A Timeline of U.S. Anti-War Movements - Personal Statement Example

Question One: The Vietnam War greatly influenced the emergence of the civil rights movements in the 1960s. There emerged an Anti-war crusade, protesting against the American involvement in the war. For instance, the war managed to bring together a group of people, who could not agree on various ideas, but they all advocated against the involvement of the American government in the Vietnam War (Hampton et al, 1990) . The anti-war movements consisted of members of the government, University organizations, labor unions, political, racial and cultural groups.

All these institutions and groups united together to protest against the war. The movement became popular in 1965, and peaked in the year 1968, and it managed to unite a large percentage of the Americans to protest against President Kennedy’s role in Vietnam. The unity in protesting against the war was depicted on October 1965, where there was thousands of debate on the morality of the war. This day was termed as the Vietnam Day (Hampton et al, 1990). This war also led to the emergence and recognition of student organizations as a force capable of promoting civil rights of people.

For instance, in 1964, there emerged the students movement termed as the Freedom Summer, under the leadership of Mario Savio. The movement main objective was to protest against the war, and it did this by cooperating with other human rights organizations, and organizing mass movements to sensitize the government of their displeasure (Hampton et al, 1990). In 1966, the University students formed the Under Ground Press Syndicate, whose objective was to share intelligence information concerning the war with various civil rights movements.

Freedom Summer Movement also formed the Liberation News Channel, which managed to mobilize more than a thousand seminarians who wrote protest letters to the secretary of defense. In conclusion, this conflict should not be seen as promoting civil rights, and this is because many people died and property destroyed. Question 2:The speech by Martin Luther managed to accelerate the progress of the civil right movement in United States of America. Due to the speech, and his actions, the United States Legislature managed to pass a bill termed as the Civil Rights Act, 1968.

The act protected a person against discrimination due to his race, religion or national origin, when such a person was involved in transactions related to housing projects (Hampton et al, 1990). This speech by Martin Junior King precipitated the emergence of more civil rights groups to fight for equality among the Americans. As a result of these struggles, discrimination in the American society subsided. Black American were treated equally as their white Americans, and even allowed to contest for elective posts, such as President Barrack Obama.

He is the first black President of America, and the law allowed him to contest the presidency.References:Hampton, H., Fayer, S., & Flynn, S. (1990). Voices of freedom: an oral history of the civil rights movement from the 1950s through the 1980s. New York: Bantam Books. Top of FormBottom of Form