The Civil Rights Movement
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The Civil Rights Movement
Q1. Outline King’s method for dismantling racial segregation as it was applied in Birmingham. Was this revolutionary? Why or why not?
The method used to dismantle racial segregation in Birmingham was organized in 1963 led by Martin Luther King Jr. The movement was a nonviolent direct action that involved widely public confrontations between the white civic authorities and young black students. Eventually, the civil rights movement was led by the municipal government to alter Birmingham discrimination laws. During the 1960s, the city was among the racially characterized cities in the country (Hunter & Baker, 2020). And was enforced culturally and by the law. In the city, black people faced economic and legal disparities and several violent retributions whenever they attempted to draw attention to their issues. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to the city as the most discriminatory city in the United States of America.
The movement in Birmingham started with a boycott that begun with Shuttlesworth and was meant to pressure the business leaders for them to offer jobs to all races, and stop segregating people in the public institutions, stores, schools and restaurants. However, the government and local business leaders resisted the boycott, and Shuttlesworth sees that they decided to start Project C which was a march to provoke a mass arrest (Livingston, 2020). When the movement ran low on adult volunteers, the idea was thought to have the students begin the main protest and demonstrations in the city. College, high school and elementary school students were trained about nonviolence and advised to participate in the protests by taking a peaceful walk. The demonstration resulted in many arrests because the students filled the jails.
During the campaign despite the demonstrators using nonviolent methods to confront, such as marching to the county building, sit-ins at the libraries, kneel-ins at the white churches, most of the businesses refused to assist the demonstrators. The main aim of the movement was to fill the jails with demonstrators because they wanted the city government to address the problem as the demonstrations continued (Hunter & Baker, 2020). Nevertheless, the arrested demonstrators were not enough to affect the operations of the city, but people began to question the wisdom of the black community. Many of the individuals criticized the campaign and termed it worthless and wasteful and encouraged the black people to use the courts to complain about the racist policies of the city.
The white religious leaders and most of the white residents in the city were shocked about the demonstrations and denounced King to press the cause in the courts and have a negotiation with local leaders and not protesting in the streets. However, some other white citizens in the city supported the boycotts. Martin Luther King Jr. promised the protests to continue each day until the peaceful quality is assured in the city because he doubted if the new city’s major could voluntarily desegregate the practices (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).
Moreover, desegregation in the city took slowly after the protests. Martin Luther King Jr. announced that desegregation was to take place from 15th May 1963. In July most of the segregations in Birmingham had been overturned, the lunch counters started complying with the new laws. Subsequently, the golf courses and city parks were opened for both white and black citizens.
I believe this was a revolutionary movement because the reputation of Martin Luther King Jr. soared after the demonstration and he became the true hero. The campaign in Birmingham was a nonviolent movement that drew the attention of the world about racial segregation. The movement burnished the reputation of King that ousted his job and forced desegregation in the city of Birmingham and directly led to the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 that eliminated and prohibited racial discrimination in the public services and hiring practices in the country.
Q2. Definition of Thurgood Marshall, sit-ins, the Great Society, the Equal Rights Amendment, the Stonewall Inn.
Thurgood Marshall refers to the civil rights activist lawyer who was the first United States of America’s first African American court member. He was the one who successfully argued before the court about the case that declared racial segregation unconstitutional in the public schools in the United States of America (America in Ferment).
Sit-ins refer to the kinds of direct action that are characterized by the involvement of one or more individuals who are occupying a protest area. The gathering is meant to promote social, economic and political change (Livingston, 2020). In the process, demonstrators come together in a conspicuous space or building and resist to move unless their demands are addressed. Thus, the protests are used to spread awareness to the public by disrupting the activities of the organization the demonstrators are protesting against.
The Great Society refers to the set of programs that were launched in the United States of America in 1964 and 1965 by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson (Johnson, 2015). The domestic agenda aimed to eliminate racial injustices in the country. The launch entails major programs that addressed medical care, education, rural poverty, and urban problems.
Equal Rights refers to the amendments that were proposed in the United States to guarantee equal legal rights for all citizens regardless of their sex. Thus, the amendment was to end the distinction between women and men in terms of property, divorce and employment.
The Stone Inn refers to the building at which the series of Stonewall riots against the police raid on the gay member community begun.
References
“America in Ferment: The Tumultuous 1960s,” http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=17&smtid=2
Hunter, W., & Baker, P. (2020). MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: A MAN FOR ALL TIME.
Johnson, L. B. (2015). The great society. American History, 102(1), 100-112.
Livingston, A. (2020). Power for the Powerless: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Late Theory of Civil Disobedience. The Journal of Politics, 82(2), 700-713.
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html