Essay On The Civil Rights Movement

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The Civil Rights movement was a fight regarding social justice for African Americans that lasted years and years. From the 1950s to the 1960s, blacks fought hard for equal rights through the power of large protests and the impactful media. Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of this movement, he spoke out to the country about his dream for freedom and how he wanted to achieve that dream without violence. Although slavery was outlawed in America since 1865 there were still huge amounts of discrimination and prejudice that the black community had to cope with every single day. The main goal of the Civil Rights movement was for African Americans to finally get the same rights and freedoms that they deserved and to no longer be segregated by …show more content…
A majority of the people across America had access to television and newspapers which made the media so impactful because everybody was going to see what was going on and have an opinion on it. In 1963, roughly four thousand children left school and gathered together to protest non violently along the streets of Birmingham. The children went to city hall, marched, prayed, and sang a song called “We shall overcome” in order to try and convey their message of desegregation. Unfortunately, public officials such as Bull Connor and police officers tried to suppress the movement and responded extremely violently to the innocent protesters. Not only were hundreds of students put into jail, but they were also attacked with high pressure fire hoses and police dogs. Immediately after, news reports and photos were released to the media around the world. Photos showed children’s signs being ripped away from them, hundreds of kids being sent to jail, them being shot with high fire hoses, and being attacked by police dogs. After seeing children suffering it made millions of Americans have a changed mindset and made them really want to make a change. Even the president John F. Kennedy was induced into action, he made an announcement he was going to introduce federal civil rights legislation. These photos had a major impact on the movement because it opened up peoples eyes to what was happening and changed public

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