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Film Analysis: The Civil Rights Movement

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In this documentary about the Civil Rights Movement it shows actual footage of the struggles that African Americans went through to gain equal rights. In the documentary it shows various monumental moments throughout the movement, such as the sit ins that began in 1960, also the freedom rides that started in 1961, or the violence in both Birmingham and Selma. In all of these movements there are grave injustices with innocent people being attacked, beaten, and even killed. One of the first major movements of the Civil Rights Movement was the sit ins that started before the movement started. The first known sit in started in 1939 in New York. But the one that was talked about in the documentary was in Greensboro, North Carolina on February …show more content…

The freedom rides began May 4, 1961 Washington, D.C., led by CORE director James Farmer there were thirteen riders six of which were white and seven that were black. They left on two Greyhound and Trailways buses. Their plan was to go through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and ending in New Orleans, Louisiana. While stopped in Birmingham, Alabama the riders were violently attacked by Ku Klux Klan members. This was organized by the Police Commissioner Bull Connor and Police Sergeant Tom Cook, who was a supporter of the Klan. The pair wanted the rides to end in Alabama. They told Gary Thomas Rowe and FBI informer who was a member of the Eastview Klavern #13 which is one of the most violent Klan group in Alabama that they would have fifteen minutes to attack the Freedom Riders and not be arrested. On May 14th KKK members attacked the first of the two buses, the driver tried to leave the station they were at but the Klan slashed their tires. The bus got a few miles down the road and then the Klan firebombed the bus. As the bus was burning mob members held the door shut to kill the riders, but they eventually let go of the door because of speculated reason and the riders got out only to be beaten by Klan members. It took warning shots to stop the chaotic beatings to prevent lynchings. The second bus arrived and were also attacked by the Klan, but in consideration of the first bus attack they were not hurt as badly. Twelve riders were hospitalized, but most were refused care and were removed from the hospital in fear of the mob outside. After the attacks Alabama Governor John Patterson said “We can 't act as nursemaids”. When this incident happened many law enforcement officials knew it was going to happen. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy got word of the attacks and immediately contacted his assistant John Seigenthaler to talk to Alabama officials to calm the

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On March 25, 1931 the lives of nine black teenagers changed after they were allegedly accused of being involved in a gang rape of two white females. This began when a fight broke out on a train after a white male named Orville Gilley stepped on the hand of a black male named Haywood Patterson who was hanging from the train itself (Linder, “The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys”). The white males involved went to a stationmaster to report the alleged assault which resulted with posse members coming to take the nine black males away. (Linder, “The Trials of the Scottsboro Boys”). Two white, female mill workers named Ruby Bates and Victoria Price also accused the nine black males to raping them.

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Come to a mass meeting, Monday at 7:00 P.M., at the Holt Street Baptist Church for further instruction.” Due to the fact that over seventy-five percent of bus riders were African Americans, the bus company lost over $750,000: over seven million dollars today. Many African Americans carpooled or walked when they needed to travel. The participaters in the boycott persisted though peaceful protesting, demonstrating the power peaceful protests had. Eventually, King had come up with three things that he would show to the city commissioners, “the black citizens of the city would not return to the buses until: courteous treatment by the bus operators was guaranteed; passengers were seated on a first-come, first-served basis; and black bus operators were employed on predominantly black routes.”

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2. 3. The Civil Rights Movement got its start nationally with the Montgomery bus boycott. At this point, many black individuals around the nation were paying attention to the way which they were treated. Here King gave his famous speech trying to show all the injustices which African Americans faced and the

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The Civil Rights Movement happened because the African American citizens finally stood and fought for their rights. The Civil Rights Movement took place in the 1960s when many cases were brought up to the Supreme Court that led to desegregating a place or even an action. One of the most important cases was the Bailey v. Patterson case. The case’s hearing, Bailey v. Patterson case, took place on February 26th, 1962 which gave the Civil Rights Movement a huge boost. (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com)The Bailey v. Patterson case was between Samuel Bailey and a Mississippi general attorney.

