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Positive Effects Of The Civil Rights Movement

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America is known for its revolution and its civil war. The history of America is mostly painted in positive light, but many choose to ignore the negatives. African Americans prior to the 1950s did not fight back to their oppressor however, that quickly changed. The civil rights movement began in 1954 to confront the racial discrimination of African Americans here in the USA. Before these protests and marches occurred, and even during, African Americans were force to endure countless amounts of abuse and segregation from many public areas. The effects of the civil rights movement have changed the shape of American society immensely and many, not just African Americans, have benefited from the sacrifices of many. A good education is something …show more content…

It goes all the way to the voting polls. Prior to 1965, when African-Americans wanted to vote they had to pass, what many now say was an impossible literacy test and if they did there was chance that they could denied the right to vote based prejudice. "Finally, the bill made obstructing an individual’s right to vote a federal crime. On May 26, 1965, the Senate passed the Voting Rights Act by a vote of 77 to 19"(U.S. House of Representatives). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 did away with the literacy and ensure that African Americans would be able to not only to register to vote but also be permitted into the buildings where voting took place. Some undermine the importance of the Voting Rights Act because there are people who decide not to vote in elections anyway. Many believed that most did not care to vote anyway. However, the impact of this act was felt immediately and was expressed in the increased of registered voters. "The measure dramatically increased voter registration in the short term. By 1969, 60 percent of all southern blacks were registered. Predictably, the bill’s impact was most dramatic in the Deep South. In Mississippi, for instance, where less than 7 percent of African Americans qualified to vote in 1964, 59 percent were on voter rolls by 1968. By 1975, approximately 1.5 million African Americans had registered to vote in the South"(U.S. House of Representatives). With …show more content…

Those who lead the civil rights movement sacrificed their lives for this generation and the next. The civil rights movement forced change so little girls and boys can now receive a good education all while being surrounded by others from different walks of life. The movement has granted African Americans the right to vote and has stopped businesses from discriminating others without consequences. Martin, Rose, Malcolm, and many others had a dream about what this generation is living through. But, there is more work to do and people should never settle for anything less than the best. Change began with them and change does not and should not stop with

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Although African Americans were free, they were treated as less than a white U.S Citizen. Up until 1870, black people were unable to vote. Ulysses S. Grant despised these injustices and made it his presidential goal to fight for civil rights. On February 3, the 15th Amendment was passed giving African Americans the right to vote. This empowered a new collective of people to voice their opinions.

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Originally, African Americans had to be segregated and weren’t even allowed to vote. In 1965 after the Montgomery March, Lyndon B Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act, and later in 1968 both the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the Fourteenth Amendment were passed. The Fourteenth Amendmendment said that “all persons born of naturalized in the United States” could legally vote. These acts got rid of literacy tests, and in 1968, when Nixon became president (Document H), there was over two times the amount of African American voters than there was in 1960 (Document G). African Americans also gained large support from a president, John F. Kennedy, which wasn’t something anyone had expected looking back at how past presidents acted.

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Observably, the Jim Crow laws passed by southern states effectively disfranchised African-Americans from the late nineteenth century until well into the 20th century. In the ongoing of Reconstruction, after the Civil War, African Americans in the south briefly enjoyed voting privileges because they felt nearly equal to whites. However, around 1890, legally sanctioned disfranchisement occurred abruptly. For example, during the years’ right after the Civil War, African Americans made up as much as forty-four percent of the registered electorate in Louisiana, but by 1920, they constituted only 1 percent of the electorate. In Mississippi, almost seventy percent of eligible African Americans were registered to vote in 1867 and after 1890, less than six percent were eligible to vote.

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To accomplish social equality and justice has been a long controversial issue in U.S. history. Voting Rights Act of 1965 should be understood as a tremendous accomplishment today because it not only represent a symbol of the triumph of fighting social injustice, but also open the first gate for African American and minority to strive for more political power in order to create a “great society.”

