The Cold The Major Ideological Changes In The Civil Rights Movement

The Cold War started in the late 1940s between the United States and the Soviet Union after they were the last strong foreign powers. The differences between these two nations soon made the war a fight between communism and capitalism. Americans everywhere began to develop anti-communist attitudes, beginning a period of paranoia concerning communist infiltration in everyday life. At the same time, the African American Civil Rights Movement began to grow and take form. Starting in 1954 and lasting until the late 1960s civil rights movement aimed to end segregation and ensure equal opportunity for black people. As Civil Rights leaders began to speak out against the government and capitalism, they too began to be flagged as “communists.” The Cold

The idea for the Poor People's campaign started after the Watts riots in LA. After seeing the mistreatment and violence urban cities like LA and Chicago, King realized the necessity of helping black people in major cities both within and outside the south. While he remained in his non-violent means of protesting, King used economic protests as a means of protesting capitalism and the treatment of all poor people. In King’s final speech, given to sanitation workers in Memphis, he outlines how those listening are to protest large corporations: “tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk… we are putting pressure where it really hurts.” King’s use of economic protest and boycotting major corporations is unlike any other methods of protest he utilized in the past. Through the Poor People’s Campaign, King demanded federal support for housing, employment, and anti-poverty programs to ensure financial stability. King’s main accomplishments and legacy stem from his work earlier in the movement, so his work fighting for human rights is often overlooked. King was previously known for and criticized for his willingness to cooperate with the government, but his newfound blatant criticism of capitalism and the government, King found himself flagged as a communist and threat to the public. Interestingly, just over a decade prior to King gaining this new label of “communist,” he stated in a sermon that no one could truly be both a christian and a communist. He even goes to state that communism allows for no moral order. Because King shifted his focus to human rights and the uplifting of those at the bottom of the economic ladder, he fell prey to the “communist” label, despite having denounced communism in the past. Former director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, feared that King would unify the