Civil Rights Movements Effects in Greensboro North Carolina - Research Paper Example

Civil Rights Movements Effects in Greensboro North Carolina The civil rights movement had a significant effect in North Carolina especially in the period of 1960 through the early 1980s. The civil Rights Movement was to a great extent very active in North Carolina with the major driver among other things an aim to overturn segregation within the region that was commonly referred to as the Jim Crow legislation. The Jim Crow legislation is notable with it inclusion of states law that called for American blacks as well as the whites to use facilities that were separated, separate schools and sit in different seats while using public transport and theaters. The extent of the segregation was very significant that it was even evidenced among the dead with the bodies of the whites and those of blacks required to be buried on different cemeteries (Greene 43). These laws humiliated the African Americans and they started the path to rejecting the laws in the 1930s although the impact was minimal until the nineteen 1960 when the protests and Civil Rights movements became a national issue. In 1960, a series of events were evidenced in North Carolina that played a significant role towards the beginning of Civil Rights Movement with the events gaining national recognition. These events include the Greensboro Sit-in as well as Ku Klux Klan Versus Communist Workers Party in 1979 among others. Other groups that played a significant role towards Civil Rights Movements in North Carolina include the HBCU evidenced in A&T and Bennet proving vital in the struggle of integration throughout the region. Before embarking on the one of the events that occurred in North Carolina to spark the Civil Rights Movement in the region, it is important to note that those events received sponsorships from various organizations. The sponsorships ensured the activities of the civil rights movements remained energize and effectively organized while also remaining focused (Greene 129). These groups includes The Congress Racial Equality that is associated with sponsoring Freedom Rides through 1961together with black as well as white bus riders in Greyhounds and Trailways buses who challenged segregation among others. Inspiration was also drawn from civil rights leaders among them Doctor Martin Luther King JR who advocated for non-violent as well as peaceful protests. The first major event during the year 1960 refers to the Greensboro Sit-ins that played a significant role in provoking all sorts of emotions across the nation as they received national wide focus and remain a significant part of the American civil rights history. Through focusing on the ideas of Martin Luther King that called for non-violence as well as peaceful protests, the sit-ins played a significant role in provoking the type of reaction that was yearned by the civil rights movements. The reasons behind focusing on non-violent and peaceful campaign was to attract public condemnation of treating those involved while also continuing to portray the challenge of segregation encountered in the South. Greensboro remains an important area in the history of American civil rights movements as it served as the starting point of the sit-ins (Fischer 64). The first instance of the Sit-ins occurred in the city of Greensboro on 1st February, 1960 characterized by four African American students from A&T College that represented an all-black college in North Carolina. The four college students visited a restaurant that only served the whites at Woolworth’s and requested to be served. The opening of the shop would include all sorts of customers despite their differences in color but the restaurant only served the whites. Upon requesting to be served with food, the students were denied service and consequently requested to leave the hotel. The students had researched adequately on their actions and they possessed a handout of the tactics to apply on resistance that was provided to them by CORE, one of the supporting groups of the movement. Despite their achievements and acquiring significant recognition across the African Americans due to their success, the heroism was not shared across all African Americans as one of the black dishwashers in the hotel was overheard making insults to the students referring to them as stupid, arrogant, trouble makers as well as rabble-rousers. Although the food counter failed to serve them the students remained put forcing the café to shut down thirty minutes before time. Upon their return to their campus, the population of students that comprised of blacks alone greeted them as heroes and all recognized their achievements. Consequent actions was evidenced as other black students followed suit and engaged in continuous sit-ins throughout the month of February in hotels segregated for the whites. A notable incident occurred on February 2nd where twenty-four students made a sit-in in the same café but that time doing it on the food counter. The impact was significant sparking interests and recognition across the nation prompting even some whites to sympathize with the blacks for segregation (Carson 211). Another notable incident occurred on 4th February where the sit-ins that the black students continued to engage in received a boost from the white female students in North Carolina upon joining the black students and affecting all the segregated food counters in the whole city of Greensboro. The chaos was such significant and possessed a great impact that the Woolworth’s restaurant was forced out of business. The actions of the four students who initiated the sit-ins spread like world fire across colleges in the south with other black students copying the sit-ins that by 7th of February, fifty-four sit-ins had occurred in the South across 15 cities found in nine states. The major reason behind the back students’ spirited action towards engaging in the sit-ins resulted from the fact that they had seen insignificant return from other civil movements and they focused on increasing the pace as well as the speeding up the drive for equality. One of the future civil rights leader, Robert Moses, asserted that he gained spark into action through the sullen angry but determined look that the protestors portrayed differing significantly with the defensive cringing expression evidenced with the majority of most photos of earlier protesters in the South region. The Greensboro protest became very significant to the civil rights movement considering the fact that the press provided a lot of coverage about it with news getting full report across the nation (Carson 259). Despite his call for peaceful and non-violence protests, Martin Luther remained unaware of the protests but upon receiving the news of the protests, he assured the protesters his full support. The sit-inns were successful in that reactions from the public were high with the public members across the country condemning the segregation while the outside world also condemned the behavior. It was much sparked by the photos that portrayed food being poured over the students (both black and white) as they visited lunch counters by individuals opposing their actions. Majority of the citizens became worried about the actions considering that everyone remained aware of the