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The freedom riders proved a point to show the strength of the black race, but caused a divide as the white race became threatened and ---more

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The black youths managed to push all but one white youth off the train. The white men went to the next city and reported an “assault by a gang of blacks.” When the train stopped at Paint Rock the nine black youths were arrested in Alabama and sent to jail to await their trials (Linder). The creator of the website”The trials of the Scottsboro Boys” said that there were two girls on the train near the boys these two white girls named Victoria Prince and Ruby Bates falsely accused the nine boys of rape. The girls said the boys had pistols and knives and chased them through different carts of the train and raped them(Linder).

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According to Document D, it states, "'Now everybody is gonna stick together this moment. Nobody don’t get off this bus and we go stick together.'. . . The police came and tried to make us get up and we said, 'If you put these two in jail, you’re gonna have to put all us in jail.' " This type of resistance is effective, because it proves that white Louisianians and black Louisianians had certain seats on transportation, and black Louisianians would not let that slide, and the effect this creates is giving all black Louisianians rights to sit where they feel comfortable on the bus, since they feel that their skin color is no excuse to use when excluding them from the rights that white Louisianians have when using transportation service.

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First the American civil rights movement starting to boycott the bus and protest to let their voices heard and to be treated equally. Most widely known, it started as a small protest, resulting in emergence movement leaders, and organization. It began on December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her seat to a white man.

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It was September 17, 1957 when Reverend. Fred Shuttlesworth and his family were brutally beaten after traveling miles to a Birmingham high school to improve his daughter’s education and create a better overall life for her. They were ambushed by the Ku Klux Klan when they first arrived. The Klan was very barbaric and they beat the Shuttleworth family with brass knuckles, clubs, fists and chains until they were plastered with bruises. This act of racism affected them greatly by showing them that they were not welcome in neither of these two places: their home that they traveled from and any place in the country they potentially could travel to in the future because of their skin pigment.

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On March 25, 1931, a few individuals were on a cargo train going in the middle of Chattanooga and Memphis, Tennessee. A few white young people hopped off the train and told the sheriff that they had been assaulted by a gathering of black youngsters. The sheriff nominated a force , halted and sought the train at Paint Rock, Alabama and captured the boys. Two youthful white ladies additionally got off the train

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Throughout the Freedom Rides, the authorities never really helped the riders. They would begin to protect them and wind up abandoning the group when the whites would come to attack. These attacks wouldn’t be stopped until Attorney General Kennedy sent large amounts of marshals to stop the violence. Kennedy seemed to be one of the only ones who wanted to help protect the riders, so when they were under attack they would call him and ask for his help. He would send federal marshals, who actually at one riot, filled the white mob with tear gas.

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The Abolitionists Growing up as a Christian I never could understand how people claimed to be saved or god’s servant but yet can discriminate against skin color. I was taught God is of love regardless of skin color, size or how the person looks. Such as Caucasians with African Americans and even so how could they attend church but yet have slave servants in their home? As shown in the documentary most of the film was a conflict about slavery and the few whites that was against it. Such as “Angelina Grimké” a Caucasians female Christian who despised slavery and watch her parents live with it with no moral or self-respected.

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After a federal court order had come down mandating the integration of Alabama’s school system. In the aftermath of the bombing, thousands of angry black protesters gathered at the scene of the bombing. When Governor Wallace sent police and state troopers to break the protests up, violence broke out across the city; a number of protesters were arrested, and two young African American men were killed (one by police) before the National Guard was called in to restore order. King later spoke before 8,000 people at the funeral for three of the girls (the family of the fourth girl held a smaller private service), fueling the public outrage now mounting across the

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In Anniston, Alabama, one bus was firebombed and its passengers were forced to flee for their lives. Australia- The Freedom Rides in Australia began when Charles Perkins planned a bus trip to bring awareness to racial discrimination in country communities. Indigenous people were forced to live on the outskirts of their town in missions and reserves. In those communities, there were immensely poor conditions, no plumbing or electricity to name a few.

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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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