User:Tausinga/sandbox/The Civil Rights Movement

Introduction

The topic being introduced is the Civil Rights Movement. This movement was the struggle and fight for equal access to wealth, health, well-being, privilege, and opportunity regardless of background and ethnicity. This movement started around 1954 and lasted to around 1968. African Americans were a big target of this historical movement along with other people of color.

Background

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was a huge influence in the Civil Rights Movement. It all started when Mrs. Parks refused to give her seat up to a white male and go to the back of the bus she was on, as African Americans usually had to do during this time period. Her act of defiance in Montgomery, Alabama was the initial spark of the movement that soon spread throughout the United States. This heavily inspired black communities in Montgomery to soon organize the “Montgomery Bus Boycott” which was a group formed to protest for 13 months led by none other than Martin Luther King Jr. Once the protest had gained popularity it soon reached the Supreme Court where they soon claimed bus segregation to be against basic human rights. This stemmed out to cause more cases to emerge such as the Brown vs. The Board of Education case that deemed it unconstitutional to separate colored students from the other students that were white. Another case to come out of this was the Loving vs. Virginia case that made laws prohibiting interracial marriage a violation to Equal Protection. Jim Crow laws were put to an end due to the Civil Rights Movement as well, Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South part of the United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was implemented and had officially outlawed the discrimination based off of color, gender, religion, and nationality as well as putting an end to public segregation. The act was first proposed by John F. Kennedy and it had gone through a strong trial with southern Congressmen. With its win in the trial it was soon signed into the law books by Lyndon B. Johnson. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was another addition from this movement that completely eliminated discriminatory voting practices that had been active in Southern States even after the Civil War.

Interesting Facts

Little Rock Nine was the first group of colored students to enroll in an all white school. This group consisted of African American students Ernest Green, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Pattillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls. They were enrolled at Rock Central High School on September 4, 1957. This school was located in Arkansas where their enrollment was followed by mass protest and soon to be riot. This special group was initially unable to enter the school due to a national guard that was sent out to halt their entrance, otherwise known as the Little Rock Crisis. After news of the guard preventing the students' entrance spread, president Dwight D. Eisenhower sent out federal troops to escort these students to get inside. Upon entrance the students were treated fairly poorly by both staff and other students. They then went on to be the first African American students to graduate from Central High even through this diversity and challenge. This heavily influenced the black community to stand up for themselves and had gone on to the desegregation of schools as well as many public areas within the same decade of the event.

The Birmingham Campaign was an American movement organized in the early year of 1963. This movement was put together by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring people's attention to the integration effort made by African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. This movement was run by Martin Luther King Jr, James Bevel, and Fred Shuttlesworth. The nonviolent protest between young black students and the white population eventually led to the governments change in their cities discriminatory law. This was big because Birmingham was one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. It even got to a point where James Bevel thought it to be good that students were the main protagonists in the Birmingham Campaign. He even went as far as training these students in participating in nonviolent protests and to take a peace walk from 16th Street Baptist Church to City Hall to talk to their mayor about the segregation they face.

Conclusion

The Voting Rights Act

To end off, the Civil Rights Movement was the biggest solution and event in history granting African Americans equality through peaceful protests and influencing and empowering people that would go on to be great leaders for their time. Without the people that fought for voting rights, desegregation, employment, and overall equal opportunities their chance of gaining such power and ability to express and vocalize their issues wouldn't be very high or successful at all. Though, with these people in power they'd be able able to overpower and take control of the racism and overall situation they were facing and change American society even up until today's lifestyle.