Clayborne Carson Civil Rights Movement Summary

In the article by Clayborne Carson, Carson discusses the civil rights movement. Carson discusses how the nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by “race” in the South and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865–77). Carson uses examples of people and protests through out the era of the civil rights movement be achieved. Back in the early to late 1800’s, ex-slaves joined the abolition movement to end slavery and give freedom to the blacks. It is said even though black leaders became increasingly militant in their attacks against slavery and other forms of racial oppression, their efforts to secure equal rights received a major setback in 1857, when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected African American citizenship claims. Rights for blacks had been going on in the Unites States for sometime before the protests and riots in the 50’s and 60’s. Even with the
Emancipation Proclamation (1863) by President Lincoln to deprive the Confederacy of its slave property, blacks felt the weight of racism. Blacks still were not seen as equals and would still have to fight for their freedom. Slavery may have been abolished but racism wasn’t. Finally in the 20th century, movements to resist such racial and gender discrimination gained strength in many countries.
In 1909, Du Bois and other African American leaders joined with white proponents of racial equality to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP was one of the biggest civil rights organizations. The NAACP publicized racial injustices and initiated lawsuits to secure equal treatment for African Americans in education, employment, housing, and public accommodations. Popular people of the Civil Rights movements were Rosa Parks, Martian Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X to name a few. All these people had a significant impact on the movement. Protests and other riots also had crucial impacts on the rights movements such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, March on Washington, sit-in’s, Freedom Rides, Black Power, and many others helped play a role in the success of the Civil Rights
movement. Carson points out how all played a hand in the Civil Rights Movement. The civil rights movement also helped put an ending to discrimination of African Americans as well as others groups. However, still in the 20th century, some African Americans are still in racially segregated communities where housing, public schools, and health care services are inferior. Now, in the 21st century, Carson mentions how far America has come with a bi-racial president, Barrack Obama.