Essay On Civil Rights Event

Imagine being in a classroom where someone has been told to sit in the back of the classroom, with the teacher knowing that they have eye vision problems. Try thinking about being someone's friend being told to turn around from a restaurant because the color of their skin. Will the world ever change? Will the violence ever stop? Are we still fighting for our rights in today’s world? This a glimpse of what my great grandmother’s generation went through as she aged. My great grandmother, Virginia Lee King, witnessed the most terrifying events from 1922 to the year she died, 1983. The major events that she witnessed are in the following order: The Brown vs. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Temple Bombing in Atlanta, Georgia, the Birmingham Bombing, the March on Washington, the New York School Boycott, and the Martin Luther King Assassination. The first event started the civil rights movement. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racially segregated schools as unconstitutional in its landmark Brown vs Board of Education ruling. The Brown vs Board of Education unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This event affected my great
grandmother's generation by pointing out the obvious mistreatment of African Americans. This made many people that live in the U.S. and outside the U.S. furious with rage. Eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka. He penned this cartoon expressing his dismay at the country’s slow progress toward educational integration. (Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)).
The second event that affected my great grandmother's generation is the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This event made people even more mad than the Brown vs Board of Education event. On December 1 of 1955, an African American sewer, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her bus seat so that the white passengers could use make of it. My grandmother told me that my great grandmother was very mad at the fact that she was convicted of disorderly conduct. Rosa Park's arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which the black citizens of Montgomery refused to ride the city's buses in protest over the bus system's policy of racial isolation. Rosa Park's arrest also was the first massive action of the Civil Rights Movement era, and played as an inspiration to other civil rights activists across the nation. This event sparked the world with shock and many riots broke out in cities. This event also inspired The Dream Speech, that Martin Luther King spoke to America (Montgomery Bus Boycott (1956)).
Next, there was a number of bombing that happen, but there was only 1 that gave more attention to others. This bombing was named the "The Temple Bombing". In 1958 alone, there were 27 bombings and attempted bombings. The bombings had appalled many people in the U.S. During 1958, there was a bombing of the Atlanta Reform Temple, when militant expressed their resistance to isolation and civil rights by blowing up the most prominent symbol of Jewish life and culture in Atlanta.3. Fifty bars of dynamite exploded in a recessed aisle at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, also known as "the Temple." The sanctuary suffered minor damage, but many other parts of the building were in critical damage. Nobody was hurt or killed, but the explosion shook the city's confidence and rattled its sobriety, causing many to apprise. People were shocked at the fact that America were putting their own people in harm with bombs (Temple Bombing of Atlanta, Ga. (1958)).
The 4th event was an event that broke the news and many citizens' hearts. The Birmingham Bombing was a gruesome event during the Civil Rights Movement. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, fulfilled as an organizing center for rallies and marches for racial assimilation, the process of closing the enforced separation of blacks and whites in public places. Birmingham was a seat of white resistance to assimilation. The city's public safety commissioner, T. Eugene “Bull” Connor (1897–1973), was extremely hostile to the civil rights movement and scorned federal orders to integrate his city. Governor George Wallace (1919–1998) of Alabama was a strong segregationist as well and had vowed to disobey federal court orders to assimilate the schools. The Ku Klux Klan, a national white supremacy organization known for its use of violence, intimidation, and terrorism, was very strong in Birmingham. On September 15 1963, four hundred African Americans gathered to worship at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Just a few days earlier, the courts had ordered the Birmingham schools to be assimilated, and tensions between white segregationists and blacks were high. Four girls—Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins, each of them age fourteen, and Denise McNair, age eleven—were in the basement of the church when a bomb exploded, killing them instantly. Others in the church were seriously injured. That same day, two white Eagle Scouts shot at two black boys on a bicycle, killing the thirteen-year-old riding on the handlebars. Worried about black reprisals for the bombing, Governor Wallace commanded three hundred state troopers to patrol Birmingham. That evening of the Birmingham Bombing, an officer shot and killed a fleeing black man. The Birmingham Bombing was a tragic event in the Civil Rights Movement. Blacks and whites were angered after the event. There were outbreaks in small cities around Birmingham about the bombing (Birmingham Bombing (1963)).
The 5th event was the event that was the turning point of the Civil Rights Movement. This event is known as the March on Washington of 1963. More than 200,000 demonstrators led by the Reverend Martin Luther King gathered on August 28, 1963, for a march on Washington, DC, to protest civil rights violations. My great grandmother watched the march on live TV this day. On that eventful day in August, individuals and organizations from around the country, both black and white, joined this march for jobs and freedom. The march was also about the police brutality during the summer of 1962. The march was successful in pressuring the administration of John F. Kennedy to initiate a strong federal civil rights bill in Congress. People were beginning to think that racist was disappearing (1963 Civil Rights March on Washington).
The 6th event had brought all the rage back in the people in the U.S. This event is known as the New York School Boycott. In one of the largest presentations of the Civil Rights movement, thousands of parents, students and civil rights defenders took part in a citywide boycott of the New York City public school system to present their support for the full integration of the city's public schools and an end to isolation of whites and blacks. The idea for a boycott began in the early 1960s, when Milton Galamison, a Presbyterian minister, conveyed parents, teachers, and local civil rights activists together in an affiliation called the Parents' Workshop for Equality in New York City Schools. The organization's main objective was to impart the racial imbalance of African American and Puerto Rican schools by persuading the New York City Board of Education to implement assimilation timetables. The New York School Boycott helped the civil rights movement and was a big accomplishment to the Civil Rights Movement (New York School Boycott (1964)).
The last event affected my great grandmother deeply.
This event is the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. This event affected her because she heard the sirens from the police about the shooting. Martin Luther King was fatally shot at the Lorraine in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King was shot by James Earl Ray. Martin Luther King Jr 's death affected the people of America by having to take a loss to one of our civil rights leaders. After his death, there couldn't really be anybody that could take his place and play his role in the Civil Rights Movement. His strong belief and speeches in non-violent protest helped set the tone of the movement (The Assassination of Martin Luther King
(1968)).
My great grandmother, Virginia Lee King, lived a crazy terrifying life growing up, from 1922-1983. The Civils Rights Movement is one of the main events that affected her life. The Civil Rights Movement touched my great grandmother's life because she fought for her freedom as well as others. All the events affected her, especially the Dr. King Assassination because she wasn’t far from the hotel when the incident happened. I learned that many people sacrificed their lives for their rights from 1954-1968. Many people were killed, beaten, and hosed just for their color.