Preview

The Civil Rights Movement: A Struggle For Social Justice

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1008 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Civil Rights Movement: A Struggle For Social Justice
The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice. The movement took place during the 1950’s and 1960’s for African Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United Sates. The Civil War, which took place from 1861 to 1865, had officially abolished slavery. The war abolished slavery but couldn’t end the discrimination the African Americans faced in the United Sates. They continue to undergo the devastating effects of racism. By mid to late-20th century, African Americans had had enough of the prejudice and violence against them. African Americans, along with many whites, organized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned for two decades. There was mass protest against racial segregation and discrimination …show more content…
After the American Civil War in the 1860s, the Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution, sought to secure the rights of African Americans. While for a short time, African Americans voted and held political office, soon they were deprived of civil rights and subjected to sustained violence. Over the following century various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their rights. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations and productive dialogues between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations, which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. An example of this would be, the lynching of Emmett Till and the visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the African-American community nationwide. Other than that gruesome killing there were any other event that took place. There were protest such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56) in Alabama; sit-ins such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina and successful Nashville sit-ins in Tennessee; marches, such as the Birmingham Children's Crusade and Selma to Montgomery marches(1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent …show more content…
The Civil Rights Movement not only lobbied but worked with congress to achieve the passing of many significant pieces of federal legislation overturning racist practices in the United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 expressly banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment practices; ended unequal application of voter registration requirements; and prohibited racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and in public accommodations. “It is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement (history.com).” Originally proposed by President Kennedy, it faced many backlashes from the southern members of congress but was late signed by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for minorities by authorizing federal oversight of registration and elections in areas with a historic under-representation of minorities as voters. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 banned discrimination in the sale, financing, or rental of housing. This act was later amended in 1988; the Housing Amendments Act. This act in addition to the previous, it prohibits discrimination based on disability or on familial status and so much more. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to take

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    America’s history is rich in oppression, discrimination and exploitation of African Americans. Blacks were deprived of basic human rights and were seen as nothing more than mere property. America’s northern states battled against its Southern neighbors in a fight for equality. The conflicting opinions of the north and south lead to the start of the Civil Rights Movement. Occurring between the years of 1865 and 1945, the Civil Rights Movement was a series of events and protests, both violent and nonviolent whose goal was to outlaw racial discrimination and the unethical treatment of blacks, as well as eliminate segregation entirely.…

    • 129 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the 243 years that the United States of America has been an independent country, African Americans have been discriminated against and thought of as less than other races in the country. In the mid 1900’s, changes started being pushed into motion. The Modern Civil Rights Movement was a mass movement in which millions of people participated. The goal of the movement was to desegregate and create equality for African American citizens throughout the country on a national level (NPS 1). The movement officially began in 1954 after the passing of Brown V. Board by the Supreme Court which gave African Americans the right to the same education as their Caucasian fellow students (LOC 1).…

    • 1189 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The civil rights movement can be defined as a mass popular movement to secure for African Americans equal access to and opportunities for the basic privileges and rights of U.S. citizenship. Although the roots of the civil rights movement go back to the 19th century, the movement peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. African American men and women, along with whites, organized and led the movement at national and local levels. They pursued their goals through legal means, negotiations, petitions, and nonviolent protest demonstrations. The largest social movement of the 20th century, the civil rights movement influenced the modern women's rights movement and the student movement of the 1960s.…

    • 904 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Civil Rights Movement was a true battle for equality during a time of strong racist believes. The things that it was able to accomplish for the people discriminated against in the United States were astonishing. Through historical informational texts, " Plessy V. Ferguson" and "Brown V. Board" the stories of the fight for equality were demonstrated in an effort that would redefine America for decades to come. To start, the African-American people fought for equal opportunities in their daily lives for a number of different things. Plessy felt the need for equality in transportation as he was moved into another seat on a train car because of skin color (Plessy v. Ferguson).…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ive Seen The Promised Land

