The American Civil Right Movement Essay Example

on the basis of race and there was the achievement of the most significant breakthrough in the legislation of the equal rights for the African Americans since the period of the reconstruction of 1865 to 1877. Despite the fact that the enactment of the significant civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965 was successful, the militant black activists begun seeing their struggle as a freedom or the movement of the liberation not merely seeking the reforms on the civil rights but instead confronting the enduring political, economic and the cultural consequences of the past racial oppression. Around one hundred years after the proclamation of the Emancipation, the African Americans in the States of the Southern still had the different environment of the isolation, disappointment and the varying manners of prosecution that involved the motivated race viciousness.

The laws by Jim Crow at the states level and the neighborhood banned them from the bathrooms and the classrooms, from the theaters and the train autos, from the law making bodies and the Juries. In the year 1954, the Incomparable US court struck down the difference however breaking even with the tenet which shaped the premise for the segregation authorized on the states thereby drawing the national and the worldwide regard for the predicament for the African Americans. In the turbulent decade and the significant portion of that took place after the utilization of the peaceful dissent and collective defiance by the activists of the social liberties to realize the change and the national government made the authoritative progress with the activities such as the 1965 voting rights Acts and the Civil Rights Acts of 1968. The numerous pioneers

from the African American groups and the past rose to the outstanding quality amidst the period of the Civil Rights. The pioneers included the Martin Luther King Junior, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and the others like the Myers, Daniel J and Daniel M.

Cress (Myers, page 120). The pioneers gambled and at times lost their lives depending on the circumstances for the sake of uniformity and flexibility. On the first day of December 1955, there was the starting of the underlying period of the Civil Rights in the post, Brown versus the Board of the Education. The Rosa Parks of the Montgomery, Alabama, made a decline of surrendering her seat to the rider of the white transport and in this way opposing the southern custom which obliged the blacks to offer the seats towards the front of the transport to the white.

After her incarceration, there was the start of the dark group bar of the city’s transport. The blacklist endured for a duration of more than one year thereby exhibiting the solidarity and the determination by the black inhabitants as well as the motivation of the blacks somewhere else. Martin Luther King developed as the best pioneer of the development of the blacklist. He had the rhetorical and the special propitiatory abilities. He did comprehend the bigger centrality of the blacklist and the immediate understanding that the peaceful strategies that the Indian patriotic, Mahatma Gandhi, utilized would also be useful on the southern blacks.

He made a declaration that he had come to see the early that the doctrine of the Christians of love operating through the method of Gandhian of nonviolence was among the most potent

weapons that were available to the Negro in the struggle for the freedom. Martin Luther King remained as the major representative of the desire of the Negroes people for equality minimally known about the other people participating in the advancement of the colored people. On the first day of February in 1960, there were four freshmen from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College that started the flood of the understudy sit-ins with the intention to end the isolation at the counters on the southern lunch. The dissents spread very quickly throughout the South thereby prompting the establishment of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (King, page 150). There was the driving of the bunch by the understudy that was much more forceful in the utilization of the peaceful direct activity strategies than the SCLC by Martin King. It focused on the advancement of the independent neighborhood developments as in opposition to the SCLC methodology of the utilization of the nearby crusades to the accomplishment of the changes of the national social liberty.

The scheme of SCLC protesting made its first major progress in 1963 when the gathering propelled a noteworthy crusade in the Birmingham, Alabama. There existed a string of the meetings advertised all around the community among the peaceful protestors that included the school children from one perspective and the violent police forces. Even though most of the whites had a contrary response to the spreading revolutions of 1963, the linkage of the colored militancy and optimism by the King realized the entry of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964. The enactment banned out the isolation in the open offices and the racial segregation in

the vocation and the instruction. Notwithstanding the blacks, the ladies and the different segregation casualties profited from the demonstration. By the late 1960s, associations like the NAACP, the SCLC, and the SNCC progressively confronted the reliable difficulties from the associations of the new activists (D'Angelo, page 78).

An example is the Black Panther party. The procedure of the Panthers of getting the firearm mirrored the notions of the numerous internal city blacks. The defenders of the freedom of the Negroes saw changes in the social liberties as inadequate on the grounds that there was no addressing of the issues that the huge number of the poor blacks confronted and in the light of the fact that there was the attainment of the African-American citizenship at last from the automatic consequences of the oppression. The advocates of the racial freedom saw the American-American chance battle in the universal terms of the development of the human rights and the national self-determination for all the groups of the people.

