FINAL

Civil Rights Movement

By: Sammi Anderson

The Civil Rights Movement started in the 1960's. On February 1st, 1960 a
group of four African American teenagers walked into a department store and sat
down at the lunch counter in a reserved for white people. They stayed in these
seats until the department store closed and they did this for about 5 months. After
those 5 months, the department store started serving African American people.
This one event started the decade of political activism and social change.
(Foner, Eric Give Me Liberty!) The Civil Rights Movement had three very large
concepts: The ideological causes of the movement, the people who helped
influence the Civil Right Movement, and the legal causes during the 1960's.
The ideological causes of the Civil Rights Movement had a lot to do with
Martin Luther King Jr's Speech, I Have a Dream. The speech mentions his dream
for everyone to get a long with each other, and not to have the separation of
colors. When we allow freedom to ringwhen we let it ring from every city and
every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that
day when all of god's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the
old Negro spiritual, free at last, Free at last, Great god a-mighty, We free at last.
(King Jr., M. (1963). This part of the speech shows that he wanted equality
between all people. It doesnt just have to do with the colors of peoples skin, even
though that was a huge part, but he wanted everyone of all backgrounds to get a
long. Another cause of the movement was The letter from Birmingham Jail.
Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to jail in 1963 for violating the law while trying to
fight Birmingham's segregation laws with many volunteers. Birmingham, Alabama
was known as one of the most racist and segregated cities in the south. When he

was in jail with the volunteers that helped him in the sit-ins and marches, he
wrote this letter to a local, white clergy man who attacked Martins sit-ins and
marches in a local newspaper ad. (Lee, J. (2015). In this letter, he mentioned the
abuse and hate that African American

people in the south faced daily. He mentioned police brutality, and the
humiliation that they faced. (Foner, Eric Give Me Liberty!).
There were many people who helped influence the Civil Rights Movement
and who helped the movement grow. John F. Kennedy was elected as president in
1960. He has always been an advocate for equal rights. One of Kennedys first act
was establishing the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps was an organization that sent
young kids help out the educational and economic uprising in third world
countries. Another reason he sent the American kids out to the third world
countries was to help improve the image of America. In may, 1963, Kennedy went
on national TV to ban discrimination in all places against people of color, religion
and other factors. We preach freedom around the world,...but are we to say to
the wold, and much more importantly, to each other, that this is a land of the free
except for Negroes? Kennedy said in one of his speech in 1963. Foner, Eric Give
Me Liberty! Kennedy passed away on November 22, 1963 by getting shot while he
was riding in a motorcade. Kennedy was not able to see his civil rights bill pass.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the one who wanted the Civil Rights bill to be passed. In
1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed in Kennedys name. This bill banned racial
discrimination everywhere, including schools, the workplace, hospitals, etc. Foner,
Eric Give Me Liberty! Another great face to the Civil Rights Act is Rosa Parks. Rosa

parks is known as the African American lady who reused to give her seat up to a
white woman. This started many boycotts on all city buses. People in these
boycotts also walked to work instead of getting a ride to make a stand. Lee, J.
(2015)
The Legal implications of the Civil Rights Movement were all of the Court
Cases that had a big part during this time. Plessy v. Ferguson was a case in 1896
starting the separate but equal clause. This case is one of the reasons why the
Civil Rights Movement was

started. This law gave the approval to separate facilities for blacks and
whites. This law started racial discrimination through out the united states, but
mostly in the southern states. Foner, Eric Give Me Liberty! Another case was the
Brown V. Board of Education. This case started because Thurgood Marshall was
focusing on desegregating the nations schools in the 1950s. Many other cases
around the nation have already been fighting this case and wanting to
desegregate schools. The Supreme Court combined several cases regarding this
topic into a single case. This is where Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas came into play. This case lasted around two years of arguing about the
desegregation of blacks and whites. After those two long years of segregation still
being legal in the nation, the law was finally passed in 1954 and Plessy v.
Ferguson was overturned. Lee, J. (2015). The last legal implication was the Civil
Rights Act. On july 2, 1964, the law was banned. The law that discriminated
people of color, the law that made people humiliated, the law that ruined peoples
lives. Thanks to president Johnson, the Civil Rights Act went into action in 1964.

There is still discrimination in the world today against people of color, but it
has gotten better, thanks to the Civil Rights Act being passed. There is still police
brutality mainly on people of color (POC), they are still being discriminated against
just for th color of their skin, they are still being humiliated and are looked at the
lesser race. There are many activists who have a large part in equality, who are
trying to fight the war on equality, It will be an on going fight, but hopefully one
day there will be peace between everyone, disregarding the color of your skin, or
your religious views, or your back ground. Everyone should be equal and people
need to understand this. Everyones skeletons are the same and it should only
matter on whats on the inside.

CITATIONS

Foner, Eric Give Me Liberty!: An American History (Brief Fourth Edition) (Vol. One
Volume), 4th Edition. W. W. Norton & Company, 20140205. VitalSource Bookshelf
Online.
King Jr., M. (1963). I Have a Dream. Retrieved December 13, 2015, from
http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf (this was in one of your
power points).
Lee, J. (2015). Civil Rights Movement. Lecture presented at Birmingham, Alabama
(1963).