THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
By MARK HUBBARD
THE IMPACT OF THE MOVEMENT
The Civil Rights movement was a very successful era during the Vietnam War. It was especially influential in discovering significant historical figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There were many forms of protests consisted of sit-ins, bus boycotts, and marches that lasted for days at a time that were all successful and peaceful protests. Specifically, in Little Rock, In Arkansas nine educated black students attended a white school nearby their neighborhoods, guarded by a few coast guard officials, to ease their way into segregated schools. Thus the name the Little Rock Nine Besides from being an important step to equality, it was also a glimmering beacon of hope for all of those who fell victim to discrimination.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 altered the current state of America's “normal culture”. As black children were allowed share the same school as white kids, colored children received the same education. Blacks were beginning to be accepted to major colleges and went on to be professionals in their field. Blacks could live in the same neighborhoods and apartment buildings as whites so children were immersed in different cultures and lifestyles. This is not to say that people were stripped of their opinions and brainwashed by the government that every man and woman was created equal. People still had their opinions but the Civil Right Act of 1964 made it illegal to segregate or deny any one specific group of people for their differences. Nowadays there is little to no discrimination in any store or establishment. Every one is looked at, talked to, and treated the same.
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
The spark that started the modern Civil Rights movement occurred in 1955. Rosa Parks, a black female, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, as Montgomery, Alabama law required. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. became the spokesman for the protest that developed and led the Black boycott of the Montgomery Bus system. The result was felt nation wide. Sit ins at all White lunch counters, marches, and demonstrations forced the government to act. As the Civil Rights movement increased, and as it overlapped with demonstrations against Vietnam and other governmental activities other tactics were used.
While the boycott was probably the most effective, there were teachins at High Schools and Colleges parades and demonstrations sit-ins at governmental offices, newspapers, and commercial establishments legal attempts to bring some one or event to trial burning of draft cards to protest the war and literature, editorials, and pamphlets non violent protests , or have taken the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change through non violent forms of resistance. In some situations, they have been accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and armed rebellion. In contrast, the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement chose the tactic of nonviolence as a tool to dismantle institutionalized racial segregation, discrimination, and inequality. Indeed, they followed Martin Luther King Jr.'s guiding principles of nonviolence and passive resistance.
Civil rights leaders had long understood that segregationists would go to any length to maintain their power and control over blacks. Consequently, they believed some changes might be made if enough people outside the South witnessed the violence blacks had experienced for decades.According to Bob Moses and other civil rights activists, they hoped and often prayed that television and newspaper reporters would show the world that the primary reason blacks remained in such a subordinate position in the South was because of widespread violence directed against them. History shows there was no shortage of violence to attract the media.