There was the marking of the American history by the persistent and the determined efforts of expanding the scope and the inclusiveness of the civil rights. Although there was the affirming of the equal rights for all in the founding documents of the United States, there was the denial of the essential rights to many of the inhabitants of the new country. The African slaves and the indentured servants failed to have the inalienable right to the liberty, life and pursuit of happiness which the British colonists asserted to justify their Declaration of Independence. The African slaves were also not included among the people of the United States that established the

constitution in attempting to promote the general welfare and securing the blessings of the Liberty to themselves and their prosperity.

Instead, there was the protection of the slavery by the constitution through allowing the importation of the slaves till 1808 and provided the return of the slaves that had escaped to the other states. As the United States continued to expand its boundaries, the people of the Native Americans restricted absorption and conquest. The individual states that determined most of the voting rights of the citizens of America gave the rights of voting to the male whites that owned the property and the other rights like the right of holding the property or serving in the Juries were mostly denied by the racial or the gender distinctions. A little portion of the African Americans was living outside the system of slavery, but the so-called free blacks continued enduring the racial discrimination and the enforced segregation. Some of the slaves used the violent means of rebelling against their enslavement. Despite many of the slaves using the violent means of breaking from their slavery, the African Americans and the other subordinated groups mostly used the nonviolent means like the legal challenges, protests, petitions addressed to the officials of the government, pleas and the massive and sustained civil rights movements to attain the gradual improvements in their status.

In the first half of the 19th century, the attempts to extend the rights of voting to the white males that did not own the property mainly the laborers resulted in the elimination of the most property qualification as the rights for the voting but there was the accompanying of the expansion

of the suffrage by the brutal suppression of the American Indians and the increased restrictions on the free blacks. There was the reaction of the 1831 Nat Turner slave revolt in Virginia by the slave owners through passing the laws that discouraged the antislavery activism and preventing the teaching of the slaves to write and read. Despite the repression, an increased number of the African Americans freed themselves from the burden of slavery through escaping or negotiating agreements of purchasing their freedom through the wage labor (Carawan, page 158). By 1830s, the communities of the free blacks in the Northern states became sufficiently large and organized for the holding of the regular national conventions where the blacks would gather and discuss the alternative strategies to the advancement towards the racial issues.

After the 1960s, there was extreme suppression by the government, the death of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and the extraordinary infighting inside the aggressor group of the African Americans. This resulted in the decrease in the actions of rebellion. The battle by this group for all the things considered equal left an imprint on the American culture that was changeless. In the south, there was the decrease in the rate of the hatred crimes and there was the choice of the African Americans to the political workplaces in the groups that once banned the blacks from voting and a hefty part of the pioneers that existed amid the 1950s and 1960s stayed dynamic in the issues of the southern government.

Major events and the legacies of the Civil Rights Movement. From the earliest years of the settlement of European in North America, the whites

enslaved and oppressed the black people. Despite the abolishment of slavery by the civil war, a harsh system of the white supremacy persisted after that. There was the struggle to ameliorate the oppressive practices by the black and the white liberal reformers leading to the formation of the groups like the NAACP in 1909 and the National Urban League in 1911 (Romano, page 150). There was also the establishment of the citizenship schools for the civil rights across the South and the North Carolinas Ella that worked in improving the conditions in the South. There was also the bringing up of the renewed efforts in 1940, and there was the threatening of staging an all-black March on the Washington unless there was the action by the president to end the racial discrimination.

The other event was the prompting of the promoted pressure for the civil rights. One of the development was the movement of the black Americans out of the rural South to take the jobs related in the Northern and the Western cities. Moreover, after the war, the civil rights advocates promoted for the further signs of the liberal changes. There was the recognition that racism at home made contradictions on the claims by the Americans of leading the free world against the acts of oppression. The other significant event and the legacy are that the activists of the civil rights movements operated right from the grass root level, the local levels as well as pressing for an end to the school segregation.

The bold protestors risked not only their jobs but also their lives in the protest for the civil rights of the people.

The

account of the strain theory

The strain acts as the heart of the sociological bid that accounts for the crime. The theoretical agenda of the theory consists of the frustration, stress and the strain that comes from the product of the failed aspirations or the blockage of the attainment of the goal (Agnew, page 70). Robert Morten developed the strain theory. The theory maintains that there is the violation of the norms so as to alleviate the strain that accompanies the failure or the aspirations/attainment of the aimed goal.

