Civil Rights Essay, Research Paper

It had been almost one hundred years since the emancipation proclamation but still blacks were not truly free. Civil rights although were laws in the north, were not enforced to any extent of the law. From 1954 to 1972 the civil rights movement took on many changes. From leaders to tactics, the movement changed over and over again.

On May 17, 1954 in Topeka Kansas, a court case changed the face of America. Brown vs. the Board of Education overturned the old Supreme Court decision ?Plessy vs. Ferguson? which stated that all public facilities are to be separate but equal. The new decision stated that, ?separate facilities are inherently unequal.? This new decision caused the first integration of public schools. In order to integrate though, President Eisenhower had to send in the National Guard to protect the students as they entered the school.

There were other battles to be fought though. In 55 a little lady by the name of Rosa sat down on a bus and refused to get up for a white man. This one event exploded a movement all over the United States and right in the middle of the explosion was Martin Luther King Jr. King who had a whole new approach to opposition of segregation called passive resistance. King and his followers refused to take the bus because of the Rosa Parks incident. He also organized sit ins, where a group of black people would just sit at places that only white people were allowed to be. This form of nonviolence was effective in the south but not very effective in the north were segregation wasn?t written down in laws but was practiced anyway.

The third ?stage? of progressive reform in the civil rights movement was the rise of black power. It?s here that groups such as the nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers began to have huge followings and people such as Malcolm X, and Huey P. Newton, began to lead them. These new turn of events brought on great consequences. Riots sprouted up like wildfire all over the U.S.

Change is good, but it doesn?t always come in good ways and it doesn?t always come right away. I wish I could write a happy ending to this essay but I can?t without lying. The truth is we still have a lot of racism yet today. I see it everyday when I walk down the halls of my school. The American society had come a long way, but it?s got a long way to go.