The African-American Civil Rights Movement Then and Now

For many Americans the 1950’s was somewhat of a dream. After years of

struggle and turmoil millions of American men were ready to go back to their homes with their families and restart their lives. Years of economic depression and global war had left the Americans with no wish for any more conflicts. Most of them simply wanted to rest and enjoy the good things of life, something that many of them had not been able to do for years. However, the outcomes of the Second World War left many yearning for more. After working in factories and serving the U.S. Army many women felt as if they had now proven themselves to be equal to their male counterparts. Similarly, after making great contributions for the United States in the Second World War many African-Americans felt as if they had finally showed that they deserved the same rights that White Americans had enjoyed for many decades. Nevertheless, their pursuit for civil rights would not be easy. African-Americans would face tremendous opposition from politicians and conservative groups, particularly from the South, that would try to stop the process by any means possible. This internal conflict would lead to turmoil within America at an already troubled time when the United States was already start to face the Soviet Union in a Cold War that threatened the safety of Americans and the existence of capitalism. In both the First and the Second World War the United States had tried to act as the champion of freedom and the great leader of democracy throughout the entire globe. However, the Civil Rights Movement reminded Americans that despite the way they were trying to portray themselves to the rest of the world the country still had many issues to solve.

In 1963, one-hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans

in the South were still living in an unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation, and other forms of oppression. The “Jim Crow” laws that had been instituted at the state level had also ensured that African-Americans would never had an access to certain classrooms, bathrooms, theaters, train cars, juries, and legislatures. Such living conditions forced many African-Americans to resort to different kinds of protest. Figures such Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. would rise to prominence during this era and rekindle the dreams of many African-Americans of one day being able to live just like their White counterparts did. Like any other process, the Civil Rights Movement took place in different stages and it was marked by different achievements that were made by the African-American community.

W.e.b. DuBois(top left), Malcolm X(top right), Martin Luther King, Jr(bottom left), Rosa Parks(bottom right)

The first few victories of the Civil Rights Movement were the Civil Rights Acts

of 1957 and 1960, laws that gave African-American moderate gains. Another great victory was the decision that the Supreme Court made in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. This decision allowed African-Americans to go to the same schools as White Americans, which simply reversed the decision that the Supreme Court had made in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Nevertheless, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was arguably the single greatest piece of legislation that was ever passed in favor of minorities. It added on the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, and it validated the rights of African-Americans that had been denied for

generations. In addition, the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 extended the right to vote to all African-Americans.

The African-American Civil Rights Movement was a movement whose overall

purpose was to give African-Americans the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality. Many would believe that such a movement would have died away, especially when we compare the living conditions of many African-Americans now to the living conditions of African-Americans in 1950. Nevertheless, it seems as if in the minds of many these struggles for civil rights just do not stop. Nowadays many are still talking about “white privilege”, racial profiling, and the idea that our country is still as racist as it was back then. To say that institutionalized racism in our country is just as big as it was fifty years ago would be absolutely preposterous. Nevertheless, as we saw in the “Jim Crow” South and the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson, racism does not have to be institutionalized at a national level in order to become a problem. Racism is something that can become a problem any time someone discriminates against someone else, even if it is not encouraged by laws. Therefore, it is hard not to think about why civil rights movements are still taking place nowadays. Maybe the only difference between our society today and our society fifty years ago is that back then racism is institutionalized and today it is not.