African American History

The Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Summary Enthusiasm and unity characterized the Black attitude toward the civil rights movement of the 60s. Indeed, the legendary conflict began when abolitionists objected to Blacks' inability to vote, own property, or testify in court. Eager to fight their own cause, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People assembled in response to race riots and a 1908 massacre in Illinois. The NAACP thus "provided an embryonic organization basic for the modern civil rights movement" decades before its explosion in the mid 20th century (Boyer 124). Further, the pacifist conventions of Dr. Martin Luther King are probably the movement's defining emblem.

Segregation in public places and especially education was the target to be abolished for the sojourners. As a result, Brown Vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas set the precedent for school desegregation, Rosa Parks sparked controversy in her planned refusal to abdicate her seat to a White, and Greensboro college students of all colors joined three pioneering Black students in frequenting a Woolworth's diner that snubbed them service. The culmination of these efforts came when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banished segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment.

The civil rights coalitions were instrumental to successful desegregation, of which the NAACP was the inspirational prototype for other minority groups to follow. The likewise peaceful and legalistic Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formed of Blacks and some Whites, was another high profile group that strove for assimilation. Following suit, Hispanics determined to ensure their children's proper education formed LULAC, and Indian and Asian groups formed similar assemblies. On the other side of the movement were the more militant groups like the Black Panthers, who spurned their more enraged Asian, Indian and Hispanic counterparts to follow unconventional means to acknowledgment. Examples of this are Cesar Chavez's Farm Workers' throng and the Indian seizure of Wounded Knee. A horizontally integrated movement of the oppressed thus stressed the importance of civil rights by demanding their uniform application.