How far was peaceful protest responsible for the successes of the civil rights movement in the years 1955-64? In the time period of 1955-64 there was numerous amount of civil right movements organised by groups such as NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and CORE that took place from the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 to the Mississippi freedom summer of 1964. During this period there was major progression for African American civil rights as there were many legal and social changes, which ended certain segregations. The peaceful protests can be seen as being mainly responsible for helping to make these changes happen however there are other reasons which made legal and social changes getting achieved. Peaceful protests were an effective method of the civil rights movement and brought African Americans a lot of success.
One of the major turning points in the status of black people happened in 1954 and was the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Mr Brown and the NAACP took the case of segregation in education the all the way to the Supreme Court, where after years of legal battles the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in American schools was illegal. This was clearly an important change in the status of black people as we can see that something has actually been achieved. However there was one problem with the ruling, and that was that they didn’t actually set a time by which all the schools had to stop segregation. This is an example of de jure but not de facto, a change in the law but the change wasn’t really put into practice.
History Practice Controlled Assessment: ‘To what extent has the contribution of Martin Luther King to the advancement of black Americans between 1954 and 1968 been exaggerated?’ On 6th December 1865, the 13th amendment to the American Constitution was passes, leading to the abolition of slavery. However whilst slavery was abolished, the black people of America still faced harsh racism and had very little rights. During the period of 1954-1968, many people were campaigning for an advancement of black Americans. These people wanted equal civil rights for blacks as white Americans had. One such person was Martin Luther King.
Progress towards racial equality was slow between 1945 and 1955 because when there was legal success, it wasn’t put into action in many states and when there was direct action from ordinary people it took a long time for laws to be put in place to correct the problem. In 1946, the Supreme Court declared segregation on buses that crossed state borders to be illegal. This was a huge step forward for the Civil Rights Movement however, this law still allowed buses within a single state to be segregated. This meant that although progress had been made with regards to interstate buses, white American’s managed to find a loop hole which they used to delay the movement. It is not until the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, ignited by Rosa Parks in 1955, that all buses are integrated.
Peaceful protests continuingly occurred in the years 1945-1960, but their effectiveness were limited and often did not make the striking impact they were designed to create. However, peaceful protests were effective in drawing public and media attention. Television pictures of police brutality against unarmed peaceful protesters did much to persuade the American public that segregation should end. However, such campaigns in Albany and others showed that the method did not guarantee success. The Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 are an example of successful peaceful protests.
Martin Luther King was the most important factor in the success of the Non-Violent protest movement in the USA between 1955-65” How far do you agree with this statement? The 1950s was the initiation of the furture direction the civil rights movement was heading towards. Between 1955-65 we saw the emergence of Martin Luther King as a vivil rights leader and participant in the non-violent protests advocating for black right sna desegregation. It can be sadi that Martin Luther King was a catalyst for civli rights because his actions lead to some large pivotal changes such as the desegraegation of buses. Despite Kings support of the protests, a large majority fo them were not oransided by him showing that often Kinf didn’t play as of a essential role in the Civil Rights as people have been lead to belived.
Although he did not initiate the start of the Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, he got involved and helped them greatly with their cause. King’s charisma was very important to the Civil Rights Movement as he was able to deliver the point clearly and in a way that everyone understood him. King took part in various different campaigns such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored (sic) People (NAACP), Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), and Southern Christian
On the other hand it could be argued that the Second World War’s influence was in fact limited. Despite the initiatives set up by President Truman it could be argued that they in fact did more ‘harm’ than ‘good’. There was a lack of commitment to these initiatives and it led to a growing white opposition within government, evident following the lack of support and
In 1951, the father of a black student named Linda Brown sued the Board of Education because a white school had prevented Brown from attending a school which was only seven blocks away, compared to the segregated black school she was attending which was more than seven blocks away from her home. Despite losing the first legal battle, Brown’s father did not give up. He found help from the NAACP, a prominent civil rights organisation which appealed on his behalf to the Supreme Court of USA. Following the appeal, in May 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared the US Constitution to be ‘colour-blind’ and therefore ordered the Topeka Board of education to end segregation in its schools. This was one of the first major steps in the civil rights movement.
Specifically for African Americans, the equality and desegregation under this act of education, the workplace, and voter’s registration has been tremendously empowering. One of the great things about America that many other countries do not have is free education. Under Plessy v. Ferguson, segregation of schools was legalized under the conditions that it was separate but equal. During that time, the schools were definitely separated, but unquestionably unequal. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 overturned Plessy V. Ferguson which not only led to African Americans having better schools, but also allowed them to learn with their Caucasian peers.