Essay: African-American civil rights movement

Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still lived in a unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. The “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. Before 1950 segregation was common and normal in the U.S.A. Segregation deprived minorities of their rights. This is when the Civil Rights Movement was introduced; an era dedicated to activism for equal rights and treatment of African Americans in the United States. During this period, people rallied for social, legal, political, and cultural changes to end discrimination and segregation. This era included endless amount of events involving discrimination to minorities. This movement occurred somewhere between 1955 and 1965 but the exact time span is debated.
The Civil Rights Movement was important to the history of the United States and the world. It established that discrimination was not right and would no longer be tolerated in the country, while setting an example for oppressed people all around the world. People of all kind, fought together for the just treatment of African Americans. Many nonprofit organizations were created during this era specifically to assist in the events. These organizations, staffed mostly by volunteers, acted as people who wanted change.
Many different key figures during this rough period of time, but not all were recognized. These are some that have gone down in the history books that made a big difference to this struggle. Martin Luther King Jr. played a major role in this period of time. People recognized him when he spoke out against the arrest of Rosa parks. King used peaceful protest as a political tool and in forming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1955, he was also involved in the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the Supreme Court prohibiting segregation on public transportation. Martin’s most famous moment was when he did one of the most famous speeches of all time; I have a dream. This speech caught America’s heart. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. His birthday is celebrated as an official U.S. holiday on the third Monday in January.
Rosa Parks, a brave, African-American women who wanted her rights and freedom. She is often thought as the mother of the civil rights movement. Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and refused to give up her seat to a white man because the “whites only” seating area was full. She then got arrested which led to King’s Montgomery’s bus boycott of public transportation. Due to the boycott, the Supreme court ruled that segregation on public transport was unconstitutional and the bus boycott finally ended.
Malcolm X, born as Malcom Little but later changed his name, was a major figure in the civil rights movement and a figurehead for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s. X was also an inspiring speaker such as the likes of King Jr. Except he would fight using violent methods if necessary, “by any means necessary”, unlike King. If the American authorities did not want to deal with the peaceful protests of King then Malcolm X would be the second option. However, after leaving the Nation of Islam Malcolm X’s attitude changed to that of non-violent protest for integration. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 by members of the Nation of Islam.
Even though President John F. Kennedy did not fully support the civil rights movement at first because of the fear of losing his voters, he still was the one who planted the seeds for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After the riots in Birmingham he decided to support the movement to its fullest. He supported the March on Washington for jobs and Freedom and had plans to make a stronger Civil Rights Act to our conclusions. He never got to see the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he got assassinated on November 22nd, 1963.
After the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and the intense fighting within the black militant community, the protesting activity during the 1960s declined. The African American struggle left a permanent mark on American society. Anti black violence declined massively, black candidate were elected to political offices in communities where blacks were once not able to vote, and southern colleges and universities that once did not allow blacks to attend began recruiting them. Even though many things improved due to the civil right gains of the 1960s, racial discrimination still remained a big factor in American life. The modern African-American civil rights movement, like similar movements before, had transformed American democracy. It also served as a model for other group advancement involving women, students, Chicanos, gays and lesbians, the elderly, and many others.