The Civil Rights Movement - Essay Example

? The Civil Rights Movement In 1955 Rosa Parks earned a special position in American history as the mother of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Parks, a black woman, refused to surrender her seat to a white man on a Montgomery Alabama city bus which violated Jim Crow laws existing in the southern states at that time. This courageous act of civil disobedience incited the masses, both black and white persons, in protesting racial inequalities during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The mass nationwide protests culminated in a major change in racial relations in the country in addition to changes in laws designed to protect the rights of minorities most significantly the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During the 1950’s racism was and had been fervent and widespread throughout the South. Laws that required racially segregated seating on city busses were enacted due to solely to racial prejudice. Most city bus lines in the South were operated by private companies at that time and the owners of these transport systems had no financial motive to require segregation. The bus line owners and drivers may have been racists themselves but their business was dependent on passengers and they would lose money by alienating black patrons, a major segment of their customer base. The government, today generally regarded as a body that resolves social inequalities, created this discriminatory practice to begin with. Politics initiated legal racial segregation. The social forces that motivate political practices are vastly different from motives that steer economic practices. Jim Crow laws were designed to, among other oppressive tactics; disenfranchise black voters to ensure only white persons opinions counted in the political process. A preponderance of racially biased whites was not required to legally mandate segregation of the races. Even if only a minority of white voters desired segregation while those opposed or ambivalent didn’t voice their opinion on the matter, which was more often than not the case, this was sufficient political power because the opinion of black voters were of no consequence because they had effectively lost their ability to vote. The political motivations were in conflict with economic interests. Owners of private transportation companies in the South lobbied in resistance during the formation of racially biased Jim Crow laws, made numerous court challenges after theses laws were passed and developed delaying tactics while trying to disregard enforcing segregation laws for several years. Bus drivers were routinely arrested for not enforcing these laws and the president of at least one streetcar company was threatened with jail time if he persisted in not following the law. However, transit company owners were not motivated because they were forward-thinking advocates of civil rights. This resistance “was based on a fear of losing money if racial segregation caused black customers to use public transportation less often than they would have in the absence of this affront” (Sowell, 2005). During the Jim Crow era, segregation of the races was hardly limited to areas of transportation. Hospitals in Alabama, whether private or public, could not force a white nurse to provide care for black patients. In Mississippi, freedom of the press was compromised by a law stating, “Any person who shall be guilty of printing, publishing or circulating printed, typewritten or written matter urging or presenting for public acceptance or general information, arguments or suggestions in favor of social equality or of intermarriage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both” (Cozzens, 1998). The question of segregation became an openly debated issue during the Second World War. The country claiming to be the symbol of freedom, an example for the world to follow, sent its soldiers to fight and die in a noble cause to make others safe from oppression and to promote democracy. An embarrassing element of this lofty idealistic effort was that American blacks were segregated and considered second class citizens within the very military that were fighting for the freedom of all countries involved. The black soldiers, naturally, took exception to their lower class distinction because they fought as courageously as the white soldiers. It was commonly expressed that when wounded, the black men’s blood was the same color as the white men. The valiant efforts during battle by many black companies and individual soldiers began changing the attitudes of whites throughout the nation concerning race relations. The NAACP’s approach of fighting segregation by means of the Legal Defense Fund was revived and extended following World War II. Ultimately this tactic led to the Brown vs. Board of Education (of Topeka, Kans) decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. The Brown decision “appeared to remove the constitutional underpinnings of the whole segregation system and strike at the foundations of Jim Crow laws. It was the most momentous and far-reaching decision of the century in civil rights” (Woodward, 1986, p. 84). Then NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall won the case. He returned to the Supreme Court in 1967 as the country’s first black justice. “This decision overturned the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling that legitimized the ‘separate but equal’ practice of segregation according to race, deciding that ‘separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.’ The ruling was the impetus for across-the-board desegregation in the U.S.” (Williams, 2007) In September, 1957, by order of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, nine black students were prohibited from attending the all-white Central High School in Little Rock. President Eisenhower sent the national Guard and federal troops to intercede on behalf of the students. These students became known as the ‘Little Rock Nine.’ “These actions by the highest offices in the country, the President and Supreme Court, gave credence to the great imbalance of social equality that blacks were experiencing and to the rights and the respect that they were seeking. The black population was encouraged by these decisions and took up the challenge, unwilling to accept defeat.” (Williams, 2007) All over the nation, especially in the South, there were numerous examples of blacks becoming empowered following the war era due to the feelings of discontent and a mounting awareness of exclusion from political, economic and social participation. Southern black churches began to encourage their congregations to start a spiritually inspired pursuit of equality. The initial step in this course of action began with the education of the congregations by educated blacks, preachers and sympathetic whites because many in the black community did not understand their Constitutional rights as American citizens. (Cozzens, 1998) Following Parks arrest for declining the bus driver’s request for her to go to the back of the bus so that a white man could have her seat up front, area ministers formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). This group organized what became a more than year long boycott of that bus company by the black citizens of Montgomery. If the ministers did not orchestrate this non-violent approach rioting would have surely ensued. The Parks incident touched off strong feelings within all of the black community and some of the white community as well. The voices of dissent were growing steadily larger and louder within black congregations. Additionally, the ministers knew if they did not organize some type of protest they would lose many members because the growing sentiment was that simply speaking out accomplished nothing. Ministers had given tough sounding sermons in the past but were now being expected to back up the tough language with actions. Following meetings by the MIA leadership, Martin Luther King Jr., a twenty-six-year-old a minister who had just moved to Montgomery a year earlier, was overwhelmingly elected to lead the MIA. Kings had not previously been involved in the Civil Rights Movement and had recently declined an offer to be president of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. Neither had he met Rosa Parks. Even though he had no experience in the movement “King’s inspiring leadership during the Montgomery bus boycott, and the subsequent events in the years to follow, elevated him to becoming the most recognized and beloved leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America.” (Cozzens, 1998) His persistent message of peaceful protests was very significant for the eventual social equality achievements for blacks during the Civil Rights Movement era. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution offered the legal reassurance that non-violent approach was defensible in court. This permitted the public (and televised) protests to occur which made mainstream America aware of the blacks struggles which emboldened both blacks and whites to join the Movement leading to the end of racist Jim Crow laws. “People, both black and white, were now willing to violate absurd, archaic local segregationist laws because they believed they were abiding and defending a ‘higher law,’ the Constitution.” (Cozzens, 1998) The initial intent of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an offshoot of the MIA and also lead by King, was to continue the successes of the bus demonstration in Montgomery by having transportation boycotts in other southern cities. However, these efforts experienced limited success. During late 1950’s in Montgomery, the MIA was essentially unproductive in revolting against other types of discrimination. The Civil Rights Movement seemed to stagnate until 1960 when a ‘sit-in’ began an innovative and more forceful yet still non-violent stage of the civil rights struggle, a tactic still used today as demonstrated by the Occupy Wall Street movement. The now historic first sit-in took place in Greensboro, North Carolina at a ‘whites only’ lunch counter at Woolworth’s when four black college students sat down and asked to be served. This approach rapidly spread to similar protests such as ‘stand-ins’ at all-white theatres, ‘pray-ins’ at segregated churches and ‘wade-ins’ at segregated city beaches and swimming pools. “The activists that braved the threat of being beaten and jailed in order advance their cause of racial justice were inspired by the illustration of courage by those who participated in the Montgomery bus boycott.” (Cozzens, 1998) The sit-in type protests were not influenced by the SCLC but these actions had a profound influence on King and others sympathetic to the cause. The Movement was discovering that varying types of public protest could be employed to defeat racial segregation in the South. A youth activist group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed in April 1960 by student leaders after meeting with the SCLC and King. This group added yet another component to the Movement and seemed to accept King’s pacifist methods for social transformation at least in the beginning. The SCLC did not organize nor was consulted with regard to the ‘Freedom Rides’ into the South beginning in 1961. The Congress of Racial Equality founded and supported these rides intended to make certain that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Boynton v. Virginia was being followed by southern states. This ruling further defined and extended the Court’s earlier decision which put an end to segregation laws concerning interstate transportation. The Freedom Riders fought with whites in Montgomery, Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama which provoked President John Kennedy to deploy 600 U.S. marshals to protect the protestors. “The Freedom Rides supplied an important strategic lesson for King and the SCLC: in order to arouse public sympathy sufficient to pressure the federal government to enforce civil rights in the states and localities, white racists had to be provoked to use violence against non-violent protestors” (Colaiaco, 1988, p. 39). Growing acts of civil disobedience taken by several groups throughout the South including the SCLC, a burgeoning political entity, was being noticed by the nation and politicians as well. These acts convinced the Kennedy administration that civil rights legislation was not only needed but could now be a reality. Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, a former influential Senator from a southern state, used his clout and persuasive techniques to secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This groundbreaking law, among other aspects, gave the federal government the power to take federal money away from state or local governments that continued enforcing Jim Crow type laws or practiced other forms of discriminatory tactics. Now the Movement’s fight for civil liberties was supported by lawful civil rights but was always based on moral motivations. The virtuousness of the Movement was personified by Dr. King whose courage and character was supported and applauded by a growing number of American people of all colors. Approximately 200,000 people were part of the “March on Washington” on August 28, 1963 which culminated at the Lincoln Memorial where those assembled heard King give his well-known ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and was on the cover of Time magazine that same year. In the associated Time article he was acknowledged as having “an indescribable empathy that is the touchstone of leadership.” (Cozzens, 1998) James Meredith was the first black student to enter the University of Mississippi in 1962, but was able to enroll only after President Kennedy sent 15,000 federal national guardsmen and 600 U.S. Marshals to re-establish order. The violent rebellion by white students on the university grounds following Meredith’s decision to enroll at the then all-white college resulted in 375 people being injured and two student deaths. 160 Federal Marshals were also injured. In an effort to encourage blacks to vote, Meredith planned to walk by himself from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi in 1967 following passage of the Voting Rights Act. His ‘March Against Fear’ began during an primary election week in an effort to show that, if he could walk alone that far without being hurt, then all blacks could walk a much shorter distances to the voting booths without fear. Meredith was shot but not critically injured by a white man soon after he began the walk. After hearing this news, King teamed-up with Stokely Carmichael in Greenwood, Mississippi, the location of Carmichael’s now famous “Black Power” speech. He utilized Meredith’s brave and widely publicized model of empowering himself to apply to, attend classes and ultimately graduate from a university under the toughest of conditions to illustrate the significance of independent political actions. King openly declared his opposition to this phrase “Black Power” because he thought it implied racial separatism and, unlike the Civil Rights Movement, seemed to incite violence. King later wrote, “I pleaded with the group to abandon the Black Power slogan. It was my contention that a leader has to be concerned about problems of semantics. Each word, I said, has a denotative meaning – its explicit and recognized sense – and a connotative meaning – its suggestive sense. While the concept of black power might be denotatively sound, the slogan ‘Black Power’ carried the wrong connotations. I mentioned the implications of violence that the press had already attached to the phrase” (Cruse, 1967). Malcolm X (Little) was an influential speaker during the Movement and, following his death became a larger-than-life figure, more so than he was while living. Just as King had become the central figurehead of the southern black cause, Malcolm became the shepherd of city ghettos of the West, Midwest and North. The Nation, a semi-militant organization grew rapidly due to his leadership. Malcolm’s is most remembered by his impassioned anti-white rhetoric. This central concept was copied by other organizations interested in equality for blacks. Malcolm, as might be expected, was the target of numerous death threats. One of these threats in 1965 succeeded not by whites but by three fellow Nation members. Following Malcolm’s brutal assassination, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton organized the Black Panther Party. (Carson, 1990) Though the South served as the focal point for the Civil Rights Movement, racial difficulties had no regional borders. While blacks in the South were trying to eliminate segregation and deeply ingrained discriminatory practices, blacks in other locations such Oakland, Detroit and Chicago were engaged a battle of their own for equality. Oakland’s black community experienced numerous open and violent hostilities with police. This long and ever increasing problem had reached its peak by the mid-1960’s. In October 1966 Newton and Seale started the “Black Panther Party for Self-Defense” because blacks were being intimidated by aggressive police tactics. Newton and Seale had been strongly influenced by the speeches of Malcolm X and planned the organization to be like to the Black Muslim organization except the Panthers did not encourage and specific type of religious practice. Unlike Martin Luther King’s technique and philosophy of nonviolent dissent, the Black Panther Party maintained that they were forced to supply themselves with an arsenal to protect themselves from police brutality. Arming the organization did provide protection but, as expected, led to altercations with the police that usually resulted in violent, bloody altercations. The Panthers were also actively engaged in numerous types of activities that assisted people of their community. The Panthers went throughout Oakland neighborhoods books, recorders various other learning materials to advise welfare recipients, teach black history and protest rent