The Civil Rights Movement - Case Study Example

The Civil Rights Movement Order No. 234314 No. of pages: 9 Premium 6530 Introduction: The Civil Rights Movement was a very important chapter in history that took place during World War II. It was this war that had raised a lot of expectations, widened horizons and was responsible for transforming society. The war took on a new perspective as it paved the way for human rights and going forward across political and legal discrimination. During the 1940’s and through to the 1950’s the Blacks had endured only second-class citizenship, but very soon that was to change as they began to understand their position and challenge these political injustices on a regular basis. The murder of the young fourteen year old Emmett Till and the earlier issues on segregation in schools had an adverse impact on the Blacks who gradually began to gain their resolve to finally face up to Jim Crow. They demanded that the Supreme Court look into the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson1. The Civil Rights Movement began to gain momentum as time passed, but its peak activity took place between the years 1955 – 1965, when the Congress declared the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that guaranteed the basic civil rights to one and all, irrespective of race, class or caste. It was only after about a decade of struggle through non- violent marches and protests did a change take place. The NAACP and other Help Groups: The NAACP2 played a very decisive role in the Civil Rights Movement. Many organizational groups such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the NAACP and the National Urban League tried very hard to put an end to segregation of the Black Americans and the discrimination shown to them, but all the efforts undertaken were slow and laborious. Many of the files documented by the NAACP had the phrase “Soldier Troubles” marked on them to have proof of the efforts taken to prevent maltreatment of African Americans serving in the military. The NAACP also worked towards obtaining voting rights and tried hard to dismantle discrimination and segregation by moving the court. They also strived hard to gain laws that were beneficial to the suffering African Americans. The “Jim Crow” Laws: The “Jim Crow” laws that were mandated discriminated Blacks to have separate facilities for worship, housing, travel, schooling, lodging, eating and drinking and all other aspects of economic and social life. They also had separate entrances for entering a movie theatre which was marked “Colored”. This sort of discrimination and segregation kindled the fire of resentment in the hearts of the Black Americans. Various signs of segregation were put up at strategic points in public places and failure to adhere to these signs earned them punishment and imprisonment. The Montgomery Bus Boycott: In December 1st 1955, the Blacks residing in Montgomery, Alabama, took a decision to boycott the buses in the city. The reason for this was because Blacks were allotted separate places in the bus and were not allowed to sit with the whites. Many incidents that occurred had triggered the boycott – one such incident was that of a black seamstress named Rosa Parks, who had bought a ticket but was ordered to enter through the rear door of the bus meant for the Blacks. Another incident that triggered the boycott was that of Jo Ann Robinson who was a black professor who absentmindedly took a seat in the front that was meant only for the whites, of a nearly empty bus and had to run off in tears as the callous driver screamed at her. The main trigger that led to the boycott took place in the 1950’s, when Vernon John, a black pastor who was forced to give his seat to a white man. He pleaded with the other Blacks to support him and get down from the bus, but what he was told was “You ought to know better”.3 The NAACP leader E.D. Nixon waited for the right candidate to appear before he put the boycott into action. The chance came on Dec. 1st when Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white who was standing. Nixon too went to prison. The one day boycott was carried out after the blacks were requested to keep off the city buses. This boycott triggered a meeting between the leaders of the civil rights and a group of ministers. The boycott continued and Martin Luther King Jr. who was the religious minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church took an active part by lending full support to the blacks. The boycott was significant in the sense that the blacks were unable to go to work and hence the white suffered in terms of not having them to do the work. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)4 set into action by electing King as the president. All efforts to terminate the boycott failed, so the whites resorted to violence when on 30th Jan. King’s home was bombed and on 1st Feb. Nixon’s home was also bombed. The Blacks were steadfast in their goal and the whites knew they were fighting a losing battle- business had almost come to a standstill. After passing through the rigors of the Supreme Court, on the 13th of Nov. 1956, the court declared that segregation of blacks and whites on buses was unconstitutional. Therefore, on Dec. 21st 1956, the blacks once again returned to the buses when the boycott came to an end nearly a year since the boycott began. The Sit in’s: "All of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee."5 -- James Baldwin (Stephen Kasher, 1996) On Feb. 1st 1960, a small group of black freshmen from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, walked into a F.W. Woolworth Company store in Greensboro, North Carolina and made a purchase of some school supplies. Thereafter, they went to their lunch counter and requested to be served. They were not obliged because the store was segregated. The students sat there for a long time but nothing happened. The next day, a larger group returned and soon word spread to different civil rights organizations, who in turn spread the word to all the college campuses. A representative from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) called Gordon Carey flew down from New York with the purpose of organizing more such sit –ins. In about two weeks time, students from 11 cities joined together and organized sit-ins at Woolworths and S.H. Kress stores. Immediately stores put up signs that read, "NO TRESPASSING," "We Reserve the Right to Service the Public As We See Fit," and "CLOSED - In the Interest of Public Safety."6 (Williams 127-129.) The students were asked to dress in their Sunday best and sent to counters to be