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Assay about the US civil rights movement
The civil rights movement in the USA
The civil rights movement in the USA
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Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the Southern and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate but equal, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles. Racial unrest by the summer of 1963 was at its height since the Civil War. President Kennedy picked up the situation at the close of the Eisenhower years at a time when tensions were rapidly increasing. By the summer of 1963, however, after a series of violent demonstrations in the South, particularly in Birmingham, Alabama, President Kennedy pushed for a very strong civil rights bill in Congress. The first of its kind since the Civil War, this bill drastically called for the end of all segregation in all public places. In the eyes of the civil rights movement leaders, this bill was long over due. Kennedy’s crusade began slowly to the dismay of many civil rights leaders in February of 1963. He began by sending the United States Congress a “Special Message on Civil Rights,” stating, Our Constitution is color blind, ...but the practices of the country do not always conform to the principles of the Constitution... Equality before the law has not always meant equal treatment and opportunity. And the harmful, wasteful and wrongful results of racial discrimination and segregation still appear in virtually every aspect of national life, in virtually every part of the nation (Loevy, 5). Kennedy received praise for these strong and moving words yet was criticized for his weak legislative proposals to remedy the situation. By May of 1963, his proposal would change greatly however, after two men, from opposite positions set the civil rights movement into intense motion. Martin Luther King despite advice to do otherwise began massive protests in the street of Birmingham. To combat these protests, Police Commissioner “Bull” Conner used any means, including dogs, fire hoses, and electric cattle prods on protestors. Making newspapers and televi... ... middle of paper ... ...tates on a social level but politically too. This bill set the precedent for using a cloture to stop a filibuster in the Senate. Similar cloture votes in 1966 and 1968, with bills for equal voting rights and guaranteed equal housing respectively were used to stop Southern filibusters. The Civil Rights Act also proved that mass demonstration and peaceful protesting are heard in Washington D.C. Martin Luther King and the Leadership Conference started with nothing and achieved everything. From the segregated South those who fought for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed the course of American history and ridded the nation of inequality under the law. Works Cited Berman, Daniel M., A Bill Becomes a Law, The Macmillan company, New York: 1966. Levy, Peter B., The Civil RIghts Movement, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1998. Web. 24 June 2015. https://www.questia.com/read/10045885/the-civil-rights-movement Loeby, Robert D.,To End All Segregation, University Press of America, Maryland: 1990. Whalen, Charles and Barbara, The Longest Debate, Seven Locks Press, Washington D.C.:1985. Web. 3 July 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27550291?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
On April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, an event that would change history forever occurred. That was the day James Earl Ray assassinated the driving force of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. It shook the nation, as the man who was planning on bringing peace and racial harmony in the United States was killed in an instant. He was probably the most influential scapegoat in American history, setting out to create equality for all races in America. There were many extremist white-based groups which detested the idea of equality, believing that whites were superior over all, groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Martin Luther King did not back down when groups like the KKK harassed him; he used their hate against them and allowed it to thrust him forward for the sake of bettering his cause and pushing towards racial equality. In the end, Martin Luther King was assassinated for his passion and beliefs; his hard work paid off because after his death, there was at least legal racial equality in the U.S. His bravery and strength
Kennedy’s Civil Rights Act, which called for the fair treatment of all races, changed the tone of the Civil Rights Movement. This doesn’t mean that everyone automatically started to change the way they thought about African Americans, but people started to come together and realize that change needed to happen soon. 5 months after Kennedy first announced the bill, he was shot in Dallas, Texas. It wasn’t until 8 months after Kennedy's assassination that Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into effect on July 2, 1964. The bill was passed through congress with a 290-130 vote. (History Channel 2010) After the bill was passed, more action was taken to assure equal rights for African Americans. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created to prevent discrimination and unfair treatment with African American voters. (Library of Congress) The 1964 Civil Rights Act sent a message loud and clear: no longer was discrimination or racism going to be tolerated. In fact, many people thought that change needed to happen soon, as a 1964 Gallup poll suggests. 58% approved of the bill while only 31% did not. 10% were undecided (Public Broadcasting Service 2015). Not only did those who were black support the bill, but many white national leaders started to support the ideas of the act. The bill became the national pathway to equal rights. However, not all were ready to move towards change. Following the signing of the bill, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were both assassinated.