dictatorship that was occurring in the Soviet Union, yet such behavior could occur in America, a land known as land of the free. However, Eisenhower wished only if changes of ensuring segregation were put to rest in the South would result from the heart as opposed to enforcement through legislations or court rulings. To some extent, the protests served in hardening the attitudes amongst the white segregationists across the South. The sit-ins impacted some stores in some places with Atlanta the city most associated with Martin Luther desegregating while the Greensboro Woolworth’s eventually agreeing to desegregate in July after enduring significant losses. The students value was however focused on increased media coverage as opposed to desegregation of food counters and therefore had to adopt a new concept through establishment of the Students Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that Marion Barry served as the leader. The groups aim was to further the civil rights movement furthered by the students having already tasted some form of achievement through the sit-ins actions. All the media platforms had already increased their attention to the black students’ activities and therefore the message against segregation was across the nation. Apart from the sit-inns marking a significant point in the turnaround of the activities of the civil rights movements, another significant issue occurred in North Carolina in 1979 that also serves as a major point of consideration whenever the issue of civil rights movement is mentioned in the U.S history. The issue relates to the actions of the Ku Klux Klan against members of the Communist Workers Party in 1979. The road towards achievement of equal rights for the African Americans in the U.S took a long and challenging road with different forms of tactics employed (Bradley and Burton 97). All forms and individuals related to the blacks became involved in one way or another. Majority of the actions were evidenced in the South considering that majority of the blacks were found in the region after the end of slavery as their fore fathers worked as slaves in the white farms in the Southern region. When the African Americans had resulted on violent means as a way of ending racial segregation, they formed violent groups among them the Black Panther and the Southern whites responded with the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Despite the approach of no-violent and peaceful protests, the Ku Klux Klan remained focused to crush the activities of the blacks. A major reference is evidenced through the groups’ collision with the Communist Worker Party n 199 in Greensboro. The group comprising of Klansmen as well as neo-Nazis shot five members of the Communist Workers Party on November 3, 1979 while at the same time injuring seven others as the gangs fled without arrest. The Communist Workers Party had engaged in organizing its members o demonstrate against the clan through engaging in peaceful rally in Greensboro City, North Carolina. A group of industrial American workers mostly drawn from African American mill workers had equally joined the Workers Communist Party to protest against the Ku Klux Klan and the Neo Nazis that they claimed violent and radicalized (Bradley and Burton 123). As the protesters marched through the streets of Greensboro peacefully, a caravan of vehicles ferrying the Klansmen as well as the Neo-Nazis arrived in the streets of Greensboro with an aim of disrupting the protest. Before the Klansmen and the neo-Nazis could embark on disrupting the march, the march had already started with the protestors believed to have sparked the protests through kicking on the vehicles carrying the Klansmen. The actions of the demonstrators in kicking the cars are evidenced in video recordings, with the Klansmen and no-Nazis opening direct fire to the demonstrators shooting them. Although the intention of the Klansmen and the neo-Nazis was aimed to disrupt the demonstrators, the means they would employ to disrupt such demonstrations remained unknown to the demonstrators. The communist Party members are also believed to have been in possession of concealed weapons during the demonstrations with reports indicating that they returned fire to the Klansmen and the no-Nazis. However, after the end of the shooting, the number of dead individuals was only five with seven others injured with all of them hailing from the communist members. The situation of the demonstrations and the deaths was so intriguing in that the demonstrations were pre-planned and known to the authorities and despite the initial awareness, only a few police officers were deployed in the city of Greensboro. Such demonstrations on other occasions had always called for significant numbers of police deployment to enhance maintenance of law and order from the demonstrators or anyone else (Bermanzohn 97). Although the few police officers that were around followed the shooters, they failed to catch up with them or arrested no one. The following year saw six Klan as well as Nazi members put on trial with respect to murder and rioting charges that took place on November 3, 1979. The trials unveiled evidence that linked the possibility of existing awareness of the Greensboro police and most probably the federal government of the possible violence to result from the rally, yet they failed to prevent. The planner of the violence was referred to Edward Dawson and is believed to have planned with the Greensboro police to ensure that the police did not interfere. Despite the availability of evidence recorded in video, the six defendants were later acquitted in 1984 with the white jury citing the reaction of the defendants was as a response to self defense. In conclusion, the Civil Rights Movements have played a significant role in ensuring equity among various races in America with the African Americans achieving a significant achievement in their fight against racism. Although the civil rights movement began in the 1930s, it took a significant notch high in 1960 with the actions against segregation being initiated in the city of Greensboro in North Carolina. The black students’ engagement in sit-inns attracted sympathy from even their white counterparts and succeeded in portraying their message against segregation across the nation. Greensboro was again on the spotlight in 3rd November 1979 on issues of racism where communist demonstrators were shot by members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. Despite the polarized relationship that existed between the African Americans and the whites in Greensboro, the situation has significantly improved with the city being in the verge of employing the first African American female chief. Works Cited Bermanzohn, Sally A. "The Greensboro Massacre: Political Biographies of Four Surviving Demonstrators." New Political Science (2008): n. pag. Print. Bradley, Ed, and Philip Burton. Blacks in America: Life in the South, 1979. New York N.p., n.d. 2013. Print. Carson, Clayborne. Reporting Civil Rights. New York: Library of America, 2010. Print. Fischer, Klaus P. America in White, Black, and Gray: The Stormy 1960s. New York: Continuum International Pub. Group, 2009. Print. Greene, John R. America in the Sixties. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 2010. Print. Read More