Media's Role During the Civil Rights Movement

Andrea Pucarelli The Civil Rights movement was a time in our nations history when leaders, politicians and just regular United States citizens took a stand against racial discrimination towards the black community. During the 60’s and many years before, everything had to be separated by skin color. Blacks and whites had different schools, water fountains, restaurants, bathrooms, and on the bus colored people had to sit in the back or give up their seat should a white person come on bored. Not only was everything separated, but the condition of the bathrooms, schools and water fountains for the colored were rundown, used, and unsanitary. There were several hate groups such as the KKK that went around and set fire to colored homes and churches and sometimes even public lynching’s as a warning to black Americans to act in a subordinate manner. This was also a time when black Americans began to stand up for themselves and give a voice to a race that was treated unfairly. Two examples include Rosa Parks and the students of Morton High School who influenced the trial Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and was arrested for doing so, this lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the buses were soon desegregated due to a loss in revenue for the bus companies. These small, non-violent protests are what gave the black community a voice and are what lead to changes in the way the black community is