evictions via the court system. They quickly became well known, respected and recognized throughout the black community. “The Panthers could be easily distinguished by their uniform dress of black jackets, pants and berets with blue shirts.” (Carson, 1990) Eldridge Cleaver joined the Black Panther Party in 1967 when he was working for Ramparts magazine as a writer and had formed a political organization in San Francisco called Black House. Due to his background Cleaver was a perfect fit as the Panthers’ “minister of information.” In this role he was responsible for, among other duties, publishing the Black Panther newspaper. The first issue was published on April 25, 1967 and rapidly gained readership. “As many as fifty thousand papers were sold within the first three issues.” (Carson, 1990) The party also grew as more Panther chapters were added in several cities throughout the U.S. The tactics of the Civil Rights Movement that began following the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and fed on evolving attitudes during WWII proved to be extremely successful. The 1964 Civil Rights Act banned segregation laws designed to suppress black citizens such as Jim Crow laws. The Act caused segregation to become a part of a distant, dark past. Blacks were now equal to whites at least legally speaking if not in the minds of all people. The Civil Rights Act also outlawed discriminating employment practices. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave blacks greater accessibility to the voting booth. Previously in the South, poll taxes, literacy tests and other means were used to discourage black voting. These oppressive tactics were made unlawful allowing all adult black citizens the means and the right to vote thereby allowing them political equality. Any and all other discriminatory practices were also prohibited by laws passed during the 1960’s including racist housing practices and laws against inter-racial marriages. President Johnson made affirmative action compulsory by issuing an Executive Order in 1968 because he knew that civil rights regulations alone could not stop discriminatory hiring practices. The order mandated affirmative action procedures be utilized for companies that accepted government contracts. A certain percentage of minorities, similar to the percentage of minorities in that community, must be hired in all levels of employment. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 outlawed discriminatory housing practices. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that directed busing to integrate public schools. Though seldom well received and at times strongly opposed by parents, children and administrators of local school districts, busing continued in cities such as Denver, Charlotte and Boston until the 1990’s. At the close of the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement had accomplished both political and social equality for blacks. This was a momentous achievement. Advancement on the racial equality front has been all but absent since the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s. In spite of the enormous strides made by countless courageous people who were responsible for laws being enacted or eliminated, still, there remains a great deal of anti-Black racial bias. America has a long history of bigotry and the associated repressive techniques have yet to end. Blacks have still not gained economic equality with whites, far from it. Many blacks are trapped in a cycle of poverty because finding well-paying jobs is more difficult due to fewer “contacts” in the corporate world and diminished educational opportunities. Racial prejudice against blacks can still be seen by the under-representation in board rooms and in key jobs such as fire and police departments. Black males are much more likely to be in prison than whites. They are routinely given more time for similar crimes. It was reported that 26 percent of all blacks remain in poverty and 15 percent are unemployed in 2011, a full four decades following the Civil Rights Movement era. (Weller, 2011) Blacks are comparatively better off than in the 60’s and fewer live in poverty. However, generally, blacks are still well behind whites economically. Progress has not only slowed since gains of the 60’s, the equal rights pendulum may even have swung back somewhat. Beginning in the 1970’s many whites claimed initiatives such as affirmative action and forced bussing were examples of ‘reverse discrimination’ and is was they who were being unjustly treated. The Civil Rights Movement became a model for human rights crusades worldwide and for future generations. It demonstrated that to level the balance of power requires people to demonstrate in the streets and be willing to sacrifice much to attain the equality they deserve as the women’s movement proved in the 1970’s and as Occupy Wall Street is today. References Carson, Clayborne, Carson, David Malcolm (1990) “Black Panther Party” Encyclopedia of the American Left New York: Garland Publishing University of Stanford Retrieved November 7, 2011 from< http://www.stanford.edu/~ccarson/articles/am_left.htm> Colaiaco, James A. (1988). Martin Luther King, Jr.: Apostle of Militant Non­violence. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Cozzens, Lisa (June 22, 1998) “Civil Rights Movement 1955-1965” Retrieved November 7, 2011 from Cruse, Harold. (1967). The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. New York: W. W. Morrow, pp. 426-7; 544-5; 547-53. Sowell, Thomas. (October 29, 2005). “Rosa Parks and History.” The Washington Times. Weller, Christian E. (March 22, 2011) “Economic Snapshot for March 2011” Center for American Progress Retrieved November 7, 2011 from < http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/03/snapshot032211.html> Williams, Juan (Sept. 20, 2007) “The Legacy of Little Rock” Time Magazine Retrieved November 7, 2011 from Woodward, C. Vann. (1986). Thinking Back: The Perils of Writing History. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Read More