Civil Rights Movement Research Paper

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, in which he declared that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in states in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. The civil rights movement was a mass popular movement to secure for African Americans equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S citizenship. The civil rights movement was one of the largest social movement of the 20th century. The movement therefore addressed three known areas of discrimination, which was, education, social segregation, and voting rights. Many events led up to the arrival of the Civil Rights Era. The roots of the movement go as far back as the 19th century,

during the years of 1950’s and 1960’s. At the time, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt (FDR) decided to take some steps into the direction by creating a group of advisor, labeled as the “Black Cabinet” to offer him information on how he can improve the lives of those minorities, but President FDR took none of their information. FDR ended up with a poor record on civil rights by placing Japanese people into camps during WWII, and ignoring the opinions of the Black Cabinet. It was his successor, Harry S. Truman to take up the mantle of being the first president to be interested in Civil Rights. Truman decided to put money into the Fair Employment Practices Commission in the hope of arresting racism in the south. The remaining question in the end was what can members of historically underrepresented and marginalized groups in the U.S gain a greater shot at being able to achieve the “American Dream”. The Black Civil Rights movement was to be studied from the perspective of those who sought to work within “the system” to improve the lives of the minorities. Rev. Martin Luther King was compatible with the idea. He had a hopeful vision to make certain changes that would benefit the U.S. One of the changes was to include the concept of racial equality.

Rev. Martin Luther King delivered the speech “I Have a Dream”, in which had a purpose as he calls for an end to racism, civil, and economic rights. Although, words alone could not make Rev. Martin Luther King as famous as he became. His great deeds matched his words, perhaps even becoming the greatest contribution made to U.S history. Rev. Martin Luther King lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott and even popularized the idea of public, non-violent protest, who was instigated by Rosa Parks. The boycott city buses lasted 381 days and it succeeded. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SGLC) trained ministers how to use church services as more than being able to worship God, but being able to have Black Americans in front of them each Sunday as ministers was an astonishing way to teach about racial equality. Rev. Martin Luther King was inspired by the non-violent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1955, the Supreme Court heard a case that would lead to the very first steps in outlawing segregation. The case was announced as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The definition of segregation is the action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or thing set apart. Segregation was the idea for segregation was to separate the two races from each other being the Whites and Blacks and to provide it being legal, and they had access to “separate but equal” facilities and institutions. It went on trial in 1955. The justices agreed but it proved to be easier said than done. At the University of Alabama in 1963, two black students by the name of Vivian Malone and James Hood were kept from registering for classes at the admissions office. There was violence against civil right workers in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer in 1964. It led to the death of 4 people who were sent from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to the state to register Blacks to vote. However, there were also people who believed that “the system” could not be reformed to more radical means of improving the lives of Blacks. Rev. Martin Luther King had an alternative to his non-violent form of protest, which was the group of Black Panthers. Although Rev. Martin Luther King was the leader of non-violence, the leaders of the group Black Panthers were Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who urged to fight violence with violence. They were prepared for what they believed was an inevitable war between Blacks and Whites. Black Panther leaders raised money to buy food and schoolbooks for inner city Blacks. They also bought weapons. The Black Panthers also popularized the Black Power Salute. Black Power is political slogan and name for various associated ideas aimed to achieve self-determination for people of African descent, primarily, but not exclusively, by African Americans in the United States. The salute was first presented in October 16, 1968 at the U.S track team 200-meter awards ceremony of gold and bronze medalist Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Sadly, as Rev. Martin Luther King gave his last sermon on April 3, just one day after his sermon on April 4, just outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. Another Black movement came to action from Rev. Elijah Muhammad, calling themselves Black Muslims, the nation often recruited its ministers from jail, believing that only sinners could clearly preach about the dangers of sin. The nation remained a small group unit they recruited an ex-convict. Malcolm Litter was bright, but trouble, and a small-time crook who later admitted he loved the taste of liquor, drugs, and white women. Little converted to the Black Muslim religion, which preached Black supremacy. Black supremacy Is a racial supremacist belief that black people are superior to people of other races. Malcolm Little ended up changing his name to Malcolm X, X representing the unknown and is indicative of the lost histories of Blacks.

Malcolm X, was the most controversial when he urged Blacks to form gun clubs in order to protect themselves from racists. If the enemies of Black America have guns, why shouldn’t we, he reasoned. After his controversial comment about the assassination of President Kennedy, X began to be dissatisfied with the Nation’s leader. President John F. Kennedy (JFK), passed a bill that was made for the Civil Rights Era in which he asked, “giving all Americans the rights to be served in facilities which are open to the public- hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments”. President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) took over office shortly after the assassination of President JFK. The Civil Rights Law, a Johnson legacy, affected the nation extremely as for the first time prohibited discrimination in employment and businesses of public accommodation of the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President LBJ, that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th amendment to the U.S

Constitution. The Civil Rights Era influenced the modern women’s rights movement in the 1960’s. Betty Friedan, the modern feminist wrote the book, “The Feminine Mystique”, without this book the modern feminist movement would not exist. Friedan shattered the myth that women could only find fulfillment through the dual roles of a wife and mother. Political organizations too numerous to relate would find courage in this movement, which by the 1960’s came to include the bra-burning as a means of protesting against mail hegemony. The civil rights organization, National Organization for Women (NOW), focused it’s energies in the 1970’s on passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was intended to remove any legal distinctions between men and women.