Comparing The Civil Rights Movement And The Feminist Movement

A wide-spread of active social movement sprang up during the years preceding the Civil War. The crusaders involved in this social movement called for important shifts in society, two of which included the increase of rights and freedom to a multitude of people living in the United States. Two of the most influential movements were the abolitionist movement, and the women's rights movement. These two movements were closely related. Several of the women who became leaders in the women's rights movement initiated their political influence during the abolitionist movement.

Many of the movements came from college students. One of these groups was the Students for a Democratic Society. This group had emphasized individual rights, demanded economic justice and a variety of social reforms. It largely rejected current American society and condemned the Cold War structure, poverty, and segregation. The SDS would be the largest radical student organization of the 1960’s. Along with movements with colleges, television shows no longer reinforced cultural norms, but began to challenge norms that included opinions on the war, gender, race, etc. In regards to racial equality, there were several groups who pushed for change. The Black Panthers were an example with how they sought several changes in African American treatment, and demanded changes such as full employment, decent housing, and decent education. Martin Luther King Jr. was also part of huge movements during the 1960’s as well, such as the Civil Rights Movement, and the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 that focused primarily on economic justice across racial lines. Gender roles were also a part of various movements in the 1960’s. Betty Friedan was an example of one of the leading figures on how she depicted the roles of women in industrial societies, and focused on the popular notion that women during this time could only find fulfillment through childbearing

The Civil Rights Movement was a very important event in the African-American’s push for equality. Many major events happened throughout the movement that involved violence, criticism, and racism towards the blacks. African-American’s were being treated extremely unfairly and unequal to white people, almost like they were not human. Many individuals had a huge impact on this movement such as Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, and Emmit Till. The Civil Rights Movement was a very influential period in American history that impacted millions of lives.

Teddy Miqui Political Science 110 Both the Women Suffrage movements and the civil rights movements were successful in altering the policies that the United States use to have. The reason to both of their success were based on certain actions such as creations of organizations, using of laws to their advantage and protesting the government that were oppressing them. Both movement have had a long history of fighting, but after years of challenges and protest they both ended but changing the course of history in the United States.

The civil rights movement changed the way people saw each other in the U.S. At first, most people saw African Americans as defenseless and helpless people, until they collaborated and impacted the Montgomery Bus System, the school system, and the judicial system. This movement also had an impact on the U.S. population, and helped confront the issue that most American Caucasians were treating people unlike themselves unequally.

The civil rights movement (and the activists involved) gave women a model for success. The method the civil rights movement

Impact of the Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movements refer to the movements in 1950’s to 1960’s against the racial discrimination of African Americans. As mentioned in class and in the book The Promised Land by Nichlos Lemann, civil rights movement has impacted the life of African-American tremendously. The activist used nonviolent protest and disobedient toward unequal civil rights to bring a change in the system. The impacts of the civil rights movement includes lots of protest from African Americans which led to more openly hostile behavior toward African Americans by white Americans however the movement helped a shift to a new phase which helped to create the equal legal rights for everyone.

During the 1950s until the 1970s, civil society protests in the United States of America formed a basis for many socially, politically and economically fuelled movements. The Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement are among the most notable of such civil protest movements. These movements aimed to improve the conditions of the Black community in North America after centuries of subjection to discrimination, oppression, segregation and racist policies stemming from the societal practices that originated during slavery in the US. Both the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement shared similar general aims in that both movements focused on the liberation of Black people from their oppressors; however each movement had distinct

In 1960, there were tremendous of social ferment that was responsible for agitation and protest. Through direct protest, many African Americans, women, and homosexuals were able to gain recognition and break down the walls of discrimination and segregations. Out of the numerous elements that arose in the 1960s, there are three movements that truly affected the American society. Firstly, the rise of the civil rights movement was greatly influenced by racial discrimination of colored people in the South. Secondly, the women’s movement aimed to convince the society that women are capable of achieving and maintaining higher waged job like males. Lastly, the gay rights movement aimed to gain acceptance and stop discrimination of homosexuality. The most significant effect on the development of American society was the women’s movement and how they expanded their economic and political opportunities. The common goal among African Americans, women’s, and homosexuals was to obtain their equal rights as citizens of America and to desegregate all the boundaries between white and black population.

But what is the true meaning of civil rights? Civil rights means that everyone should be treated the same and not discriminated against, regardless of gender, skin color, religion, age, etc. Women and minorities were treated unfairly. This led to "one of the most potent movements for social change of the twentieth century, the civil rights campaign of the postwar years" . There were many protests and boycotts created by both black and white women to fight for equality. "Although women's rights took a back seat to the issue of race, the civil rights movement nonetheless proved to seedbed for the resurgence of feminism in the late 1960s"

Wether it was recruitment, mobilization, or obtaining and securing resources, African American women were the backbone and the unsung heros of these movements. “Given the context of the times, the period 1954-65, women who participated in the civil rights movement experienced unprecedented power” (Robnett 1996).

Fredrick Douglas once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” During the 1960’s in America, there were major movements the promoted change throughout the country. The Civil Rights movement, which got its start in the 1950’s, strived for racial equality for African Americans. Meanwhile, the Women’s Rights Movement, focused on battling for better pay and equal opportunities for women. While the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement differed in their initial purposes, both groups worked to promote equality in the United States and made a profound impression for the decades to come.

The Civil Rights Movement symbolized the challenge and opposition to the racial injustices and segregation that had been engrained in American society for hundreds of years. Events that took place in the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, sit-ins, speeches and numerous protests define this momentous time in United States history. Speeches during this period served as a means to inspire and assemble a specific group of people, for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X it was the black community that needed to rise up in hopes of achieving equal rights and voting rights for the blacks.

Numerous groups throughout history have wrestled for equal rights and engaged in combat against oppressors. Both the American women’s suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s were examples of an oppressed group grappling with those above them for equality. Each group had to press for legislation that would protect them against inequality. Although the time periods of the women’s suffragette struggle and the African American Civil Rights endeavor were separate in history, the goals and methods of each were immensely similar.

The women’s movement began in the nineteenth century when groups of women began to speak out against the feeling of separation, inequality, and limits that seemed to be placed on women because of their sex (Debois 18). By combining two aspects of the past, ante-bellum reform politics and the anti-slavery movement, women were able to gain knowledge of leadership on how to deal with the Women’s Right Movement and with this knowledge led the way to transform women’s social standing (Dubois 23). Similarly, the movement that made the largest impact on American societies of the 1960’s and 1970’s was the Civil Right Movement, which in turn affected the women’s movement (Freeman 513). According to