The+Civil+Rights-JH



In what seemed to be a stable political system where everyone had the same rights by law; was truly behind the scenes a different story. There were still many issues where discrimination was the cause of them. Everyone was supposed to be treated equally by the state, but the people within the state had other ideas. There was discrimination in the communities, especially the workplace, that set back the civil liberties of everyday life. During the time of Martin Luther King Jr. and many other civil rights figures, they tried to remove the scum of discrimination from everyday life.

When Martin Luther King's marches and speeches seemed to be working; it was too slow of a process for some of the African Americans. They later turned to groups like the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, and the Brown Berets.

Although many came from different political horizons, leaders were intent on the peaceful success of marches. The marches even had their own marshal, ensuring that the event would be peaceful and respectful of the law. The successes of the marches are still being debated but one aspect has been raised in the last few years: the misrepresentation of women. A lot of feminine civil rights groups had participated in the organization of the marches but when it came to actual activity, women were denied the right to speak and were relegated to figurative roles in the back of the stage. As some female participants have noticed, the marches can be remembered for the "I Have a Dream" speech but for most female activists it was a new awakening, forcing black women not only to fight for civil rights but also to engage in the Feminist movement. Achievements of the civil rights movement include the judicial victory in the Brown V.S. Board of Education case that nullified the legal article of "Seperate but Equal" and made segregation legally impossible, passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in employment practices and public accommodations, passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored voting rights, and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.