Dbq Civil Rights Movement Analysis

The twentieth century mark a huge milestone for the Civil RIghts Movement. New laws were being implemented to have voting rights as well as prohibit discrimination against race and gender in the work force. Integration was now enforced, opening more opportunities to African-Americans. Evolution of race relations changed drastically during 1914-1965, whether it be beneficial or not. The relations were evidently changing economically, politically, and most notably: socially.
Birmingham, Alabama, was heavily divided by race, and blacks were treated poorly. There was a lot of economic disparity: with not many jobs available to blacks, and if there was any the job would be of manual labor. The income of black people was half of what white people
made, and their unemployment rate was twice as hotter as white people. Leaders would protest to end discrimination in the workforce and public places. As a result the protests, people would also get seriously hurt by police: many would use dogs to attack them or spray them with water from large hoses (Doc. 6). This showed the strain both races had against each other, and how much work was needed to make improvements. The majority of protests were in during the 1960’s, but the problems would date back further. The beginning of the 1900’s marked the movement of more than 300,000 African Americans migrating up North. The Great Migration occurred because people from the rural south decided there wasn’t any job opportunities, or simply because they didn’t want to end up dead (Doc. 1). Because of Jim Crow laws, African Americans weren’t as educated, as shown in the Document. They all desperately wanted a better lifestyle, and the only way it was possible was to move North.
In the South, voting became important but only if you were rich and educated.
Southerners made it clear that if black people wanted to vote, then they either had to have a literacy test, pay a poll tax, or both. During the Civil Rights Movement, activists for voting rights in the South were subjected to various forms of mistreatment and violence. It’s evident that before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, on average, 35.8% of blacks were registered to vote (Doc. 2). The Act, passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks. After the Act was passed, the average of registered black voters went up to an average 55.5%. The south was heavily segregated, and became the norm throughout the states, with Mississippi having no blacks attending white schools (Doc. 8) even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 1964 Act enforced that integration was to be put into schools, and many were against of eliminating segregation, to the point where officials would shut down schools until there was none that are open. Even with laws helping eliminate segregation, there was still room for
change.
The most notable place where race relations evolved was socially. Civil rights became prominent in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and the movements kept sprouting state-wide. Civil rights groups like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) would go on buses from Washington D.C and go to the Deep South and try to integrate public facilities. They were called Freedom Riders, and many would get harassed for just using a restroom or for ordering at a ‘whites-only’ restaurant. The buses the Freedom Riders went on would often be targeted, since it would transport large masses (Doc. 3). As a result of the actions of the Freedom Riders, the Interstate Commerce Commision issued regulations prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations. Blacks weren’t treated badly when it came to school and work, but also many were wrongfully tried. At times, many arrests and deaths are racially motivated. Lynching, specifically, had been occurring in states like Georgia, Texas, and Mississippi. In the case of Waco, Texas citizen Jesse Washington, he was convicted guilty of raping and murdering Lucy Frye, and then was attacked in front of the Waco city hall. What makes this case more appalling is that a photographer was there and took pictures as the lynching unfolded (Doc. 7). The photos showed the public how poorly blacks were treated, even though the photos were printed and sold as postcards. It also showed that anyone in the photo were willing to have their faces shown because the people knew they wouldn’t get prosecuted for Washington’s death. The city of Waco then received a reputation for racism; White leaders from the city to a non-violent approach during the civil-rights movement, most likely to not provoke anything similar of degree.
As a country being fairly progressive in the twenty-first century, there’s still racism embedded deep in many states.
Now more than ever, minorities make up more than half of the country’s population. The United States has truly become a ‘melting-pot’ of people from different backgrounds. The rise of diversity is not the only thing on the rise: race tensions are returning across America, largely after post-Ferguson. With the police brutality and the wrongful arrests of minorities, it’s evident that it’s too late to help. African-Americans bear the burden of being incarcerated solely because of the color of their skin. Furthermore, Americans will more likely say that race is a bigger issue than if said 20 years prior. The current presidential election has also dug the racial relations deeper into the grave. Voters are not only paying attention to see which candidate will side with them in terms of basic human rights, but also which candidates are digging their own
grave.