The Civil Rights Movement is an era that was dedicated for equal treatments and rights to the activism of the African American in the US. In this period, people were united for the political, legal, cultural and social changes to end segregation and prohibit discrimination.
The civil rights movement spanned following the decision in the Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 via the Voting Rights Act 1965 passage that marked the watershed period which accomplished more than just the elimination of the racial barriers. This movement was very important to the history of the US and the world. It is through this movement that discrimination was established as unjust and not tolerated in the nation and examples set for those people who were oppressed (Davis, 2001).
The labors of the Civil Rights Movement eliminated the segregation legally and publicly. This era made a redesigning of the country’s social system. It is this movement that changed where the African American could attend their college or take some drinks. This effort united more citizens in order to achieve a common goal.
The majority of people with disregard to their race fought for the elimination of discrimination and just treatment of the African Americans. The movement led to an overwhelming transition of the American cultural, political and social life. There were changes to the prevalent notions concerning the rights of black citizens. The rights of people were protected by the courts regardless of their skin color (Eagles, 2004).
In many instances, the word civil rights juggle the images of Martin Luther King in his “I Have a Dream” speech in the capital. Many people recall on a darker note the television footage of the peaceful marchers who were beset by the snarling police dogs and the fire hoses.
Other remembers the unwavering faces of the black college students waging their campaigns at the southern lunch counters. Most definitely, one would not forget the black school girls who were attending a Sunday school and ended up dead in the bomb that ripped in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Despite this, African American has always fought for their rights. Many of them consider the civil rights movement to have begun when the Africans were initially brought to chains. The blacks who struggled with their enslavement and fought for their fundamental rights of citizenship laid the foundation of what is now the civil rights movement (Dittmer, 2003).
When the slaves were first brought to America back in 1619, there was thorough discrimination and abuse of human rights until the abolishment of slavery in the thirteenth amendment after the civil war when the blacks gained their freedom. Inequality and racism were the order of the day with the blacks largely illiterate and bereft of property and money. Even after many measures were taken to safeguard the slaves, many still had other means to prevent the blacks from any citizenship benefits.
Other racist groups like Ku Klux Klan even used more harrowing methods with other forms of violence to lynch the blacks. Two incidents are known to have brought the issue of the civil rights into the spot light of the public. These were the NAACP of 1954 and the ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education. In this case, the segregation of public schools was considered unconstitutional (Davis, 2001).
In summary, the civil rights movement left an undeviating mark on the history of the American society. The movement saw the overt discrimination end and the violence that was considered racial ended immeasurably. Today, everyone can exercise their rights freely and even vote and run for political positions.
Millions of blacks have been lifted out of poverty as well because of this movement due to the economic opportunities that resulted from it. I would like to assert that the civil rights movement actually served as an advancement model for the minority groups.
References
Davis, J. (2001). The Civil Rights Movement. New York: Cengage Learning
Dittmer, J. (2003). Essay on the American Civil Rights Movement. London: Springer
Eagles, C. (2004). The Civil Rights Movement. Boston: McGraw-Hill