American Civil Rights Movement

» Posted by Susana



What was it?
The American Civil Rights Movement was a phase with many protests such as civil disobedience, nonviolent resistance, marches, boycotts and ‘freedom rides’ in the United States with the goal of ending legal racial discrimination against African Americans, especially in the South.
This period lasted 13 years – from 1955 to 1968 – and its main figures were Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.



How did it started?
Everything started when, in December 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give her seat on a bus to a white man. She was then arrested and charged for violating racial segretation laws in Montgomery, Alabama. Right after that the movement started with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a protest campaign intended to oppose the city’s policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. It lasted from December 1955 to December 1956.



Hate vs Success
After the Montgomery Bus Boycott, other protests were made which were the key for the end of legal racial discrimination.
Since the beginning of the movement until its end there were some major hate moments, which were fighted with some success moments:

Hate:

• Jim Crow Laws
• The arrest of Rosa Parks
• The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
• The Ku Klux Klan
• The assassinations of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

Success:

• Banning of segregated buses
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Sit-ins
• March on Washington
• Civil Rights Act
• Voting Rights Act

How did it end?
This movement was finally stopped when the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were signed in 1964 and 1965, which outlawed racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment, and would establish the right to vote. Of course there were still some protests, but this period was the most important one. American Africans made their voices heard, and had a dream that came true.


Sources:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC62HmApl0g
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing
- http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/16thstreetbaptistchurch/a/16streetbombing.htm
- http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html
- http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-4
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_on_Washington_for_Jobs_and_Freedom
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964
- http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvoting65.htm