The Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. And Rosa Parks
The civil rights movement was a historic mass crusade that aimed to acquire, for the African-Americans, equal access to opportunities and rights of United States citizenship and basic privileges. The movement influenced the student movement and the modern women's rights movement of the 1960s. It was centred in the American South, where the largest population was of the African-Americans and where there was widespread inequality of education, economic opportunity, and legal and political processes. The governed imposed the segregation laws, named the Jim Crow laws, during the start of the 19th century. The laws restricted the voting qualifications that denied the black population to political and economic power. Therefore, the civil rights movement
…show more content…
However, Martin Luther King’s father, the 1930s president of Atlanta’s branch of the NAACP, taught him about the Civil Rights Movement. The movement is usually condensed into a few short pages in various texts, often highlighting Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, they fail to tell about the many, and often nameless, activists, who took great personal sacrifices to guarantee the civil rights for African-Americans. Many researchers point to Rosa’s refusal to shift to the back of the bus (and the resulting bus boycott) as the start of the Civil Rights Movement. However, returning black veterans of World War II probably had more authority than present-day citizens realize. After fighting for the U.S. and watching their comrades die in battle, the veterans no longer needed to be treated like “second-class citizens.” Moreover, when the Supreme Court came out with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregation for education unlawful, African-Americans finally had the legal backing that helped propel the Movement forward. In this paper, I will present historical evidence to show that despite that Martin Luther King was an important tool in the Civil rights movement; he cannot be considered to have had the greatest impact compared to other people, in the period 1864-1974, in advancing the cause of African American
However, Martin Luther King’s father, the 1930s president of Atlanta’s branch of the NAACP, taught him about the Civil Rights Movement. The movement is usually condensed into a few short pages in various texts, often highlighting Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, they fail to tell about the many, and often nameless, activists, who took great personal sacrifices to guarantee the civil rights for African-Americans. Many researchers point to Rosa’s refusal to shift to the back of the bus (and the resulting bus boycott) as the start of the Civil Rights Movement. However, returning black veterans of World War II probably had more authority than present-day citizens realize. After fighting for the U.S. and watching their comrades die in battle, the veterans no longer needed to be treated like “second-class citizens.” Moreover, when the Supreme Court came out with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregation for education unlawful, African-Americans finally had the legal backing that helped propel the Movement forward. In this paper, I will present historical evidence to show that despite that Martin Luther King was an important tool in the Civil rights movement; he cannot be considered to have had the greatest impact compared to other people, in the period 1864-1974, in advancing the cause of African American