Dylan Bell Dr. Odom English 1 H May 2, 2024 Unveiling Black Revolutionaries; Voices of Resistance and Change: The Birmingham Church Bombing. The Birmingham church bombing, also known as the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, was an attack on a church in Birmingham, Alabama. A bomb was set underneath the back stairs. The Dynamite set off on September 15, 1963, at 10:24. Right before the usual Sunday church service. During this time, 5 little girls were getting ready for service. 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley died. Addies sister Sarah was also in the room, she survived, losing her right eye. The 16th Street Baptist Church, created in 1873, was the first colored Baptist church in Birmingham. The church was also large and prominent and was near the city hall. Leading up to the bombing, Birmingham was known as the most segregated city in the country. There have been …show more content…
It is known to be a pivotal moment in the fight for civil rights in the United States. It was like a wake-up call for the federal government. Martin Luther King Jr sent a telegram to President Kennedy explaining how an absence of a formal response to the attack, could lead to a racial holocaust. The bombing brought great attention to the civil rights issue. It caused many efforts, fighting for civil rights, to double. Most notably, the March on Washington, which gathered more than 250,000 activists. To add, the church was also a place to gather for civil rights. People protested at the church itself. Making it a target for white racists. The attack was intended to stall the progression of the civil rights movement. To their surprise, its effect was the opposite. It galvanized support and propelled the movement forward. It created roots for acts of activism, and it exposed the white supremacy and segregationist ideology that was imbedded within the US.
...only way for blacks in America to get the attention of whites and to finally get enforcement of laws that were in place for a while. Violence, while it might have also done some harm to the movement, for the most part was what got the whites to wake up and see that the blacks were not to be pushed around, and that something had to be done to change the racial system in the United States.
represented a turning point in black American history. It, presented an opportunity to improve race relations at home despite the fighting abroad. How could you be racist against people whom are fighting to stabilize your freedom and the freedom of others was the mentality in the minds of black soldiers.
The race riots had an impact on the Civil Rights Movement due to the amount of fighting that the African Americans did. It helped the American people realize just how repressed the blacks really were back in the old days. By actually fighting it brought their issues to the TVs and
... It stirred up much controversy along with the many other riots and civil rights movements of the time. For the people living during these times, like James Baldwin, much inspiration, realization, and experience occurred. Baldwin was able to take these troubled times and incorporate them into his passion, writing.
...an important role in bringing about the triumph of conservatism. The fractionalization of the Civil Rights Movement, caused a large portion of the American populace to fear continued expansion of civil rights in the direction of splinter groups such as the Black Panthers. Furthermore portions of the American populace saw the development of civil rights as a threat to their jobs, which in a time of recession created an opening for the conservatives to jump on.
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.
...and the public grew informed of the brutal acts. The African-Americans began to move West and by doing so, greatly reduced the white men's income and avenged their deceased friends.
the civil rights movement dramatically changed the face of the nation and gave a sense of dignity and power to black Americans. Most of all, the millions of Americans who participated in the movement brought about changes that reinforced our nation’s basic constitutional rights for all Americans- black and white, men and women, young and old.
The majority of people didn’t think of it as a racial crime anymore, it showed the country how frightful racial violence had become in the south. It opened America’s eyes to the unadulterated hatred, and how spiteful we humans can be. “I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated.
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...
This act allowed southern slave owners to get their slaves back when they escaped to the North. That is why this act was important and critical to southern survival. The view of this act by the North was the opposite, especially from those who were black, they feared this act. The blacks in the North were terrified that this act would make it so they could be ushered back to the south, even if they were innocent. This led to the creation of resistance groups in the North.
How would you feel if you were told you can’t sit in the front of the bus or you can’t dine in a certain restaurants because of the color of your skin? The civil rights movement was a movement that held massive numbers of nonviolent protest against racial segregation and discrimination in America especially the southern states during the 1950’s and 60’s. The struggle of African Americans to gain equal rights in America during this time was a major problem. The civil rights movement was not only about stopping racial segregation amongst African Americans but also to challenge the terrible economic, political, and cultural consequences of that time. But with the help of great leaders and organizations in the civil rights movement, help brake the pattern of African Americans being discriminated against and being segregated. Martin Luther King Jr. And Maya Angelou were great leaders who had a huge impact on the civil rights movement; even though Dr. King was in the field marching and protesting to fight against segregation and Angelou wrote poetry to inspire the movement and people aware of segregation, they both helped put an end to segregation here in America (American civil rights movement).
How did the March on Washington’s planning and set up help influence so many people and grant them the rights they fought for? The year of 1963 had an extreme amount of racial tension and arguments about the rights of African Americans. The white people were vastly prejudiced towards the blacks and used all kinds of federalism. Several people began to stand up and show their opinions about the civil disobedience that the laws stood for. Many did this in a public manner, therefore they were arrested and sent to jail.
The civil rights movement showed the world what it was and how bad it was compared to today 50 years later where we all get along. And the Freedom rides, Children’s March, and Orangeburg massacre were just three examples of the many in the movement. The civil rights movement turned the United States from the land of the free and the home of the segregated into the land of the free and the home of the brave.
...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.