be the spark that ignited the non-violent Civil Rights Movement (Norrell 2).

“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time”-Malcolm X. In every movement men and women have crossed paths with others that share their goals, but not everyone shares the same path to achieve it. The civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties were no different in this case, while many shared the common goal of equality for all, not everyone shared the same style or belief system to achieve it creating sources of conflict within various civil rights organizations as well as between organizations. Freedom activists, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael sharing the same goal as other civil rights leaders John Lewis

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”).

Rosa Parks is invariably portrayed as someone who had rached the end of her patience after a hard day’s work and refused to leave her seat on the bus, preferring to rest her feet. Rosa Parks had been a life-long worker for the NAACP and she had taken a special interest in the Claudette Colvin case. At the time of her arrest, Parks had just finished a course on race relations in Monteagle, Tennessee. She became a seamstress simply because that was all she could find to do in the segregated society of Montgomery. However, Parks had been educated at the all-black Alabama State College. When Parks was arrested, the NAACP asked the police why they had done this. E. D. Nixon of the NAACP was told that “It was none of your dang business”. After finding out the reason for her arrest, Nixon posted the bond required for her

The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement Rosa Parks is one of the most famous people in the history of the American Civil Rights movement, for her refusal to “move to the back of the bus” on December 1, 1955. Although her moment of protest was not a planned event , it certainly proved to be a momentous one. The nature of Rosa Park’s protest, the response of the authorities of Montgomery, the tactics adopted by the civil rights leaders in Montgomery, and the role eventually played by Federal authority, were all aspects of this particular situation that were to be repeated again and again in the struggle for equality of race. Rosa Parks’ action, and the complex combination of events that followed, in some measure, foreshadowed a great deal of

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.

Rosa Parks was a strong, powerful woman who was one of the well-known Civil Rights figures during the Civil Rights Movement. She sparked the movement by refusing to leave the seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, which caused her to get arrested. Due to this action, it has encouraged African-Americans’ to protest discrimination in public facilities and demand equal rights. Although most historians discussed Parks' impact on social justice, they did not discuss Parks’ involvement of fighting against sexual violence. African-American women were raped by white men in southern states since the beginnings of slavery. White men were able to get away with the crime because black women were unable to seek justice against rapists because of discrimination. Parks did not let them get away with the crime, so she helped black women seek justice against them. Parks’ action has helped encourage women to step out of their shadows and address the issues of rape culture in the southern states. Parks’ achievement of fighting sexual violence in the black community was uncommon in American history, but it is important for people to be informed about the cruelty of rape culture.

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

It is impossible to understand the Civil Rights movement without properly separating fact from popular belief. Many of the images that are part of our collective memory as Americans are of Dr. Martin Luther King have delivered his 'I have a dream' speech, or of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus. The civil rights movement was an intense war and a fierce revolution filled with violence and many deaths in which Blacks rose up and fight for their freedom. Consequently, many history students tend to fall into the trap of seeing the civil rights movement from the top down, mainly focused on the leadership of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, instead of the bottom up, while disregarding the millions of people who labored in the

Rosa Parks acted out in “civil disobedience” in the year of 1955, she refused to give her seat to a white male and continued to sit in her seat. She was “arrested for her act of civil disobedience and convicted of violating the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the South until 1965.” The people of color saw this peaceful resistance as a positive impact for it brought light to their injustice, providing to them a chance, a movement to make a difference. However, there were few whites that saw this as a negative impact upon society by bringing the thoughts of equality and civil rights for all forth. Park’s actions “brought national press attention to segregation in Alabama,” whether that be for the better or not depends on personal opinion and emotions of the topic.

On the cold, dim late Thursday afternoon of December 1, 1955, a forty two year old seamstress named Rosa Parks, a trim, soft-spoken, bespectacled woman of tidily proper comportment, left after a day of working in the tailor shop of a downtown Montgomery department store and, wearily, boarded a city bus home. She took an aisle seat near the middle of the already crowded bus, beside three other black passengers, in the row right behind the front section reserved by law for whites – which rapidly filled until, at the third stop, a white man was left having to stand. The driver turned to demand of Mrs. parks and the three blacks beside her, “Alright you folks, I want those seats.” The other three black beside her, moved to stand in the back of