Essay On The Civil Rights Movement

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” This excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous and widely quoted speech “I Have a Dream”, emphasized the goal of the Civil Rights Movement and showed the world the importance of civil rights being extended to all people within society, regardless of race. Through the work of Martin Luther King and through the Civil Rights Movement, civil disobedience proved to be an influential way of political participation within the United States during the mid-1900’s, changing the United States’ views on racial minority justice forever. The Civil Rights Movement began in 1954 with the Hernandez v. Texas case, ruling that all racial groups within the United States were entitled to equal protection of civil rights under the fourteenth amendment. Within that following year, another monumental …show more content…
Kennedy, newly becoming president, saw civil rights as a critical issue and supported African Americans and their fight for equality. Yet, he was reluctant to act until a monumental event happened the next year: the Freedom Rides. In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), led by James Farmer, organized integrated Freedom Rides to defy segregation in interstate transportation. However, the participants in the Freedom Rides experienced enormous danger, pushing Kennedy to send U.S. Marshals to protect the freedom riders and to become involved completely with the movement. Through civil disobedience displayed within the Freedom Rides, the federal government began to respond to ending the racial prejudice and violence within the south. Yet, in 1963, after the publishing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, did individuals truly begin to understand that non-violent protests and civil disobedience have an effect on public policy through being a form of political