Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movementdid not suddenlyappear from nowhere. There existed specific groups of people who had a common goal. Efforts to improve the quality of life for women and African Americans are as old as the United States. Farmworkers, Women, and Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for equality.Everyone agrees with Martin Luther King’s about inequality and freedom. Nonetheless, Cesar Chavez’s opinion for equal and fair pay attracts different views. A lot of counterculture movements emerged during the civil rights era. But Farmworkers’ Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Movement and Women’s Rights Movements are among the most significant.

Farmworkers’ Movement

            In the 19^th century, non-Americans, mostly Africans, Chinese, Filipinos, Mexican, and Japanese, worked in the farms owned by western states such as California. This group of people did most of the physically demanding work for low pay. Cesar Chavez, born and bred in Arizona, from a Mexican family working as migrant farmworkers in Arizona, founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962. This association was a platform for farmworkers to table their concerns regarding their working conditions. Chavez later modified the association to become United Farm Workers with the support of a Latina Civil rights activist, Dolores Huerta. Chavez and Huerta organized a historical strike, The Delano Grape Strike, and weeks-long fasting that went on from 1965-1970. The purpose of The Delano Grape Strike and many other consequent strikes institutedfarmworkers’ right to establish and secure satisfactory pay and working conditions on many farms. Huerta mainly pushed the fruit and vegetable growers who hired farmworkers to pay those workers a fair wage, to treat them with respect, and to stop spraying the fields with pesticides while they worked.[1] Many people joined in to support Chavez and Huerta in their efforts to fight for farmworkers’ rights. For instance, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed his support through a telegram to Chavez, linking them as brothers in the fight for equality..

Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Movement

Activist and Civil Rights champion Martin Luther King, Jr. is the leader behind the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the Selma march of 1965, and Memphis Sanitation Worker Strike in 1968. The Selma march saw activists, including John Lewis, Jesse Douglas, Lewis, and Hosea Williams, march from Selma to Montgomery twelve miles a day from March 21st to 25th in 1965.The nonviolent marches were orchestrated to show the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote. In the book of, The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it states, “Change happened almost overnight. Doors opened to African Americans. Segregation stopped in public places, and discrimination on the job became illegal.”[2]Luther King, Jr. led the sanitation workers in Memphis on Memphis Sanitation Worker Strike. The purpose of the strike was to champion for better wages, safe working conditions, and approval of sanitation workers union by the city council. Luther King, Jr. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott to protest segregated seating, which required nonwhites to surrender their seats to whites.

Martin Luther King, Jr. received a lot of support from other activists such as Rosa Parks. For instance, on December 1st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, who had secured a seat in front of a bus, declined to give up her place for a white man. It was this simple act by RosaParks that initiated the Civil Rights Movement. For instance, Rosa Parks served a jail term following her action of disrespecting a white man. Consequently, Africa Americansboycotted the bus system, one of the significant stands of racism in the 1950s.

Women Rights Movement

After World War II, the world experienced a rapid socio-economic transformation. Despite these transformations, cultural attitudes, especially in America, still reinforced sexual inequalities. Women were not allowed to venture into politics, corporate work, and sometimes religious activities. In much worsecircumstances, black women were exploited sexually, as laborers, and denied the right for education. Many women activistsfought tirelessly to liberate women from the jaws of despair. Two of these significant women are Sarah Perry and  Rosa Parks.

In the book From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights: The Memoir of a White Civil Rights Activist, it states, “As a white southern woman, I came to the civil rights movement through a long process of self-discovery”[3]. Sarah Perry was born at home, raised in the South, and attended a lot of rallies in the ’50s & ’60s. Perry was a woman who was a teacher, liberal, and an active member of the Board of Education in Atlanta. S. Perry states, night after night, I noticed that the dates of the battles—1861 to 1865—paralleled landmark events 100 years later in the civil rights movement. The two periods of turmoil seemed to have much in common. The Civil War and the civil rights movement, had the seeds of discontent and rebellion planted long before the overt conflict and had persisted for many years afterward. At the end of the twentieth century, many northerners believe that the South has never stopped fighting the Civil War. Signs of racism and discrimination remain to the present day. S. Perry had friends that were Black Americans, specifically Rosa Parks, and often attended their rallies as well as Women’s Rights rallies.

In 1944, activist Rosa Parks organized women in her community to protect women and girls against sexual assault. During her tenure as a branch secretary of the Montgomery, Parks dug deep into the files to collect cases of sexual assault againstblack women to present before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Parks fought for the rights of black women in workplaces, social spaces, and the political arena. She urged women to speak up against sexual discrimination and assault. The aftermath of this struggle is as indicated in the book Organizing women workers in the informal economy: Beyond the weapons of the weak (Feminisms and development), recognition of women as human beings, with dignity and the desire for equal citizenship.[4]

Conclusion

Equality and freedom come as a right to all people, irrespective of their race. C. Chavez and D. Huerta fought for the United Farm Workers and many more groups. As did S. Perry and Rosa Parks. These two women activists were all about Women’s rights, civil rights, and equality. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who believed in fighting for freedom. He did not just fight for one race but all races. Changes in America came about because of these causes. People were beaten up, hurt, and even killed because of inequality. Americans are greatly indebted to the multiple people who participated in the movements to see America as it is today.

Bibliography

Brill, Marlene T. Dolores Huerta Stands Strong: The Woman Who Demanded Justice (Biographies for Young Readers). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2018.

Kabeer, Naila, Sudarshan, Ratna, and Milward, Kirsty. Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy: Beyond The Weapons Of The Weak (Feminisms And Development). London: Zed Books, 2013.

Parsons, Sara M. From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights: The Memoir of a White   Civil Rights Activist. Sixties–Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2016.

Uhl, Xina M. The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Stories of the Civil Rights Movement). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Core Library, an imprint of Abd

[1] Marlen T Brill, Dolores Huerta Stands Strong: The Woman Who Demanded Justice (Biographies for young readers), (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2018), 2.

[2]Xina M Uhl, The Passing of the Civil Rights Act Of 1964 (Stories of the civil rights movement), (Minneapolis: Minnesota, 2016), 34.

[3]Sara M Parsons, From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights: The Memoir of a White Civil Rights Activist. Sixties–Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000), Intro.

[4]NailaKabeer, Ratna, Sudarshan, and Kirsty, Milward, Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy: Beyond the Weapons of the Weak (Feminisms and development), (London: Zed Books, 2013), Introduction.