After the emancipation of slavery in the 1800’s, African Americans have struggled to be treated with the same equal rights as Europeans. Even with the laws that were pasted to protect African Americans there were states that ignored and created new laws to overturn the laws to protect African Americans. The ignorant of Europeans who denied African Americans the equal rights the laws stated they deserved. African Americans decided to stand up for themselves by developing non violent protest movement to fight for the equal rights of African Americans. ("Civil Rights Movement") Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader of the non violent protest movement in the 1950’s.The development of Martin Luther King Jr. in this era started when an African American woman named Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations. They did this by introducing a ‘Grandfather Clause’, which is that only people whose grandfather voted, gave them the ability to vote. Also literacy test was another method used, which in most ways wasn’t made fairly and even well educated people were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote. However, in 1946 President Truman established The President’s Committee on ‘Civil rights’, producing a report examining the experiences of racial minorities in America. The report was called ‘To Secure These Rights’, this report highlighted the problems facing African Americans and proposed radical changes to make American society better.
Following the Second World War which African Americans had played such a large part in, and ended up still coming home to beatings and brutal racism, President Truman felt obliged to commit to Civil Rights for African Americans. Strongly demonstrated through his report titled ‘to secure these rights.’ in 1947, which outlined many of the hardships faced by African Americans and provided recommendations on how to solve them. Following the report several initiatives were pushed through by Truman, such as the signing of Executive Order 9980 and Executive Order 10308. These were crucial in improving the lives of African Americans as they guaranteed fair employment practices in the Civil Services and that defence contracts would not go to companies that discriminated against African Americans, hence empowering them in the workplace. On the other hand it could be argued that the Second World War’s influence was in fact limited.
How far is it accurate to say that the growth of Black Power was the most important factor in weakening the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's? Alex Cameron I do not agree with the claim that the growth of Black Power was the most important factor in weakening the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960's. Whilst the growth of Black Power is a factor to take into consideration. This did indeed lead to divisions within the Civil Right groups and how exactly those groups wanted to approach their ideas, the factor has a smaller effect in comparison to other factors such as the the deaths of the Civil Rights Group leaders Martin Luther King and Malcom X , the loss of presidential support, the failed protests in North America and the attention shift from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War, in which some seem to be the most important factor for weakening the Civil Rights Movement. The rise of Black Power has led to some important members from different Civil Rights Groups to abandon their goals of integration and leaving their groups which supported that aim, ultimately leaving them at a disadvantage and weakening them as well as the Civil Rights Movement.
The 15th amendment (1870) gave black men equal voting rights with white men. However they were threatened or physically stopped from voting. It was no good having rights which were not enforced. Yet inequality increased at the end of the 19th century and continued in the early 20th century through Southern states passing the ‘Jim Crow’ laws which increased segregation. WW1 did little in stopping the rising tide of segregation.
Although the black power movement could have appeared to slow down the progress of civil rights campaigns like it had done in the early 60s, it created a new wave of radical ideas that forced the nation to react. Within 1965-68, it was not just the Black Power movement that emerged, there were several other events that must also be considered as factors that diminished the civil rights campaigns. The issues however, that the civil rights campaign aspired to were still very much in the minds of politicians and decision makers. African Americans (AA) realised that even though constitutional and legal equality had been attained their lives largely remained unchanged. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed and in 1965 as did the Voting Rights Act.
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.
“The forgotten Man”, the famous speech by William Graham Sumner, points his idea about the social problems in late nineteenth century and early twenties. In his point of view, if A and B came up with an idea to force C to do something to help D who is suffering from some problems, C would be the forgotten man. Sumner’s idea, to some extent, supports Jim Crow Law. During the reconstructive, the society didn’t reach the point of equality of the two races, instead it became even worse in many places all over the country. The Civil War only ended the slavery, not racism.
The Constitution, until recently, did not apply to blacks; blacks feel they deserve payments from 310 years of slavery, destruction to their minds and culture. Dr. Martin Luther King's dilemma in the United States was of a different kind. He was torn between his identity as a Black man of African descent and his identity as an American. He urged Americans to judge based on the content of the character not by skin color and also believed in non-violent protests. Martin Luther King Jr’s main perspective during the fight on racism was equality.
We have made great strides in the fact that currently we have a black president. How long will it take before we have a female president? Hopefully we will progress into the future with the idea of equality for everyone. Some programs like head start, snap, and unemployment benefits, which disproportionately affect minorities, are facing funding cuts. As our economy flounders, so does the want to aid our government