There were many changes that occurred in the 1960’s in specifically in the goals, strategies, and support of the movement for African American civil rights. While the movement started as peaceful, as the years went along,
African Americans have had a troubled past in the United States. They had to endure slavery and fighting for their rights, and still aren’t always seen as equals today. Two major movements happened that paved the way for rights for African Americans, in the 1890s to 1920s, and in the 1950s to 1960s. African American leaders in the 1890s to 1920s laid a foundation for future civil rights movements by unifying African Americans and trying to get full rights and equality at once, while leaders in the 1950s to 1960s built on this foundation by taking a hands-on approach towards accomplishing smaller goals to achieve rights. Civil rights leaders of the 1890s to the 1920s led some of the first movements to obtain rights for Black people.
Racial discrimination became a problem for African Americans throughout the 1960s. It commenced with the Jim Crow laws that promoted segregation for African Americans. Leading for African Americans to become segregated from public facilities and treated unfairly. At the time it was clear that in the eyes of Jim Crow and others who thought just like him, he saw those with black skin as unworthy and unequal compared to their white skin. Plessy fought to be “separate but equal” in their community.
Throughout history, African-Americans had been denied basic human rights. In the 1900s the black community dealt with challenges, such as segregated schools, buses, bathrooms and racial oppression based upon their skin color. In the 1950s and 60s, mass nonviolent protests were organized by major Civil Rights groups and the roadway to racial equality was underway.
In the 1960’s there was a push for African Americans to gain equal rights as whites and to abolish segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. led movements by using civil disobedience which disobeyed an unjust law. Radicals like Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party used black nationalism and the idea of self reliance to push for equality. There were small gains which included the desegregation of local and interstate buses, schools, and lunch counters. Although their actions made improvements, there was still more to be done to push for equality.
Climacteric means crucial and encountered means faced. Three people encountered climacteric life changing events in the three excerpts named I never had it made, Guts, and Warriors don’t cry. Jackie Robinson, Gary Paulsen, and Melba Beal’s all faced crucial turning points in their life that affected themselves as a person, but also their country. Jackie Robinson faced racism while playing in the major leagues, these turning affected Jackie as a person and also the people around him. A turning point that affected Jackie was when Robinson said, ‘’there were threats against” he and his family and, “even out to out physical harm” made to him.
During the 1960s, there were many protests for equality and the ending of segregation. “On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, went to the local Woolworth’s department store and sat at an area that was reserved for whites” (Foner, 972). They continued to protest and a few whites joined them. Due to this, “Demonstrations spread across the country” (Foner, 972) and the four students became the leading force for social change. However, the protests led to many blacks getting beaten.
In the early twentieth century, the United States was going through a dramatic social change. For many years the U.S had a background history of slavery that lasted for 245 years. On June 19 1865, slavery in the United States completely ended, but the southern states were still trying to get use to the new law and resisted social interaction among people of different races. In particular, blacks were subject to special Jim Crow laws which limited their rights and attempted to keep the race in a low rank to whites. Even thought the some white people did not agree with this law and felt as if it was to much for them, blacks people felt, and experienced the pressure of prejudice for any decades.
In 1954 the Brown v Board of education court case was closed. With the decision to desegregate all public schools, restaurants and restrooms. For nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed and the slaves in the south were freed they still were not treated like human beings. In the 1950s the Jim Crow laws is what held the African Americans back from getting into the workforce and the community's. There were many different people that were touching for the change of view of the African Americans.
Racism was a way of life and many milestones have passed to overcome racist issues. Racism affected many African Americans back in the 1950s, meaning that many school systems back then had limitations of the American Dream due to the skin color of the African Americans. Racism and discrimination played a big role of African American lives. Early in the 1950s America was still racially segregated labeling all African American as second class citizens, making whites in this case first class citizens making them have higher power then African Americans. Racism was known in the 1950s because of the Jim Crows era because blacks were less likely to get into an elite school then their white peers.
Cox 3 Race in America during the 1950?s Racism is prejudice against someone of a different race based on the belief that one?s own race is superior.1 Blacks have been fighting against racial discrimination for centuries and during the 1950?s, the struggle entered the national consciousness.2 After the Civil War ended in 1865, blacks gained their freedom; however, they did not gain equality in the eyes of the whites. The Great Migration, which was an influx of blacks moving to the North, resulted from harsh Jim Crow laws in the South and better opportunities in the North. Blacks strived for equality and fought for their natural rights but struggled to find their place in the white world. Ralph Ellison?s Invisible Man shows that during the 1950?s, although blacks moved North for social and economic freedom, it was still necessary to fight to achieve these freedoms due to racism, segregation, and the struggle to cement their individual identities.
Although slavery was abolished and African Americans were granted citizenship, they still suffered from racial inequality. Widespread racism continued to oppress African Americans. Document 6 – A Public Fountain in North Carolina 1950 by photographer, Steve Kasher (The Civil Rights Movement). Segregation in public facilities – This photograph by Elliot Erwitt epitomizes racial discrimination in the South during 1950.
During the 1930s to the 1950s, the struggle against racism and white supremacy shaped the lives of black culture. African Americans during this time wanted to become a source of strength and assert themselves within the American society. The constant defeat and reject of a white supremacy race has caused many barriers for black culture. Blacks were faced with a negative image that stereotype them as lazy, dumb, and promiscuous. This perception from white people has caused blacks to be rejected as a race, which challenged then to take a stance against negative distortion and help built a better community.
The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place during the 1950’s and into the late 60’s for African Americans. The movement was meant to gain equal rights and end the segregation of blacks and whites. The Civil War had officially abolished slavery in 1865, but it did not end discrimination against African Americans. They still continued to tolerate the devastating effects of racism in the United States, particularly in the South. They also enforced strict segregation through “Jim Crow” laws and disregarded violence from white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1968, black men and women were treated much differently than nowadays. They were separated from white people, whites believing that black people were lower than them. Evidence for this is,” Throughout the 60's, racism changed dramatically in a various number of ways. Changes involved the passage of bills into laws as well as involving the overall attitude of the people. Racism was largely based on white people's hatred towards blacks until the 1960's, when several major events increased animosity both from whites towards blacks and from blacks towards whites”(Cyberlearning)
