American Civil Rights Movement - Essay Example

American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) Name University Introduction For many years, black Americans had been subjected to untold levels of violation from the whites (Brinkley, 2015). Such included discrimination basing on race, sex, color and origin. As discussed by Chafe et al, 2013 on life in segregated south, it is revealed that, it is through this discrimination, that the African Americans were subjected to segregation, violence from law enforcement segments like police and paramilitary treatment. Moreover, the blacks were denied opportunities to work, vote and own good houses and had to give up their seats in buses for white passengers and if one failed to comply, they were beaten or even arrested like in the case with Rosa Park (Cook, 2013). In order to realize the freedom the blacks sought desperately after, they had to stand up to the task and face the white administration through their representative (Button, 2014). In a literature review by Weide, 2015, it is through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that the movement made actual progress in accessing the amendments to the constitution banning most of the segregating laws and allowing blacks to vote and have better houses. Both President Kennedy and Johnson helped the black civil rights movement attain their agenda amid tough opposition and even assassination of President Kennedy (Lawson, 2014). This retrospect paper seeks to discuss the racial discrimination and segregation experienced by African Americans and analyzing the impact the Civil Rights Movement had on the status of the African Americans at the time and how the effects have been felt in the present United States. Lit review According to Du Bois, 2013, the question examined is how did the Civil Rights movement impact the condition of the African Americans in the 1960s? This is a question under contention in the contemporary world of American history (Cook, 2013). Prior to the civil rights movement, most black Americans, about four million served as slaves and voting rights were for whites only especially in the south. Following the Naturalization Act, 1790, only whites had citizenship rights. Later, three movements arose each having their impact on the black Americans. The first amendment was in 1865, 13th Amendment which ended slavery. In 1868, 14th Amendment saw the African Americans granted citizenship and was followed by the 1870 15th Amendment allowing male African American voting rights (Cook, 2013). As it was expected, the whites resisted the amendments which were a threat to social status quo and this led to insurgent movements attacking both African Americans and whites supporting the amendments. Such groups as Ku Klux Klan were focused on regaining white supremacy by intimidating the blacks (Cook, 2013). During the disenfranchisement of the African Americans, the democrats established racial segregation (Chong, 2014). This segregation was fueled by the administration through state sanctioned segregation which was legitimized in 1896 having risen from post reconstruction. This increased violence against blacks in the name of “separate but equal” slogan (Williams, 2013). Post reconstruction period was characterized by the following” Exploitation- the African Americans were denied economic opportunities while being oppressed by convict lease imposition and discrimination in employment sector. Racial segregation- according to the constitution and law at the time, all public facilities including government services like education had to be divided to distinguish ‘white’ and ‘black’ categories (Chafe et al, 2013). The facilities for blacks and colored were underfunded and no black was allowed to be found in the selected sections for ‘whites only’. Moreover, the attempt to integrate a public facility, library or that matter, by two black ministers in Alabama led to them being beaten brutally by the whites. Violence- during this period, blacks were subjected to severe violence from both the civilians and the administration. As a matter of fact, the blacks, Latinos and Asians suffered mob racial violence from the public, while at the same time they had to deal with the police and paramilitary violence (Chafe et al, 2013). Disenfranchisement- during this period, the democrats had regained administration and worked hard to forcibly remove the names of the blacks from the voting rolls besides passing laws that restricted voter registration to ensure blacks did not register as voters (Chafe et al, 2013). Due to this, the black voters were reduced and therefore the blacks could not elect representatives which left them vulnerable for disenfranchisement. In order to counter these discriminative acts, blacks set up movements. One of these movements in 1955 was the Montgomery Bus Boycott which began after the successful gas station boycott in Mississippi in 1952 that was led by Howard (Cook, 2013). Montgomery Bus Boycott was engineered by Rosa Parks succeeded after distributing over 52500 leaflets that called for bus boycott and was later backed up by religious leaders who formed Montgomery Improvement Association. It is the MIA that made the famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a known figure nationwide (Chong, 2014). Key Developments Experienced During and After the Movements Brown v. Board of Education Following protests by students in Virginia over the poor condition and overcrowding at the facilities offered to blacks due to segregation, NAACP joined in the campaign against school segregation which is popularly dubbed