Violence In The Civil Rights Movement Essay

“The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world” (Arendt pg 80). Violence is contagious, like a disease, which will destroy nations and our morals as human beings. Each individual has his or her own definition of violence and when it is acceptable or ethical to use it. Martin Luther King Jr., Walter Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt are among the many that wrote about the different facets of violence, in what cases it is ethical, the role we as individuals play in this violent society and the political aspects behind our violence.

fighting for civil rights because over 340 years, US had not yet solved the racism by the means

While the media might not directly contribute to discrimination, the media is undoubtedly a significant aspect of modern day society that influences how people think about racial issues (Royce, 2009, p. 1, 17). Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Whites are attempting to keep blacks and other minority families locked into an impoverished political and economic position by using various tactics to isolate them, such as mass incarceration that stems from the War on Drugs. The New Jim Crow helps us in seeing how history is repeating itself and how to legalized discrimination among the blacks and Hispanics by implementing the mass incarceration.

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.

Perhaps the most subtle yet shocking form of racism in the South during Reconstruction was the biased reporting of many southern newspapers. Whether the ideas and attitudes of many southern Whites influenced these published stereotypes or vice versa, it is clear that southern publications often encouraged and promoted racist attitudes at the end of the century. A publication in Charleston, South Carolina displayed this racist subtext: “While promising its readers ‘truth,’ the Charleston Mercury mocked journalistic license by actually printing racist ridicule. A favorite method was to scorn African-Americans in the convention as a race, exploiting racist attitudes saved by white readers from slavery” (Logue, 1979, p. 339). Covering the constitutional convention in Columbia in 1867, white journalists used racist stereotypes in describing the black delegates’ involvement: “Reporters emphasized how blacks would "chuckle and grin," thereby exploiting the racist assumption of many whites that blacks were mere fun-loving, animal-like creatures who had to be protected from themselves” (Logue, 1979, p. 341). The Charleston paper encouraged racist attitudes through the ridicule of black speech and pronunciation, mocking ex-slave “ignorance” rather than reporting important issues discussed at the convention:

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords detailed the dynamic history of African-American media in the United States. Newspapers created community amongst Black Americans by connecting stories of Black life across the country, and allowed Black people the freedom to express themselves politically and socially through their own words, as opposed to White people telling them how they should feel. The story of the Black press as newspaper print faded before the end of the century, but Black press as a cultural phenomenon continues today in the dawn of social media. This film adds onto the class discussions of African-Americans’ unification through Black culture, and its contradiction to White American culture throughout history.

In this paper first I will outline Du Bois definition of the problem of the color line, and argue that it is an apt diagnosis for the problem of the 21st century. In particular, I will argue that the media’s presentation of issues surrounding racial injustices contributes to the promotion and perpetuation of this systemic racism. Specifically, I will maintain that this media coverage negatively affects blacks such that we suffer from double-consciousness and it impedes us from gaining a “true self-consciousness”. I will also propose that the media coverage of racial injustices perpetuates the problem of the color line by creating a distorted image of the African American. I will also evaluate

Throughout Reconstruction, southern whites felt constantly threatened by legislation providing rights for former slaves. The Civil Rights Bill of 1875 was the last rights bill passed by congress during reconstruction. It protected all Americans’ (including blacks) access to public accommodations such as trains. With the threat of complete equality constantly looming, violence toward former slaves gradually increased in the years following the Civil War. Beatings and murders were committed by organized groups like the Ku Klux Klan, out-of-control mobs, and individual white southern men. During Reconstruction, white southerners had limited governmental power, so they resorted to violence in order to control

Emmett Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, created a platform for people to be informed on the cruelty to her son and his funeral need to have his open casket to display her mutilated son and to not conceal the violence done to an innocent boy after a simple and not even said “Bye baby.” She sends this to the black press. Jim-Crow laws exemplify the proven deadly mindset that separate equivalates to equal. If so, the white mainstream would have properly addressed this heartless act of violence against this 19-year old kid who wasn't completely conscious of how his words could be taken as an offense and whose life was taken before he could even go to high school. The press plays a role in expressing and building awareness of social injustice, which

An analysis composed by Heather Cox Richardson, Harvard Graduate and professor of history at Boston College, speculates the key reason for deserted Southern reconstruction and integration of black Americans into the politico-economic order was rooted in the North’s fear of anarchic/Communist ideology enlightening African American workers if industry was established in the south. The events involving foreign affairs and socialist revolutions, primarily in France with the creation of a workers collective, was disconcerting to the industrial corporate sector in the north, whose lobbying and executive precedence was vast but not in favor of the majority of middle class workers*(Independent Document 2). Thus, these fears of Union rule translated into the propagating of the media, sensationalizing the harms of African American integration into the political order, especially in the legislative branch of the federal government, as compromising capitalist industry and implementing state sponsored Communism.

Racism and discrimination continue to be a prevalent problem in American society. Although minorities have made significant strides toward autonomy and equality, the images in media, specifically television, continue to misrepresent and manipulate the public opinion of blacks. It is no longer a blatant practice upheld by the law and celebrated with hangings and beatings, but instead it is a subtle practice that is perceived in the entertainment and media industries. Whether it’s appearing in disparaging roles or being negatively portrayed in newscasts, blacks continue to be the victims of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the majority. The viscous cycle that is the unconscious racism of the media continues to not only be

Pritchett. Wendell E. Manning. Robert D. 2005. “A National Issue: Segregation in the District of Columbia and Civil Rights Movement at Mid-Century”

In 1894, the US Supreme Court gave legal consent to state laws segregating black people and white people with its decision concerning the Plessey v Ferguson case. The decision stated that black and white should be separate but equal, meaning the same standard of facilities for both. In reality it legally enforced a state of affairs that assured that blacks would never be equal, and couldn’t get equal treatment, status or opportunity in their own country. During the Second World War, the black American Gi’s realised that they were fighting for a democracy abroad, which they did not have at home.

Within the eleven chapters that comprise Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour lays a treasure chest of information for anyone interested in Black or African American history, particularly the civil rights movement that took place during the 1950’s and 1960’s. I am a self-professed scholar of African American history and I found an amazing amount of information that I was not aware of. Like most who claim to be Black History experts, I was aware of the roles of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, W.E.B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. However,

Pop culture has enlightened and exposed the world to the good, the bad, and the ugly under every circumstance, and people tend to be more provoked, influenced, and intrigued by the bad and the ugly rather than the good. One topic of pop culture that never fails to gain attention is violence in its many forms. While at a state of constant social change and adaptation, the population finds more and more disagreements on the ever-changing and conflicting views and beliefs of each individual, which can lead to violence in some, if not most cases. Hate crimes are crimes or actions motivated by certain disagreements among groups that typically involve some form of violence. This essay will discuss the violence in racial hate crimes against African Americans, because the violence in these hate crimes, both past and present, will help educate individuals about different racial perspectives on the claimed “unfair” or “unequal” treatment of the African American race compared to the treatment of whites in all aspects of society and life. In the United States, African Americans as a race haven been one of the main targets for violent racial and hate crimes. Racial violence and hate crimes against African Americans have been a part of the United States since the very beginning, with a spike in conflict around the 1960s era of the African American Civil Rights Movement, and are even portrayed now in current pop culture sources. Violence against African Americans in films like The Help (a