served and if they did not serve them they were asked to sit there. They were asked not to retaliate in any way, nor strike back even if they were attacked. If they were taken prisoner, another group would take their place. In the first few weeks the sit- ins went off peacefully with no untoward incident taking place. Then, on 19th April, a black lawyer, Z. Alexander Loobys house was blasted by powerful dynamite. This enraged not only the blacks but also the whites. Finally on the 10th of May, 6 lunch counters in Nashville began serving the blacks. However, the sit-ins had attracted about 70,000 participants while producing over 3,000 arrests (Clayborne Carson, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, Vincent Harding, and Darlene Clark Hine, eds., 1997) by the August of 1961. This technique of sit- ins were also made use of in order to gain other public facilities such as theatres for drama and movies, toilets etc. The lunch sit –ins also triggered the student group (SNCC) to give their support to the Civil Rights Movement for many years. As rightly stated by Louis Lomax a journalist, "They were proof that the Negro leadership class, epitomized by the NAACP, was no longer the prime mover in the Negros social revolt. The demonstrations have shifted the desegregation battles from the courtroom to the marketplace." (Williams, 136) The Freedom Rides The year 1947 saw the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)7 planning a “Journey of Reconciliation” to test the decision of the Supreme Court on the Irene Morgan case which had taken place in 1946, regarding the segregated seating of all its interstate passengers. But soon the journey of Reconciliation broke down, but a decade and a half after that it again gained momentum when John F. Kennedy was elected President, because the blacks felt that he supported the Civil Rights Movement. So once again, CORE committed itself to encouraging a new “Journey of Reconciliation” which they termed as the “Freedom Ride”.8 On May 4th, 1961, the Freedom Ride began from Washington DC and met with some resistance in the South. They were divided into two groups and faced a lot of antagonism along the way. An angry mob stoned the bus and slashed its tires. Another mob in Birmingham beat the Freedom Riders severely. But yet they decided to continue despite the opposition. A group of students from Birmingham decided to join the Freedom Riders and lend their support. All was quiet but as they entered the bus terminal, whites charged at them from everywhere. They viciously attacked anyone who came forward to help them. Though the Freedom Riders never returned to New Orleans, because most of them had to spend the summer in prison while others were scarred for life, yet they achieved what they had set out to do – The Kennedy Administration took up the issue of civil rights seriously and ruled out segregation in interstate bus travel. Birmingham In “one of the most stunning defeats of King’s career” (New York Herald Tribune) he and the SCLC were invited by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, which was nicknamed as “Bombingham”. This campaign in Albany was conducted in an attempt to integrate all the public facilities within the city. They also aimed at making Bull Connor who was responsible for the attacks on the Freedom Riders to step down which he flatly refused to do. On the 3rd of April 1963, the SCLC came up with a “Birmingham Manifesto” after having staged a sit- in. On April 6th, as the group marched from Sixteenth Street Baptist Church right up to the city hall, 45 protesters were arrested together with King who was labeled a “troublemaker.” On the 2nd of May, large groups of children assembled at the Kelly Ingram Park, across the road leading from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The children came one group after another while they sang “We Shall Overcome." Each group that came were stuffed into busses and taken to prison. Connor also got the police to turn on very powerful hoses of water on the children who refused to give up. Pictures of the police attacking the children shocked the nation9. These demonstrations escalated to such a degree that the Birmingham business community, came to an agreement of integrating the lunch counters and hiring more blacks, much to the antagonism of the city officials. Impact of the Civil Rights Movement on Domestic Policy: Public opinion cannot be ignored and whether directly or indirectly it definitely has an impact on domestic policy. It plays a major role especially during election time when voters go with the sway of the general opinion of the public. It led to changes in different areas such as employment, education, housing, and equal rights of all individuals irrespective of caste, color, creed or any other differences. The Civil Rights Act set both blacks and whites on an equal platform granting equality in every sphere. Conclusion President Kennedy declared a new civil rights bill in support of the blacks. To show their solidarity to the Civil Rights Movement, all the Civil Rights groups organized a March on Washington10 where about 250,000 people gathered to listen to the speeches given by the different civil rights leaders. The “I Have a Dream”11 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. was the highlight of the event making the day a resounding success. In the words of Martin Luther, “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."(Isaiah 40:4-5 (King James Version of the Holy Bible). Hence according to me, The Civil Rights Movement and also the March to Washington were key factors in helping to bring back the dignity and freedom of thousands of suffering blacks and such an act undertaken by thousands of people who supported the Civil Rights Movement against all odds and stood united together until the last, are now reaping the fruits of their labor which are not the rights of a chosen few but belong to every human being. References: American Rhetoric: Martin Luther King Jr. I have a dream www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm Stephen Kasher and Myrlie Evers. (1996) Book: The Civil Rights Movement. Excerpt: The March in Washington, 1963/ the Civil Rights Movement. www.abbeville.com/civilrights/washington.asp Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: Americas Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1987) 62. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1958) 78. Steven Kasher, The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996) 35. The Civil Rights Movement – 1955 - 1965 www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65 Read More