The Civil Rights Movement
Norman Rockwell created the piece we chose in 1964. During the 1960's, the Civil Rights Movement was going on. Read on to discover how it began and how it progressed.
The History of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States
After slavery was abolished, the United States government eventually resorted to segregation in 1877. Segregation was an attempt made by whites to separate black people from white people. Some laws in the South prevented blacks from voting by imposing educational and financial restrictions. These laws were intended to prevent blacks from voting because it was common knowledge that most blacks were uneducated due to slavery which made it illegal for whites to teach blacks how to read and write. Being uneducated also made the blacks have lesser-income jobs because they were not as skilled. Even though conditions were a little better in the North, there was intense economic discrimination. As a result, the better jobs usually went to the whites, not the blacks.
Black people did not agree with the saying, "Separate but equal," as stated in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which made segregation constitutional for another 50 years. To show their dislike for segregation, blacks created national organizations. One of them was called the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Following World War II, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund strived for educational equality. In a case in 1954 that was called Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated education was not constitutional.
To begin the process of integration in schools, a court order was issued in 1957 to admit nine black students toCentral High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus disobeyed the order though, so President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce desegregation.
In another attempt to desegregate the schools, a six years old girl named Ruby Bridges was admitted into an all-white school. Since the Governor did not allow the nine black students to enter the Central High School, Ruby was actually the first black student to attend a white school.
The more desegregation progressed, the more people joined the Ku Klux Klan, which is a white supremacist group that uses intimidation and violence to achieve its goals. (Unfortunately, it still exists today.)
Desegregation slowly but surely continued its course of becoming not a black man's dream, but everyone's reality. Blacks kept boycotting and campaigning, and finally, in 1964, their work paid off. In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in public accomadations was prohibited, along with discrimination in education and employment. However, the Civil Rights Movement was not yet over. With the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, restrictive voting qualification tests were no longer allowed. Now blacks could really vote.
Many people believe the Civil Rights Movement ended with the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached for equality in a non-violent way. But others argue that blacks are still not considered equal to whites, so in effect, the goal of the Civil Rights Movement may not have been accomplished.
Learn more about Ruby Bridges, the girl in the painting The Problem We All Live With
