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Classical Civil Rights Movement Research Paper

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The Classical Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1965, is only part of the larger narrative of the struggle for freedom for African Americans from Emancipation in 1863 to the rise of the Black Power Movement in 1966. Throughout over a century of fighting, black Americans struggled for economic, political, and social freedoms. The black freedom movement was a struggle for voting rights, education, fair housing practices, labor rights, and access to public accommodations lead by local leaders, and accomplished integrating public accommodations and educations as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The early black freedom struggle started with Emancipation in 1863, the actions during Reconstruction show the root of the Civil Rights Movement …show more content…

However, soon after the war, the south moved quickly to rebuild their power over black Americans by creating “Black Codes”, which forced black Americans into jobs with low paid labor. There was a brief period that spanned from 1866 to 1868 was Congress overturned black codes, sent federal troops to protect black Americans, passed the fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The success of building the first public school and creating social services did not last long. This period serves as a point of reflection to what could have been in the south. As the first reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan occurred to lead to a state of terror, in 1874 after being driven underground by the federal government after its founding in1865. This was the end of radical reconstruction as the KKK overpowered the federal troops. The withdrawal of Federal Troops was just the beginning of the South's reign of terror and the rise of mass lynching. A political turning point within the south was the rise of the White Supremacy Campaigns as they begin to spread throughout the south, as planters gained support from their poor white counterparts, changing the political battle from a …show more content…

Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas to the March in Selma in 1965. The classical stage of the civil right moment is the most well-known era due to the famous acts activism including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and famous legal wins including the Brown v. Board decision, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Voting Rights Act of 1965. The classical phase of the civil rights movement began with the Supreme Court decision of hallmark case Brown v. Board of Education. The decision struck down segregated public schools, citing that separate is inherently unequal. This landmark Supreme Court decision caused outrage throughout the country. Yet, even though legally segregation among public schools has been struck down, this does not end segregation. Segregation continues in the south not only in-state public schools but also in public accommodation and transportation. Due to the continued discrimination in transportation in December 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycotts began after the arrest of Ms. Rosa Parks. Activist, Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat at the front of the bus to a white passenger. After her refusal Ms. Parks was arrested and sparked the boycott of Montgomery’s local buses for over a year, only to be stopped by a Supreme Court

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