Civil Rights

14 Pages 3511 Words

Emerging in the 1950’s and reaching a peak in the 1960’s, the civil rights movement prompted the federal government to enact sweeping forms that toppled Jim Crow, virtually eliminated public assertions of white supremacy, a mainstay of the American cultural and intellectual tradition, and boosted black pride (Levy, xiii). There were many factors including the black migration and the growth of the federal government that contributed to the birth of the civil rights movement. During the movement, there were many cases, disputes, and acts of oppression. Even though the civil rights movement did not achieve all of its goals, nearly a half-century after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama; it continues to have an impact on the course of history, serving as an agent and as a model of the quest for human rights (Levy, xiii).
The modern civil rights movement had both external and internal origins and causes. It came into being when and in the way it did because of both structural and human factors. Demographic shifts, particularly the black migration, the emergence of the US as a world power, and the formation of organizations such as the NAACP and SNCC played key roles (Levy, 41).
While African Americans who migrated north found greater political, social, and economic opportunities than they has in the South, the North did not fulfill its potential as a “promised land.” Blacks remained the last hired and first fired, disproportionately relegated to low-skilled and poorly paying jobs. Residential segregation prevailed, confining blacks to poor neighborhoods, and since schools were located in the neighborhood in which one lived, African American migrants had less of a chance to move up the economic and social ladder than their white counterparts (Levy, 5).
Despite such violence, the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North continued apace, beca...