Brown v. Board of Education (Glaeser and Vigdor, 2012). Since the protest did not stop over time, the Supreme Court stepped in by ruling in favor of the blacks by regarding the segregation unconstitutional and therefore illegal. During the hearing, the lawyers had to provide evidence beyond reasonable doubt that segregation in school was disadvantageous to students and this led to the court deciding that segregation should be phased out (Lawson, 2014). During the subsequent years, the blacks enjoyed much access to educational facilities. As a matter of fact, the Christian organizations set up public schools to accommodate the high number of black students flooding the education system at the time (Chong, 2014). In addition, the existing schools had been stuffed with undertrained teachers, were replaced with well-trained teaching staff with the classes being built to reduce overcrowding. In the same way, high quality schools which were previously reserved for whites only became open for blacks and therefore many blacks transferred to such schools (Brinkley, 2015). Montgomery Bus Boycott The refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat for a white passenger in a bus earned her a title as the ‘mother of civil rights movement’ (Chong, 2014). Her arrest not only brought about boycott but also saw the emergence of NAACP which pushed for full desegregation and since the administration seemed unprepared to allow for the changes, the boycott went on for 381 days until the segregating ordinance was repealed (Brinkley, 2015). Due to the boycott, which was led by martin Luther King Jr. the court ordered for bus desegregation and thus the boycott was ended (Lawson, 2014). Besides the NAACP achieving the victory in Montgomery, King took the opportunity to call for more mass action by blacks to end the oppression on the blacks. Following the appeal by King on the desegregation campaign, ‘Freedom rides’ were set in motion with the state courts allowing desegregation in travels for interstate passengers (Chafe et al, 2013). One of the major achievements of the movement was the success in voter registration for blacks. After the constitutional changes in 1890, blacks had been stripped of their voting rights (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). Robert Moses, who was an organizer for SNCC set up the first project on voter registration for blacks in 1961. This was met by violent reactions from whites who beat activists and even murdered some like Herbert Lee (Lawson, 2014). Besides resistance from the whites, NAACP, CORE, SNCC and SCLC came together to form COFO and secured funds through Voter Education Project. These funds allowed them to register voters in Mississippi Delta, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. This was quite unwelcome in some areas like McComb where the activists were murdered and beaten (Chafe et al, 2013). Similarly, employees who tried to register were fired by their employers and landlords evicted those who registered and all these actions drove the blacks to struggle for the success of the voter registration (Brinkley, 2015). Civil rights act, 1964 passed and fuelled the movement to protect and facilitate the voter registration activities despite many objections from the whites within the states (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). Their efforts bore fruits when the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed which meant that all citizens were granted constitutional voting rights (Chafe et al, 2013). Owing to this development the movement experienced, the United States of America has a black president who is a living proof of the success in harmonization of both blacks and whites to live as one. March on Washington The march on Washington which is regarded as one of the largest and most memorable in the history of America (Weide, 2015). The agenda of the march included: Fair and full employment, Properly integrated and adequate education Voting rights Descent housing Civil rights that are meaningful. Having over 200,000 demonstrators coming to the grounds, King delivered the famous speech, ‘I Have a Dream’ which appealed to the administration and made the march a success when they met President Kennedy. Kennedy’s administration was willing to pass the bill but he was assassinated before it materialized (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). Besides opposition to the bill proposed by Kennedy for civil rights legislation by Southern Senators threatening filibusters, the new president used his influence in the senate to get the bill passed. President Lyndon Johnson fostered the realization of the agenda for the march as it had been proposed by King (Chafe et al, 2013). This saw many blacks acquire lucrative job positions and administrative posts. Moreover, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was signed by Johnson banned all forms of discrimination, be it based on sex, color, race or origin (Weide, 2015). This included nullification of state laws that had been put in place which allowed discrimination and therefore public amenities were used equally following the lawsuit filed by the attorney general which enforced the new law (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). It is during this time that King met Malcom X who previously had accused King of turning his back on fellow blacks in a move to appease his white friends (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). Malcom X had the plan to bring the government of the United States of America before United Nations on grounds that the US hand infringed human rights