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Civil Rights Movement was at its highest point from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from 1955-1965 Montgomery bus boycott to the student sit-ins of the 1960s to the Huge March on Washington in 1963. This reform movement was to put an end to racial discrimination against African Americans and to put a stop to segregation in the Southern states. “This era marked a period of struggle for African Americans to gain equal rights and integrate into schools and other public places. Much of the struggle to end racial inequality was documented as the country resisted racial segregation and discrimination.”(Web quest, 1) By working together, most of these protests and rallies were successful and African Americans were able to get their voices heard and gain their civil rights like everyone else.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1950s and 1960s African Americans communities made public announcements dealing with a matter of great importance regarding the process of being set free from unequal rights and political restrictions. However, "in the District of Columbia and several western and mid-western states" also faced disenfranchised. African Americans fought for their rights in the United States because they were tired of being denied legal rights and privileges as citizens in America. The United States of America was a segregated country during this time…

    • 1061 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the years, society has changed in many ways. A big change occurred during the years of 1954 and 1968. This change was known as the Civil Rights Movement. This was a time when African Americans were trying to get their freedom and get the same rights everyone else had. The Civil Rights Movement did not just affect the lives of African Americans during this time, it also affected the lives of everyone else. During this time period, many people were dedicated to help improve the lives of African Americans and they spoke out on the issue. The Civil Rights Movement was a…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The civil rights movement that started and grew through the years following the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and with the help of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Patterson, 2001) marked an important period that accomplished more than ending segregation in cities and unfair rights; it led to the transformation of American social, cultural, and political life. The civil rights movement did not only demonstrate that the rights of African Americans should not be ignored but also showed how a nation as a whole had the power to change itself. The way the civil rights unfolded, gave others a chance to reach equal opportunity in the future.…

    • 2510 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the 1960’s, African American civil rights were severely encroached upon. All aspects of American life, from hospitals to schools to water fountains, were segregated,. Literacy tests, poll taxes, the grandfather clause, and pure intimidation kept African Americans out of the polls. The 1960s, the peak years of the civil rights movement, showed changes in the goals of the civil rights movement, evolving from desegregation to voting rights to equal economic opportunity; the accompanying strategiesshifted accordingly with the goals, litigation being more popular during the first goal; and the civil rights movement gained support from whites, including some prominent leaders, but lost some black support, as it progressed.…

    • 317 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Battle to Become Civil African Americans and the immense struggle to become civil. Which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a enormous part in American history. During this time a vast number of African Americans were determined to get the rights that they believed they deserved as humans. This did not come effortlessly because obtaining rights when you have none is a very hard. It took many years of struggling to get their rights, they soon obtained the rights that they deserved, but not without a fight.…

    • 2143 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Civil Rights movement, African Americans made many advances in their plight for social, economic, and political freedom; such include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and school integration. Although they legally achieved these rights, they were still met with severe…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    African-Americans were still denied from rights, for example, Equal Rights Amendment that proposed to explicitly ensure equity to all individuals, paying little heed to sexual orientation when it went in Congress, 1971 ("Civil Rights: Timeline of Events", n.d). Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (Affirmative Action) and Pregnancy Discrimination Act (prohibits employment discrimination against female pregnant workers) that are signed or passed in 1978. Moreover, Disability Act in 1990 that secure individuals with incapacities, Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 and the privileges of being same-sex couples in 2003 were all passed into the Congress. The rights that were denied from the African-Americans in the past were later tended to and marked to law later on as in after…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil War Equality

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Many people assume that the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, brought freedom and equality for African-Americans. However, that was not the case. Freedom and equality were something that African-Americans had to fight for. They struggled in poverty, constantly being denied their rights, and being discriminated against. The end of the Civil War was just the beginning of the fight, African-Americans had to unite and work hard to make America more truly democratic.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The civil right movement was an era in which African Americans fought for their human rights and the ending of ongoing struggle they had to bear for over 400 years. This movement began in 1954 with a Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays