Many people believe that the Civil Rights Movement began during the period after the civil war. The Civil Rights Movement was the political, social and legal struggle by black Americans to gain full citizenship rights and to get racial equality. The biggest challenge of the civil rights Movement was segregation. Segregation was an attempt to separate the white and black races in every aspects of life to achieve white supremacy over blacks. Segregation became popular in the southern states following the end of the reconstruction in 1877. During the reconstruction period which followed the civil war most southern states was ran by blacks and republicans from the north.
During this period the government passed laws opening up economic and political opportunities for blacks. By 1877 the Democratic Party regained control of the government in the southern states. The Democratic Party want to reverse black advancements made during the reconstruction period. To do this they began to pass local and state laws that specified places for whites only and others for colors. Blacks and white had they own restaurants, schools, transportation and parks.
Many of these things for blacks were poorly funded compared to those of whites. This system also denied blacks the opportunity to vote. Between 1890 and 1910 all southern states pass laws that had special requirements for voting that prevented blacks from voting In spite of the 15 th amendment to the constitution which was design to protect blacks voting rights. Some of these requirements was being able to read and write, property ownership, and paying a polls tax. If a black person was able to meet all these requirements he still was unable to vote in the democratic primaries because it was only open to whites. Because blacks were unable to vote they were powerless to stop whites from segregating the south.
The Essay on Black Status Post Civil War America
... of change. Much legislation was passed to help blacks in this period. The Civil Rights act of 1875 prohibited segregation in public ... freedmen the right to vote under new state constitutions, and required the Southern states to ratify the 14th amendment. With the ... Freedmen were not only discriminated against by court rulings. Southern whites both rich and poor were severely opposed to emancipation. ...
Blacks fought against discrimination whenever possible. To protest Segregation blacks created national organizations like the National Afro Americans league and National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP).
The NAACP became one of the most important black protest groups. It relied on legal strategies to fight against discrimination laws in court to get equal treatment for blacks. The NAACP legal strategies were very successful overturning many discrimination and segregation laws. The main focus of the NAACP was to integrate the educational system.
In May 1954 the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Brown vs. Broad of education the stated that racially segregated education was unconstitutional. Following this decision racial group in the south came up with a strategy to persuade all whites in the south to resist compliance with the desegregation order. They believed if enough people refuse to cooperate the court order could not be enforced. Whites boycotted all schools that integrated and created all white private schools. As desegregation progressed, the Membership of the Ku Klux Kan grew.
The Ku Klux Klan was a secret terrorist group that originated in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865. It was founded by Nathan Bedford Forest. Forest was a General in the Confederate army. The Ku Klux Klan was started to counteract the Republican Reconstruction governments and their leaders, both black and whites that came into power in the southern states in 1867. The Klansmen believed the reconstruction government as hostile and oppressive. They also believed that blacks was inferior and resented the rise of blacks to civil equality.
The Essay on Working Class Blacks White Whites
The Wages of Whiteness In The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class by David Roediger, we are able to examine the antebellum era with emphasis on class formation and the fluidity of racial boundaries in popular culture. According to Roediger, mobbing, blackface and minstrelsy are key elements in the formation of the white-working class. During the antebellum time ...
Dressed in white sheets and pointed hoods Klansmen terrorize Public officials to drive them from office and blacks to prevent them from voting or holding any political office. It was customary for the Klan to burn crosses near the homes of the people they wanted to scare, if that didn’t work they would just flogged, mutilate or even murder that person. They found these act necessary to defend white supremacy. The KKK used violence or threats against anyone who favored desegregation or blacks civil rights. Despite the threats and violence the NAACP continue to challenge desegregation laws, like transportation.
In 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery Alabama for refuse to give up her seat to a white person. As a result to her arrest and local group called Montgomery Improvement Association led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organize a boycott of the Montgomery transportation system. The boycott lasted over a year and resulted in the Supreme Court to rule against the city segregated seating practice. The boycott made King a national figure.
King became the president Of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
SCLC was an organization of black churches and ministers which formed the backbone of the civil rights movement during the 1950’s 1960’s. The SCLC was founded in 1957 after the boycott. The SCLC inspired my black leaders to believe that nonviolent directed protest might succeed against segregation where the legal strategies of the NAACP had yielded only slow changes. The SCLC led many nonviolent protests and anti segregation marches in Birmingham. These demonstrations eventually resulted in negotiation in the spring of 1963 that desegregated restrooms drinking fountains lunch counters and fitting rooms throughout Birmingham..
