The Civil Rights Movements

The Civil Rights Movement in its contemporary form started in 1955 with an act of mild disobedience by a black woman on a bus in the Deep South. Black leaders developed several strategies over the next few years, strategies that would be successful in changing laws and in getting some of the long-standing discriminatory institutions of the South changed. Between 1954 and 1965, the Civil Rights Movement developed into a major movement for social justice, societal change, and self-determination for millions of black Americans. The tactics undertaken by the movement have ranged from violent to non-violent, with non-violent predominating under the direction of Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers. The movement started first around the busing issue in Montgomery, Alabama, but it was also the culmination of decades of frustration nearly a century after the slave era and after a long history of continuing discrimination and ill-treatment. Black leaders did not care to wait for white hearts to change, so they set out to change them with a program of peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, and similar actions. This strategy started with the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama after Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the "white" section of a public bus. When word spread of this action, a city-wide boycott of the bus line was organized. Why did the black community coalesce around Mrs. parks four days after her arrest for riding in the white section of a bus on December 1, 1955

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d vote, and in general to improve their status as a group. We were "woman power," organized to cope with any injustice, no matter what, against the darker sect (23). One of the leaders of this action was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a young Baptist minister from Atlanta and pastor of the Dexter Avenue Church. He had been deeply influenced by the philosophy and leadership of India's Mohandas K. Gandhi, and he believed that the technique of nonviolent protest that Gandhi had used in gaining independence for India could be employed successfully by Blacks in America. He applied this belief to the issue in Montgomery. The black community responded with car pools to bring economic pressure on the bus company, and mass meetings were held at which participants were taught the techniques of nonviolence. The strike lasted a year and caught the imagination of Blacks across the country. The Supreme Court struck down the law under which Mrs. Parks had been arrested and ordered the buses desegregated. The boycott was a beginning which led to a successful conclusion, but even before it was clear this would lead to a real change, the methods of the boycott would become the hallmark of the civil rights movement which followed. The succes

Category: History - T