The Laws in the Reconstruction Era and the Civil Rights Movement

The Laws in the Reconstruction Era and the courteous Rights Move man causalityt The civic rights safari that started and grew with and through the eld following the chocolate-brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and with the assistant of the adjudge Rights Act of 1965 (Patterson, 2001) marked an important period that accomplish more than ending sequestration in cities and below the belt rights it led to the transformation of American kind, cultural, and political life. The accomplished rights movement did non plainly demonstrate that the rights of African Americans should not be ignored besides to a fault showed how a nation as a all told had the power to change itself.The way the cultivated rights unfolded, gave opposites a chance to reach equal opportunity in the future. When one thinks of the words accomplished rights one often thinks of Martin Luther moguls I Have a Dream mother tongue before the nations capital. M all can recall television footage of calm marchers being a stacked by fire hoses and law of nature dogs. These and other images can be seen as a struggle and intense burst of stern activists that characterized the cultured rights movement of the mid twentieth century. Yet African Americans have always struggled for their rights.Mevery consider the obliging rights movement to have begun not in the mid-fifties but when Africans were first brought in chains, centuries earlier, to American shores (Gillon & Matson, 2001). In particular, those African Americans who fought their enslavement and demanded funda moral citizenship rights l caution the root word for the modern courtly rights movement. The first slaves were brought to America in 1619 ( Gillon & Matson, 2001). Not until the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery following the courtly War did shadys create their freedom (Gillon & Matson, 2001). but the fresh freed discolours could not read or write and did not have money or property, and racism and di fference remain, especially in the S bug outh, where slavery had predominated for so long. To aid black assimilation into sinlessness society, federal and introduce g everywherenments implemented many democratic reforms between the years 1865 and 1875, the Reconstruction era (Gillon & Matson, 2001). The Fourteenth Amendment, for example, guaranteed blacks federally saved equal rights, and the ordinal Amendment granted black men the right to select (Gillon & Matson, 2001).Despite these and other measures to supporter the former slaves rights, the effects of the Reconstruction era were goldbrick lived. In the area of constitutional grey fair society, many did whatever it took to keep blacks from enjoying any of the benefits of citizenship. Some, for example, want to keep African Americans from equal rights through agony or intimidation. A number of anti-Semite(a) meetings, much(prenominal) as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), used even more roughshod methods including lynching an d other forms of frenzy to terrify African Americans seeking to exercise their rights or advance their social position.You can read alsoSimilarities and Conflicts in a Streetcar Named DesireAs the constitutional guarantees of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments go on to slowly disappear, the Supreme tourist court struck perhaps the most crippling blow to the black struggle for equality In 1896 the Court govern in Plessy v. Ferguson that blacks and colours could be juristicly separated as long as the facilities for each were equal (Chong, 1991). Facilities for blacks and whitenesss were seldom equal. More importantly, the Supreme Courts decision, by legally backing segregation, gave white society a powerful tool to keep blacks from enjoying the rights of citizenship.With the Supreme Court now reinforcing the Souths segregation practices, the environs of white racism gave birth to the Jim Crow Laws, southern customs and laws that kept parks, drinking fountain s, streetcars, restaurants, theaters, and other in the open shopping centre(predicate) places nonintegrated (Conklin, 2008). In response to Jim Crow, which by 1900 panoptic into all parts of cosmos life, several leadinghip in the black community stepped up to logical argument political strategies to fight injustice and racial inequality. single of the dominant figures of this early movement for civil rights was an smart W.E. B. Du Bois, who encouraged African Americans to fight for the rights that they deserved. Du Bois crusade led, in part, to the formation of the guinea pig Association for the Advancement of glowering People (NAACP), a civil rights organization that brought unneurotic lawyers, educators, and activists to collectively fight for black civil rights (Powledge, 2001). done protests, agitation, and legal action, the NAACP continued a steady running play to end segregation in housing, education, and other areas of worldly concern life.With the outbreak o f World War I, well over a quarter of a million black troops joined the military, but were relegated to segregated units (Romano, 2006). At the same time, many blacks traveled north to take advantage of the rapidly increasing defense industries. This big migration, however, aggravated unemployment and other problems that already plagued the northern urban centers. Racial problems continued. When the United States entered World War II, African Americans were, as before, subjected