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Fighting for Civil Rights

Civil rights movements are common all over the world. These movements are always formed to push for certain things or rights that people feel they are being denied. The United States of America has seen more civil rights movements than any other country or state in the world. The civil rights movements in the US have ranged from the fight against slavery to the anti-racial discrimination movements.

Literature Review

The American civil rights were first formed by the African-Americans to fight against racial oppression and abolishment of slavery. The effort of the civil rights groups was able to bear fruits because finally, slavery was abolished. This was after the amendments of the Fourteen and Fifteenth provisions of the constitution. The African-Americans civil rights movements did not stop but further pushed for Federal protection. In the 1950s and 60s, racial discrimination in the United States was very much evident: African-Americans were barred from buying anything from certain shops and taking their children to some recreational facilities or eateries. The treatment that they endured rekindled the civil rights movement. The movements started by people holding nonviolent protest to push for equal rights. At this time, some black activist began to see the struggle as not just a fight for civil reforms but also a means of confronting cultural, political, and economic oppression. “The entire civil-rights struggle needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation. We need to look at the civil-rights thing from another angle-from the inside…” The civil rights effort in the United States was done in stages with every struggle aimed at a particular goal. The paper will look at some of the activities of the civil rights movement activities, but in particular one of the civil rights leaders by the name of Malcolm X (Daley 180).

Research Methodology and Design

In order to be able to carry out the research conclusively I had to look for some historical happenings in the United States from the Historical books that tell about the civil rights activities. I had also to look for some online information because getting the hard copy of all the books that I needed was not easy.

Data Analysis

The civil rights in the United States started long time ago. The first ever civil rights movement to be formed was the one that fought for the end of slavery. It is worth noting that the civil rights activities were aimed at achieving specific goals and they took place at different times. The first civil rights group success was the abolition to Jim Crow.

Abolitionism to Jim Crow

Even though all citizens were accorded equal rights, the new inhabitants were not accorded their basic rights. The African slaves and servants were denied rights such as right to life, happiness, and liberty. As the United States of America expanded its boundaries, the Native Americans resisted subjugation and absorption. The majority of the individual States determined rights of the American citizens; they largely limited the voting privileges to “white property owning males.” The privileges to own land was also given based on gender or race.

The first half of the 19th century saw the civil rights fight for the extension of the voting rights to even the white males who did not own property, which finally succeeded, but at the detriment of the Indians and Blacks. In the south, slave owners passed some law that restricted slaves from being taught how to read and write after the slave rebellion in Virginia. Despite all the repressions, some of the slaves freed themselves by either escaping or through negotiations. By 1830s, the number of free blacks had increased in the north to reach significant numbers that they were able to hold regular nationwide conventions. “It’s time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for, what we’re supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and if we don’t cast a ballot, it’s going to end up in a situation where we’re going to have to cast a bullet.” From such conventions, the Black leaders were able to discuss ways of ending racial discrimination. In the year 1833, a small group of whites joined the antislavery activists to form a civil rights movement known as the American Anti- Slavery Society (Gready 150).

The civil rights struggle would continue up to the 1960s when most of racial discrimination ended. In the fight against discrimination, the civil movements had a number of leaders who championed for civil rights. One of such leaders was a civil rights activist by the name of Malcolm X (Linde 150). He participated in various events that pushed for the rights of the Black community; one of his activities that stood out was the speech commonly known as the “The Ballot or The Bullet.”

The civil rights movement was at its peak in the United States of America in the 1960s. Most of the Blacks had been fed up with the subjugation and the lifestyle they were forced to endure. At this time, some of the influential people in the black community took the leading role in fighting against discrimination. Such people included Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Malcolm X (Marable 200).

Malcolm X, gave his speech, “The Ballot or The Bullet” on the 29th of March 1964 on an Easter Sunday at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, New York. The speech was in itself a warning to the oppressors. In the speech, Malcolm X made use of repetition of words to deliver his point home. The speech touched on various issues that Malcolm felt needed to be addressed immediately. “It’s one or the other in 1964. It isn’t that time is running out-time has run out” (Marable 202)!

