American Civil Rights Movement Essay

The American Civil Rights Movement: An Analysis Through Normative and Empirical Political Approaches.

Introduction:

The American civil rights movement was one of the crucial parts of world history after the Second World War. It was a social movement to abolish legalized racism, discrimination which mainly took place in the southern part of America. This movement originated from the enduring efforts of enslaved Africans and their descendants, spanning centuries, to come out of racial oppression and abolish slavery. The social movement's remarkable nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually led to new federal legal protections for the civil rights of all Americans.

Political theory is the study of the values and ideologies

Though the citizenship was given to all African Americans, racism and discrimination still prevailed in America.

During the Reconstruction era, Black people took on leadership roles and held public office and worked for legislative changes which promoted equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution provided the Black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment provided Black American men the right to vote. But many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy with these amendments because they thought that people they had once enslaved were now equal to them.

To exclude Black people from political and social activities in the US, Jim Crow’s laws were established in the 19th century. Jim Crow laws were a group of state and local laws that legalized and promoted racial segregation. This law was named after a Black minstrel show character. These laws were meant to marginalize African Americans by refusing them to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. People who failed to obey Jim Crow laws often faced fines, arrest, violence and

Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that the Black and white people could be “separate but equal."

Before World War II, most Black people were working as low-wage farmers, factory workers, domestics or servants. By the early 1940s, jobs related to war was increasing rapidly, but since African Americans were not paid enough, they refused to work. After that, thousands of Black Americans protested regarding equal employment rights. Thus, on June 25, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802. It provided national defence jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, colour or national origin.

Black men and women served heroically and fearlessly in World War II, despite suffering segregation and discrimination during their deployment. When the Cold War began, President Harry Truman started a civil rights agenda, and in 1948 issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military. This movement paved a path for Black Americans to fight for their better life in the society, where discrimination is prevailing.

Facts of the