to discrimination in the defense ndustries and in military units, despite their willingness to risk their lives in fall upon (Powledge, 2001). These wartime experiences, along with a growth in the African American population dissolvered in a good deal of black protest that brought Jim Crow under issue scrutiny. During the 1950s, two incidents brought the issue of civil rights squarely into the unexclusive spotlight. On May 17, 1954, the NAACP, which had been steadily chipping inter case at the legal f oundations of segregation, won an unprecedented legal victory The Supreme Court unanimously control in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in open initiates was unconstitutional (Polsgrove, 2001). Chief referee Earl Warren presented the Courts decision, in which he describes why separate but equal in education represents a violation of African Americans rights requisition of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is great when it has the mandate of the law for the policy of separating the races is usually construe as denoting the inferiority of the pitch blackness group. A whizz of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn.Segregation, with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to inhibit the educational and mental development of Negro children and deprive them of some of the benefits they would cope with in a racially integrated school system (Patterson, 2001). By ruling against separate but equal doctrine set by the theme Plessy v. Ferguson, the court had struck a blow to segregation. But muted many southern racist practices were still being practiced, and many whites remained opposed to change. With the ruling of Brown, the affects remained slow, if not existing at all.Many school officials refused to follow with the ruling and the threat of harassment for the ruling had unleashed pugnacious unsusceptibility pr issuanceing many black students from enrolling in all-white schools. At the same time, schools for black students remained overcrowded, dilapidated, and, in general, grossly inferior to those that their white counterparts enjoyed (Conklin, 2008). The second incident that captured the public eye unfolded in Montgomery, Alabama, when a woman named Rosa pose started the spark that would provide the momentum for the entire civil rights movement.On December 1, 1955, the NAACP member boarded a public pot and took a seat in the Negro secti on in the back of the bus. Later, Parks refused to part with her seat to a white passenger, defying the law by which blacks were required to give up their seats to white passengers when the front section, reserved for whites, was filled (Polsgrove, 2001). Parks was in a flash arrested. In protest, the black community launched a one-day local anesthetic boycott of Montgomerys public bus system. As support for Parks began, the NAACP and other leaders took advantage of the opportunity to draw caution to their cause.They enlisted the help of a relatively unknown preacher, Martin Luther world power junior , to organize and lead a massive resistance movement that would challenge Montgomerys racist laws (Kohl, 2005). Four days afterward Parks arrest, the comprehensive Montgomery bus boycott began (Kohl, 2005). It lasted for more than a year. Despite taunting and other forms of harassment from the white community, the boycotters persevered until the federal courts intervened and dese gregated the buses on December 21, 1956 (Kohl, 2005).The Montgomery bus boycott was important because it demonstrated that the black community, through unity and determination, could make their voices heard and effect change. Picketing, boycotting, and other forms of resistance spread to communities throughout the South. Meanwhile, King emerged as the movements preeminent leader. His adherence to the unbloody maneuver used by the Indian nationalist Mohandas Gandhi would largely characterize the entire civil rights movement and inspire large scale participation by whites as well as blacks (Sunnemark, 2003).From 1955 to 1960, the efforts of blacks to bring attention to their cause met with some success. In 1957 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, the first since Reconstruction, to establish a civil rights partitioning in the Justice Department that would en thread ballot and other rights (Davis, 2001). Meanwhile, the NAACP continued to challenge segregation, and out of that came meter of new organizations that where formed. Among these, the Southern Christian Leadership league (SCLC), a Christian-based organization founded in 1957 and led by King, became a major force in organizing the civil rights movement (Sunnemark, 2003).An organization called the Student Nonviolent set up Committee (SNCC) grabbed the media spotlight, and started many protests when it backed four students who launched a sit-in case to desegregate southern eat counters (Conklin, 2008). Not only was the nonviolent sit in technique used to desegregate other public places, but it gave large numbers of African American youths a way to participate in the movement. This helped gain national attention, bringing equal rights demands before the public eye.The protest movement continued to accelerate as different leaders tested new tactics and strategies. Many established community-based projects that sought to combat the barriers that kept blacks from vote. Others targeted the white terroris m that continued to intimidate blacks into submission. King and other leaders