Table of Contents
African-American Civil Rights Movement 3
Achievements of the Movement 7
African-American Civil Rights Movement
Introduction
In America, the black community faced discrimination from the government based on color. The African-American did not enjoy the same rights as the rest of the population in their places of work, at school or any social institution. To fight for their rights, the discriminated group formed the African-American Civil Rights movement to fight for their rights acknowledgment as dictated by the constitution.
The movement lasted for more than a decade at the time ranging from 1954-1968 (Newman, 2004, p. 174). The black community did not get recognition in any part of the country, and the discrimination resulted in disjoint between the black and the whites’ community. The movement received support from the religious institutions, some of the politicians such as Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey, who were whites. The paper is going to show the goals for the movement, the strategies used and the accomplishments of the movement.
Research Questions
- What were the goals of the movement?
- What strategies did the movement use?
- What are the achievements of the movement?
The paper will cover the information availed in the books written on the movement and the historical information. The books hold important information that is vital for answering the three research questions.
Goals of the Movement
In the region, especially in Southern United States Of America, the level of racial segregation was an all time high. In traveling, the buses had different places for the black people. At no time did the blacks sit in the same place with the whites. The segregation of the blacks made the blacks feel discriminated upon and the movement aimed at eliminating the vice.
The constitutional rights did not separate the rights of the blacks from those of the whites, and the segregation was a violation of the rights of the people (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2008, p. 11). In the colleges, during the sit-ins with people from other colleges, the whites, and the blacks had different positions of sitting. The level of racial segregation in the country was in not only the public places but also the social institutions. The segregation was not considerate of the age of the people. All the blacks faced the same conditions in all places where they mixed with the whites.
The segregation of the black Americans followed the Jim Crow laws that fueled the segregation. The laws enforced the use of different public utilities between the whites and the blacks. The laws prevented the interaction of the blacks and whites in the transport system or any public institution. The laws remained operational until 1965 when the first amendment rules over ruled the laws. The laws made an impact even in hiring of people to join the military where it was mandatory to attach a photo for racial purposes. The movement required the fighting of these laws to acquire equality.
Even with the ruling of the Supreme Court on the end to racial segregation, the whites in the region defied the orders of the court and withheld the segregation of the blacks in the region. The movement was working towards the right treatment of the people in agreement with the ruling of the court. In 1960, a population of the blacks rode in the public transport and sat in the same place as the whites (Langston, 2002, p. 171). However, the people underwent a bad experience of torture and arrest from the police.
The level of segregation looked like a crime with which the Black Americans in the region should face the consequences. The objective of the movement was to end the segregation and the racial discrimination in the region and offer the black people the right to use all the public utilities just like the white population.
In the political field, the black population did not have the right to participate in the voting process of choosing a new leader. The white population believed that the blacks did not have the rights to vote as they did. When the black people initiated a movement to register as voters in the country, the white population disrupted the event ending up in the death of some of the black people.
The black people did not have the right to demonstrate their political decisions through the voting process. The movement pushed towards giving the black population the right to vote in the national elections. Many people died in the process including the officials taking part in the registration of people in the voters register. The racial segregation in the region was hitting the headlines and getting the attention of the leaders in the country (Newman, 2004, p. 16).
However, even the leader in power such as President Kennedy faced assassinations. The movement fought for the election of black people in the leadership of the people in the country. The blacks believed that they had the same privileges as the whites and needed to get the chance to lead the political parties and the groups fighting for their rights.
The movement needed the end of the racial segregation and placed numerous cases in the courts to remove the segregation in the public institutions. Most of the people in the region from the blacks’ community did not have the full citizenship of the country (Jun, 2011, p. 16). However, the white population did not go through the same treatment. The goal of the movement was for the Black Americans to get the full citizenship of the country without the conditions of having property in the country.
In the employment sector in the country, the white population received the priority. The employment was not on merit but rather based on racial background. The economic sector was more favorable to the white population compared to the whole population. The discrimination was not to the blacks alone but also the Latin and the Asians.
The country had multiple cases of mistreatment of the blacks. The racial violence was on the increase from the police, individuals, organizations, and the paramilitary groups. Such treatment prompted the group to fight for the fair treatment of all groups in the population. The movement endeavored to see the marginalized groups living in freedom without the fear of mistreatment from any person or group. The goal of the movement was to ensure equality and fair treatment of the whole population without violence.
Strategies of the Movement
The movement was against the segregation of the blacks in the community. For any black person who faced segregation, the group challenged the other people from the community to act in solidarity to the fellow comrade. When a black woman went to jail for failing to give her seat to a white person, the blacks in the community avoided boarding the bus.
To the group, the bus and the company were responsible for the predicament following their colleague and the boycott was a way of ending the segregation (Powers, 2012, p. 90). For almost a year, the community avoided the buses in solidarity. The movement believed in using the member to achieve the goals. The movement believed in increasing the number of members in the movement to increase the force of any action in fighting the detested vices.
Most of the leaders of the movement were Christians who held the belief that violence was against the Christian teachings. To demonstrate the members of the movement walked on the streets peacefully expressing the reason for the demonstrations. Although injustices directed to them were of a violent nature, the movement believed in peaceful demonstrations (Gallagher & Lippard, 2014, p. 745). Another tactic by the movement was in the creation of civil resistance with the members.
