Civil Rights
The 1950s lasted far longer than a numerical decade. The Fifty's started in October 1947 when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, escorting in a time of rapid progress. The accent of the era was on convenience and speed-a time when abundant steps were taken to free the housewife from the dreary grind of daily chores. The Fifties saw the mass production of laborsaving home appliances and convenience foods to provide women with more leisure time. This period also brought improvements in many other aspects of everyday life. The Fifty's were the time when all girls seemed to look so feminine and appealing with their ponytails, flared skirts, and petticoats. Men donned clean-cut hair styles and freshly shaven faces. Dancing girls, doing their twirls and spins with enough force to send layers of petticoats waist high displaying shapely legs, and stocking-tops, frequently filled hamburger joints and school gymnasiums. Comedians of the 50's never used filthy jokes or foul language, and television portrayed an unreal innocence about the era. When looking back, the 1950's appear to have been trouble-free peaceful years. The American Flag was a symbol we saluted with respect. Prayer was allowed in schools, as well as in most public pl
Deeply rooted in the African American experience, the origins of the Civil Rights Movement date back much further than the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the United States. According to law, blacks and whites could not occupy the same row, so the bus driver asked all four of the blacks seated in the fifth row to move. Or the seeds could have been planted on a day in the early 1950s when a black pastor tried unsuccessfully to get other blacks to leave a bus in protest after he was forced to give up his seat. Surely it must follow that the doctrine had no place in any public facilities. When the efforts to break up the boycott failed, whites turned to violence. The MIA was hopeful that the plan would be accepted and the boycott would end, but the bus company refused to consider it. In 1896 the Supreme Court upheld segregation, but declared that whites and blacks should have separate but equal living standards. Slavery in the United States ended in 1865, but the practice of segregation, an attempt mostly by white Southerners to separate the races in every sphere of life, continued. Now, they would accept nothing less than full integration. Although the boycott had been an important start, the gains of the Montgomery Bus Boycott were small compared with the gains blacks would later win. In addition, the case was not held in the local courts but in federal court, where even a black man could hope to have a fair trial. Durr was immediately given the details, and Nixon was then able to post bond.
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Acceptance Essays
