The Dream of the Civil Rights Movement Essays - Activism

The Dream of the Civil Rights Movement Of all the movements that have happened throughout American history, the civil rights movement was arguably the most important in shaping American culture today. the civil rights movement was a series of mass protests against racial inequality; notably, Martin Luther King Jr. used his powerful speeches to inspire the nation, and bring together people who had been separated for the previous 200 years. The civil rights movement can be defined as the struggle of African-Americans in the 1950's and 60's to achieve civil rights and liberties equal to those of white people, including equal opportunity in employment, housing, and education, as well as the right to vote, the right of equal access to public facilities, and the right to be free of racial discrimination (Civil). Though the majority of the civil rights movement took place in the 50's and 60's, it actually began during the 1800's. One event that sparked debates on civil rights was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. At the conclusion case, the US supreme court decided that facilities for black and white people could be "separate but equal" (Civil Rights). This was a major setback in the advancement of African American Rights because it basically made public discrimination legal. Though it was slow, and especially hard in the beginning, the portion of the civil rights movement that took place during the 50's and 60's, whic h is now known as the "civil rights era" was a major turning point in American culture, and helped to shape the way Americans view race forever. During the movement, some of the ugliest parts of American society were brought to light, and the real, disturbing injustices that were happening every day were exposed. One of the most notable events of the civil rights movement was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The King Encyclopedia summarizes the boycott by stating, "Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional." At the forefront of the boycott were many important figures involved in the civil rights movement, the most notable of them being Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. Born and raised in Atlanta, King attended public school by age five, and graduated Booker T. Washington High School at age 15 in 1944 after skipping 9th and 11th grade (Martin). The fact that he graduated 2 years early shows that he was exceptionally intelligent, which would translate into his later life. King took on an important role in 1955 as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In a biography about King it says, "On the night that Rosa Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter met with Martin Luther King Jr. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections and had professional standing" (Martin). King's election as leader of such a massively important protest at only the age of 25 shows how much faith and trust the black community had in him, and how great his ability to inspire and lead people on a path to goodness and e quality already was. One of King's greatest talents as a civil rights leader was his ability to deliver powerful speeches, his most famous speech being the "I Have a Dream" speech. King's speech titled "I Have a Dream" is arguably one of the most powerful, and influential speeches of the past century. For one of the first times, it painted a picture of the struggles suffered by African-Americans in a way that all Americans could understand. As History.com puts it, "Weaving in references to the country's Founding Fathers and the Bible, King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans, before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality." Almost as important as the speech itself, the setting in which the speech took place allowed for it to be so widely heard by the American public so quickly. The speech was delivered at the end of the March