Black Rights
The quest for equality by black Americans played a central role in the struggle for civilrights in the postwar era. Stemming from an effort dating back to the Civil War andReconstruction, the black movement had gained more momentum by the mid-twentiethcentury. African Americans continued to press forward for more equality throughpeaceful demonstrations and protests. But change came slowly indeed. Rigid segregationof public accommodations remained the ruled in the South, despite a victory in theMontgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in 1955. School integration occurred after the Brownv. Board of Education decision of 1954, but not without struggles. In the North, urbanghettos grew, as the growth of blacks grew. Crowded public housing, poor schools, andlimited economic opportunities fostered serious discontent. In the North and South alike, consciousness of the need to combat racialdiscrimination grew. Support bubbled up from different social groups. Young people in
All he wanted was for blacks and whites to be equal. "I have a dream," King declared, "that one day this nation will rise up and live outthe true meaning of its creed:'We hold these trues to be self -evident, that all men arecreated equal. Suing to gain admission, hecarried his case to the Supreme Court, where Justice Hugo Black affirmed his claim. There is still a long way to go in the fight against discrimination, but we are moving closerand closer each day. An even more violent confrontation began in April 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama,where local black leaders encouraged Martin Luther King,Jr. In August of 1963, civil rights protesters arranged massive march on WashingtonD. " Though the demonstrations werenonviolent, the responses were not. At this march on Washington, he proclaimed his faith in the decency of his fellowcitizens and in their ability to extend promises of the Constitution and the Declaration ofIndependence to every American citizen. This Act allowed federal examiners to register black voters where necessary. Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull"Connor used high-pressure fire hoses, electric cattle prods, and trained police dogs toforce the protesters back. James Meredith,a black air force veteran and student at Jackson State College, applied to the all-whiteUniversity of Mississippi and rejected on racial grounds. City officials declared that protest marches violatedcity regulations against parading without a license, and, over a five-week period, theyarrested 2,200 blacks, some of them schoolchildren. Forty percent black, the city was rigidly segregated along racialand class lines. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed and it outlawed racialdiscrimination in all public accommodations, and in 1965, the Voting Rights Act waspassed.
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Acceptance Essays
