How Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Malcom X Organized The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement took place in the 1950’s to 1960’s. Organized by African Americans, this movement sought to give rights to people of color since around this time, they were treated as lower class citizens who were segregated from whites by law. Although African Americans were free, they were not equal to whites in most ways, this issue being especially prevalent in the south. During this period, several Afro-American leaders led their communities to combat the racial inequality that plagued the united states.

In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus and was incarcerated. This sparked a boycott on Montgomery bus lines that lasted all the way until November of the following year when the supreme court ruled in the case of Browder V. Gayle that the segregation of buses was unconstitutional.

Civil rights was also a case that demanded the equal treatment of black people and white people. This is to say, violence against black folk wasn’t uncommon over trivial matters. Groups such as the KKK had even sprung up to keep colored people oppressed by means of fear instilled by lynchings and other public hate crimes. As a peaceful man, all his gatherings were peaceful, as not to cause fear and show that the way to freedom and equality was through love and brotherhood. He took to his church and the public and gave speeches that advocated “loving your neighbor as yourself”. None of this could be proven. King lived his life preaching peace and equality, most his “I Have a Dream” speech which he gave during the march on Washington in August 1963. He was planning another campaign that would have occupied Washington but this never went to fruition as he was assassinated in 1968 by an unknown killer, although many would agree that the FBI might have done this to cut King’s reign short.

In the end, the major results were many lawful victories and violent defeats that resulted in some of the greatest changes to the US constitution that any movement has ever seen. Although it is hard to represent all those that participated, it can be said that those who spearheaded the motion were leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Malcom X. They gave to the colored community outcomes such as desegregated schools, buses and public buildings. They added onto what little rights coloreds had, like the right to vote without problematic literacy tests. Most , they made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 possible which banned discrimination based on color, sex, religion, or national origin.

This isn’t to say that the nation its self is still completely adhering to the laws put in place back in the 1960’s as racism is still alive today. All the violence that was taken without riposte might be seen as not completely resolved considering all what has gone on today. But, segregation has ceased in the public’s eyes: the main issue has been answered with a pleasing response at least as far as the government is concerned.

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