Civil Rights Dbq

Emily Mize

Essay #2

Government

Civil Rights Act

Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was often practiced in many of the Southern States. Segregation was supposed to be separate but equal, and it was far from that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while law enforcements did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 freed the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The context of this Act, while the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles. Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) and Brown V. Board of education are two examples of the Civil Rights Act. The media also portrayed

an important role in today’s society.
In 1896, one of the most famous cases took place. Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. He was asked to leave it and sit in the blacks-only car. Plessy refused to leave the cart and was arrested immediately. The 14th Amendment states that all should be treated equal.This violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment was made to abolish slavery, while the object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law. A former slave owner, Justice Harlan challenged the Court's narrow interpretation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments in his difference of opinion for all five of the cases. Congress was attempting to overcome the refusal of the states to protect the rights denied to African-Americans that white citizens took as their birthright. A year later, plessy plead guilty and paid the fine of sitting in a white cart. However, in 1954 a similar case opened up. It was Brown v. Board of Education. This started with a third grader named Linda. She lived closer to the white school, and her father knew that it would be safer for her to go to the school closer to her, than walking to her school. Her dad tried to switch her to the white school, however the principal refused to let her come to their school. Linda’s father, Mr. Brown, went to the NAACP and asked for help. The NAACP had been looking for reasons to have segregation in schools.The NAACP legal team that represented the Browns in this case was future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. He was the first African-American to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was one of the most important civil rights laws in the history of the United States.

It banned racial segregation, ended discrimination, ended racial segregation, and protected the voting rights of women. With many civil right leaders we have come along way. From women not being able to vote, and blacks not having the right to do anything. Blacks and White separated themselves for many years, and they treated each other badly.After passing the act this meant that segregation could not be legal or tolerated. In public places the rights of all races were the same. In 1965 Martin Luther King, Jr., led a march to Alabama, to dramatize the voting issue. Immediately after the march, President Johnson sent a voting rights bill to Congress, and it was quickly passed.The 15th Amendment, prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on color, race, or previous condition of slavery. When blacks were able to vote they were told that they had the date wrong, filled the application out wrong, and more. This was because many were not able to get an education. They were told they were illiterate, and they could not vote if they could not read. Although, many whites were illiterate as well, but this did not matter. They had to start taking literacy test to see if they could read and write.These tests were used to take away black voting rights.The Voting Right Act of 1965 outlawed the literacy test and called for officials to monitor the registration and voting of African-American voters in areas of the country. The public has learned a lot about black rights through the media. We have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. We have learned what they went through, and how they concord what they felt they deserved. The media has also grabbed the audience attention by stretching the truth on what may have happened. The media tend to lie to grab the viewers, and to change their opinion on things. Reporters also get one side of

a story and share it rather than get the whole story.
In conclusion, over the years blacks have fought for their rights and blacks in were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. They were treated terrible, and often beat. However, not matter what they never gave up. Plessy v Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education are two examples that show us that they never gave up. These two cases are what helped them get equal rights, and they are able to do so much now due to those two cases. The civil rights act has changed many lives, and today we treat each other equally and we do this without hesitation. We do not see color as an option when going into a restaurant.