Australian Civil Rights Movement In The 1960's

The Australian and American Civil Rights Movement was the fight for racial equality of the people living in Australia and the United States. The Australian’s were fighting for the rights of the Indigenous people, whereas the United States were fighting for the rights of the African-American’s. The Civil Rights period was at its peak in the 1960’s in both Australia and America. The Australian Civil Rights Movement was heavily influenced by the American Civil Rights Movement as they gained ideas and inspiration from the protests, organisations and campaigns that occurred in America in order to put an end to the inequality that existed in both sides of the World. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) helped motivate and encourage the civil rights movement in both these countries as it set a

standard of the human rights everyone should receive. Many similarities and differences are found in both the Australian and American CR Movements, with the main similarities being segregation and peace protests, and main differences being land rights/recognition and the assimilation policy. Overall there was success in both movements, to which still have an impact in our world today.
One of the main similarities between the Australian and American Civil Rights Movements was the massive fight to break down the racial segregation. In America the Jim Crow Laws mandated the segregation between the African-Americans and Whites in public schools, public transport, restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains. In Australia the segregation was present between the Indigenous and white people in theatres, hotels, hospital wards and in schools where they refused to enrol Aboriginal children. Both the Indigenous and African-American were seen to be inferior to the white people due to their colour. In order to break down the segregation, both Australia and America had an emergence of great leaders who would rebel against the laws/social segregation and protest in order to get their message and voices heard by the public, especially through newspapers, billboards and posters. Some of the great leaders from the U.S still well-known to this day are Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jnr who were both civil right activists. The leaders that rose in Australia were Doug Nicholls, Pearl Gibbs and Charles Perkins.
Another thing both the Australian and American C.R. movements did similar was their tactics in the mass peaceful protests they designed in order to get their message out about the major issue. In America the Montgomery Bus Boycott, instigated by Rosa Parks, was seen as the most influential protest as it sparked the flame of many other organisations, as many people felt it was finally time to follow in her footsteps and get as many people to help change these laws. With the same idea as the Bus Boycott, the Australian Tent Embassy was set up outside Parliament House in Canberra by four young indigenous men with a sign saying ‘Aboriginal Embassy’. Over a few months the four men had gained 2000 followers, which is when the Australian police decided to step in and violently take down the tents. This action was implemented by Indigenous activists who used a powerful symbol in order to show the whole of Australia how isolated they felt as they were landless. Another thing that occurred in both America and Australia was the ‘Freedom Riders’. The Freedom Ride of 1965 was a significant event in the history of civil rights for Indigenous Australians. It was inspired by the Freedom Riders of the American C.R’s Movement, where students from Sydney University protested to raise the issue of aboriginal rights.
As well as similarities, there were also differences between the American and Australian C.R. movement. One of the differences was that the African-Americans were not originally from America, they were only born into the country unlike the Indigenous Australian’s who have ‘clear archaeological evidence’ (Australian Indigenous Museum, 2009) that they had been living in Australia for over 40 000 years, meaning they were the first original owners of the land. They had their homeland taken from them in the European Settlement, which is where they lost their human rights also. Getting back some of the Aboriginal land rights was the main focus for Australia’s C.R’s movement, as well as equality, whereas the American C.R’s movement was purely focused just on achieving equality. The discrimination for the African-American’s traces back to very early stages in life as they had always been used as slaves for whites. With slavery, the African-American’s were held in reserves as slaves whereas in Australia the indigenous were held in reserves under “white protection”.
In 1865, an amendment was put in place to abolish slavery, however this inflicted white people to begin formal associations like the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) who were white supremacists that presented hatred towards the African-American’s through treats, violence and killings. This shows how America was more violent than Australia. Australia had no formal racist associations like the KKK, and they only had a lot of social racism. In American they had actual laws known as the ‘Jim Crow Law’s’, which separated the blacks and whites, whereas in Australia the segregation was more social rather than laws. In Australia they began to take ingenious children from their families as a result of the assimilation policy. The assimilation policy was simply put in place in order to destruct the Aboriginal society by placing half-castes and ingenious people into white families. There was no assimilation policy in America. This act is now known as the “Stolen Generation”, which destroyed many ingenious people’s lives as they separated many families. The Freedom Riders which occurred in both Australia and America, had different motives as the Freedom Ride in Australia was based on making a point for the Indigenous Australians peacefully, whereas the Freedom Riders in American was based on causing trouble, by rebelling against the laws and starting riots because they were angry about how unfair the racial equality was.
The success in from the American Civil Rights movement was moderate as they did achieve a few issues, however racism still plays a big role with inequality today even though it isn’t as bad. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was put in place which did a great deal to end segregation and end discrimination, and also abolished the Jim Crow Laws. This act banned any racial discrimination in any public places in the U.S like transport, restaurants, hotels and movie theatres. The discrimination on the basis of race, origin or religion was banned in any workplaces. Any government that continued to discriminate against the African-Americans would have to face charges in court. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed which ensured that all American’s had the right to vote regardless of their race and colour. This was influenced by Martin Luther King Jnr, who let a march in 1964 that highlighted the difficulties of voting in America. However despite these successes, today African-American’s still do not have fully equal rights in departments such as employment wages, education and life opportunities, as 45% of employed African-American’s have lower wages to those who are white and have the same job (Morrison, 2015).
The success in Australia was fairly large as they managed to achieve most of their goals in the C.R movement.

In 1901, the Indigenous gained their voting rights back after being taken away from them in the 1800s. One of major break throughs was the success of the Aboriginal’s gaining their land rights back due to the ‘Mabo’ case, which was an on-going 10 year protest to achieve recognition that Indigenous people did exist and live in Australia before the European Settlement. As well as this, in 1967 a referendum for Aboriginal Census rights was ran through a vote to the whole of Australia with the good results of 91% of voters approving the change that Indigenous people now had the right to an Australian Citizenship. This was a major turning point for Australian, as it opened the eyes of many Australian’s to see how the Indigenous had a place in Australian society. This realisation led to the end of the social segregation the Indigenous people were receiving. As for the ‘Stolen Generation’, Prime Minister of 2008, Keven Rudd, apologised to the Australian Indigenous people who had been mistreated and involved in the stolen generation where families were torn

apart.
In conclusion, both the Australian and American Civil Rights Movement were successful in regaining more equality worldwide. Both movements raised a lot of awareness, as far as human rights go, and we have a lot more laws in place to make the world more equal despite race, religion and culture. However, this is only the beginning as there is still more room for improvement as far as equalising pay, and asylum seeker issues. The legislations have helped changed the world, however the fight for human rights still continues.