Civil Rights Movement

The Civil rights movement is a social one which took place in the 60s. In some situations, this movement was followed by civil unrest and armed rebellion, and in other situations it was followed by nonviolent forms of resistance. The United States civil rights movement includes noted legislation and efforts to abolish public and private acts of racial discrimination African Americans and other disadvantaged groups between 1954 and 1968, in the south part of the United States. The movement started in 1955, when Martin Luther King Jr. starts a political and social campaign against the racial segregation in public transport, especially in the bus, in Montgomery, Alabama. This Montgomery Bus Boycott had place after Rosa Parks, an American woman, refused to give up her seat in the bus to a white person, on 1st of December 1955. Four days later Rosa Parks received a fine and Martin Luther King Jr. started a campaign which lasted 381 days. This period was very difficult for King because he was arrested. However, in 1965 the Supreme Court decided that the segregation laws from Montgomery public buses are not constitutional, and the boycott ended. But yet, the most important march was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This march is remembered because of the speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave, in which the I have a dream part became a national idea which succeeded to bring together various leaders of civil rights, religious and labor groups. The march was a success although not without controversy. Almost 300.000 demonstrators gather in front of Lincoln Memorial to hear the Kings speech. After the march, King and other leaders met with the president Kennedy at the White House. Even if Kennedy was not sure if the bill obtains the votes in Congress, after his assassination on November 22, 1963, the demonstrators obtain a new and more

effective civil rights legislation protecting the right to vote and the prohibition of the racial discrimination in the world of work. All these under the President Lyndon Johnson mandate. In an interview realized by the journalist Bob McKenzie, in the 60s, Martin Luther said the United States of America () may be able to get a Negro president in less than 40 years. Kings prophecy was true, because on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected as the President of the United States of America, being the first African American chose in this function. So, in my opinion the civil rights movement was an important one. Today United States and other countries can have a negro president, also, today a negro and a white person can get married, today all the black person and the other minorities have the same rights as the white people or the majority, and all these because of the civil rights movement, because of Martin Luther King Jr. and others like him. Further more, racism is something you learn not something you are born with it. And like Martin Luther said in hisI have a dream speech: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character and he was right. That one day is today!