Above all, you can’t forget the impact, hard work, leadership and courageous acts of Martin Luther King, Jr. Like Rosa Parks, he became an iconic person of this era who with peaceful protests and encouraging words became a notable leader in the fight for equal rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. “spoke with charismatic conviction and was willing to sacrifice his own freedom for the cause” (The Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Par. 1). He also helped in the bus boycotts which eventually ended in 1956, where the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. Other notable people of this movement were the 4 African American students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College who, after being refused service at a coffee shop, began peaceful and nonviolent sit-ins.
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is important even beyond its far reaching provisions. It is historic because its enhancement was generated by a massive coalition of white and Negro forces.”[17] The bill was passed by President Johnson and it allowed black people to be integrated with white people in public areas and even allowed the government to hold federal funds from places that let racism exist. This was a great victory for Martin Luther King because he helped end the discrimination and oppression of his people which had been going on for many years before he had lived. That same year, King was awarded the Noble Peace Prize Award for being the youngest man to receive the award for peace at the age of 35. [18] After the signing of the Civil Rights Act, Martin Luther King started his mission in helping the poor and facing socioeconomic problems.
During the period 1955-1968, great changes has happened on racial equality, although still far from complete racial equality, but still moving towards a society without segregation .These changes were mainly caused because of four factors. First of all is the desegregation on education, fair employment, facilities and so on things. Secondly, is the voting rights, voting rights for black people has gained in the period of 19955-1968, this gave the black people more power in hand in the election, which would gain their status in society. More on is the poverty on black people, more and more black people got jobs , this made black people participate a bigger role in the economic society. Finally, the last main factor is the public support
Another failure of this was the division in the civil rights movement which made the SNCC consider violence which shows that Peaceful protests don’t always help change. In conclusion, Martin Luther King’s campaigns played a big part in the civil rights movement and making it successful. For example, the passing of the voting rights bill and Solidified support. However, His set-backs and failures did not always prove peaceful protests were a success and the campaigns would not have had the same impact without presidential support and other movement groups such as the SCLC and SNCC which may been seen as the main reason why Martin Luther King’s campaigns were a
How far was peaceful protest responsible for the successes of the Civil Rights Movement in the years 1955-64? There were many occasions during the civil rights movement when peaceful protest played a major role in bringing change and often desegregation. For instance, the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 aimed to achieve desegregation of public places. They not only succeeded, but managed to gain masses of support from others for the civil rights movement and even spread to other areas of public living in America. This was very significant in the civil rights movement, as it showed the amount of growing support and the changing attitudes towards desegregation.
One of the most notable and great contributors to the Civil Rights Movement was the Freedom Riders. The freedom riders were civil rights activists who ride interstate buses in the segregated south to challenge local laws and or customs that enforced segregation. However, the most notable figure in the liberation of African American racism is Martin Luther King JR. Martin Luther King used nonviolent methods and teachings of Mahatma Ghandi to fight for justice for African Americans. One of his nonviolent actions that had a tremendous effect fighting segregation in the south was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, of which an African American lady Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and she was arrested. King leads this boycott for 385 days to the point that he got arrested and his house got bombed, but led to Browder vs. Gayle which ended racial segregation in all Montgomery public buses.
Grass roots protests such as Little rock showed that black people wanted to make change. Sit-ins were very successful to a large extent some being supported by 70,000 and more people and spread rapidly across the south and these helped to erode the Jim Crow laws. With the popularity of the sit ins it also emphasises how they where not reliant on Kings or Presidential support and that they could eventually make change for themselves if that’s what had to be done. The sit-ins created a huge momentum for change. Without the support of the grass roots involvement there may not have been such a success in the civil rights, 85% of blacks in the Montgomery bus boycott were to do with the grass roots organisation and also Birmingham and the children’s involvement was crucial in the success of desegregating
It was rejected but it caught major media press. In May, King again made a national appearance, speaking at a rally of almost forty thousand people in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Later in 1957 King launched the “Crusade for Citizenship” through the SCLC this program was intended to assist in registering two million black voters by the 1960 presidential election. The campaign failed because it was an over ambitious idea and it was made clear that the SCLC had to cooperate with other black civil right groups before they could go ahead in helping the African American
Taylor Vershay Ms. Turner PSCI-101 9 November 2011 Freedom Riders The film “Freedom Riders” on PBS is an inspirational story of the people who suffered in 1960’s during segregation. The Freedom Riders were a large group of nonviolent protestors. These civil right activists rode interstate buses into southern segregated United States to question the Supreme Court’s decisions. They consisted of mostly college students. This was one of the most successful methods that captured the country’s attention and influenced consciousness of the nation that dealt with racial prejudice.
However, Rosa and those involved in the Montgomery bus boycott continued to remain strong and refused to ride the buses . The organisation and bravery of the boycotters attracted media attention in Montgomery, Alabama and eventually throughout the world through the contagious persistence of the protests . The Montgomery bus boycott lasted for 382 days which displayed one of the limitations applied with this non-violent strategy. Although, this strategy lasted more than a year, the Montgomery bus boycott was considered to be one of the most successful uprisings against racial segregation due to the fact that the African Americans did not give up as they were determined in achieving racial justice and equality. It can be proved, the Montgomery bus boycott’s success significantly demonstrated that through unity and determination, it showed African Americans what could be accomplished with the use of non-violent tactics and strategies for resisting racism and overcoming