Civil Rights Movement: Social and Political Injustice
The Civil Rights Movement started with such events as the murder of Emmett Till and the Rosewood affair, but the end of the movement came from the power of Martin Luther King Jr. His works "I Have a Dream," "I 've been to the Mountaintop," and "Letters from Birmingham Jail" had a huge impact on the success of the Civil Rights Movement, and the movie Mississippi Burning gives a strong sense of what the black community was going through. Black people in the south were going through hardship because of the large number of white people who would not respect them and give them the civil rights to which they were entitled as American citizens. They were treated unfairly in all aspects of life, particularly poorly as people, citizens, and as human beings. Dr. Martin Luther King and other organizers began a Civil Rights Movement to bring justice to all who were treated unjustly. There were many incidents that helped begin this movement and to bring peace to the South and the black community.
The Civil Rights Movement was started by the murder of a young boy named Emmett Louis Till from Chicago, Illinois. He went down to visit his great-uncle Mose Wright in Mississippi. While he was visiting his great-uncle, he went to a store and saw a lady and whistled at her. Later that night he was abducted by two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, who were friends of the lady at whom Emmett whistled. A couple of days later Emmett Till 's body was pulled out of the Tallahatchie River. His body had been brutally mutilated and destroyed. His head had been barb-wired to a 75-pound cotton gin fan. His eye had been gauged out and his forehead crushed. A bullet had also been shot through his head. His body had been brutally beaten that when it was sent back to his mother she was unable to identify her own son. Emmett 's mother was so disgusted with what had
Bibliography: Mississippi Burning. Dir. Alan Parker. Perf. Gene Hackman, William DeFoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, and Michael Rooker. Orion Pictures Corporation, 1988. Aronson, David. "Remembering Rosewood." Findarticles. Fall 1999. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 1999. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HSP/is_1_4 Beauchamp, Keith A. "The Murder of Emmett Louis Till" The Black Collegian Online. 2005. The Black Collegian Magazine 2005. http://www.black-collegian.com/african/till2005-2nd.shtml King Jr., Martin Luther. "I Have a Dream" The Peaceful Warrior. Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. 28 August 1963 King Jr., Martin Luther. "I 've been to the Mountaintop" Striking Sanitation Workers. Federation of the State, County, and Municipal Employees. Mason Temple, Memphis, TN. 3 April 1968. King Jr., Martin Luther. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Atlanta, GA: The King Center, 1963. http://www.coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/letter.html