Tara Hamilton

February 9th, 2014

Civil Rights Essay
The Fight For Rights
We live in a society where the issue of civil rights is not something that is at
the forefront of many peoples lives. Current Civil Rights movements are primarily
focused upon homosexuality and equality of genders. Historically though what is
referred to as The Civil Rights Movement, was that of African Americans trying to
gain the same freedoms and rights that White Americans had. Although the issues
of civil rights and freedom dates back to the foundation of the United States and the
first "indentured servants" that were sold to Virginia settlers in 1619 (Leadership),
the Civil Rights Movement really heated up in 1955. For the next 3 decades there
would be many events that would transpire, garnering the attention of Americans
around the nation. Recognizing major events that took place, and reflecting upon
their importance historically and today not only as they related to African Americans
but to Americans as a whole is extremely valuable. The Civil Rights Movement set
the tone for how our nation would continue to grow and develop going into the 21st
century.
Today when you board a bus, there are no signs pointing us to where we are
allowed to sit. There are no White and Colored sections, but this was not always the
case. Rosa Parks was the spark that ignited a change in segregation of whites and
blacks on city buses in 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama (Leadership). However it
wasn't until 1961, and the Freedom Rides, that this would begin to take place on a
national and interstate level. The Freedom Rides began on May 4th, 1961 (Cozzens)
and would continue on throughout the summer. The purpose of the Freedom Rides
was to "test the president's commitment to civil rights" (Cozzens) and resulted in a
firebombing of one bus, mobs attacking some of the groups of riders, over 300
arrests, and lots of national attention. Although the ride was meant to be a
nonviolent expression of a constitutional right, the riders knew that they may be
faced with violent opposition.
There were many people that opposed the Freedom Rides movement. One of
the most notable was Birmingham's Commissioner of Public Safety - Eugene "Bull"
Connor .One biography, published on PBS' Eyes on the Prize story, stated that he
"was known as an ultra-segregationist with close ties to the KKK" (WGBH). The
biography also states that "Connor encouraged the violence that met the CORE
Freedom Riders at the Birmingham Trailways Bus station" (WGBH). He remained a
key figure in the news for the next few years due to his policies and political
aspirations. Many riders never finished their trips and a large portion ended up in
jail that summer. However they did complete their main goal, as Cozzens states, "
Some were scarred for life from the beatings they received. But their efforts were
not in vain. They forced the Kennedy administration to take a stand on civil rights,
which was the intent of the Freedom Ride in the first place."
Another area in which segregation and later desegregation was an issue for
African Americans was in regards to education. Prior to 1954 schools could be
segregated based upon race. With the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brown v.

Board of Education , public schools now had to allow for integration. One of the
most memorable cases was the Arkansas Little Rock Nine, in which nine African
American high school students sought to begin integration by going to a previously
all white high school. The students were met by such strong opposition and
resistance that they had to be protected as they entered into Central High School by
"paratroopers dispatched by President Dwight Eisenhower " (PBS).
Education issues weren't restricted to just the city and high school levels.
They also stretched to colleges and universities. James Meredith took a stance on
the collegiate level. When he originally applied to the University of Mississippi, he
was accepted but then rejected solely based upon his race. In 1962 "Meredith risked
his life when he successfully applied the laws of integration and became the first
black student at the University of Mississippi, a pivotal moment in the civil rights
movement which sparked riots on the Oxford campus that left two people dead"
(Cummings). Both of these events garnered the attention of the national media and
resulted in two presidents having to take a stance on Civil Rights.
A third right that was denied to African Americans was the right to vote.
Although the Fifteenth Amendment granted the right to vote to everyone regardless
of race was passed in 1870, there were many obstacles that people faced when
they went to try to vote. Few African Americans were able to register to vote, let
alone actually vote in the elections due to literacy tests, poll taxes, intimidation, and
the fact that registration was based upon the discretion of white officials. 1964 was
the year of the Freedom Summer and during this time the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee instated a program that brought "volunteers, including
many white students from the North, to join local efforts at voter registration and
education" (PBS). Volunteers also "register voters for a new political party, the
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)" (PBS) that competed with the state's
established Democratic party to represent the state. The MFDP did not win, however
"their presence and the moral strength of their argument impact national politics"
(PBS). The Freedom Summer is a stepping stone on the way to the Freedom March.
In March of 1965, two marches took place in Alabama in response to the
death of an activist who was fighting for the right to register to vote. The first march
took place on the 7th and involved over 500 participants. Led by John Lewis and
Hosea Williams, they were "violently assaulted by state police near the Edmund
Pettus Bridge outside Selma" (PBS) and the event was witnessed on a national level.
PBS stated that "Television networks broadcast the attacks of "Bloody Sunday"
nationwide, creating outrage at the police, and sympathy for the marchers". The
second march started on the 9th and was led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Although
initially stopped, the march reached the Capitol building in Montgomery on March
25th 1965 and had over 25,000 participants. Later that year Congress passed the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 as a direct result of the marches and other work done by
activists. Finally, voting would become more accessible to those that had formerly
been discriminated against.
Although there were many influential figures during the Civil Rights
Movement, probably the most well-known is Martin Luther King, Jr. He was
responsible for organizing many events and marches, was a supporter of nonviolent
means with which to make a stance, and was seen as the figurehead of the
movement. He went to Memphis, Tennessee to support striking sanitation workers

during his organizing of the Poor People's Campaign. On April 4th, 1968 Martin
Luther King, Jr. was assassinated outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel (PBS). The
Civil Rights Museum states that "The motels owner, Walter Lane Bailey maintained
two rooms Rooms 306 & 307 as a shrine to Dr. King and in memory of his wife
Loree who died days after the assassination". Although the two rooms could have
been simply abandoned and remembered as only a scene of a great tragedy, they
have been preserved and protected as part The National Civil Rights Museum. The
museum has been set up "to assist the public in understanding the lessons of the
Civil Rights Movement and its impact and influence on human rights movements
worldwide, through its collections, exhibitions, research and educational programs.
It chronicles the civil rights movement from 1619 to 2000 with historical exhibits"
(Civil).
There are many lessons that we learned and many changes that our country
had to go through during the time period of the Civil Rights Movement. Although to
date there are still conflicts involving the rights of American citizens, we have grown
so much since the 1950's. It took the country banding together to overcome the
challenges that African Americans were facing. Going into the 21st century it is
important to remember those that came before us and the battles that had to be
fought for the freedoms that we all face in society today.

Works Cited:

PBS Online. Web. 9 Feb 2014.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/index.html>.
*Note: Various portions of this story were cited throughout the essay. Internally
cited as PBS.

Cozzens, L. Web. 9 Feb 2014. <http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights55-65/freeride.html>.

Cummings, R. Web 9 Feb 2014. <www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/meredith_james/>.

National Civil Rights Museum. Web. 9 Feb 2014.

<http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/>.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights & The Leadership Conference
Education Fund. Web. 9 Feb 2014.
<http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/chronology.html>.

WGBH Educational Foundation. Web. 9 Feb 2014.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/eugene-bullconnor>.