Civil Rights of African Americans - Essay Example

Civil Rights A plethora of laws enacted by the federal government to end slavery and enshrine fundamental human rights of African Americans did very little to guarantee equality for all citizens before the law. Fifteenth Amendment was promulgated in 1870, yet one hundred years later, blacks could not vote. Fourteenth Amendment made all Americans equal before the law, yet for the next century Jim Crow laws still prevailed. The government was not ready to enforce these laws. The American white society was not ready to accept the new order. Court battles waged by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had proved to be ineffective. The law was not an enough catalysts to bring about change. Blacks became convinced that only nonviolent resistance was the best tool for change. Nonviolent resistance attracted the attention of the nation and won the black movement support from Northern States and key statesmen. Strong civil right activism, through the use of non-violent resistance finally made United States to take action to guarantee equality before the law for all citizens. The framers of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendment had one key objective: to make Black Americans equal citizens before the law. However, segregationist legislation (dubbed the Jim Crow laws) began sprouting from all states especially in the South following the Supreme Court separate but equal rule in Plessy v Ferguson. The Jim Crow laws negated the letter and spirit of the framers of the Amendments. They promoted inequality between blacks and whites in United States. According to lecture notes, Black people had to drink in separate water fountain, and eat in separate restaurant. On the bus, if white people didn’t have enough seats, black people had to get out of the bus in order to give them seats (Lecture notes, 18 November 2013). Civil right activism developed in several phases, beginning with small isolated cases of protests such as by Rosa Parks who refused to give seat in a bus to a white person, but leading to the emergence of more militant movements, people and organization. Civil rights activism did not have much success stories until there emerged strong and coordinated Organizations. As Patterson explains, “though direct-action protest on behalf of civil rights for American Negroes (as African Americans were called in 1964) had a long history, it increased dramatically in the early 1960s. Militant young people in organizations such as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) spearheaded protests, mainly in the racially segregated South” (Patterson, Everything you know about the 1960s is wrong). The Montgomery bus boycott saw the beginning of a new phase of protests. It elevated the stature of some black leaders such as Martin Luther King jnr. It marked the beginning of nonviolent resistance to inequality in the American society and the discrimination of the blacks. Dr King, a charismatic religious leader employed religion to support nonviolent resistance. He justified protest using religion and natural law. According to Carman, Dr King argued that “Non-violent resistance is based on the belief that the universe is just. There is God or a creative force that is moving us toward universal love and wholeness continually” (Carman, Martin Luther King’s philosophy of non-violent resistance). Off course, Dr King faced a lot criticism from his fellow clergy who questioned his religious morality for calling protests, sometimes against the law. He brushed aside his critics. While addressing his followers, he stated that “we believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. (Well) The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest (Address, Martin Luther King). The opponents of nonviolent protests were not only whites. Other black movements, such as the Black Panther Party advocated for the use of all means to achieve equality for the black man, including the use of violence. The Black Panther Party argued that “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation” (The Black Panther Party, “Platform”). Nevertheless, it is nonviolent protests that prevailed. New radical movements such as Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sprouted across the country. Protests grew in intensity and scale. They began attracting the national attention due to the manner they were violently repressed by the government. The climax reached during the so called the March to Washington where clergy led Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) mobilized more than two hundred thousand people. These events were highly publicized, with live television broadcasting images of police with clubs and dogs violently confronting unarmed protestors some of whom were women and children. These events shook the conscience of the entire nation, and attracted a hot debate by political leadership. As Mooney details, Senator Robert Kennedy stated that “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black” (Mooney, 169). The increased protests made the government to intervene and address the protestors’ demands. The government established commission to unearth the demands and to make recommendations to the government. As Mooney explains, one of the most notable report, titled To Secure These Rights, was released by the president’s Committee on Civil Rights in October 1947. It documented pervasive racial inequality in American society and prompted Truman to propose legislation in February 1948 that would have established a permanent Civil Rights Commission, outlawed lynching, and protected voting rights guaranteed by the 15th Amendment (Mooney, 153). From there government began to take serious actions to guarantee and enshrine equality of all citizens before the law by reversing segregationist laws across the country. Several steps were taken. The final step was enshrining equality in a Federal statute. According to lecture notes, “finally, in 1964 the Civil Rights Act, cut the heart out of Jim Crow and, furthermore, authorized the Justice Department to act with greater authority in school and voting matters (Lecture notes, 20 November 2013). Therefore, nonviolent resistance finally made the government to do its primary duty: guarantee equality for all citizens before the law. Constitutional amendment that had been promulgated had done little to awaken the government to perform one of its core mandates. Additionally, legal battles commenced by the likes of NAACP did little to bring attention of the country to the inequality that existed in the society. Moreover, even violent protest advocated by radical groups like the Black Panthers Party could not set the government into civil reforms. It was the attention elicited by nonviolent reforms that were violently suppressed by the government. Nonviolent protestors capitalized on the conscience of Americans through religious philosophy of Dr King. Works Cited Carman, Judy. “Martin Luther King’s philosophy of non-violent resistance.”2003. Lecture notes. 18 November 2013. Lecture notes. 20 November 2013. Martin Luther King Jr. “Address”. Mooney, Matthew. History of the U.S. To 1865; Researched and written especially for SBCC History 101. 2013 Fall. Print. Patterson, James. “Everything you know about the 1960s is wrong.” The Black Panther Party, “Platform,” October 1966. Read More