The Civil Rights Movement

The events of World War II largely set the platform for the Civil Rights movement. Demands for soldiers to fight opened up job opportunities at home, and nearly a million African Americans served in the armed forces. This demand for soldiers forced the army to end previous discriminatory policies that kept African Americans from serving in fighting units, and the returning soldiers were determined to fight for their own freedom after defeating facist regimes across the globe. The legal battles of the desegregation campaign were led by the NAACP, which in turn was led by lawyer Thurgood Marshall. In 1938 he structured a team of his best law students and his team won 29 out of 32 cases they argued in front of the Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a milestone win, ending with the Supreme Court striking down segregation in schools as an unconstitutional violation of the 14^th Amendment.

Eighteen months later, in December 1955, Rosa Parks, a NAACP officer, stood up for herself by refusing to give up her seat on a bus which ended with her getting arrested. In response, leaders of the African American community formed a Montgomery bus boycott, and elected the 26 year old Martin Luther King to lead the campaign. King called his brand of non-violent resistance “soul force” and based it on the teachings of Philip Randolph, Henry David Thoreau, Ghandi and Jesus.

After the Montgomery bus boycott success, King founded the South Christian Leadership Conference to carry out non-violent crusades against injustice. They staged protests and demonstrations through out the South, and more committees formed on their own. These included Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). These committees organized the first sit-ins, and through their efforts the dream of racial equality was finally becoming a reality.

By Matt M. and Paris B.

Civil Rights movement in the 20th Century

In the early 20th century, there were a lot of changes in society marked by the Supreme Court's ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson. This landmark case enraged many of the African Americans who believed that "separate but equal" was not demolishing segregation, but rather enforcing it in the public. The NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was formed in 1909 by a number of African Americans with the support of prominent white reformers. In 1938, NAACP's leader, Thurgood Marshall, was placed as a law student to win 29 out of 32 before the Supreme Court. In the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,the father of Linda Brown had brought on a case to the Board of Education of Topeka. In the next few years, the case was proved to be unconstitutional, which allowed black students to enroll in white schools. The governor of Arkansas ignored the case, which then enraged the black community. Presdient Eisenhower called in the National Guard to go into a high school in Little Rock to protect 9 students, who are known as the Little Rock Nine. Many white parents and students were enraged with the decision, which caused an outbreak of anger towards the students. Many activists made their moves with the initiation of Rosa Park's refusal to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. This enraged the black community, which then caused a boycott on buses, which led to more than a year of no riding on public buses. Many of the activities were then brought out by profound leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, who supported the civil rights movement. King believed that their movement should be in peace rather than violence, while Malcolm X believed in building power physically.

-By Arthur C.