The Grassroots Movement: The Civil Rights Movement

Throughout history Americans have experienced many turning points that have influenced political and social change. Two turning points that influenced political and social change were the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The Women’s Suffrage Movement’s main goal was to finally give women the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage Movement can be compared to Prohibition, another movement that influenced change,  because both began do to the status of women in the United States, and resulted in a social change in the societal view of woman. The Civil Rights Movement’s effects can be compared to the Civil War, a war fought between the North and the South over the issue of slavery, because both resulted in a change in the social and political status of African Americans. Because Women's Suffrage

Every generation faces new challenges that echo long-standing injustices. How does each generation tackle these injustices? Does this generation repeat past mistakes or envisions a better future? Does the frustration morph into anger and destruction of communities? Average citizens hold the greatest power to enact change by engaging in peaceful protests. Peaceful protests challenge and demand change from society’s injustices in a nonviolent manner.

Ella Josephine Baker was known to be an unsung hero during the trials and tribulations of the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the women who contributed in achieving civil and human rights for minority people. She cooperated with many organizations to establish her goal, such as motivating the discriminated into standing up for themselves. Ella Baker’s childhood, political activism, and the influences of her actions all contributed in ending discrimination against African Americans and other minority groups during the Civil Rights Movement.

Investigation The 1950s to the 1980s were a time filled with social change within the US. These people fought for deserved justice in multiple places of controversy, such as race. Partly as a result of this, came on a wave of organizations and cults, all with their own agendas. The People’s Temple was among these, ran by a former reverend, Jim Jones. The organization started small in 1956 as a racially integrated church.

The 1960-70’s was the height of the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans were dedicated to gaining liberties which only whites could exercise freely, and did this was done through peaceful as well as violent means of protest. Individuals such as Martin Luther King protested by means of preaching peace and utilizing nonviolent actions against whites while others such as Malcolm x and elijah muhammad resorted to not only violence, yet separatism to protest and show their urge to gain civil Liberties. Though, both methods of protest were aimed towards the same goal, only one was to be influential and bring about the change that African Americans desire.

This all started to change with the suffrage movement in that women started to enter the professional workforce, obtain higher levels of education, and became more involved in political life resulting in a shift of gender roles as women were entering long held male domains (McCammon et al., 2001, p. 53). Haferkamp and Smelser (1992) discuss further changes regarding social equality and how in the 1970’s the social movements of the 1960’s shifted towards women’s rights. This is when women focused on equal opportunities both in private and public capacities (Haferkamp & Smelser, 1992, p.

The civil rights movement was a mass movement for African Americans to gain equal opportunities, basic privileges and rights of a U.S. citizen. Although the beginning of the movement dates back to the 19th century, we saw the biggest changes in the 1950s through 1960s. African American men and women, whites, and minorities, led the movement around the nation. Racial inequality in education, economic opportunity, and legal processes were the most prominent places in need of social reform. Minorities were politically powerless. The movement addressed three areas of discrimination: education, social segregation, and voting rights.

Project Report: Oral History and the History of the Civil Rights Movement - Kim Lacy Rogers, The Journal of American History, Vol. 75, No. 2 (1988), pp. 567-576

Throughout history many nonviolent social movements have taken place. These movements have helped to fix injustices and provide a better environment for many people. One of these highly important social movements being the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of a series of events that led to important advancements for people of color. These events took place during the 1950’s-1960’s and some of the campaigns that took place to further the movement were the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Lunch Counter Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and Freedom Summer. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a fundamental part of desegregating buses and gaining better treatment for African-American bus riders. The Nashville Sit-ins helped to desegregate eating

The people protesting sometime get out of hand. The social movements and who they interact with other people. These social movements challenge not “just policies but also people, procedure and institutions. Social Movements in American Politics, what’s us to know the Slavery and Abolitionism wants us to know the definition of abolitionist the patriot debates over freedom and the independence during the revolution. Within the civil war the population of the US grew from 3 million to thirty million.

Prejudice and fear are weak barriers against passions, which inherent in our nature and demanding only judicious training to form the ornament, and supply the best joys of our existence, are maddened into violence, varied with as pernicious indulgence.” (Doc #2) The efforts made by the feminist movement of the Antebellum-era set forth a precedent for the expansion of women’s rights in the decades following and up until present day. The patriarchal society that had controlled the nation since its birth was finally met with opposition from those who had been oppressed for so long. Through the dismissal of restrictive gender roles and expectations, the voices of women were finally allowed to influence decision making, and ultimately create changes that would promote equal opportunity for all

The Women’s Movement was a symbolic movement in achieving political and civil equality. It assisted women lifestyles in the United States, granting them equal opportunities as men. Therefore, the Equal Rights Amendment guaranteed equal rights with men and the Equal Pay Act guaranteed equal pay. But these opportunities rarely helped women since they were prohibited and discriminated from universities and communal school, young girls have to be taught at home by mothers due to the segregation from males and females. In the 1960s, organizations were predominantly constructed for women since they were driven away from society of men and can’t attend schools and colleges.

The women’s rights movement being an extensive movement helped women to occupy better jobs and higher positions “Increased access to leadership positions is an important achievement because – in terms of gender – the field is more level now: some women will be allies, some are not, but no one is excluded only for being a woman”. Today, women can choose to occupy the jobs that were once titled only for men and they have an equal employment opportunity “Because of workplace rights, women enjoy freedom to work in almost any position they choose. They join the armed forces, work as cab drivers, own businesses and become executives in large corporations” Women can now become ministers, juries, senates, and even the president “1975 — In Taylor v. Louisiana, the court denies states the right to exclude women from juries….1981 — Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed as the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice… 1997 — Madeleine Albright is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State. She is the first woman in this position.”

Women have always played an important role in the history of the United States. Throughout different time periods, their roles in society and in government have changed in many ways. Whether women were helping the war manufacturing effort, striving for suffrage, helping soldiers during the war, or just raising their children; their roles have been influential to the social structure of the United States today. Their desire for equal rights, their willingness to help American soldiers, and the absence of men in the workplace are responsible for the changing role of women.

Raisin in the Sun: Gender Roles Defied Following the event of World War Two, America during the 1950s was an era of economic prosperity. Male soldiers had just returned home from war to see America “at the summit of the world”(Churchill). Many Americans were confident that the future held nothing other than peace and prosperity, so they decided to start families. However, the 1950s was also a time of radical changes. Because most of the men in the family had departed to fight in the war, women were left at home to do the housework.