in regard to African American citizens. It is during their meeting that Malcom X decided to help black nationalists in their bid to get as many blacks as possible register as voters (Weide, 2015). Between 1966 and 1968, the Supreme Court in California reinstated the Fair Housing Act after it had been overturned by Proposition 14 in 1964 (Chong, 2014). Though this bill was one of the most contentious, it was advocated for by Senator Mondale Walter who noted that the bill received most filibusters in the history of the United States of America (Weide, 2015). Civil Rights Act of 1968 Having failed to materialize in 1966, the fair housing bill was revived by two developments (Williams, 2013). Kerner Commission on March of 1967 recommended enforceable and comprehensive federal law on housing. The same year, House of Representatives passed the legislation after the assassination of Dr. King (Chong, 2014). Discussion Although the movements organized experienced much opposition from the whites, it is evident that some of the whites were open minded and allowed for deliberation on how the blacks could be integrated into the society with the rest of the whites (Chafe et al, 2013). This is seen where the white lawyers pushed for desegregation in learning institutions saying that interracial schools would allow students from both races to develop rational thinking for batter future leadership (Brinkley, 2015). In addition, white leaders like President Kennedy pushed for the bill on civil rights to be passed and grant the blacks their freedom of associating with whites without discrimination (Chong, 2014). Though he was assassinated before the agenda was realized, his successor, President Johnson used his influence in the congress to get the bill passed (Chafe et al, 2013). Presently in America, though there is no constitutionally set laws on segregation, most of blacks and whites prefer staying in regions most populated with the people of their race. This has been extended to learning institutions where one can find that some schools will have about 90 percent of the students being black and the reverse is also true (Button, 2014). Though some may view it as ‘normal’, it is still an aftermath of the segregation that the blacks were exposed to that makes them feel more comfortable in the company of fellow blacks (Chafe et al, 2013). In a research by Brinkley,2015, it is indicated that some of the African American students who attend schools that have the majority of white population are not given due attention and end up in special lessons more frequent than whites which makes the blacks feel intimidated and therefore transfer to where fellow blacks study. Conclusion To sum up, the African Americans experienced injustices and violence from the whites in America and this led to the uprising of movements which reached their peak by establishment of Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Williams, 2013). Some of the discriminations experienced by blacks prior this period include, segregation in public facilities transport and education systems, violence from the white civilians and administration and violation in regard to employment opportunities (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). Through the set up movement under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the blacks were able to get access to some of the privileges they had earlier been denied including desegregation, voting rights, better housing and equal employment opportunities just like whites (Williams, 2013).. With the inception of President Barack Obama, it became possible that the blacks and whites were finally living in harmony though through baby steps and thus the realization of King’s dream. Moreover, the involvement if Malcom X hastened the attainment of the freedom for blacks since he threatened employing militancy in the struggle besides risking exposing the United States of America to the United Nations (Glaeser & Vigdor, 2012). Their meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. bore fruits as they both reached consensus to hasten their activities and therefore, before the assassination of King, most of the constitutional amendments had been passed including the Civil Rights Act and legislation on housing (Chong, 2014). References Brinkley, A. (2015). The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Volume I (Vol. 11, p. 7031). McGraw-Hill. Button, J. W. (2014). Blacks and social change: Impact of the civil rights movement in southern communities. Princeton University Press. Chafe, W. H., Gavins, R., & Korstad, R. (Eds.). (2013). Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans tell about life in the segregated South. The New Press. Chong, D. (2014). Collective action and the civil rights movement. University of Chicago Press. Cook, R. (2013). Sweet land of liberty?: the African-American struggle for civil rights in the twentieth century. Routledge. Du Bois, W. E. B. (2013). Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880. Transaction Publishers. Glaeser, E., & Vigdor, J. (2012). The end of the segregated century: Racial separation in America's neighborhoods, 1890-2010. New York, NY: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Lawson, S. F. (2014). Running for freedom: Civil rights and black politics in America since 1941. John Wiley & Sons. Weide, R. D. (2015). The March on Washington: jobs, freedom and the forgotten history of civil rights. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38(3), 536-538. Williams, J. (2013). Eyes on the prize: America's civil rights years, 1954-1965. Penguin. Read More