The Civil Rights Movement was an important chapter in American history which led to the establishment of human rights around the world. This high-profile and historic quest for human rights achieved world notice thanks to its unusual approach and also brought to light America’s racist segregation of non-white immigrants. Energized and encouraged by the successes of the civil rights movement, activists worked to reverse the discriminatory laws restricting the influx of darker-skinned peoples into the U.S. Through these actions, the Civil Rights Movement became a ‘stencil’ for human rights worldwide and revolution worldwide.
It was nearly 90 years after Lincoln issued the Emancipation proclamation that, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. This decision overturned the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling that legitimized the ‘separate but equal’ practice of segregation according to race, deciding that ‘separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.’
The ruling was the impetus for across-the-board desegregation in the U.S. When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing the driver’s request to give up her seat to the white man, this act of civil disobedience became the spark that ignited the masses during the 1950s and 1960s in protesting the racial inequalities. “She was fed up, Parks’ friend Elaine Steele said, “There comes a point where you say, ‘No, I’m a full citizen, too. This is not the way I should be treated” (Shipp, 2005).
Because of this event, a group of local ministers created the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and coordinated a 382-day boycott of the bus company. The ministers took this non-violent action to avoid the possible rioting that was widely rumored to soon ensue and to organize their collective congregations into one, larger and stronger common voice. “After discussion amongst the MIA leadership, twenty-six-year-old Martin Luther King Jr., a minister who had moved to town but a year earlier, was unanimously selected to head the MIA.” (Garrow, 1987, pp. 45-6).
The now famous first sit-in occurred at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina when four black students sat down at a ‘whites only’ establishment and requested service. These activists that braved the threat of being beaten and jailed in order to advance their cause of racial justice were inspired by the illustration of courage by those who participated in the Montgomery bus boycott. Soon after beginning the walk, Meredith was shot and wounded by a white sniper.
Upon hearing the news that James Meredith was shot by a sniper while on a well-publicized walk, ‘March Against Fear,’ to Jackson, Mississippi from Memphis, Tennessee, King joined with Stokely Carmichael in Greenwood, Mississippi where Carmichael gave his famous ‘Black Power’ speech (Carmichael, 1966). Malcolm X (Little) became a powerful speaker in the movement and became more important to the cause of his death than he was in life. As King had secured the character of the Southern black, Malcolm had become the messiah of city slums in the North, Midwest and West. The semi-militant organization he headed, the Nation, grew quickly under his leadership. (Hollaway, 1998).
Later generations should be taught the history of the Civil Rights Movement along with the suffering endured by the many generations of blacks from the times of slavery through the mid 1960s. Unless these lessons are learned by future societies, the mistakes of the past could also be the mistakes of the future. This is a horrific prospect when one examines the miserable effects of racial bias and its human toll.
Works Cited
Carmichael, Stokely. “Black Power.” American Rhetoric. (1966). Web.
Garrow, David J. “The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It.” Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. (1987).
Hollaway, Kevin. “The Legacy of Malcolm.” Documents for the Study of American History. (1998). Web.
Shipp, E.R. “Rosa Parks, 92, Founding Symbol of Civil Rights Movement, Dies.” New York Times. (2005). Web.