Civil Rights and the Congress of Racial Equality - Essay Example

Bala Muhammad Makosa Academia-Research 21/11/2007 CIVIL RIGHTS There is need from the beginning to know exactly what the meaning of ‘Civil Right’, its definition in particular.” A civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of speech, press, and assembly; the right to vote; freedom from involuntary servitude; and the right to equality in public places.”. (Civil Rights: and Overview) Suffrage Under the Civil Right concept, “Suffrage”, “is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. In that context, it is also called political franchise or simply the franchise”. (Suffrage) This has brought us to the issue of Selma Civil Rights Movement, which happened sometimes many years back. It’s occurred due to the violation of Blacks right to Vote. “In 1963, Selma, Alabama, was a small town of about 30,000 people. It was located in Dallas County, where only 1% of eligible blacks were registered to vote. Many blacks were apathetic about voting, which they saw as "white folks business." As in Mississippi, it was supremely difficult for blacks to register to vote”. (Birmingham) Southern Christian Conference It’s also another movement made of Civil Right. Is “often referred to as the SCLC, was one of the most significant participants in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s”. (Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)) “The SCLC had its origins in several mid-twentieth-century phenomena. Blacks returning from service in World War II (1941-45) were no longer willing to accept injustices at home that they had fought against abroad; black southern churches were powerful social institutions; blacks were becoming more involved in the Democratic Party;”. (Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Sit in at Technical College ‘Sit in at Technical College, was also part of the Civil Right Movement in the United State, which occurred in the year 1960. “In 1960 four freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro strolled into the F. W. Woolworth store and quietly sat down at the lunch counter.”. (Sits In Freedom Rides and Demonstrations) Little Rock Nine They were the first blacks to attend school mixed with white. “They later came to be called, were the first black teenagers to attend all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. These remarkable young African-American students challenged segregation in the deep South and won. Although Brown v. Board of Education outlawed segregation in schools, many racist school systems defied the law by intimidating and threatening black students—Central High School was a notorious example”. (Little Rock Nine) The Congress of Racial Equality The Civil Right Movement also reached to the formation of a Congress, which it primary objective is to fight Racial Inequality. It was founded by “an interracial group of students, including James Farmer, in 1942 on the campus of the University of Chicago. CORE was an outgrowth of the Gandhi inspired organization, Fellowship of Reconciliation. CORE was predominantly a northern organization composed of mostly white middle class members who believed that change could be achieved through nonviolence”. (Congress of Racial Inequality) While additionally, more and more effort were mounted in order to bring to an end racial segregation, “In 1961, the Freedom Riders, a dedicated group of men and women, black and white, young and old (many from university and college campuses) across the country boarded buses, trains and planes bound for the deep South to challenge that region‘s outdated Jim Crow laws and the non-compliance with a US Supreme Court decision already three years old that prohibited segregation in all interstate public transportation facilities”. (A Brief History of the Freedom Riders) A thus, a student nonviolence committee was formed in 1960. It was an initiative of some new breed, who vowed to fight for their rights without performing any acts of violence whatsoever. LEADERS IN THE MOVEMENT Martin Luther King: He was born in 1929, and died in 1968. An “African American clergyman and Nobel Prize winner, one of the principal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement and a prominent advocate of nonviolent protest. Kings challenges to segregation and racial discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s helped convince many white Americans to support the cause of civil rights in the United States. After his assassination in 1968, King became a symbol of protest in the struggle for racial justice”. (King Martin Luther) While he was a prisoner in Birmingham due to his Civil Right Movement, Martin Luther on April 16, 1963, shortly after protest was conducted by the blacks against all forms of segregations. He immediately wrote to the white men, stating that the fight against segregation should be done in court not on the streets. Meanwhile, Medger Ever the Field Secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was the first martyr in the struggle for civil rights, while as soon as it happened, the United States President John Kennedy told Congress to provide civil rights bill. All in the struggle for Civil Rights, “on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Attended by some 250,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nations capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage”. (March on Washington) 24th Amendments “This amendment was proposed by the Eighty-seventh Congress by Senate Joint Resolution No. 29, which was approved by the Senate on Mar. 27, 1962, and by the House of Representatives on Aug. 27, 1962”. (Proposal and Ratification) MALCOM X He was a great person, who also sacrificed his life time toward fighting for the RIGHTS of the blacks. “Malcolm X became a leader in the Nation of Islam, advocating armed self-defense and the rejection of white allies. Upon leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, however, Malcolms ideology shifted to a unified, coalition-oriented struggle for black advancement”. (Malcolm X 1925-1965) During his life time, Malcolm X has contributed immensely, especially in two sectors. 1. His advocacy of the rights of self defense 2. H e contributed to the development of Muslims black Americans and black in general, including women and other related acts of Civil Rights SOME LAWS AS A RESULT OF CIVIL RIGHTS: “Equal Pay Act of 1963 -- prohibits sex-based pay differentials on jobs. Civil Rights Act of 1964 -- Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, or religion. Title VI prohibits public access discrimination, leading to school desegregation. Title VIII is the original "federal fair housing law," later amended in 1988. 1965 Executive Order 11246 -- affirmative action requirements of government contractors and subcontractors.” (A SHORT History of American Civil Rights Law) References Civil Rights: and Overview, Civil Rights, Cornel University of Law, Legal Information Institute, http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Civil_rights#civil_rights:_an_overview Suffrage, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffrage Birmingham, http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/selma.html Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)), History and Archeology, The New Georgia Encyclopedia, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2743 Sits In Freedom Rides and Demonstrations, The Civil Right Era, Part 2, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9b.html Little Rock Nine, Borgnerr Bronna, Civil Right Movement Heroes, http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmheroes1.html Congress of Racial Inequality, Jessica McElrath, African-American History, http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/congressofracialequality/a/core.htm A Brief History of the Freedom Riders, David Lisker, (2001)1961 Freedom Riders40th reunion, http://www.freedomridersfoundation.org/brief.history.html King Martin Luther, Black American History, a history of black people in the United States, Africana online, http://www.africanaonline.com/social_activists.htm March on Washington, Shmuel Ross, All about the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, http://www.infoplease.com/spot/marchonwashington.html Proposal and Ratification, 24th Amendments to the US Constitutions, http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/amend24.htm Malcolm X 1925-1965, King Encyclopedia, http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/x_malcolm.htm A SHORT History of American Civil Rights Law, http://www.withylaw.com/history.htm Read More