Lyndon B. Johnson and Civil Rights

Civil Rights

Civil Rights
By
Willie Harris
SS310-32: Exploring the 1960s: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Professor Darcy Mikal

Civil Rights 2 Just think we have the right to vote, right to speak your mind or the right to freedom. These rights were given to use by the people that sacrifice their lives so that we can live the way we live today. Now image that we did not have these rights, what did you think you would do or how you would react to this situation. Someone could claim you as property and there is nothing you could do or say about it. Would you become a leader or a follower and try to make a different in your situation or everyone else to give them the rights and freedom that they all deserve. No longer were blacks denied the right to vote, to eat, shop, and swim where they pleased, and more importantly, to attend integrated schools. Without the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it would still be legal for people to discriminate against me based on the color of my skin. It would be legal for a restaurant to refuse to serve me. It would be legal for the local swimming pool to refuse to allow me to swim there. It would even be legal for a business to refuse to hire me based on my skin color. If we could somehow imagine that the Civil Rights Movement had not worked and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had not been passed, my life could have been very different. As Chapter 4 of “The age of great dreams, America in the 1960” by David Farber, talk how we can provide a direct and immediate way to fight for our freedom and discrimination. These movement help the world see that everyone is granted the right to do and be free like everyone else. Basic rights for everyone and the freedom to do what we want are the right of everyone. Without what the people before us did not go through and the lives that was lost we would be struggling to stay afloat. Since I am an African American, I can say that we have a lot of people to thank for what they did. I would not be to vote or do any of the other things that my white counterpart could do. My freedom would be keeping my self-alive and not getting traded to the next person. I would not
Civil Rights 3 have seen the first black President or the other accomplishment that the African Americans have made during this time. Our struggles would last and who would be the first to stand up and make changes for our people. I would not have the right to sit or eat where I want to. Seeing our people going out and sitting at the counter of a fast food restaurant would take a miracle to see. We would still have to go through the back of the store just to get scraps that the other people would not want. Just getting the chance to go anywhere would be a challenge so that no one would try to kill me while walking home. The right to speak my mind without having to worry about someone trying to take me out is a right that even women wanted during the 1960s. This is a basic right that we all thank that would have gotten me shot or set on fire by saying what is on my mind. This right is the best of them all. They will always be someone suppressing my voice so that they can keep me from starting a rebelling. As I can see, I would surely have problem with this one. As I write this now, I can say that I would say I would use my voice to empower everyone, but as back then how can I say I would be the one leading the fight to give us the rights that we deserve. I would not be able to go to school and get an education. I would have to learn as much as I can from my parents and the schools that were set up for my people. We would not be able to go to any school event or go to this online school because of the color of my skin. We would be limited to what we could be when we grow up. As I serve in the military, I would not have made it to the rank that I was when I retired. I would have been limited to what I could do and where I would be station at. I would have been kept in the dark of everything and waited until my white counterpart needed a hand from me. I
Civil Rights 4 would not have had a voice of my own. Things would have quite different from what it is now for me. The house that I own would not be in this nice neighborhood that I am in. We would be separated by the color line. I would only be allowed to stay where only my people would be able to stay. I would have to worry about someone coming by my house and throwing rocks and bombing my place. As I live comfortable now, me and my family would only be miserable trying to survival in a world that did not want my family in. The way my family and I live now is mostly thanks to the time lines of 1963 of Unit 4 of Exploring the 1960, has made all the great strives that my family and fore families do not have to worry about slavery or anything else like that. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., (MLK), was the face and the voice of the movement that give not just African American the rights that we have today. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. Without him and his nonviolence freedom movement that shook up the United States during this time, I would not be living freely today. They pave the way so that I can live this way. From the 1963 to 1968, the freedom movement made great strives to help me. They gave me the right to vote, the right to go anywhere I want to without worrying about anything. His march on Washington DC during 1963 gave us one of the greatest speech,” I Have a Dream Speech” that we believe that impacted not only us (African Americans) but for all Americans everywhere. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal rights. This speech not only changes my life but my family life. We listen to his speech each year. On the evening of
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April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. His death not only hurt African American but hurt the movement due to the fact that his voice and peaceful sit-ins and marches were going to be lost forever. Another great leader that help moved the civil right movement was President Kennedy. He also believes that all men was created equally and deserve the same rights as the next man. He spoke out in favor of school desegregation, praised a number of cities for integrating their schools. One of his famous speech, and I quote 'We are confronted primarily with a moral issue, ' he said. 'It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities … One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free … Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise … The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand … A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all … Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law. ' Before he could sign the bill into law, in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963, during a motorcade through downtown, President John F. Kennedy was mortally wounded by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. His death was also a great set back the American people and African American race. Civil Rights 6 President Johnson took the helm and sign the Civil Right Bill in 1964 which gave us the right to do what we wanted to do, we have made great strives to improve on our rights and freedom. We can go to a restaurant and sit and eat where we want to. I can go vote and make sure that my voice his heard. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The proposed law would ensure that anyone with a sixth-grade education would have the right to vote. It also would eliminate discrimination in all places of public accommodation–hotels, restaurants, amusement facilities and retail establishments. Johnson hoped his Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 would help children to get out of the ghettos. The poorer states like Mississippi benefited greatly from the federal funding and by the end of the 1960’s the percentage of African Americans obtaining a high school diploma rose from 40% to 60%. However, a combination of ghetto peer pressure and traditions and reluctant officials limited the Act’s effectiveness. Johnson’s 1965 Higher Education Act was more successful as it gave significant aid to poor black colleges; it led the number of African American college students to quadruple within a decade. With all the support that we receive during the 1960s, I can say that we have made great strives to move this Country in the right way. By giving everyone the right to vote and free speech, we can hold marches without having the law or someone trying to beat or kill me. I have the right to vote to get my choice heard. We also have the right to go to school and sit and learn in a classroom. The great leaders of the 1960s not only made me proud to be an American but have made others in the world to give their country men and women the right to democratic rules and regulation for all. Civil Right 7 In conclusion to this paper, I would have been a leader than a follower during the Civil Right Movement. I would have tried to lead a movement to get the rights that we deserve. Most people would sit and wait to see what would happen but as for me, I would get involve to ensure that we conduct ourselves in a proper manner. By doing the right thing and not letting anyone pushing over you, you can achieve your dreams and give back to the country that gave me the right to vote, say what on my mind, and go to any school that I want to.

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References

The Age of Great Dreams; America in the 1960s; David Farber, Hill and Wang, New York 1994
SS310-32: Exploring the 1960s: An Interdisciplinary Approach; chapter 2-9 timeline
Ring Out Freedom! : The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement; Sunnemark, Fredrik; Indiana University Press. 2004
Website: http://www.lbjlibrary.org/

References: The Age of Great Dreams; America in the 1960s; David Farber, Hill and Wang, New York 1994 SS310-32: Exploring the 1960s: An Interdisciplinary Approach; chapter 2-9 timeline Ring Out Freedom! : The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement; Sunnemark, Fredrik; Indiana University Press. 2004 Website: http://www.lbjlibrary.org/