A Few Of The African American Civil Rights Movement Facts

By Catherine Graham


In the past, people segregated African Americans. They were seen as an important lee race, and they were treated poorly in all aspects of life. However, the fight for equality started taking place in the 1950s and 1960s. They took about a decade, but they finally paid off. In the middle of the twentieth century, there was still a lot of violence against black people. Below are some of the few African American civil rights movement facts.

Before world war two, blacks were given the lowly jobs that did not pay very well. In the 1940s, the black people threatened to demonstrate by marching to washing ton DC if job equality would not be implemented. In 1941, the then president, allowed military jobs among other posts to be free for Americans of all races.

Rosa Parks was the first ever black American to resist the Montgomery bus system. This was a system that required the black people to seat at designated seats at the back of the bus. However, in 1955, Rosa defied this law. She took one of the seats in front of the bus and refused to get up even after a white man got on the bus and could not find a seat. She got arrested.

There were also schools set aside for black people and for white people. However, the supreme court ruled against this kind of segregation in 1954 which proved truly that people have moved on with this kind of selective life. In 1957, nine black students were to report to central high school for education where they went and found a screaming mob and a guard awaiting them. They were denied access but came back two weeks later and were allowed to go in.

Their segregation had also spread to places of food. Black people were not allowed into places that served white people so as they could not mingle together. Four courageous students walked into wool worths lunch counter and refused to leave without being served. The next day, more black people did the same in different places, and they eventually wore the white people down.

In 1963, the biggest demonstrations of all took place led by Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, and Bayard Rustin. There was a turnout of about 200,000 people both black and white, and they matched through Washington DC to show solidarity on each other. The highlight was when Martin gave his speech that was an inspiration and whose famous line, I have a dream has been used till now.

600 people went on to march in protest of the killing of a black civil rights activist by a white police officer.As they neared Pettus bridge, they were blocked by the Alabama state police. They insisted on going on, and they were violently and tore gassed. They were then rushed to the hospital for treatment. This was all caught on live television hence the name bloody Sunday.

In 1957 voting was allowed for all the American people. However, in the southern states, black people were still denied the chance to vote. They were given literacy quizzes some of which were nearly impossible to pass.




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