The civil rights movement

Résumé du document

At the beginning of the 1950's, in the Southern states, fewer than 5% of the prospected black voters were allowed to vote. Shrewd Southern politicians set up new means of perpetuating the black's powerlessness. Ever since it's founding in 1909 as a voluntary interracial organization, the NAACP recognized the raging legal war against the consequences of segregation and racism. Its Legal Defense and Educational Fund was set up early in 1939. After WWII, a Baptist preacher, Thurgood Marshall, became a legendary figure of courage. He was a council for NAACP and he would later become in 1967 the 1st black Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The historical case, known as Brown VS. The Board of Education of Topecca (Kansas), came in front of the Supreme Court whose Chief Justice was Earl Warren. On 17 May 1954, the Courts opinion indicated that education represented a central experience in life and the critical question was: "Does segregation in schools, solely on the basis of race, deprived the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities?"

Extraits

[...] The Civil Rights Act was eventually signed into law by President Johnson in 1964. But back to the 1950's, the Montgomery bus boycott laid the foundation of the Civil Rights Movement for the 1960's. From it, the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) emerged, in which Martin Luther King Jr. had his headquarters in 1958. It boycotted restaurants, transportation companies, and hotels, using black pressure against white owners who refuse to desegregate. the sit-in movement On 1st February young black freshmen at a North Carolina college in Greensborough started the student phase of the Civil Rights revolution. [...]

[...] They finally started outright and systematic resistance to desegregation as Dwight D. Eisenhower offered tacit approval to segregations in Texas and Alabama. State legislators began to pass resolutions calling for massive resistance declaring the Supreme Court decision to be null, void, and of no effect. In autumn 1957, the crisis at Central High School in Little Rock (Arkansas) dramatized the political forces at work. National troops blocked the entry to black children. Federal troops were sent to Little Rock by Dwight D. [...]

[...] It was the organizing basis for a mass movement. Bus segregation in Alabama was eventually declared unconstitutional on 13 November 1956. The Montgomery movement highlighted themes that would dominate the Civil Rights struggle for many years. Three elements can be pointed out: ( One that demonstrates dramatically that black American could sacrifice their comfort and risk their jobs to stand in dignity. ( A sense of self-confidence created a rising of consciousness: full equality or nothing. ( It produced an articulate and persuasive leader: Martin Luther King Jr. [...]

[...] Conclusion The willingness of Blacks to seek change, to struggle for freedom, to act for justice, was remarkable. The part played by Martin Luther King Jr. and Ella Baker must be underlined. From NAACP to the youth group of students at the Conference of Raleigh (North Carolina), she played an important part. Edgar Evers, former war veteran, who cast his vote in Mississippi for the 1st time in 1946. He was assassinated in 1963. The movement also had strength among Allen University, a black college in South Carolina. [...]

[...] In 1975, another shootout occurred and 2 FBI agents were killed. An Indian activist, Pelletier, was found guilty (cf. Incident at Oglala, film by R. Redford) : the Pine Ridge shootout. He always proclaimed his innocence. In the 1960's, a gay liberal movement emerged. During the Stone Mole riot in 1965, they only gained momentum. Anti-discrimination acts were passed in many places guaranteeing equal treatment for their sexual orientation. Students were very much part of the counter-culture of the 1960's. [...]