african american civil rights movement

Monday, November 28, 2011

Martin Luther King with his members

Members of Luddites

I’m Martin Luther King the leader of African-American Civil Rights. We made the success on our movement because we used nonviolence to oppose the racial segregation. If I could compare with another movement, I would choose Luddites which was the movement organized with the anti-machine labors tried to eliminate all the machines in England in a violent way. Both of them had complaint with the government. Martin Luther King and his members carefully made their decisions and didn’t use any violent ways to solve the problems. Unlike his group, Luddites carelessly made their decisions and thought in their own way. For example, when the prices of the goods went up, the rate of the jobless people increased day by day, and economic depression due to the industrial revolution, they blamed the machine as a main reason of the increasing rate of jobless people and their hardships of life and started to destroy every machine in the factories. If the leader of the Luddites was me, they could have complained to the government clearly and began the nonviolence resistance under the command of me.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Comments about the African-American Civil Rights movement (1955-1968)

I’m John, one of the members of the African-American Civil Rights movement (1955-1968) under the command of Martin Luther King. I admired my leader because he always uses Non-violence resistance when he tried to stop the racial segregation. Yup, he got discriminated just because he was black as same as us. If I were him, I would use violence in order to get revenge what they had done to me. But if I really had done that, our movement would come to failure and Barack Obama who is the 44^th president of US in 50 years after we achieved the success on our movement. I learned that if we opposed the white people by using the violence, they would have the grudge on us and payback to us in 2 times or 3 times. Violence will bring more horrible violence. But if we opposed them without using the violence, the people wouldn’t hold any grudges on it which means they couldn’t do more cruel things to the black people and eventually surrendered to the black people by outnumbered. That’s why I respect our leader.

Birmingham Campaign, 1963–1964

Cops attacking the marcher with fiercly dogs

Birmingham movement occurred in 1963. This movement was organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to against the segregation in Birmingham that has the highest rate of the racial segregation in US. The movement was led by our leader Martin Luther King. He suggested non-violent resistance to the movement. While the people were protesting around the city without, fire fighters and cops stopped them by firing a high-pressure water jet from the fire hose and releasing the fiercely dogs. Most of the victims were the students. The rate of students who were sent to the jail increased as days go by. The people who continued to march were being arrested peacefully. Even though the cops arrested the marchers and sent to jails, more people continued to march that cops and fire fighters were outnumbered. So they had no choice but to surrender. So Martin Luther King desegregated any public places which were segregated.

Fire fighters attacking the marchers with firing a high-pressure water jet

Albani movement 1961 - 1962

Martin Luther King with the members of NAACP were arrested

Albany movement occurred in 1961. This movement was formed with resistances of Albany and Georgia, local activists, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in order to eliminate segregations in all facets of local life. The campaign began with the arrival of 3 SNCC activists, Charles Sherrod, Cordell Reagon, and Charles Jones. These 3 activists helped the resistances by encouraging the black activism in the city. Every public places like bus station and libraries reserved for White Americans were seized by the Black Americans. And hundreds of protests marched on City Hall. The Albany police chief, Laurie Pritchett, carefully studied about the movement’s strategy. The chief used mass arrests but avoiding dramatic and violent behavior. The Albany movement had attracted the nationwide and our leader Martin Luther King was involved on that movement but failed to complete their goal because their cooperative spirits were really weak. However, this was credited as a key lesson in strategy and tactics for the national civil rights movement.

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955–1956

Rosa Park (Middle of the picture) after Alabama’s racial segregation laws for buses were abolished.

Start of Montgomery Bus Boycott

People still walking during the rainy season

African-American Civil Rights movement occurred from 1955 to 1968 until our leader Martin Luther King was assassinated. The movement started after Rosa Parks who was the black woman was arrested by refusing to give up her seat to the white people in Montgomery from Alabama State. At that time, we were supposed to sit on the backseats and were not allowed to sit on the all-white seats Martin Luther King who was president of the Montgomery Improvement Association suggested Montgomery Bus Boycott. Montgomery Bus Boycott was a social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery intended to oppose the city’s policy of racial segregation. Our method was not to take buses which were under the policy of racial segregation. A day later the movement started, we all didn’t use the public transportations, and we all walked when we go for the work. Even the old people had no intention to ride on the bus. Bus companies came unglued by the Montgomery Bus Boycott because most of the passengers of their buses were black citizens. They threatened our leader but our leader rejected their option. So at last, MLK (Martin Luther King) and other 156 protesters were arrested by ‘hindering’ the buses. He ended up staying in the jail for the 2 weeks. But we won. On June 4, 1956, Alabama’s racial segregation laws for buses were abolished. Although some places didn’t follow the new law but the Supreme Court upheld the new laws that they had no choices but to follow it. So starting from 20^th of December in 1956, we had our rights to sit any seats including the all-white seats. The boycott resulted in the African-American Civil Rights movement gaining one victory and got lots of national attention.