D.

Duncan1

Civil Rights in America

Civil Rights are the right to political and social freedom and equality established in the 13th

and 14th Amendments. Civil Rights are all about equality, and these Amendments were aimed

to specifically protect those of an ethnic minority, which had suffered in America before the

Civil Rights Act passed. Civil rights are protected through many different laws that are

enacted by Congress. For example, the Age Discrimination Act 1975 stops individuals from

being treated differently just because of their age group. The landmark case of Brown v

Board of Education 1954 also helped to establish civil rights within the U.S. The Supreme

Court finally decided that segregation within schools was wrong and therefore no longer

allowed. 1

First, another landmark case is that of Plessy v Ferguson, which went to the Supreme

Court in 1896 where it was ruled that “separate but equal facilities were constitutional.”

Therefore, the court upheld the legality of segregating people by their ethnicity, on public

transport and in other public places such as hotels and schools. This case came about after

Homer Plessy rejected sitting in the black section of the train. His action was similar to the

later, well-known case of Rosa Parks in the 1950’s where officials still saw this action as

unconstitutional. This proves how slowly civil rights and equality moved within the United

States as the same arguments were taking place nearly 60 years later.

Segregation is said to have arrived in Texas in the 1820’s with slavery and it has

evolved from there. The main separation was the African Americans and the Mexican

Americans together then the whites separate. Near the end of the 19th century, many places in

Texas had different quarters for the different races, for example the Mexican Quarter. This

Arnoldo De León and Robert A. Calvert, "Segregation," Handbook of Texas online 1

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separation began to affect education especially in the 20th century when black and Mexican

schools were not receiving the same resources and funding as the white schools. In the 1930s

African Americans were no longer allowed to attend sports events, and they were stopped

from entering certain hotels and restaurants unless there was a separate room for them. The

segregation also spread to the workplace. It was common for African Americans or Mexicans

to receive a lower wage for doing the exact same job, which led to conflict about civil rights

as they weren’t being able to express their social freedom because they were stopped from

doing certain jobs and visiting certain places. 2

The case of Brown v Board of Education (1954) finally declared it unconstitutional for the

separate but equal doctrine to exist in schools and other public places, which slowly led to

better educational opportunities for those of an ethnic minority.

Amid Reconstruction, blacks went up against positions of authority more than ever.

They held open offices and looked for authoritative changes for correspondence and the

privilege to cast a ballot.

In 1868, the fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave blacks level with insurance

under the law. In 1870, the fifteenth Amendment conceded blacks the privilege to cast a

ballot. In any case, numerous whites, particularly those in the South, felt miserable that

individuals they would once subjugate were currently on a pretty much equivalent playing

field.

The rights of the people to vote also came slowly prior to the civil right act.

Disenfranchisement is depriving someone of a legal right or of some privilege, and this

applied to every southern state in the 1890s, as it was illegal for blacks to vote unless they

owned land Also, a poll tax was put in place which made it almost impossible for poor people

2
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Hubert H Humphrey, “The passage of the law that ended
racial segregation”, university of New York press, 1997.
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to vote. Even though these laws affected African Americans, they also had a negative effect

on poor white people who also could not afford to vote. By 1895 the amount of black voting

in the south had decreased by 65%, showing that this law affected them the most and thus

affected their civil rights. This meant that they were not being allowed to express their

political freedom simply because they did not have enough money to vote. . 3 Jim Crow laws

were supported by the case of Plessy vs Ferguson 1896, which declared legal separate

facilities offered separate restrooms and restaurants and also separate sections on public

transport. Most of the blacks could not vote because they did not pass the voter literacy test

that prevent them voting. This meant that ethnic minorities would have to give up their seat

on public transport if the white section became full. This was evident in the famous case of

Rosa Parks, who was one of the main advocates for civil and ethnic rights as she refused to

give up her seat on the bus for a white man. She faced extreme backlash for this action,

which shows how in the 1950s, ethnic rights weren’t respected at all by people in power

positions. As expression of her capture touched off shock and support, Parks accidentally

turned into the "mother of the cutting-edge social equality development." African American

pioneers shaped the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) driven by Baptist Martin

Luther, King, Jr. whose job would put him up front in the battle for civil rights. Jim Crow

laws weren't embraced in northern states; but, blacks still experienced separation at their

occupations or when they endeavoured to purchase a house or get training. To exacerbate the

situation, laws were passed in a few states to restrict casting a ballot and other rights for

blacks. Earlier, southern isolation had made strides in 1896 when the U.S. Supreme Court

pronounced in Plessy v. Ferguson that offices for blacks and whites could be "independent

however equivalent."

