To what extent did The Ku Klux Klan prevented African Americans from gaining Civil Rights in the years 1960-64? Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Ku Klux Klan re-emerged, feeling that their goal of white supremacy was being challenged by the Civil Rights Campaign. Between these years they created many problems for the campaign, and could even be blamed for the lack of Civil Rights legislation in this period. One of the key ways in which the Klan blocked any progress was through intimidation and fear. In many Southern States the force and presence of the Klan was enough to dissuade African Americans from joining the campaign - Mississippi, as state with the highest amount of Klan activity also had the lowest amount of registered African American voters, and the lowest amount of NAACP activists.
This idea that they were dying for an ideological dream of freedom that wasn’t even extended to their homes began the attitudes of people to change and when the attitudes of people change the government has to mould to keep the people appeased. After the war there was a huge crisis facing the American Government the booming war time economy was over, many black people were fired and left unemployed. Many of the soldiers returning home were demoralized and tired of fighting for a fake representation of freedom. Harry Truman was elected President at that time and he was seen as quite a racist figure by many historians as he famously and publically joined the KKK. Despite this the changing mood surrounding civil rights inspired Truman to make a difference.
The protest was over African American voting rights, as few African Americans could vote due to racist whites manipulating the voting system. African Americans shied away from voting because of fear of being harassed or absurd tests were given, such as stating the entire U.S Constitution. Johnson’s purpose of his speech was to convince Congress and Americans everywhere to pass his bill on voting reformation. To help make the speech more effective and convincing, Johnson used rhetorical strategies, such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Johnson’s first part of the speech uses rhetorical qualities that unify the audience and make them sympathize with the victims of voting rights.
Malcolm x, one of the leaders of the nation of Islam, his ideas were opposed to those of martin Luther king and as African Americans lost faith in peaceful protests it led to the rise of black power. Many people were dissatisfied with Martin Luther King’s tactics therefore in the 1960s different black power movements rose such as the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers. The black power movement came to an end in the 1970s despite achieving not as much for the black people in the north; it did however build their confidence and self-esteem. Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, believed in a strong moral code, self-discipline. He encouraged black men to find dignity in hard work and to disapprove the illegal world of gambling, drinking, prostitution and drugs.
This phrase, and indeed, his whole letter, instigated the continuation of King’s and his supporter’s direct action campaigns. King’s defence displayed his belief that non-violent direct action was incredibly important, as any other approach, specifically the attack of Black people within America, was evil, King wrote, ‘‘[non-violent direct action is] a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love’’.3 Without the use of violence, King and many others, comprising mainly of Black children and teenagers went ahead with the protest march on the
Johnson’s responses to racial and gender discrimination were not as effective as he had hoped. Although he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he was confronted with violence and protests and African Americans creating new organizations such as the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party’s motive was to protect their families by carrying weapons legally, a right given by the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, this caused violence and many protests, such as in Watts, Los Angeles. African Americans were also hit hard by voting.
But the need for this labor was too great to have a white only labor force. African-Americans became an important part in meeting production needs which became their key bargaining chip while dealing with African-American civil rights issues. There were many important events that lead to national recognition of racial tensions such as the brutal killing of Cleo Wright that became an FBI investigation and the first prosecution of whites for abandoning his human rights while strung by his neck behind a car through the black ghettos and set on fire in front of church services Sunday morning. 3 The Detroit race riots were caused through rising racial tensions and poor housing conditions that not only killed 35 and wounded many more, but it prevented war production costing millions of man hours. 4 These circumstances demonstrated the power the black communities had during the war knowing the nation could not afford to put production on hold.
and his philosophy on non violence, Malcom X on the other hand had a completely different view on how to achieve people their rights by supporting violence. For many young African Americans, the need for greater sovereignty from the white majority was on full swing. They took inspiration from Malcom X who was the minister of the Nation of Islam. He captivated listeners with denunciations of whites and demands for black self respect. (Jacqueline Jones) To his admirers, he was a man who was an audacious advocate for the Civil Rights of African Americans who indicted white American in the harshest of terms (violence) for their crimes against blacks.
The immediate effects that he left was the 1968 Riots in Chicago, the improvement of the Civil Rights Act, and the Poor People’s campaign which demanded for economic and human rights for everyone in the United States. On the long term impact, his death led to a social change because of the acts that helped the African Americans get less discriminated. And last but not the least, the Martin Luther King was a positive impact because this day was all about service towards people who needed help. Some of the impacts that was left behind might seem to be negative but these impacts were all about change that everyone has an initiative on
Leaders planned and instructed participants in proper action and in dealing with resistance, both official and non-official. They were fully aware of how their actions affected national politicians like Kennedy and Johnson. Sitkoff implies that Kennedy introduced ‘the most comprehensive civil rights law in history’ (158) in June 1963 in response to black activism. One of Kennedy’s motives was to ‘assist Farmer and King and Wilkins in securing their objectives lest the movement be taken over by extremists.’ (156) Voting rights was ‘not on Johnson’s agenda’ (186) after the 1964 election. In late 1964, King and the SCLC staff ‘plotted a strategy’ and ‘set as their goal a strong voting-rights law.’ (187) They deliberately chose Selma, Alabama as the ‘focal point of their campaign’ partly because the believed the county sheriff’s reaction would be ‘vicious and violent’ (188) and would ‘provide the notoriety and martyrdom necessary for the national attention and support that would result in voting rights legislation.’ (188) By mid-March, Johnson requested that Congress pass a voting rights