The Civil Rights Movement Essay Example For Students

The Civil Rights Movement Essay The Civil Rights Movement Essay The civil rights movement was a period of time when blacks attempted to gain their constitutional rights of which they were being deprived. The movement has occurred from the 1950s to the present, with programs like Affirmative Action. Many were upset with the way the civil rights movement was being carried out in the 1960s. As a result, someone assassinated the leader of the movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After the first sit-in, it began happening all over the country and by the end of the year, 70,000 blacks staged sit-ins. Throughout this, over 3,600 people were arrested. This movement was successful, but it demonstrated non-violent protests. After this movement began, several organizations developed. Such programs include; The NAACP, SNCC, SCLC, CORE, and the Black Panthers. The NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, while the SNCC stands for the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee. The SCLC stands for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference who started a segregation protest traveling to Birmingham, Alabama who had the reputation of one of the most segregated cities in the United States. On May 2, 1963, over six hundred protesters were arrested, and the majority was teenage high schoolers. The next day, the police chief, Bull Conor, ordered his police officers to shoot the protestors with high-powered water hoses ordered their dogs to attack them. By the end of the march, only twenty people reached the City Hall. After the Birmingham demonstrations, the blacks gained support from the people from the North because they witnessed how violent the South was towards the black protestors. The CORE is for the Congress of Racial Equality and started the first series of Freedom Riders in May of 1961. They traveled on two interstate buses starting in Washington D.C. and traveling to New Orleans. The people who disagreed with this movement threw stones and burnt these traveling buses in order to show their dislikeness of the blacks. All of these programs promoted rights for African Americans. The Black Panthers was organized by the SNCC and became popular in the late 60s. It was founded in Oakland, California after they protested the bill that outlawed carrying loaded weapons in public. They marched to Sacramento armed with loaded weapons, wearing their distinctive black leather uniforms. This attracted many of the residence of Oakland to follow them. They believed that self-defense was a much wiser way of protest after many failed other protests. As you can see, racism changed dramatically throughout the 1960s. The protestors of the 60s changed the black society, which became better, and today some racism remains today but not nearly as much as back then. The Civil Rights Movement only had a positive influence on todays society. .