3
Michael O’Malley. “Blood Red Record”: the 1890’s and American Apartheid. Accessed
November 04, 2018.
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Civil rights cases of the 1880s were prolific as the Supreme Court ruling under the 14th

Amendment, only the rights of the state were protected, not the rights of the individuals

living there. This meant that it would now be unconstitutional to stop discrimination against

African Americans in public places as this was an individual issue and wasn’t protecting the

rights of the state. This opened up all sorts of problems for black Americans who now

weren’t protected under this amendment. They were only protected by the rights of the state,

so this didn’t govern how they were treated by other individuals. Therefore, this led to more

unfair treatment and discrimination of minorities who could not do anything about it as it

wasn’t seen as unconstitutional. 4

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was another main event in the civil rights movement. Whites

had the front section of the bus and blacks were only allowed to sit at the back of public

buses and the law dictated that black persons had to give up their seat for a white person. The

situation was evident in the famous case of Rosa Parks who refused to stand for a white man

when riding the bus home from work in December 1955. She was arrested for refusing to

give up her seat which angered many people. Her arrest caused the Women’s Political

Council to start a bus boycott which lasted for over a year. African Americans refused to use

the public buses until the whites made is so there were no longer certain sections for certain

races. The Woman’s Political Council held their meetings at the local church where the

minister was Martin Luther King and this is how he first became known as a major figure for

the civil rights of blacks.

Elizabeth Hinton. A Journal of American History 102, 1, 1 June 2015, Pages 100–112. 4
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Martin Luther King was known as one of the first civil rights activists and arguably the most

successful. He was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which

provided leadership for the civil rights movement. In his years as leader, he travelled across

the country giving speeches to crowds who gathered in response to social injustice. His most

famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” was given in Washington, D.C in front of 250,000 people.

Martin Luther King, Jr, became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and, he

donated all his prize money to help further the movement of civil rights.

During his presidency Lyndon Johnson put forward three very important legislations. These

were the Housing and Urban, the Voting Rights Act, which finally gave black Americans the

ability to vote just like any other citizens and the Law Enforcement Assistance Act which

allowed crime control funds to the states and didn’t just focus on punishing offenders but was

more about controlling the more marginalized communities.

Before President Johnson there was little movement over civil rights. First President

Eisenhower would not back the case of Brown v Board of Education. Then President

Kennedy claimed he could help to stop discrimination, but it then took him over a year to put

forward a civil rights bill which did not even propose many changes. So, the black

community felt that they couldn’t rely on their president to protect them. When Johnson was

elected, he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law after it was previously put forward

by Kennedy. This helped to eradicate discrimination in the workplace as well as in other

public places.

Currently, there is a civil rights movement, which predominantly takes place on social media.

Black Lives Matter is a new civil rights movement that involves intervening in violence

inflicted on black communities. Although civil rights have changed over time and become
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more equal, Black Lives Matter is a prime example that work still needs to be done in order

to create true social justice. The movement came about after the death of a black man,

Trayvon Martin, whose killer was acquitted and not made accountable. This led to the

formation of the group, which set out on a Freedom Ride the following year to get justice for

another innocent black man, Mike Brown, whom a police officer killed. Since then, the Black

Lives Matter group has continued growing and is now recognised worldwide. Some

historians agree and disagree about the civil rights like where Harvard Sitkoff contends, that "

the seeds that would later prove to be fruitful" were planted; by 1940 blacks trusted "that

another page in American history had been turned." According to Robert Norrell, the late

1940s uncovered "a couple of enticing snapshots of dissent as well as an across the board, if

not yet develop, battle to topple isolation and systematized bigotry." Robert Korstad and

Nelson Lichtenstein put the start of the social equality period in the work radicalism of the

mid 1940s, "when the social structure of dark America went up against an inexorably urban,

common character," and a large portion of a million dark specialists joined CIO associations.5

In actuality, contends Carson, neighbourhood activists made no such refinement: the prior

development to achieve political rights advanced into a development to practice those rights;

both contained a bigger "dark opportunity battle looking for a wide scope of objectives." The

issue with such expansive definitions, nonetheless, is that in focusing on history's "consistent

web" they transform history into a homogenized mush, without sharp breaks and changes.

Historians in pipe-smoke filled rooms should not to attempt to rename it." In holding the

5
Harvard Sitkoff, A New Dealfor Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 335; Robert J. Norrell, Reaping the Whirlwind:
The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), x; Robert
Korstad and Nelson Lichtenstein, "Opportunities Lost and Found: Labor, Radicals, and the
Early Civil Rights Movement," Journal of American History, 75 (December 198 8), 786-811;
Darlene Clark Hine, Black Victory: The Rise and Fall of the White Primary in Texas
(Millwood, NY: K.T.O. Press, 1979)
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thought of an unmistakable about the civil rights, notwithstanding, we have to ask: What

made it a discrete "development"? 6In clarifying the rise of the social equality development,

the recorded setting is critical. Taking a gander at the opposite end of the period, Clayborne

Carson has tested the thought that "The civil right movement was kicked in the mid-1960s" to

be dislodged by a Black Power development with different objectives. Given the

conspicuousness of Martin Luther King, the significance of peaceful direct activity, and the

bounty of applicable sources, history specialists have would in general spotlight on King and

the gatherings that were most dedicated to walking and going to imprison. We have a

thorough investigation of CORE by Meier and Rudwick, a workmanlike record of SNCC by

