The civil rights movements Essay Example for Free

The civil rights movements Essay This threat led to some improvement. Roosevelt’s order on discrimination however did not apply to the armed forces. At the start of the war, the army refused to train black officers; the air force would not let them train as pilots; and the navy would only use black servicemen in the kitchens. Black peoples’ blood could not be used for wounded white servicemen. Some of these barriers were broken down by government pressure during the war: 600 black pilots saw combat before the end of the war, and all three of the services eventually had black officers. However, all black servicemen had to fight in segregated units. Blacks were not allowed to die alongside whites. In 1948 President Truman officially banned the segregation of black and white people in the armed forces. However small, this marked a large step in equal rights for black people. Segregation between whites and blacks was a prominent issue. It needed to be broken down before the two races could be equal. Both segregation on buses and schools were abolished due to blacks’ peaceful protests. Famously Rosa Parks, who was sitting in the Negro section of a bus, refused to get up for a white man. Martin Luther King organised a local bus boycott, stopping most black people using busses in the whole city which meant that most buses were now almost empty because black people were the biggest bus users as most were too poor to afford cars. Victory finally came on 13 November 1956 when, just as in schools, the Supreme Court announced that segregation was illegal on buses. In the southern states ‘White Citizens Councils’ were formed to fight integration in schools and they encouraged employers to sack black people who stood up for their civil rights. In Congress Southern Senators signed a Manifesto in 1956, promising to campaign against integration. There were very violent examples where black children were blocked from going to school by white supremacists. When there was an attempt to de-segregate the Central High School in the town of Clinton, Tennessee in 1956 there were riots. Hundreds of white people, many of them in the Ku Klux Klan, stopped black students entering the school and orchestrated attacks on black people around the town, and many of them left town all together. In response to this, many supporters of the Civil Rights (many of them white) had had enough and decided to ‘form a posse’ of 47 of supporters and to take on the supremacists with a wide ‘collection of weapons’. Fighting on the streets was only averted by the arrival of the National Guard who arrested the leaders of the racist group surrounding the school Continuing dislike of segregation in the town actually led to the white racists blowing up the school in 1958. This was not a single case. The aggression shown by the whites is pretty startling – very violent (blowing up a school) and involves governors and state troops, especially against children who are innocent in this race war. With the media, their aggression shows their weakness. However blacks are portrayed very well to the media as they use non-violent protest contrary to the whites. They also get the support of the military which is ideal as they do not need to be shown being violent. It also shows that some white people seem to have been changing their minds, caused by violence and black’s peacefulness and Christianity. The Civil Rights Movements laid down the opportunity for equality between whites and blacks; the legislation needed was put into place, however the whites themselves needed convincing. The same people, who were in the Ku Klux Klan fighting against the blacks, were now expected to support equality. Despite this, mentalities were starting the change. Due the non-violence and innocence of their campaign, whites were starting to support the blacks in their struggle for equality. In this way, the Civil Rights Movements can be seen as a complete success, but a little more is needed to convince the inherently racist white southerners that this was the right thing to do before there is absolute equality. Half Term Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE USA 1941-80 section.