“I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” –Martin Luther King, Jr. The Civil Rights Movement has been a long, non-violent struggle to bring civil right and equality laws to the United States and all citizens. Especially in the South, the fight was to end discrimination towards African Americans and to end segregation from 1945 to 1970. The same goals, tactics, and focus the civil rights movement had on ending the discrimination of ethnic groups was also applied to other struggles such as women’s liberation, gay liberation, and also disabled rights movement. Because of the Civil Rights Movement’s goals and tactics it left a lasting impact on the United States.
Furthermore, the NAACP supported the case against Milam and Bryant in 1955 for the lynching of 14-year old Emmett Till, the NAACP helped by protecting his uncle Moses Wright. This allowed Mose Wright to give his testimony, drawing media attention in the blatant racism in the Deep South. The NAACP was also responsible for the success of the Civil Rights Campaign through peaceful protests, for example they organised the Montgomery Bus Boycott which led to the desegregation of buses in Alabama in the Bowler v. Gayle case. The Role of Individuals was another factor contributing to the success of the Civil Rights Campaign during 1945-57. Rosa Parks helped as she started the bus boycott of Montgomery by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
In 1965, the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles. The term "blacks" became socially acceptable, replacing "Negroes." Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.
Southern blacks simply stopped using the bus system to show that they weren't going to be treated unfairly, by the community, government and bus system. Every week the black community would gather and have a meeting about the protest, the leader of these gatherings would emerge to be Martin L. King who took charge of the boycott with the influential backing of the church. After over a year of boycotting the busses they went to the Supreme Court to prove that it was not legal to segregate blacks from whites on public transportation. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to separate people based on their race. When the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the blacks, they knew it was going to change their way of life.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 showed that peaceful protests could be effective. In Montgomery, Alabama, buses were segregated, and the NAACP member Rosa Parks one day refused to give up her seat, and was taken to court for her actions. Eventually after a mass boycott of the busses, the Supreme Court ruled that the busses in Montgomery were to be de-segregated. This peaceful boycott shows that the peaceful protest method could be effective in gaining the results that civil rights movement wanted. 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.
Montgomery Bus Boycott: Factfile Intro The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a refusal of many black Americans to use the Montgomery State bus service because it was segregating the seats. Many political figures led the boycott including Martin Luther King. Eventually, a year after a year of dispute and violence the Supreme Court ruled that the bus service could not use segregation laws. This was the first pivotal event that enabled coloured Americans to pursue freedom and justice through the Civil Rights Movement. Key Features The official start of the boycott was on December 1st 1955.
This protests success could also have been some of the inspiration behind the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Another organisation that evoked change in the period leading up to 1945 was the NAACP, who were involved in non-violent protests as well as the Smith Vs. Allwright case which overturned states such as Texas who disenfranchised the black citizens. The triumph of this case showed a hope for the representation of blacks as a whole and this led to more support for the organisation after the war which helped develop the civil right movement. An important black activist in relation to the Second World War specifically, was A. Phillip Randolph who was a trade unionist and important figure in the Double V campaign. The Double V campaign was very important as it was a symbol worn by black soldiers to show they supported victory against fascism at home and abroad.
He served the community as a clergyman, activist, and leader of the Civil Rights Movement [ (Biography, 2012) ]. Through the guidance of another great thinker named Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. King followed many of Mahatma Ghandi’s teachings and shared them with society. Through Dr. King’s inspirational Christian faith, he led acts of nonviolent protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve the goal of legal equality for African Americans [ (About Dr. King, 2012)
Assess how effective Malcolm X’s strategies were in the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s. For a person to be effective they must achieve what they wanted many times and by doing this they gain respect and power. Malcolm X was thought of as an activist, an outspoken public voice of African American civil rights and a prominent leader of Nation of Islam, challenged the mainstream Civil Rights Movement and the nonviolent pursuit of integration championed by Martin Luther King Jr and promoted Black Nationalism that encompassed the belief in black separatism. Malcolm X urged his followers to defend themselves against white aggression thus not following the non-violent ways of other leaders. Malcolm X was one of America’s
The Civil Rights campaigns We shall overcome The Civil Rights campaign began in the late 1950s and continued into the 1960s. Martin Luther King insisted that all the action taken should be totally non-violent and peaceful. Serious and brutal violence certainly occurred during the campaigns - violence by white racists against the Civil Rights protesters. There were several notable campaigns that occurred during this period: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955. This developed out of an incident where a black woman was arrested for refusing to sit in the 'blacks only' area of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.