Civil Rights Essay Research Paper Although the

Civil Rights Essay, Research Paper

Although the Civil War brought about the freedom of slaves in the 1860s, blacks were not entirely free until the 1960s. Following the abolition of slavery, blacks found themselves still under racial oppression. The majority of the racial problems occurred in the South. In many areas of the South, laws blocked their right to vote, move freely in society, and own property. In addition, lynching and killing of blacks occurred regularly with no punishment for the white racists. These injustices continued and with them black resentment for it grew. In 1954, with the decision of The United States Supreme Court to overturn the “Separate but equal” doctrine during the Brown verses the Board of Education case the civil rights movement began. After years of peaceful demonstrations, trials, and extreme patience, blacks finally gained all of their rights, which made them equal to whites.

The 1869 Plessy vs. Ferguson court case made the decision that declared “Separate but equal facilities” for African Americans. In 1954, The United States Supreme Court made the decision to overturn the “Separate but equal” doctrine during the Brown verses the Board of Education case. The legal argument, which resulted in the decision that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional was presented by Thurgood Marshall, the chief counselor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This provided the legal foundation of the civil rights movement of the 1950 s and 60’s.

The event that moved African Americans more than any other to come together and work for justice was the case of Emmett Louis Till. Emmett Till was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He was sent to Mississippi, when he was fourteen to spend the summer with his uncle. He bragged to his southern black friends that he even had a white girlfriend. His unbelieveing friends dared Emmett to go into a store and ask a white woman on a date. Na ve to the racist customs of the South, Till went inside the store, hugged Carol Bryant’s waist, and squeezed her hand. He even whistled at her as his friends rushed him away. On August 28, 1955, Carol Bryant’s husband, Roy, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, took Emmett from his Uncle s home. His body was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River, naked, beaten, decomposed, and shot in the head. The two white men were tried one month later by an all white jury, and despite the fact that they admitted abducting Till, they were acquitted because the body was too badly mangled to be positively identified. His mother insisted on an open-casket funeral to show what the white men had done to her son. Photographs of Till s body were reprinted across the country, allowing millions to become enraged over the injustice. Till’s murder had become a rallying point for the civil rights movement. Protests were organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This event forced Congress to include a clause for federal investigations of civil rights violations in the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. The arrest caused a disturbance in the black community that started the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Other than a few black taxis, African Americans walked everywhere. After more than a year of boycotting the buses and a legal battle, the Montgomery buses desegregated. This was a huge step in the process of desegregation everywhere.

After the Brown vs. the Board of Education case, segregation in schools was supposed to be no longer permitted. However, in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, out of 517 black students, who lived in the Central High district, nine decided to try to attend the Little Rock integrated high school, they became known to the world as the Little Rock nine . When the nine black students tried to enter on the first day of school, they were turned away by the National Guard ordered by Governor Faubus. Judge Davies ruled that Governor Faubus had not used the troops to preserve the law, but to prevent the students from entering. Governor Faubus had to remove the troops, but the Little Rock Police Department took over. On September 23, 1957 an angry crowed gathered around the school as the students tried to enter. The black students entered through the side door, but were escorted out of the building as the enraged, white protestors stood by. When President Eisenhower learned about the situation in Little Rock he sent one thousand members of the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to protect the students and keep the situation under control. With the army troops clearing a path through the protestors, the Little Rock nine were taken into school. Although only one of the nine students graduated from high school, they got the federal government to show that it would not allow for local or state governments to go against its authority on integration policies.

While protests and boycotts achieved moderate successes in desegregating aspects of education and transportation, other public facilities such as restaurants, theatres, libraries, amusement parks, and churches still either denied or limited access to African Americans. In 1960, college students in Greensboro, North Carolina began to try their own methods for promoting change in their area. They had sit-i