The Civil Rights Movement In The 1960's

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The civil rights movement was a political, and social struggle by African Americans for reforms in the 1950s through the 1960s to gain full citizenship rights and to achieve racial equality. The need for a reform movement was encouraged even more following the end of world war II, due to most african americans still being treated as second class citizens. To fight white oppression and segregation many black people had protests, rallies, marches, strikes,sit-ins, and boycotts. Civil rights activist focused their efforts on integration of public schools, equality and end to segregation, and voting rights.
When comparing the actions and beliefs in the beginning to the actions and beliefs towards the end of the civil rights movement, that occurred in the 1950s through the 1960s there is a massive difference. The beginning beliefs of the civil rights movement was mainly shaped by the civil activists and baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. He encouraged people of color to stand and speak up for "oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever..." However, he urged them to fight in a nonviolent way because "...if repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence...." But towards the end of the civil …show more content…

After Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give up her seat in a Montgomery bus for a white passenger, a bus boycott arose. The boycott was sponsored by an organization called the Montgomery Improvement Association, they held a meeting with Martin Luther King Jr, a baptist minister, to address the group and urge them that one of the best ways to fight oppression and segregation was by protests. However, he also stressed the importance of nonviolence, to ensure safety and faster progress. Sit-ins originated in Greensboro and rapidly spread across the nation, this form of battle challenged