Social Movement: The Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s
The civil rights struggle in American history is one which is littered with numerous famous events and rulings and which marked the fierce battle of African-Americans to fight for equality. One of the most famous protagonists of the civil rights era was Rosa Parks, the tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. However, the civil rights struggle had long been in affect before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. However, Parks was selected by African-American civil rights leaders to act as a symbol of the movement and to inspire others to fight the good fight.
While the civil rights struggle is largely credited to have occurred during the 1950s and the 1960s, one can trace its origins to American slavery and the plantation system. However, for the purposes of this paper, we will just examine the decade prior to this movement. In the 1940s, "a public opinion survey revealed that the vast majority of white Americans believed blacks were content with their social and economic conditions" (shmoop, 2014). This was an America were 90% of the black population lived in the south and Jim Crows were alive and well there which limited the interaction between whites and blacks in parks, libraries, schools, bathrooms, hotels, pools and bus stations (shmoop, 2014). This was an America where white...
Civil Rights Movement Civil rights since 1954 with special reference to California's role A growing Cause, 1776-1865 The Declaration of Independence asserted that "all men have been created equal," as well as in 1788, the U.S. Constitution presupposed to "secure the blessings of liberty" towards the United States citizens. These rights as well as liberties, nevertheless, had been meant just for white individuals of property. The actual Founding Fathers by no means thought
Only with the passage of the Civil Rights Act 1964 and Voting Rights Act 1965 did the legacy of 'Jim Crow' truly end, many years after Plessy v. Ferguson was declared legally invalid in Brown. These two acts gave legislative 'teeth' to the Brown decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. The 1965 Act, signed into law by the Southern President Lyndon B. Johnson, outlawed literacy tests and poll taxes and
African-Americans, who made up roughly 12% of the U.S. population in 2004, held only 10% of state government policy-leader posts last year, Watson reports. The report took note of the fact that under the leadership of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a Republican, only 4.8% of leadership positions were held by Blacks, albeit Black citizens make up 16% of New York State's population. In fairness, the report adds
These two laws constituted the real beginning of the end for Jim Crow laws and practices. EMPOWERING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT The civil rights movement may have gained impetus and cooperation among people with differing opinions and goals from what Canady (1998) called the "animating principle," or the principle that got people of differing views and backgrounds working effectively together: the idea that dignity was the right of all men, women
The movement merely asked the founding fathers of this country to live up to their promises and provide freedom and equal opportunities for all. In the early phases of the civil rights movement leaders asked the government to live up to its promises and provide equal opportunities from all. It received much support from minorities and even whites living in the United States. After the period of 1965, considered the 'highlight'
Civil Rights Most Americans have heard Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" in which he talked about the dream he had for the future of his nation in which people would be judged not by the color of their skin but by "the content of their characters." It's a stirring speech, of course, but today it is often offered to viewers out of context. There is the history of
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