To what extent was Peaceful Protest responsible for the successes of the civil rights movement in 1955-1964? In the years 1955-64 there were many factors responsible for success in the civil rights movement; peaceful protest being one of the most important factors. Peaceful protests inspired many to act and also drew attention to the inequalities faced by many black Americans. These kinds of protests resulted in the majority of the successes in the movement, drawing the attention of the media and leading to the establishment of many civil rights groups who fought for desegregation. Yet, peaceful protests alone could not have achieved such success; factors such as federal intervention played a vital role in the achievement of success also.
King improved the life of African Americans through various campaign is this time scale, some were success and some were failures. They all either effected Social, Economic and Political factors, however he was limited in his improvements due to people who did not agree with his ideas, or where his opposition. MLK’s main impact was on the Social factor for the lives of African Americans, most his attention was focused in this area as he wanted to stop segregation and improve education. The first of his campaigns improve segregation was Montgomery its aim to desegregate interstate transport, the main event of this campaign was the Bus Boycott. This sparked the attention at they wanted and was a success resulting white people beginning to agree with them as well as African Americans starting to work together giving a stronger sense of community spirit.
The North was also segregated, but not near to the extent of which the South was. The people didn’t react as much as there wasn’t a lot of violence and the earlier protests were calmer which meant that the media had nothing to report about as nothing particularly extreme occurred. The media would pick up on the events in the South as violence occurred and many people turned up. His tactics did not go to plan and the reaction of the police and public was not what expected. The Mayor of Chicago knew that they had to stop the campaigns from attracting media attention and to reduce this he ordered the police to avoid using violence and brutality and treat the campaigners with respect.
For example the Brown case of 1954 which overturned the Plessy vs fergueson case which stated that it was fine to be segregated if it is ‘Separate but equal’. This would be hugely influential in improving the lives of Black Americans as it meant that the clause could no longer be manipulated in different areas of life such as unequal public facilities such as transport and education due to the De Jure change. However the success of the NAACP was not a great success as it did not change De Jure victories into De Facto. An example is just after they won the Brown case, the NAACP had to fight another case in the courts which claimed that desegregation in education would occur ‘with all deliberate speed.’ This limited the improvement for Black Americans as it was too vague to enforce change, this was shown when in 1955 fewer than 750 out of 6300 schools in the South were desegregated. It also led to a greater opposition to civil rights on a local level with the creation of the White Citizens council, boasting 60000 members by 1955 which were later successful in intimidating Black Americans and ensuring that De Jure could not be enforced to form De Facto change.
Moreover such events such as the Freedom Rides, these were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961. This eventually resulted in the desegregation of interstate busses, again another example of how these peaceful protests were helping the civil rights movement. Although these events show that peaceful protests were effective, not all of them had the same success. The Albany campaign, which involved MLK was ineffective. The police authorities used cat and mouse tactics which lead to the arrest then release of protesters so that the campaign did not create any ‘martyrs’ for the movement.
How far is it accurate to describe black Americans as second class citizens in the years 1945-55? [30] During this time period it is rational to see the Black American community as second class citizens. Despite the fact America was making changes, particularly in the Northern states in order to make America a place of equality, there were still issues that caused the disenfranchisement of the Black community. The North and the south couldn’t have been further apart on the matter of fairness. As in the North segregation was almost none existent so racial etiquette was more flexible than in the South where legal segregation, caused by the Jim Crow law was very much everywhere, which means that in the South, Black Americans could be seen as second class citizens.
To what extent was the Federal Government responsible for improving the status of black people in the United States in the years 1945-64? The Federal Government was partially responsible for improving the status of black people, although individual activists are also partially responsible. The Federal Government is headed by the President, but also comprises of congress and the Supreme Court, which each had a role to play in dismantling segregation. Although the presidency and the Supreme Court would play a larger role in helping blacks than congress, due to the nature of what the people in congress believed and wanted to achieve. In the spring of 1946, Irene Morgan, a black woman, boarded a bus in Virginia to go to Baltimore, Maryland.
How much did social attitudes change in the years 1955-75? Between the years 1955-75 there were many changes regarding the law that seemed like it would have a positive change however did not make much of an impact on the social attitudes towards the issue. The main ones in my opinion are abortion, immigration, death penalty and homosexuality. The main change in the 60s in my opinion was the legalisation of abortion in 1967. In the view of the government this would have a good impact on society because it reduced the amount of children being put up for adoption, less people would go through back street abortion which was a very dangerous procedure and the government also believed it would reduce the amount of poverty.
There have been many protests in the history of the United States. Many of which have helped solve problems and have been very successful. But on the other hand there are those protests that have ended badly. An example of a protest that did not end as planed is the protests on the campus of Kent state college in 1970. The end result of those protests was gunfire by police leaving four dead and nine others wounded.
I will also look into the U.S research into foot patrol. In 2002 the English and Welsh Police forces introduced Police Community Support Officers, this increased unformed street patrols. However, Paskell found that the impact of the Police Community Support Officers in public reassurance was not strongly evident. She did find that despite, or even because of the limited policing powers that the Police Community Support Officers had, had enhanced the abilities for them to engage with the local residents, workers and other organisations. She also found that the Police Community Support Officers helped contribute to the police by reducing juvenile anti-social behaviour and environmental disorder.