The Civil Rights Movement In The 1950's

What makes America great? It seems like there are plenty of obvious answers. Some might say America is the land of the free. Others might say it’s where everyone is equal and can achieve the American dream. With the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s far behind us, most people think of racial discrimination as a part of the past and that America is this great country which created equality for all. With what seemed to be decades of peace and equality, arises something we haven’t talked about in America’s history for a while, discrimination.

For those who don’t have a complete understanding of discrimination, it is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

The Civil Rights Movement was a mass movement to secure that African Americans have equal access to and opportunities for basic privileges and rights as a U.S. citizen. From 1950’s-1960’s the African Americans have endured some of the most gruesome and discriminant behavior from one race to another whether it be targeted by high-pressure fire hose or segregated bathrooms and schools. Segregation meaning, the action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people. Once Martin Luther Kings days were up, it seemed America finally ended discrimination/segregation in employment, promoting, firing, voter registration, usage of federal funds, and public places based on race or sex. Or so we thought. Joe Feigin a U.S. sociologist and social theorist who has done plenty of his own research on racial and gender issues was quoted in 2010 saying, “Being black in the U.S. society means always having to be prepared for anti-black actions by whites, in most places and at many times of the day, week, month, or year. Being black means living with various types of racial discrimination from cradle to grave.” Feigin argues that, discriminations cannot completely be eliminated,

It still continues to happen. Disagreements have been made throughout the country whether discrimination is still an issue in society. Barrack Obama, the first African American U.S. President had this to say, “Do not say that nothing’s changed when it comes to race in America-unless you’ve lived through being a black man in the 1950s, or ‘60s, or ‘70s.” In other words, if you didn’t grow up in the 1950s, ‘60s, or ‘70s as a black man, you can’t speak on the matter of what has changed and what hasn’t. Barrack is implying that he believes that racial discriminant behavior has gotten better through the years. But, a pole by the Pew Research Center in 2014 says otherwise, “nearly nine in 10 blacks say discrimination still exist today. One in three blacks say they have experienced discrimination within the past year; that number rises to one in two when it comes to workplaces or the voting booth.” When someone is discriminated against during employment, that can have a big impact on the wealth of ones being because it is much more challenging to acquire a job. Which then leads to poverty. In fact, Richard Wolf, a USA Today reporter, gave some startling facts and statistics about poverty and wealth;

The black poverty rate has dropped from more than 40% in the 1960’s to about 27% today; child poverty similar has dipped form 67% to about 40%. Those numbers still are glaring,