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In his speech he explained why they wanted the right to vote, “If the Negro knows enough to pay taxes to support government, he knows enough to vote; taxation and representation should go together... ” (“African Americans,” 2016). In 1869, when Congress debated on the Fifteenth Amendment, the first ever black national meeting of African Americans took place in the convention in Washington, D.C and those who attended the convention spent time meeting with member of Congress, encouraging them to pass a strong Amendment guaranteeing black male suffrage worldwide (“African Americans,” 2016). Democrats feared ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, because they believed that it would create 170,000 loyal black Republican voters in the North and West and to vote against it, they claimed that it restricted the states’ rights to run their own election and also that the low literacy of the black population would affect the votes (“African Americans,” 2016). Despite all Democratic oppositions, the Republicans won ratification victories and in March 30, 1869, President Grant officially proclaimed the Fifteenth Amendment as part of the Constitution.

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The Voting Rights Act was one of the most revolutionary bills ever passed by the congressional legislation in the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law on August 6th, 1965, not only as part of politics but also, a depiction of morals. Since 1965, it has protected minority voters at the polls, but it has been fifty years since the Voting Rights Act has been passed and it is still a controversial topic that is constantly debated on today. The voting rights of all minorities throughout the country are once again under attack which impacts one’s ability to exercise his or her constitutional right as a citizen.

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The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

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With the want of these goals comes about change, an impact, and a response, and the Civil Rights Movement impacted America by gaining the civil rights for African Americans, starting the integration of schools, and also bringing

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The Voting Rights Act was passed into law on August 6, 1965. The law prohibited the use of poll taxes and literacy tests that prevented Southern Blacks from voting. It also gave the federal government authority to supervise how poll taxes are conducted within places with disfranchised African Americans. After the Civil War, regardless of the 15th amendment, which banned the states from denying the right to vote of male citizens based on their race or previous condition of servitude before the war, discrimination was still around, prevented African Americans from voting. Many voting rights activists were also being mistreated violently.

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African Americans face a struggle with racism which has been present in our country before the Civil War began in 1861. America still faces racism today however, around the 1920’s the daily life of an African American slowly began to improve. Thus, this time period was known by many, as the “Negro Fad” (O’Neill). The quality of life and freedom of African Americans that lived in the United States was constantly evolving and never completely considered ‘equal’. From being enslaved, to fighting for their freedom, African Americans were greatly changing the status quo and beginning to make their mark in the United States.

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The African American Civil Rights movement existed at large between the early fifties and the late sixties in a society that was constantly on the verge of social destruction. The black rights movement existed politically, socially, and economically everywhere in the United States. As time progressed the movement developed and saw many changes along with schisms separating activists and how they approached getting their rights. In the early fifties there was a large non-violent integration based movement spearheaded by figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. However, as the time progressed, the movement started seeing a more aggressive leadership with figures such as Malcolm X, but eventually it turned into an extremist movement

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Although technically people of color had the right, white people were making it very difficult to register. When African Americans went to register they would be tested continuously, something white people never had to deal with. Only two percent of African Americans in the south could vote. Before the march from Selma to Montgomery there were many protests to try to gain fair voting rights. One man, Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed at a peaceful protest by a state trooper.

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Even though the government adopted the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African Americans’ suffrages were still restricted because of southern states’ obstructions. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was important for blacks to participate in political elections, but before this act was passed, there were several events led to its proposal. The government gave African Americans’ the right to vote by passing the 15th Amendment, but in the Southern States, blacks’ suffrages were limited by grandfather clauses, “poll taxes, literacy tests, and other bureaucratic restrictions” (ourdocuments.gov). As times went on, most African Americans couldn’t register their votes.

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In order to look at the impact that the Civil Rights Movement had on society today it is important to first look back at where it all began. The author will base her opinion around the change in American culture, as America is one of the most powerful countries in today’s modern society and many countries follow the lead of America. The fight for justice and equality went on for many years in America and it has become one of the most well known movements in history. The note to take action all started when the African-American citizens decided that they

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Introduction The story of the Civil Rights Movements of African Americans in America is an important story that many people knew, especially because of the leadership Martin Luther King Jr. Black people in America, between 1945 and 1970 had to fight for rights because they had been segregated by white people, they didn’t have equal laws compared to white people. So they initiated the Civil Rights Movements to fight for getting equal civil rights.

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