Success & Failure of Civil Rights Movement
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- Date Submitted: 03/09/2014 10:57 PM
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Suppression of the rights of people will always be something worth fighting for.
The African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960's was to an extent, successful. Through the collaborative involvement of countless communities that used legal strategies and non violent direct-action as a key tool, the movement gained the attention of a still young media that generated passionate debate amongst a broader public. These approaches, seen in The Brown Vs Board of Education Case of 1954 and the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955/56 strengthened power and unity within the Black community and propelled the movement to achieve its impressive legislative changes, which were perhaps, its biggest successes. However, it had considerably less success in adjusting entire attitudes of an in-part prejudiced culture amongst some, resulting in a reluctance to follow laws and a backlash of violence.
Legal Strategies were a key tool utilised during the Civil Rights movement which successfully pressured an increasing federal commitment to one of the movements key goals - the process of desegregation and integration which is clearly seen with the success of Brown Vs Board Of Education case of 1954. As federal judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote Browns greatness lay in the enormity of injustice it condemned, in the entrenched sentiment it challenged, in the immensity of law it created and overthrew. Through the litigation process, Brown achieved to provide Black Americans with a legal binding sanctuary against segregation in schools and helped to create the vision of what is morally right and wrong.
However, the direct impact of Brown was limited as laws were not adhered to by mainly the confederate white public. Massive resistance was seen from 1956 -1958 in Virginia where whites closed some schools rather than desegregate. Historian James T. Patterson recognised and wrote about the limits that the judicial branch can achieve in his writings of “The...
Suppression of the rights of people will always be something worth fighting for.
The African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960's was to an extent, successful. Through the collaborative involvement of countless communities that used legal strategies and non violent direct-action as a key tool, the movement gained the attention of a still young media that generated passionate debate amongst a broader public. These approaches, seen in The Brown Vs Board of Education Case of 1954 and the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955/56 strengthened power and unity within the Black community and propelled the movement to achieve its impressive legislative changes, which were perhaps, its biggest successes. However, it had considerably less success in adjusting entire attitudes of an in-part prejudiced culture amongst some, resulting in a reluctance to follow laws and a backlash of violence.
Legal Strategies were a key tool utilised during the Civil Rights movement which successfully pressured an increasing federal commitment to one of the movements key goals - the process of desegregation and integration which is clearly seen with the success of Brown Vs Board Of Education case of 1954. As federal judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote Browns greatness lay in the enormity of injustice it condemned, in the entrenched sentiment it challenged, in the immensity of law it created and overthrew. Through the litigation process, Brown achieved to provide Black Americans with a legal binding sanctuary against segregation in schools and helped to create the vision of what is morally right and wrong.
However, the direct impact of Brown was limited as laws were not adhered to by mainly the confederate white public. Massive resistance was seen from 1956 -1958 in Virginia where whites closed some schools rather than desegregate. Historian James T. Patterson recognised and wrote about the limits that the judicial branch can achieve in his writings of “The...