The theory stipulates that the social structures may give pressure to the citizens to commit a certain crime. The strain may be structural referring to the processes at the level of the society that may filter down and affect the way the individuals may perceive his or her needs. The strain may also be particular that refers to the frictions and the pains the person’s experiences when he or she looks for the manners of satisfying their personal needs. The above types of the strains may insinuate the social structures within the society then pressurizing the citizens to become criminals or act in the manner of committing a crime. The strain theory states that particular strains or the stressors may increase the possibility of committing an offence.

The strains may lead the emotions that are negative like anger or frustrations. The emotions create the pressure for the individuals to take the corrective action with the crime being one of the probable responses. There may be the use of crime to escape or reduce strain, seek revenge against the source of the strain and the related targets as well

as alleviating the negative emotions. The significant versions of the strain theory describe the reasons that the pressure increases the crime, the specific strains that are most likely to lead to the committing of the offence and the factors that may influence the person or discourage the person from responding to the crime. The theory of the strain may acknowledge that it is only the minority of the individuals strained to turn to the crimes.

The application of the theory to the case

The strain theory applies significantly to the event of the American Civil Rights Movement. The theory holds that the social movements in the society arise to respond to some of the breakdowns in the society. The above aspect applies to the case of the movement. For example, there was the humiliation of the black people by the white individuals based on the races and the other forms of the segregation.

There was also the increased discrimination and the racial segregation of the blacks in the southern United States. The white people majorly discriminated against the blacks in various aspects. Due to the violation and separation of the blacks by the whites, there arose the need for the Civil Rights Movement. Some of the oppressed individuals gained in the violent ways of coming out of the violation and slavery by the White people. The others used the nonviolent means of coming out of the slavery.

The above aspects relate to the strain theory in that there is the violation of the norms of the society thereby leading the individuals of the society to engage in committing a crime so as to overcome the breach of the

social norms. The other aspect of the application of the strain theory to the case is that in the strain theory, there is the experience of the pain or the struggles by the individuals when attempting to attain their needs. In the Civil Rights Movement, the individuals struggle to get out of the slavery that they are exposed to by the white people. However, there is the resistance by some people like the Nat Turner, who were opposed to ending the slavery as well as teaching the slaves on how to read and write.

Despite the opposition by like such people, there was the increased struggle by the people till there was the attainment of their individual freedom. There was also the existence of a harsh system of supremacy by the white despite the abolition of the slavery by the Civil War activists. There was also the increased struggle of ameliorating the oppressive practices by the white and the black reformers that led to the formation of the groups like the NAACP. There is also the application of the strain theory in that it is the minority of the strained individuals who turn to the creation of crimes. There is the violation of many black persons in the US that required for the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. Despite the emergence of the movement, it is only a few minority that engaged to the violent ways of eliminating themselves from the violation of the rights and slavery.

The other population used the nonviolent ways for the struggle to gain their personal liberty and end the slavery imposed on them.

Conclusion

The African Americans made a breakthrough

when they revolted against the injustice that they were facing for some years. There were increased progress and advancement in the living standards for numerous races in the United States. The individuals confronted with the racial segregation and other forms of the intimidation were fed up by the acts of the white discriminating and the stillness of the progression of their races and therefore took the matters into their hands, and made a collective union against the oppressors and led a rebellion. Throughout the period of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the African Americans, and the colored community began having the breakdown due to the oppression they were facing ever since the days of the slavery.

There was the view that everybody else around them was progressing as a racial community, and they were also unpleased by the slow rate of the equality that the white people were exposing the African Americas. Although there was the granting of some freedom to the Africa Americans in the previous years, still there was the feeling of the effects of oppression on their lives in their everyday activities. They therefore begun the revolt despite there being some separate parties that engaged in the revolution through the use of different methods, they were all still standing for the progression of the Africa Americans. The two broad methods utilized in the revolution involved the violent and the peaceful methods of revolting.

Work cited

• "Civil Rights Movement." History.com. A Television Networks, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2016. Agnew, Robert. Pressured into crime: An overview of General Strain Theory. Los Angeles: Roxbury Pub, 2006.

  Print.

• Carawan, G., Carawan, C., Bond, J.,
  

; Reece, F. (2007). Sing for freedom: The story of the civil rights movement through its songs. Montgomery, Ala: NewSouth Books.