Why Did The Civil Rights Movement Began Essay

In this essay we will be answering the question ‘Why did the American Civil Rights movement begin?’.The civil rights movement were many protests and boycotts that were nonviolent and campaigned against the poor treatment of black people from 1954-1968 in the United States .We are going to see what the main factors were to causing this movement, and will finally analyse pieces of evidence to come to a realistic conclusion.

Segregation created tension and a massive divide between the races which eventually started the civil rights movement.A point where this was extremely noticeable was

There was rigid segregation not only in schools but neighbourhoods, jobs and even bathrooms.In the south it was often worse as they were segregated by law

Trains and buses were also segregated and in many states marriage between whites and African American people was banned.’This quote has been taken years later and is an interpretation so may be less reliable however there has been first hand accounts and photographic evidence which strongly supports this statement.The law meant that black Americans were seen as inferior and got everything second best.By enforcing segregation in the south it created a large feeling of white supremacy and increased the tensions between black and white people, as they weren’t being allowed to mix which put a strain on the relationship and tolerance on the two races.Black people would see they were at a noticeable disadvantage getting the worst cinemas and public baths while in some states only being able to walk into other black owned shops, which there were very few of.By calling the laws the ‘Jim Crow laws’ they are ridiculing black people.It was originally a derogatory term for an African American.The law was named after a character made up by a white man who would publicly mock and shame black Americans.It is said that Rice, the creator of the character, ‘ his skin was darkened with burnt cork’.This suggest that they believed that’s what had happened to black people and has been supported by many people saying when they were young children asking if their face was black because they used paint or burnt cork which demonstrates the power Therese laws had.They claimed it made that ‘equal but separate’ but this was untrue and by them naming the law the equivalent of calling someone darkie. The law was named after a man who spread rumours about black people being useless and lazy which projects how they