American Black Civil Rights In The 1960

American Black Civil Rights In The 1960′S Essay, Research Paper American black civil rights The 1960’s were a time of great turmoil in America and throughout the world. One of the main protest issues was black civil rights. The movement really got underway with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X in the early 1960’s. Students who wanted to jump on the equality and protest bandwagon quickly followed. Most of the students went to the southern states (Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana) to try and stop the racism and hate crimes. The truth of the matter is that the violence and hatred would get worse before it got better. Even though the Negroes had very few rights they were not assaulted and abused nearly as much as when the college kids came

and started to ‘help’ them. Then the Klan became stronger and more violent committing many more lynchings and hangings. But gradually most of the whites came around to the idea of integration, and did not see the blacks as a ‘threat’ anymore. The only reason that this great and monumental change occurred was because of the great leadership of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, not to mention the 1,000’s of other less famous civil rights leaders, that worked to change the views of their community. Also there were lobbyists and protesters that risked their lives and went out on a limb to fight against injustice. All these factors, put together, made one of the biggest changes in the twentieth Century. In my essay I plan to compare the differences of opinion between the

six writers and directors etc. towards racism and the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. - 2 - Rob Rheiner (the director of ‘Ghosts of Mississippi’) has successfully portrayed the blatant dishonesty toward blacks by the police force and the Mississippi courts. On one occasion when the accused murderer was in court, the Governor of the State went up and shook hands right in front of the victim’s wife. Another example of dishonesty against blacks was that a retired judge had taken home murder weapons (mainly from the murders of blacks) and kept them as souvenirs. It was later discovered that police officers had also taken home evidence from crimes against blacks, for souvenirs. The murderer portrayed a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude during the first trial in 1962 and

in the retrial in 1992. He knew that he would be found not guilty in the 60’s with the all male, all white jury. But he under- estimated the changes in people’s views in the twenty years since his last trial and still had the same cocky attitude. The theme of this text is different to all the others I have studied. The writer of Malcolm X, Bernard Aquina Doctor, has informatively shown (if not with a bit of bias) the life of Malcolm X. He wanted to show that Malcolm dragged himself out of the gutter to become one of the most famous civil rights leaders of the twentieth century. This is shown by his chequered life, when he hung around with criminals and committed small thefts, etc. In the text he was shown as being right a lot of the time, as when Malcolm believed in violent

protest and Martin Luther King believed in non-violent protest. ‘Dr King was forced to reconsider his views [on non-violent protest] when be was thrown in jail and beaten up’. This comment by the writer makes Martin Luther King appear wrong and Malcolm right. This text is similar to the Rosa Parks text in the way the writer looked upon Rosa Parks Malcolm X, that is, in a revered way. ‘Rosa Parks, a Woman Who Changed a Nation’ by Kira Albin is focused on the great injustices that the black community had to suffer in the 1960’s and beyond. She explains how the blacks had to pay at the front of the bus and then walk around the outside to the back door where, more often that not, the bus driver would pull away without letting them on, even after they paid. Rosa Parks rose