Goals Of The Civil Rights Movement In The 1960's

Throughout the 1960’s, the widespread movement for African American civil rights had changed in terms of its goals and strategies. The campaign had intensified during this decade, characterized by greater demands for equality and more aggressive efforts. The support of the Civil Rights movement had also changed from a broad reaching to soon just African Americans, the goals of the movement became high-reaching and specific. African Americans’ struggle for equality during the 1960’s was a relentless movement that used change for progress going from a non-violent approach to exhibiting violence. As we had previously seen during Lincoln’s Presidency the 14th, 15th and 16th amendments had all helped African Americans gain a new sense of equality

The movement had small goals, and did not aim to overcome the racial tensions in a aggressive manner. The fight for Civil Rights had not started during this time period, but were starting to pick up national recognition. America was slowly but surely aware of the racial change that was occurring. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court had taken on a monumental case that would make history. The decision of Brown v. Board of Education, had stated that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. This was a small step in Civil Rights that showed that the modest goals of the Civil Rights Movement could be accomplished without the necessary force or aggression. As we continue throughout the late 1950’s and early 1960’s many Civil Rights groups adopted the practice of nonviolence. Another example of peaceful non-violent protests occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina. Here we see the first wave of sit-ins occur, where students would peacefully eat their food in white only sections of restaurants, while being tormented by onlookers who would throw food and drinks at them while also calling them rather unfriendly racial slurs. During the early 1960’s we see the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC that teaches student how to bear the threats and assaults that occurred upon these college students who were involved

We suddenly go from modest goals and non-violence to huge aspirations and groups associated with Black Power rise. Stokely Carmichael, a major leader of the SNCC during the 1960’s, began to become a more aggressive leader by 1966, as he stated in his socialist vision, “The society we seek to build among black people, then, is not a capitalist one. It is a society in which the spirit of community and humanistic love prevail.” It is evident in this line that the civil rights activists were no longer satisfied with just desegregation, but rather sought out complete integrate into a socialist-American society. This America, which Carmichael sees holds no prejudice to any contributing member of the nation. A major symbol of the more aggressive strategies of the African-American Civil Rights Movement is the formation of the Black Panthers, a black pride organization that developed in October of 1966 in the interest of African-American civil rights.. Of the Ten Points by which the Black Panthers lived out their duties, the number one statement of the list read, “We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities' education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.” From this reading we understand that the young men in the Black Panther group wanted rapid change not the slow change that was occurring already. A