Clayborne Carson, and a past filled with SCLC by this author. There is no sufficient history

of the NAACP. Nonetheless, the trudging character of the Association's national

administration, which has maybe prevented history specialists, ought not dark the

significance of the NAACP's neighbourhood offices: future analysts may well find that in

states like Louisiana and South Carolina the NAACP shaped the foundation of the social

liberties development. Hierarchical history is along these lines in no way, shape or form

depleted: there are vast holes, and the current narratives are not conclusive.7 The historians

group think about, if appropriately dealt with, beats a noteworthy shortcoming of much social

6
Raphael Cassimere, Jr., "Equalizing Teachers' Pay in Louisiana," Integrated Education
(July—August 1977), 3—8; Clayborne Carson, "Civil Rights Reform and the Black Freedom
Struggle," in Charles W. Eagles (ed.), The Civil Rights Movement in America (Jackson:
University of Mississippi Press, 1986), 19-37; Hugh Murray, "Change in the South," review
essay, Journal of Ethnic Studies, 16 (Summer 1988), 119-3

7
August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942—
1968 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973); Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and
the Black Awakening of the 1960s (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981); Adam
Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian 'Leadership Conference
and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987).
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liberties historiography: the propensity to isolate history by race. Most chronicles have

analysed either white activities or dark activities; just once in a while have the twain met.

Investigations of Massive Resistance and southern legislative issues have little to state about

the social equality development. The main whites to show up in many accounts of the social

liberties development are the Bull Connors and Jim Clarks. We have to wed the two points of

view: the social equality development included a rationalization among blacks and whites.

Neither side, also, was solid, and an investigation of this logic empowers us to escape from

the generalizations that have again and again diminished history to a profound quality play.

Norrell and Chafe, for instance, depict connections both inside every network and between

every network with commendable affectability.8

8
he best studies of Massive Resistance are Numan V. Bartley, The Rise of Massive
Resistance: Race and Politics in the South During the ifjos (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1969); Neil R. McMillen, The Citizen's Council: Organised Resistance to
the Second Reconstruction (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971); and James W. Ely,
The Crisis of Conservative Virginia: The Byrd Organisation and the Politics of Massive
Resistance (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1976). Two works that do attempt to
incorporate the black perspective are Glen Jeansonne, Leander Perez-' Boss of the Delta
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977); and Tom R. Wagy, LeRoy Collins of
Florida: Spokesman of the New South (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1985).
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Last, the 15th amendment, passed in 1869, outlawed the denial of voting rights due to race,

colour, or past servitude. But however, immediately after the Civil War ended, some states

began imposing restrictions on the daily lives of African Americans, whether they were

survivors of slavery or had always been free. By the end of the 19th century, laws or informal

practices that required that African Americans be segregated from whites were often called

Jim Crow practices, believed to be a reference to a minstrel-show song, “Jump Jim Crow.”

With the Compromise of 1877, political power was returned to Southern whites in nearly

every state of the former Confederacy. The federal government abandoned attempts to

enforce the 14th and 15th amendments in many parts of the country. By 1890, when

Mississippi added a disfranchisement provision to its state constitution, the legalization of

Jim Crow had begun.9 Segregation was often maintained by uniformed law enforcement. In

other instances, it was enforced by armed white mobs and violent attacks by anonymous

vigilantes. African Americans resisted these pervasive restrictions using many different

strategies, from public advocacy and political activism to individual self-defence and

attempts to escape to a better life. In the century following the end of Reconstruction,

millions of African Americans moved away from the South in what became known as the

Great Migration, only to discover that they faced discrimination in the northern states. In the

middle of the twentieth century, generations of resistance to segregation culminated in the

Civil Rights movement, in which African Americans launched widespread demonstrations

and other public protests to demand the rights and protections provided by the Constitution.

As a result, a series of landmark court cases and new legislation in the 1950s and 60s,

including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act. 10
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Teacher’s Guide Primary Source Set, Jim Crow and Segregation.9 and 10
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Bibliography

De Leon, Arnoldo, et al. Segregation. Handbook of Texas Online. 2010.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pks01 Accessed November 04, 2018.

Constitutional Rights Foundation (2018)

http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/in-the-courts.html

O’Malley, Michael. Blood Red Record: the 1890’s and American Apartheid. 1999,
https://ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/links/misclink/1980s.htm Accessed
November 04, 2018.

Humphrey, Hubert H, et al. The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law That
Ended Racial Segregation. State University of New York Press, 1997.

Hinton, Elizabeth. Journal of American History, Volume 102, Issue 1, 1 June 2015, Pages
100–112. https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/102/1/100/686903 Accessed November 03,
2018.

Gilmore, Ruth W. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing
California. Berkeley, 2007.

Garza, Alicia. What We Believe. Black Lives Matter, 2014.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/what-we-believe/ Accessed November 03, 2018.

Bennett, Lerone, Jr., What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago,
Johnson, 1964.

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/us/rosa-parks-montgomery-boycott-files.html

Deming, Leonard. “Jim Crow.” Song sheet. Boston: L. Deming, n.d. From Library of
Congress,
America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets

Teacher’s Guide Primary Source Set, Jim Crow and Segregation. Retrieved from:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/civil-
rights/pdf/teacher_guide.pdf
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Darie-Ann Duncan

History 307

Mr Lane

November 13, 2018