Key Figures In The Civil Rights Movement

One of the greatest cries for American racial equality was during the 1960's Civil Rights Movement. This was the first grand display and radical time in history where African Americans would gather together and stand up for their God-given rights as American citizens. The movement would later take a sharp turn away from nonviolent and peaceful protests, towards a new movement called "Black Power," that would change and challenge the cultural and racial war in America. Some of the main figures during these movements such as, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and Malcolm X voiced their opinions for issues the voiceless were facing. These two movements were the crucial causes for shifts in cultural, political, economical, and social

The South was a dangerous place to live for African Americans. There were many racially motivated murders and "Negros" were also living under harsh Jim Crow Laws. These laws were created during the Reconstruction Era to ensure a decree of “separate but equal.” Separate but Equal was legal under the United States Constitution (Plessey v. Ferguson was the 1896 Supreme Court hearing that instated separate but equal is not unconstitutional because it is not discrimination) and white Southerners surely made it known by separating facilities such as, water fountains, restaurants, movie theaters, schools, and many other places. These separate but equal laws were known as de jure segregation, which simple meant by law. The North did not have Jim Crow laws; in contrast to de jure they had de facto segregation. De facto segregation was not implemented by law, however it was segregation in practice. Some examples of de facto segregation were discrimination towards Negros in housing and

The Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC was an organization primarily of younger African Americans that fought for segregation issues in the South. This organization was most notably known for their famous "sit-ins," where young black men would go into "white only" restaurants and would sit on the lunch counters hoping to receive service. The sits-ins would often end with police officers escorting or arresting the young black men out. In some places the scene turned quite violent and the nonviolent protestors were brutally beaten.

The Civil Rights Movement truly led to a cultural shift in America. African Americans fought for their rights and in doing so raised awareness to a problem in American that was going unfixed. When the march from Selma, Alabama was filmed and aired on national television, many Americans who were unaware of the mistreatment of blacks in the South saw for the first time how blacks were beaten and left bloody and