Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s.

Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s

The civil rights movement was an incomplete struggle for justice within the lives of African Americans. For years, they fought brutally for equal rights and had many obstacles to work around through the years. The Civil Rights Movement contained many court cases that lead to laws being passed that slowly brought more freedom and equal rights to the African Americans. Although some events in the Civil Rights Movement were brutal, painful and hard it brought many amazing laws that equaled rights for blacks. The rights African Americans had in the 1960’s compare quite differently to how their rights are now and what changed their rights into more equal ones within each event, court case or organization mentioned.

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) became the most powerful organization during the Civil Rights Movement. It was founded in 1909 by activists of multiple races. They had many important landmarks in their history within their fight for freedom. One that made a huge impact on the lives of African Americans was the Morgan vs. Virginia court case. In this case, the Supreme court ruled the Virginia law of requiring racial segregation on state mandated buses was unconstitutional. As a result of this, blacks were allowed to sit wherever on buses and didn’t have to move seats to the back for white people even if they told them to because it was no longer a violation of the law. Before this was ruled unconstitutional, blacks were made to sit on a seperate part of the bus, usually the back. It was inconvenient for them because if one person was on the bus for a short period of time, they would have to walk back and forth on and off of buses because there was a law that separated them. There would be violent fights between whites and blacks if a black person surrendered their seat on a bus and refused to move for a white person. Not only would a fight most likely break out, that African American would be thrown in jail (or worse) all over a seat on a bus. Today, there is no segregation that occurs put in place by a law. Anyone and everyone is entitled to any seat on any bus in any state in the United States thanks to Morgan v. Virginia and the NAACP for winning this case against the Supreme Court that banned segregation on busses and trains.

Furthermore, on July 2, 2964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With this signing, it prevented any discrimination between employer and employee with regards to color, race, national origin, sex or religion. This meant that any African American or other minorities in the United States was able to apply for any job without being discriminated against because of (mostly) they’re color. In the 1940’s and 50’s African Americans were given the lowest paying, most hazardous and dirtiest jobs you can think of. This resulted in injuries they couldn’t pay to go get help for, diseases within the dirtiness and financial struggles for minorities who put their lives at risk everyday at work just to get by to provide for their families. Secondly, today in the workforce there is no scale or checklist for color, sex, religion, or national origin but one for education level. Basically, the more education you have behind you, the better job and career you can find based on what your passions are. Humans in American of every color or defining characteristic (from in the 1960’s) can