Civil Rights in the USA

Since the end of the US Civil War, blacks in the USA wanted equal rights. Jim Crow Laws established by local governments segregated whites from blacks in most areas of the country.

From 1948 to 1950 President Truman ordered the desegregation of the US armed forces. The Korean War was the first war in US history where black and white soldiers fought side by side.

In 1954 a MAJOR legal victory was won for the Civil Rights movement when the Supreme Court of the USA found unanimously in favour of the the Brown family in the highly publicized Brown vs. Kansas Education Board case.

In 1955, 14 year old Emmitt Till was visiting his family in Mississippi from Chicago made allegedly “inappropriate comments” to a store clerk. When the clerks husband was informed he and his brother, tracked down Emmitt Till, beat him and killed him.

During the ensuing trial, the all white jury found the two men involved not guilty even though they both admitted to the beating and murder!!!!!

However, the social aspect of the Civil Rights movement truly began in 1955 in Montgomery Alabama. Montgomery “Jim Crow Laws” segregated the buses… and when a black women named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a young white man… trouble began.

Rosa was arrested and jailed, but she called upon friends in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples) to help her court case. A NAACP member named Martin Luther King Jr was called upon to help bring attention to the injustices in Montgomery.

To help bring attention to Rosa Parks, and to put pressure on the the bus company in Montgomery, MLK organized a bus boycott which began to spread around the nation. The boycott worked…. Rosa Parks challenged the Jim Crow Laws in Alabama and was successful.

In Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, 9 black students decided to challenge segregation in the Arkansas school system by trying to attend Central High School which was previously an ALL white school.

Due to rising tensions and potential violence, president Eisenhower called in the National Guard to protect the black students and to force integration.

In 1960, after being refused service in a Woolworth department store restaurant, 4 black youths decided to organize sit-ins to bring attention the the Civil Rights movement. The Greensboro sit-ins began to spread to Woolworth stores across the nation.

In 1963 the largest protest of the Civil Rights Movement occurred in Washington. Known as the March on Washington or the Million Man March Martin Luther King read his “I have a dream” speech

Also in 1963 (September) in Birmingham Alabama the 16 th Street Baptist Church was bombed by people associated with the KKK killing four young girls

With the massive attention brought to the cause of Civil Rights in the US, laws began to be passed to help guarantee rights for blacks in the USA. In 1964 the Civil Rights Bill was passed under the Johnson administration In 1965, the Voting Rights Bill was passed ending the racist laws in voting registration

In 1965 a less conventional civil rights leader was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam Church Malcolm X used controversy to bring attention to black rights.

In 1967 a series of “race riots” occurred across the nation. Young blacks were becoming frustrated that they were technically given rights, but no one seemed to be forcing store owners and shops to make the changes. Watts, LA Harlem, NY Detroit, MI

In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray just as progress was being made for blacks in the USA.

It was not until 1971 when the last public school in the USA was forced to integrated under the Nixon administration. Racism is still a part of American culture today…. Laws such as Affirmative Action attempt to combat racism, but they also raise many issues as well.