In the college discrimination of the students during the sit-ins, the students resulted in boycotting the sit-ins. Through boycotting the processes, the movement was communication of the inequality and segregation conducted during the sit-ins. The students went ahead to form a Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to communicate on the segregation. Besides, the movement set on the registration of the members for voting. In the past, the names of the Black Americans were not in the voters list and the registration aimed at ensuring they overcome the restrictions to voting.
In the year 1960, the movement was involved in sit-ins as a way of protecting the racial segregation. The sit-ins were non violent ways of protesting. The Greensboro sit-ins incorporated students from other colleges who sat the canteen where the management refused to serve the black students in the ‘whites only’ department. Protesting involved sitting in the store until the management served. The students sat over the lunch time even without eating anything.
The freedom rides, on the other hand, involved protests by riding on the busses and sitting on the places designated for the whites. The blacks refused to stand up when the white people entered the buses. Such protests were peaceful and drove the message home. Martin Luther King Jr. became instrumental in the movement by leading in nonviolent disobedience of the oppressive laws.
Since he was a Christian, he did not approve violence hence the use of peaceful modes of demonstration such as sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations. He later became the president of Southern Christian Leadership Conference and helped in planning the demonstrations in ciies such as Alabama and Georgia.
The movement, by using the names wanted to compel the government to allow them to vote. It was not possible for the people to vote without their names in the register. Voter registration aimed at overcoming the voting opportunity denied. More so, the movement decided to educate the people to increase the literacy level.
Before the registration of the people in the voters register, the people required answering a test and without the passing of the test, it was not possible for the registration to occur. The movement taught the literate members of the community to enable them to answer the questions and make it to the register. Teaching the community gave the members of the movement to communicate the objectives of the movement to the members. With the teachings, it was easier to gain the support of the people by explaining to them the required status.
Achievements of the Movement
In 1964, the government made it illegal for discriminatory acts to any group based on the color of the skin. The law further illegalized the gender, religion, and racial discrimination of any part of the population. The efforts by the movement led to the end of segregation and the end to the discrimination such as the sit-ins in college and the public transport. The law protected the black community against the white population that conducted actions that made the discrimination grow.
The law ensured the members of the movement enjoy freedom even in searching for work bringing to an end the oppression of the black people in the region. The Civil Right Act of 1964 worked in line with the Fourteenth Amendment that gave equal chances to the whole population irrespective of the race and color. The law was a major win for the movement bearing in mind this was the first objective behind the formation of the movement.
In 1965, the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 saw the registration of the people from the marginalized communities in the voter registers (Mustard, 2003, p. 65). The president made it illegal for to bar anyone from voting based on the race of the individual. The movement through the various modes of enforcing the rights to vote saw the passage of the law.
The law was a big step towards ensuring Black Americans exercised their voting rights. Voting is a civil right, and the legislation gave the all the people in the total region equality of the voting rights. The voter registration process conducted by the officials in the black region bore fruits, and the people had the opportunity to vote. The law further prevented any state from passing any laws that would inhibit the rights of any individual from voting. The law favored the blacks who were the minority group in the region. The law also removed the literacy test that prohibited other people from voting.
Further success in the movement saw the establishment of the Civil Right of 1968. The law made it possible for the black minority to have equal rights in accessing housing structures and the reduction of violence. In the past, the minority went through violent parts in most of the places making their time in the country stressful (Mwakikagile, 2007, p. 30).
The law abolished the actions of force that injure the people or force them to do things that they do not appreciate. The people had the opportunity to lead peaceful lives without the fear of past acts of discrimination. The buses were now free to all the people without the fear of segregation or any fear of imprisonment. Without the movement, it would have been hard for the black community to experience the same treatment offered to the other majority population.
The blacks started winning cases based on segregation issues. An example of the case is Brown vs. Board of Education. The Supreme Court ruled in the favor of the students by pointing out the need to remove the racial segregation policies that tainted the image of the country. In the past, the students attended different schools and even the meals had different places for the blacks. The ruling was a landmark in pushing for equality and ending the racial segregation. Similar cases such as that of Plessy vs. Fergusson that involved segregation in the modes of transport won too. The rulings made the first steps towards ensuring equality in the region.
Conclusion
The African-American movement expressed the suffering of the black minority in the hands of the white majority. The research conducted shows that the blacks suffered from racial segregation and oppression. All the social amenities had different sectors for the blacks and the whites. The blacks no longer had the chance to secure employment, and the priority went to the whites. Through the strategies of the African-American Civil Rights movement, the members boycotted the services of the companies that fueled the segregation, held peaceful demonstrations, and resulted in voter’s registration as a way of expressing their rights.
Additional research indicates that the African-American Civil Rights movement saw the establishment of the laws that saw the fair treatment of the people in accordance with the civil rights legislations. The Black Americans in the region could visit any place without discrimination and exercise their voting rights as dictated by the constitution. The movement changed the lives of the people in the country.
References
Gallagher, C. & Lippard, C. (2014). Race and racism in the United States : an encyclopedia of the American mosaic. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood.
Jun, H. (2011). Race for citizenship : Black Orientalism and Asian uplift from pre-emancipation to neoliberal America. New York: New York University Press.
Langston, D. (2002). A to Z of American women leaders and activists. New York: Facts on File.
Mustard, D. (2003). Racial justice in America a reference handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
Mwakikagile, G. (2007). Relations Between Africans, African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans: Tensions, Indifference and Harmony. Intercontinental Books.
Newman, M. (2004). The civil rights movement. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Powers, R. (2012). Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women’s Suffrage. Routledge.
Sheumaker, H. & Wajda, S. (2008). Material culture in America understanding everyday life. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.