The American Civil Rights Movement wanted to achieve the primary goal was to end racial segregation in public places and to gain the vote. 1 Reconstruction had given freed male slaves the vote, and they used it to elect many black officials, including Congressmen, mayors, sheriffs. White vigilantes, including the KKK, arose to stop this and terrified blacks, or sometimes killed them, to end back voting. For a while, the Northern troops preserved the black vote, but in 1877 these were pulled out. 2 By 1890, almost no blacks could vote throughout the South. Consequently, there was an introduction of the Jim Crow segregation of all public places, including schools that were separate but not at all equal. In fact, several Supreme Court decisions were used to end racial segregation in public places, and one of them was the Brown v. Board of Education, which was made in 1954 and tried to desegregate schools. 3 The 1964 Civil Rights bill, largely lobbied for by MLK's March on Washington, ended segregation in public places, and that has stuck. Finally, the 1965 Voting Rights Act restored black voting in the South. But that act was ended by the Supreme Court in 2013, and black voting is again in danger, not at all to the extent of the Jim Crow era but a disturbing level.
Equal Rights Movements During the 1950s and 1960s
In the 1960s, there seemed to be the peaceful Civil Rights Movement side led by Dr. Martin Luther King, while on the other side was the violent movement led by the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X. 4 The main aim of the violent side of Civil Rights Movement was to overthrow the white man and wanted the tables to be reversed with the black man being the leaders and the white man being the ones being kept down. In other terms one wanted equality of opportunity and the other wanted reverse discrimination. 5 Moreover, the current Black Lives Matter movement seems to be following in the footsteps of Malcolm X. They want violence, they want fighting in the streets, and they do not care how this comes about. They would like to tell that this is a fight for "Black Lives," but in truth, it is a fight against authority and those who enforce the laws of the land. 6 Considering the "Black Lives Matter," it seems that only some "Black Lives Matter" not those lives that are killed day in and day out in Chicago or Detroit, but just when a black man is killed by a police officer.
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The BLM tries to raise the awareness that police brutality is more common in black neighborhoods, even though that's not true, and people of different races can experience it, including white people. Moreover, the movement aims at raising the awareness that blacks face more police brutality than the whites. Consequently, the movement tries to raise the awareness that only blacks are way more at a disadvantage than any other race in the US because the system oppresses them.
Similarly, the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, wanted to raise the awareness that blacks and people of color were being discriminated against in the South and wanted major changes where people of all colors were given equal treatment just like the whites. In this regard, Dr. Martin Luther King conducted a lot of peaceful marches in the South to garner media attention so the people could sympathize with their course. Moreover, Dr. Martin Luther King constantly preached about not fighting back if one of them was attacked by the racists and the klan during their marches. In fact, lots of people slowly gained their sympathy or support to the Civil Rights Movement whenever they got attacked by the police, mostly klan members. 7 During that time, white southern politicians created thuggish like tactics to prevent blacks from getting equal treatment, like absurd voting tests to vote, segregated schools where white schools were better and colored schools where they lacked electricity and looked like rundown shacks like if they were living in the 1800s.
Nonetheless, the BLM was not really the same as the Civil Rights Movement since they only tried to raise awareness for black neighborhoods. BLM never protests if a person who is not black is killed by police justifiably or unjustifiably. Until today, the BLM often protests if a black man gets killed by police before the evidence comes rolling in. Consequently, some people argue that the BLM is so unorganized; people may confuse a bigoted BLM chapter from another state or city than the other ones. 8 Nonetheless, all these efforts are geared towards achieving the equality rights, which were not achieved during the Reconstruction periods.
The Civil Rights Movement encompassed a period of 1954–1968 during the latter part when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. The movement should have been catapulted by other leaders of the African community, but perhaps no one felt their life was more qualified to lead at that time. 9 In fact, whoever decided to lead would have been Cointepro-ed for every little fault employed in their life to induce their unfitness to lead a movement, and hence, it would have died shortly after that.
Nevertheless, several Historians have discredited the Civil Rights Movement for having failed to achieve the things which were not achieved during the Reconstructions. One of the arguments is that Malcolm X came along and despised the passive resistance of Dr. Martin Luther King, and such disagreements might have contributed to the movement failures. 10 On the other hand, some Historians argue that the Civil Rights Movement was a blustery time for African Americans in particular and was a turbulent time for all Americans today because this issue has never been resolved . Martin Luther King Jr. meant well when he stood up to represent people of color and fight on the streets and in the courts for African Americans, and that is why he will forever be remembered for his life and ultimate demise.
Amidst all these challenges, without Reconstruction and a more tolerant occupation policy by the North, it was possible that the black population would have been able to attain at least some of their basic human rights within a generation. 11 The forced military occupation of the South led to a white backlash against the blacks when Union troops finally left in 1877, including Jim Crow laws and a rigid policy of segregation. It took over 100 years before black people began to be freely allowed to vote in the South and/or a Republican candidate being able to win any state-wide or Federal elective offices.
The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle for African Americans to earn their place in society as human beings much less citizens. Nonetheless, Europeans of this country have not quite accepted this fact even up until today. 12 Not when citizens of this country during the election last year (2016) had chanted to bring America back to its "good ole days," which is the days when Blacks knew their place.
In conclusion, the civil rights movement was a time in American history when the ill-treatment of African Americans were tested, tried, and true until a leader from the African American community decided to take a stand and prepare to die for his beliefs.
Bibliography
Barmaki, Reza. "On the Origin of Concept of "Intersectionality" in Criminology: The Civil Rights Movement and the Rise of "Scholarship of Confrontation. " Deviant Behavior 41, no. 4 (2020): 483-496.
Burrell, Julie. "The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era by Jonathan Shandell." Theatre Journal 72, no. 1 (2020): 119-121.
Foner, Eric. " The Southern Manifesto ." (1956). An American history. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/marshall/manifesto.html
Forsgren, LaDonna L. "The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era." (2020): 1135-1136.
Smith, Bobby J. "Food and the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement: re-reading the 1962-1963 Greenwood Food Blockade." Food, Culture & Society (2020): 1-1
1 Barmaki, Reza. "On the Origin of Concept of “Intersectionality” in Criminology: The Civil Rights Movement and the Rise of “Scholarship of Confrontation”." Deviant Behavior 41, no. 4 (2020): 483-496.
2 Burrell, Julie. "The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era by Jonathan Shandell." Theatre Journal 72, no. 1 (2020): 119-121.
3 Foner, Eric. “ The Southern Manifesto .” (1956). An American history.
4 Forsgren, LaDonna L. "The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era." (2020): 1135-1136.
5 Ibid. [2]. Pp. 119.
6 Ibid. [3]. Pp. 50.
7 Smith, Bobby J. "Food and the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement: re-reading the 1962-1963 Greenwood Food Blockade." Food, Culture & Society (2020): 1-17.
8 Ibid. [7]. Pp. 10.
9 Ibid. [7]. Pp. 15.
10 Barmaki, Reza. "On the Origin of Concept of “Intersectionality” in Criminology. Pp. 495.
11 Ibid. [10]. Pp. 495.
12 Foner, Eric. “The Southern Manifesto.” (1956). Pp. 40.
