Civil Rights History in the United States
The Civil Rights movement came to the fore almost after almost 100 years after the abolishment of slavery, but the predominant white populace, especially in the Southern States, found ways to get around the legal laws and statutes. Jim Crow Laws limited the way the American African American and populaces were allowed – to, or not – to vote, further there were other written and unwritten societal rules which were intended to intimidate during the 1950s and 1960s peoples of African American origin where meant to alienate and deter the mingling between whites and blacks at any level of societal interactions.
However such maltreatments surged to an ultimate chapter in the history of Blacks in the United States. Even such indignities, discrepancy policies and blatantly anti-African American laws – written and/or unwritten, finally had had its toll upon – for the most part, the Southern Black populace. They were not longer willing to be written off and cast off to schools hours and hours away, they were no longer willing to adhere to the Jim Crow laws which for the most part kept their voting right dismissed. In essence such law were perpetrated upon the Black populace as a way to systematically segregate, separate, and all in all keep white and black populations apart from each other.
Though it is widely believed that the Civil Rights Movement began in December of 1955, with an African-American woman, refused to give up her seat and go to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Mrs. Parks was married to then an active local NAACP named Ray Parks, and was well versed in the ways of civil disobedience; and further, this was not the first time Mrs. Park had been involved in other acts of non-violent civil disobediences. The laws segregating, African-Americans from white go all the way back to the late 1800s. Since 1896 in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, public transportation was explicit source of racial injustice. Despite being paying customers, blacks and black women especially were subject to particularly harsh forms of humiliations and assaults. Though black riders fought back as best they could by ringing the bell at every stop, despite no one waiting to exit, sometimes they brazenly sat next to white women and at others times they simply refused to pay the ride ticket fare.
Even though they had fought during both War Worlds next to their white counterparts, African-Americans did not enjoy the post-War II prosperity their white former compatriots did. Not just in the South, but increasingly in other states, governments continued to segregate the two races based on the unfounded characteristics that blacks lacked moral standards and were for the most part of lacking of basic intellectual capabilities. Cities found ways to instill such laws that prevented owners to lease properties to African-Americans, further, the military remained segregated, adding even more pressure to the ability of a black family to move into the ever elusive middle class.
Civil disobedience however was the path that the Southern blacks had chosen. Amongst a congregation of preachers, pastors and other well influencing African Americans, Martin Luther Jr. King emerged as spectacular orator, who made blacks feel that they deserved just as much as the whites did. But instead of violence upon violence Mr. King and his followers chose to fight the whites’ violence by quietly defining the atrocities being perpetrated by the mostly white populaces in the South. Mr. King was highly influenced by the teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and his anti-violent protests which ultimately led to their country India, being released by the multi-generational clutches of the British Empire.
In fact, by being docile in the face of such violent tactics during their peaceful protests, such as attack dogs and water hoses, and local police in military gear wielding batons, it was the aim of the civil rights movement was that once the American nation saw such horrific images night after night on the televisions and daily in their newspapers, that the tide would turn towards the side of the recipients of such horrendous treatments despite the fact that they had been peacefully demonstration and not acting violently themselves.
Slowly the evolution took a turn with some in the movement advocating more violent tactics such as the Black Panthers, in a certain way, Malcom X, the leadership disintegrated and for the most part African American did not part towards more radical movements and stayed loyal to the non-violent tactics of Martin Luther King, Jr. Towards the mid-1960s, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, progressing the civil rights movement more rapidly became the focus of the next President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was famously a hard negotiator who could spend hours and hours on the phone with congress members seeking their support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson, ever the strategist took advantage of the emotional sympathetic trauma surrounding the nation after JKF’s assassination and took no waste in advancing his own personal powerbase – and “savior” of the civil rights movement by ensuring the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; famously Martin Luther King Jr. stood next to President Johnson as he signed the Act into place.
Though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did indeed place into laws that would deter discrimination and advance integration of the overall black and African American population into the so called “melting pot” which was called by certain individuals. Interestingly, during the Cold War, while the United States increased its missile and military armaments, so did the Soviet Union; however while the United States was quick to point out the Soviet Union’s strict human rights limitations, the Soviet Union in turn was also quick to note the civil rights black Americans were suffering under the majority American white populace.
Ultimately, Martin Luther King was assassinated, much like John F. Kennedy and Jack F. Kennedy. A nation was not just left in mourning but in a battle within families, cities and politicians. The Vietnam War was now starting to swing into full force; military draft was instituted. Many wondered what was to be the leading place of the United States, if at all in the next few decades. Such questions split and divided not just the political establishment, but what was to become a whole generation who basically tuned out, turned on and tended especially on university campuses to follow such new leaders as often called the “Counter Culture Revolution”, prominent leaders of the time included Lucien Car, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who some advocated peace and others advocated full on attack on the American establishment. While others of their age, only a few radicalized and for the most part just wanted peace at home and abroad. Professing peace and love not war, this new generation was not as docile as had their parents had been. They had seen what fights meant, what assassinations meant, and now what yet a new war in Vietnam meant.
How this new generation would change America, if at all, remained to be seen. Their values and beliefs in retrospect seem simplistic, especially now when compared to multi-nationals, conglomerates, corrupt establishments and the ongoing wars, poverty and misery around the world, and not in just in faraway places, but right here in the United States and within our Western allies Paris, Britain and Belgium. One could only wish that it would have been that easy “peace not war.” Could John Lennon’s “Let’s give peace a chance” no matter how many times it is heard, is really be heard? Most importantly, even for those who hear it, do they care? No. Terrorists have replaced the once might Ku Klux Clan, except now they are doing it on a global sphere. The next few decades will decide who will win this war and aggressions. Not something that is easily predicted despite all the constant chatter and non-stop television cable shows. Only time will tell.
Bibliography
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., n.d. Facts, information and articles about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent figure in Black History. “HistoryNet.” Accessed May 4, 2016 from http://www.historynet.com/martin-luther-king-jr.