Few things have impacted the United States throughout its history like the fight for racial equality. It has caused divisions between the American people, and many name it as the root of the Civil War. This issue also sparked the Civil Rights Movement, leading to advancements towards true equality among all Americans. When speaking of racial inequality and America’s struggle against it, people forget some of the key turning points in it’s history. Some of the more obvious ones are the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the North, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington D.C. in 1963. However, people fail to recount a prominent legal matter that paved the way for further strides towards equality.
"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the single most important piece of legislation that has helped to shape and define employment law rights in this country (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001)". Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, gender, disability, religion and national origin. However, it was racial discrimination that was the moving force of the law that created a whirlwind of a variety of discriminations to be amended into Title VII. Title VII was a striving section of legislation, an effort which had never been tried which made the passage of the law an extremely uneasy task. This paper will discuss the evolution of Title VII as well as the impact Title VII has had in the workforce.
Lasting hatred from the civil war, and anger towards minorities because they took jobs in the north probably set the foundation for these laws, but it has become difficult to prove. In this essay, I will explain how the Separate but Equal Laws of twentieth century America crippled minorities of that time period forever. Separate but Equal doctrine existed long before the Supreme Court accepted it into law, and on multiple occasions it arose as an issue before then. In 1865, southern states passed laws called “Black Codes,” which created restrictions on the freed African Americans in the South. This became the start of legal segregation as juries couldn’t have African Americans, public schools became segregated, and African Americans had restrictions on testifying against majorities.
...of religion, the freedom to assemble and civil rights such as the right to be free from discrimination such as gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Throughout history, African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, and racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America. This paper addressed several African American racial events that took place in our nation’s history. These events were pivotal and ultimately led to the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Civil Rights Act paved the way for future legislation that was not limited to African American civil rights and is considered a landmark piece of legislation that ending racism, segregation and discrimination throughout the United States.
Weisbrot, Robert. Freedom Bound: A History Of America’s Civil Rights Movement. New York: Plume, 1991
“I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Carson, Clayborne. Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism, 1941-1963. Colaico, James A. & Co.
Harrison, Robert Pogue. “The Civil Rights Movement” . Chicago: U of Chicago, 2014. 98-111. Print.
Robinson, A. and Sullivan, P(Eds.). (1991). New Directions in Civil Rights Studies. Virginia: Rectors and Visitors of the University Press of Virginia.
The Civil Rights movement in the 1960s is a struggle, majority in the South, by African Americans to achieve civil rights equal to those of the whites, including housing, education, and employment, as well the right to vote, have access to public facilities, and the right to be free of racial discrimination. The federal government generally stayed out of the civil rights struggle until 1964, when President Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through congress prohibiting discrimination and promised equal opportunities in the workplace for all. The year after this happened the Voting Rights Act eliminated poll taxes and other restraints now allowing blacks to vote. These laws were not solving the problems African Americans were facing.
African Americans had been struggling to obtain equal rights for scores of decades. During the 1960’s, the civil rights movement intensified and the civil rights leaders entreated President Kennedy to intervene. They knew it would take extreme legislature to get results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the civil rights battle, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches and sit-ins and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama to try and force a crisis that the President would have to acknowledge. Eventually things became heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, which included many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the horror of the world. Finally this forced the President into action and he proposed a bill outlawing segregation in public facilities. The bill became bogged down in Congress but civil righ...
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the nation’s benchmark civil legislation, and it continues to resonate in America. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
...or southern blacks to vote. In 1967 the Supreme Court rules interracial marriage legal. In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead at the age of thirty-nine. Also the civil rights act of 1968 is passed stopping discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. In 1988 President Reagan’s veto was overridden by congress passing the “Civil Rights Restoration Act” expanding the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. In 1991 President Bush. signs the, “Civil Rights Act of 1991”, strengthening existing civil rights laws. In 2008 President Obama is elected as the first African American president. The American Civil Rights Movement has made a massive effect on our history and how our country is today. Without it things would be very different. In the end however, were all human beings regardless of our differences.