The Civil Rights Movement
By Shelbee Huffman Period. 4
Our Equal and Just Society
The Civil Rights Movement impacted today's society drastically. There is no more segregation between the whites and black communities, they can vote, and even be part of the U.S Government. Everything is equal between the two races.
While there may still be racism from some, it is not as bad as it was back then.
Strategies and Tactics
The African Americans, and even some white, of the Civil Rights Movement went with a non-violent way of fighting for their rights. They took advantage of the media, did boycotts, demonstrations, and sit-ins. Even though these were non-violent, the people who participated still got arrested.
A strategic action the African American people took was a bus boycott. This was made because Rosa Parks, an African American women, was arrested after she refused to give up her seat for a white man. Together, the whole communites refused to take the bus, or any public transportation, as long as they were not equal to both races. So, instead of riding the bus, the African American people walked, carpooled, and even had white housewives to drive them to work. The bus transportation companies faced financial problems because most of their riders were African Americans, so they had to either desegregate, or lose a lot of their money.
Another action were the sit-ins. A sit-in is when African Americans go, and sit in a white's only lunch counter, and ask for service. If they were refused service, they would just sit there, and waited for service. They were threatened, and even had food thrown at them, but they didn't move until they were served or got arrested. If a white person decided to take a physical way to handle it, the African American would curl up in a ball, and take the beating. When those students were arrested, another group would replace them. This first started out when a group of North Carolina university students read about the non-violent actions. As it got more, and more popular, a lot of media footage was captured which showed the students getting beat, threatened, and arrested. It took awhile, but slowly, but surly, more restaurant owners ended segregation in their restaurant.