Dbq Civil Rights Movement

Civil rights are giving people equal rights no matter their race, religion, sexuality, or gender. However, civil rights were not granted to African Americans in the 1950's and 60's. Even though voting rights of African Americans were protected with the 13th Amendment, ended slavery, the 14th Amendment, giving African Americans citizenship, and the 15th Amendment, gave African Americans the right to vote. State governments still found ways to pass laws that disenfranchise the rights of blacks, known as Jim Crow laws. No matter what beginnings African Americans had with civil rights, with the help of protests and reactions, the effects of the Civil Rights Movement left a Major impact in America.
Before the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were

passed, the Constitution was put forth to secure the country's welfare and secure the rights of the people (Document 1). When the Constitution was ratified, the people's rights they wanted to protect were white male landowners. After time. the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed to give blacks some rights. Southern states felt prejudice against African Americans, so they passed Jim Crow laws to deny them voting. Some of the laws were the grandfather clause, which said you could not vote unless your grandfather voted in the 1860 election which was impossible because slavery was still legal at that time, and literacy tests that required a difficult reading test that most African Americans could not pass because of their little education. Jim Crow laws were not the only tool working against blacks. Racial terror was prominent in the South, used by the KKK, encouraged by white supremacists and the poor white people who believed they had some social status over African Americans. Many blacks were lynched and beat. The main targets were blacks who threatened white's economic power. Along with racial terror and Jim Crow laws, the segregation of the races was legal due to the ruling in the Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson. From it the term "separate, but equal" was coined. Things started to change from the way they were when people started protesting and speaking out against discrimination.
One of the early protests, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was spurred by the arrest of Rosa Parks. After her arrest the Montgomery Improvement Association decided to plan a one day bus boycott. With the bus boycott, they wanted to gain a fixed line so blacks and whites had equal amounts of space on the bus. When the first day held success, they wanted to keep it going all week. The buses remained empty of African Americans , which caused that business to lose money. Whites did not like their economic power challenged, so they began bombing churches, physically attacking blacks, and arresting them. These reactions brought the protest media coverage, so the whole country could see what was going on in the South. Another large protest was the March on Washington. The March on Washington saw 250,000 people of all races come to peacefully protest civil rights. Throughout the day speakers and performers talked. The final speech of the day was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. In the speech he said, " We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote" (Document 3). MLK Jr. wanted to gain equal rights for people across the country, in traveling, highways, and public areas. Many kids were inspired to take initiative to help contribute to civil rights. Sit-ins became popular, where black and white students sit at segregated lunch counters to protest. Many whites reacted violently to sit-in protesters. Whites would pour food and drinks on them, use verbal assault, hit them, and even threaten to hang them from a noose (Document 4). The students would sit through it to promote their ideas nonviolently. Freedom Rides were another protest young people used. Whites and blacks would ride together on segregated highways into the Deep South. On their way down, they experienced angry mobs, and firebombs to try to stop them. They did not stop until they arrived in Jackson, Mississippi where they were arrested. All the protests that went on in the South were met with little help from the law. When protesters would march, the police would try to stop them. The police used tear gas, attack dogs, raw beatings, and fire hoses (Document 5). The media was usually there, reporting on the violence whites had towards peaceful protesters.
The Civil Rights Movement led to many different effects at different times.

In 1954, Plessy v. Ferguson was deemed unconstitutional because of the court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In another court ruling, James Meredith was allowed to attend the University of Mississippi, a previously whites only school. Even though James Meredith was allowed to attend, he was the only black person, so he felt like "the most segregated Negro in the world" (Document 2) due to the fact that the other students did not treat him like a student. Some leaders, such as Stokely Carmichael, felt as though civil rights were not progressing fast enough. "When they saw little black girls bombed to death in a church and civil rights workers ambushed and murdered, they were angrier; and when nothing happened, they were steaming mad. We had nothing to offer that they could see, except to go out and be beaten again. We helped build their frustration" (Document 7). He explains that the reactions of the people on the media was not enough to support the attack it would come with. Things did start to change though. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was ratified which prohibited discrimination in public places, enforced integration of schools, and made employment discrimination illegal. A year later, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passes. The Voting Rights Act enforced the 15th Amendment and disbanded Jim Crow laws (Document 6). Even after the passing of these laws, riots began occurring. Young African Americans started using violence, thieving, and arson to protest. As a result, people saw the threat change could have, deteriorating racial relations (Document 8). By the end of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans eliminated legal segregation, lifted voting restraints, increased graduation rates, and Affirmative Action programs were implemented. With the new laws in place, and the people changing the country, the term "we the people" began having a new

meaning.
Although the Civil Rights stemmed from difficult beginnings, they began pushing towards a brighter future. Plessy v. Ferguson was deemed unconstitutional, and Jim Crow laws were outlawed. The Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act were passed, because of different protests. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and March on Washington brought Americans in through the media, and violence of whites in the South brought support for the Civil Rights Movement. All these things helped to bring about civil rights in America.