Oppression

The speech was a call to the Black Community to stand up and fight for their rights, which meant they had to stand up against the white people who were the ones responsible for their predicament. In the speech, he pointed out that African-Americans were being treated like they were not citizens of the United States because as they were being denied some rights that were being accorded to other people. Malcolm repeatedly uses the term “White man” in the speech, for example, “The “white man” is a theoretically evil person who blasts peaceful protestors with fire hoses and attacks innocent children with ravenous dogs”. In another paragraph, he stated, “The “white man” oppresses the black community in every possible way.” The repetition is to make the point that the white man is the obstacle in enhancing the living conditions of the Black people. To fight suppression, Malcolm urges the Black community to join civil rights organizations, which include NAACP and CORE in order to increase Black Nationalism (Sugrue 200).

Freedom

In the speech, Malcolm urged the Black community to fight for their freedom in any way possible: either through the ballot or through even violence. In his speech, he said, “Any time you demonstrate against segregation and a man has the audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog, kill him, I’m telling you, kill that dog.” The constitution had given the Blacks equal rights as the Whites, but in the 1960s, the blacks were still confronted by atrocious policemen whenever they held peaceful protests. However, he reminded the Black community that, in order to achieve their freedom, they had to first change their thinking. He was trying to imply that the Black community had to first free their minds in order to be able to achieve the freedom they wanted. He reminded the audience that some of the rights that they were being denied were God given and they did not have to seek permission from anybody to access their rights. “Human rights are your God given rights, something you were born with, and they are recognized by all nations of the earth” (Uschan 190).

Change

In the speech, Malcolm urged the Black Community to strive to make the changes themselves other than wait for the White man to effect the changes. He gave an example of the different types of gospels, such as political gospels, religious gospels, and social gospel. He further stated that the different types of gospels had benefited other people and not the blacks. The point that Malcolm was trying to put across was that if the gospel was not working in favor of the Blacks, they should change it to work in their favor. He urged the black community not to accept the notion that they are subordinate to the whites, and that they should change the gospel, as it was to include equality of the blacks. He made the call to encourage the African-Americans to change some attitudes upheld by the white, for example, that whites were more superior. This change was necessary because the Blacks also held the belief that the whites were superior (Wallenstein 160).

Results

The speech by Malcolm inspired the African-Americans to fight passionately and incessantly for their rights. The effect of the speech was felt as more civil rights groups came up to fight for a certain right they felt was not being accorded to them. By the end of the 1960s, the Black Community had achieved most of the civil rights that they pursued. Even though it may seem that at one point in the speech Malcolm called for the “killing of the dogs,” most of the demonstrations were always peaceful and were only broken up by policemen who were violent thus at times leading to violent confrontations.

Discussion

The speech by Malcolm X served as an inspiration to thousands of the black community that had faced discrimination for a very long time. It gave hope to those who had lost hope of ever enjoying some of the basic rights. The technique that Malcolm employed in delivering his speech worked perfectly on his favor; the repetition of words motivated the thoughts of the audience. In doing so, he did not just hammer the point home, but ensured that the message he was passing to the audience would not be easily forgotten (civil rights movements 3).

Conclusion

Civil rights movements were created to fight against the oppression that some people were facing in the United States of America. The movements were mainly formed to fight for equal rights in the United States of America. In order to get the freedom from slavery, the activist had to fight for the abolition of slavery thus giving the slaves their freedom. After getting their freedom, the black community felt that they were not being accorded equal rights; hence, they had to come up with movements that would push for the equal rights.

Works Cited

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” “civil rights movements.” History of civil rights movement. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. <http://ppt.english6.net/african-american-civil-rights-movement-powerpoint-presentation-in-w1502.ppt>.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Daley, James. Great speeches by African Americans: Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, Jr., and others. New York: Dover Publications, 2006. Print.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Gready, Paul. Fighting for human rights. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Linde, Barbara M.. Malcolm X. New York, NY: Gareth Stevens Pub., 2012. Print.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Marable, Manning. Malcolm X: a life of reinvention. New York: Viking, 2011. Print.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Sugrue, Thomas J.. Sweet land of liberty: the forgotten struggle for civil rights in the North. New York: Random House, 2008. Print.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Uschan, Michael V.. The civil rights movement. new York: Lucent Books, 2010. Print.

HYPERLINK “http://www.bibme.org/” o “Edit this item” Wallenstein, Peter. “To Sit Or Not To Sit: The Supreme Court Of The United States And The Civil Rights Movement In The Upper South.” Journal of Supreme Court History 29.2 (2004): 145-162. Print.