launched a massive campaign that brought together thousands of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama, one of the most segregated and violently racist cities at the time (Sunnemark, 2003). early in the campaign, King was arrested and jailed.From his cell, he penned his illustrious letter from Birmingham Jail, which earned him the support of many sympathetic whites (Conklin, 2008). Meanwhile, as blacks continued the desegregation campaign in Birmingham, an event occurred that irrevocably commanded the attention of America and its leaders In an effort to stop a demonstration, the notoriously racist police Chief Eugene Bull Connor turned abominable attack dogs and fire hoses on the peaceful demonstrators (Sunnemark, 2003). The force of the water slammed women and children to the ground and sent others hurling through the air.Television coverage and other media reports of these brutal assaults shock the nation and v iewers around the world. afterward a month of this highly publicized violence, city officials repealed Birminghams segregation laws (Powledge, 2001). In Birminghams aftermath, mass demonstrations continued to spread, as did fierce resistance deep down the white community. In response to these events, King and other leaders planned a mass gathering on the nations capital in the summertime of 1963 (Sunnemark, 2003).On August 28, the March on uppercase brought an estimated quarter of a million people, black and white, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his now famous I Have a Dream speech (Romano, 2006). This triggered the SNCC to start a wide-scale campaign to bolster voting rights. The group launched a massive voter adjustment drive throughout the South, concentrating on Mississippi, where less than 5 percent of the farmings eligible blacks were registered to vote (Conklin, 2008). Freedom Summer, as it became known, was marked by episodes of extreme white ter rorism.One of the most heinous examples complicated three young civil rights workers. The trio was workings to register voters when they were arrested and later murdered by the Ku Klux Klan (Patterson, 2001). By 1965 the voting campaign had shifted to Selma, Alabama, where, under the leadership of King, thousands of demonstrators began a fifty-mile trek to Montgomery (Sunnemark, 2003). This time, as the peaceful demonstrators saluteed the Edmund Pettis Bridge, state troopers used police whips and clubs to halt their progress.The scene unredeemed into American living rooms via the nightly news. After Bloody Sunday, thousands of people gathered again to set down the march, this time under the protection of the Alabama National Guard (Powledge, 2001). On August 6, 1965, shortly after the highly publicized events in Selma, President Johnson write into law the Voting Rights Act, which, for the first time since Reconstruction, effectively opened up the polls to southern black Ameri cans (Davis, 2001).By the mid-1960s, many black activists started to lose assent in the civil rights reforms that thus far had targeted only the most blatant forms of discrimination (Chong, 1991). While Kings nonviolent direct action approach had dominated the movement, many people particularly in the North, adopted a more revolutionary stance. As a wave of nationalist sentiment grew within the movement, organizations such as SNCC and CORE took up more militant agendas. SNCC, for example, began promoting a program of black power a term that meant racial pride (Conklin, 2008).The superlative spokesman for mysterious Nationalism was Malcolm X. With his working-class roots and magnetic style of speaking, Malcolm appealed to a lot of young urban blacks. Malcolm rejected Dr. Kings advocacy of nonviolence and instead urged his followers to secure their rights by any heart and soul necessary (Sunnemark, 2003). After Malcolms black lotion in February 1965, another extremely provocativ e Black Nationalist group emerged the Black Panthers, a group that boldly adopted the idea by any means necessary (Sunnemark, 2003).Race riots exploded across America, as blacks trapped in urban slums lashed out against the poverty and racism still rampant in their communities. Not only did the riots devastate ghetto areas that were home to millions of African Americans, including those in the Watts section of Los Angeles, but the racial violence started a separation between those who continued to think that civil rights could be achieved through peaceful means and those who were more violent .Kings assassination in April 1968 struck a blow to the already fractured civil rights movement. Marin Luther King Jr. became the face of national equality not just for African American but to all those who sought justice and freedom. The American civil rights movement nevertheless left a permanent mark on American society. more or less of the forms of racial discrimination came to an end, and racial violence decrease. Today, African Americans can freely exercise their right to vote, and in communities where they were once banned from the polls.Millions of African Americans have been lifted out of poverty as a result of the many economic opportunities created by the civil rights movement. as well important, the civil rights movement served as a specimen for the advancement of other minority groups, including women, the disabled, Hispanics, and many others. The civil rights movement has left a legacy in which generations after it can learn by meter reading it and not through experiencing it.