Key Events in the Civil Rights Movement Essay

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was successful because the protesters used nonviolence, the community helped each other, and the car pool was a major step in outcome. First of all, on March 22, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr. gives a speech and he states, “Democracy gives us this right to protest and that is all we are doing. We can say honestly that we have not advocated violence, have not practiced it, and have gone courageously on with a Christian movement”. This statement exemplifies that the protesters have done nothing wrong and they don’t plan on using violence. To continue, in a letter by Virginia Foster Durr written on January 30, 1956, she writes,“I think it is the first time that a whole Negro community has ever stuck together this way and

For more than a year, the African-American community in Montgomery successfully boycotted the city bus company, Montgomery City Bus Lines, which resulted in the loss of much needed revenue to support the city expenses. The Bus Boycott was the impetus for many whites to act violently towards African Americans in Montgomery. Being an avid member of the NAACP, King became much involved in the boycott. King's non-violent approach towards the boycott obviously drew a lot of attention. King's home in Montgomery was firebombed by openly racist members of the Ku Klux Klan [KKK] (Norrell 1). Seeing that the bus

Black merchants began to supply food to those in jail. Home owners put up property for bail money.The City’s head black lawyer headed up the defense. The court found the students guilty of disorderly conduct. John Lewis refused to pay the $50 fine and chose 33 days in the city workhouse. Most of the other students joined him in jail. They thought it was like a badge of honor spending time in jail. The black parents stopped spending their money at the downtown retail merchants. They hoped the boycott would put pressure on the Mayor to change the rules. The sit ins had spread to 69 cities and over 2,000 had been arrested. The boycott was organized nationwide for stores that discriminated. The boycotts had economic problems with the chain stores. It was encouraged that all people who were interested in democracy boycott the

The Greensboro Sit-Ins were another way that people progressed the Civil Rights movement. These took place in North Carolina, in the year 1960. They had many people participate in this nonviolent protest. The interview with Franklin McCain states, “We actually got to the point where we had people going down in shifts” (My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered). The movement was

Since the Supreme Court case of Plessy Vs Ferguson way back in 1892, which ruled the separation of blacks and whites constitutional as long as all public facilities provided were “separate but equal,” the United States had been segregated. As with all other public facilities at the time, the busses in Montgomery Alabama were also subject to this segregation, and it wasn’t until 1956 with the beginning of what became to be known as the “Montgomery Bus

During the 1950's African Americans were technically equal in the eyes of the law, but not to most of the southern citizens. Segregation was a time of division between whites and African Americans in regards to bathrooms, public amenities, schools etc.&t all of the country was like this, the occupants ofnorthern America were open and not as racist towards African Americans. In 1955, African Americans obligated by Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back city buses and to give up their seats to white people ifthe front half ofthe bus was full. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was going home from her job on the Cleveland Avenue bus. She was seated in

The violent acts caused the transits to shut down for over a week. Black riots are perceived as a failures referring to the Detroit riot. Riots were meant to reach out to people and show them that they are standing and fighting for their rights. This strategy is shown as a failure because the only success is the blacks standing up for their rights making more than an uproaring of the disturbance of peace. This riot along with others are very deadly with bloodshed, even if they do show the public what they are doing in some of these riots.

It was December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks boarded the bus and sat in the section labeled "whites only". She was ordered to get up so a white man could sit down, but she refused. She was arrested for not getting up. Because of her arrest, a 381 day protest led by Martin Luther King was started. "... a court case that took Alabama's discriminatory laws all the way to the U.S Supreme Court," as Prerana Korpe states in Rosa Parks and Civil Disobedience. This shows how serious Rosa Parks arrest was because her case went all the way to the U.S Supreme Court. Boycotting ended as soon as the bus segregation was declared unconstitutional. Rosa Parks said, "I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prospeirty for all people." This shows how Rosa Parks wanted people to view her. The peaceful 381 day protest led by Matin Luther King had positively impacted a free society because the bus segregation ended

Half a decade later, four college students came to the lunch counter of the Elm St. Woolsworth’s and ordered coffee. Their request was refused, and the college students remained in their seats for an hour. Over the next few months, more and more African Americans continued the sit-in, and later that year, the Elm St. Woolsworth’s lunch counter became integrated.

There were an additional three major events that helped end segregation. The first being the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which had started because of the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1st, 1955. It started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white person, and because of this she was arrested, tried and convicted of disorderly conduct. The outrage sparked by her arrested led to a 13-month mass boycott of Montgomery buses. This boycott led to the Supreme Court’s decision to ban segregation on buses in 1956. The second event was on September 24th, 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal Troops and the National Guard intervened and escorted a group of nine African American children, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, to Little Rock Central High School and ensure that they were safe, which aided in ending the segregation in schools in Arkansas. The third event was the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-on which occurred on February 1st, 1960. This event while prompting similar non-violent protests all over the South, also ended segregation at the Woolworth department store chain in the Southern United States.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not standing and letting a white bus rider take her seat. She was found guilty for disorderly conduct and fined fourteen dollars. The city law stated that all African Americans were to sit in separate rows on the buses. African Americans had to sit in the back rows of the bus because the front rows of the bus were reserved of the white passengers. Rosa was tired of all the horrible treatment her and her fellow African Americans were receiving everyday of their lives.

The Civil Rights Movement began as blacks and whites joined to protest unfair laws and to promote equal rights for all blacks. In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was put in prison. Parks’ decision sparked intense protests by blacks and concerned whites. The 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against segregated public facilities in Alabama, was led by Martin Luther King Jr. and lasted for 381 days. In 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, black college students seated themselves in a whites-only restaurant lunch counter. This sit-in resulted in many other similar protests throughout the South.

Due to that success the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr., planned a permanent boycott until their demands were met. They asked for courteous treatment, seating on a first come, first serve basis, and black bus drivers for mostly black bus routes. Businesses and private homes started to feel the effects of the boycott. Whites started to fight back. Blacks were arrested for walking the streets. Dr. King's home was bombed. The boycott lasted eleven months before there were any positive results. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on Alabama buses was unconstitutional. The boycott was an astounding success and it brought Dr. Martin Luther King to prominence. 1

The Civil Rights Movement lead nonviolently by Martin Luther King in the 1960s is an important era to examine when analyzing the extent to which the ideology of Carl Schmitt remains relevant to domestic conflict outside of the interwar period. Schmitt’s theory assists in understanding the racial segregation in the United States as political. However, while King identified similar critiques of liberalism as Schmitt, he believed that nonviolent direct action was an effective, politically engaged method which sought to obtain equal civil rights for African Americans as opposed to usurping power from the state. While not inherently political, Schmitt argues that societal realms such as economic, religious, cultural, and for the purpose of

First of all, It was succesful because African Americans had other ways of transportation besides the bus. Secondly, there is a threat to the city’s government because the bus companies are losing money;due to three fourths of the riders that are black.This was succesful because it made the bus companies lose money. Lastly,It is all over the news and people will eventually start to see it and watch it .Now more and more people heard it and will start to agree with eachother.This is also very succesful because by sharing this news will increase money.As said from Rosa Parks,” You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” -Rosa