Civil Rights Movement Analysis

The civil rights movement of the 1960’s was a movement against racial discrimination in the United States of America which began as a result of the introduction of the Jim Crow laws which segregated black people from white people in terms of schooling, jobs, etc. Social contact between black and white people became restricted and black people had limited rights and freedoms. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced productivity problems as well as social problems. The Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. The following analysis is of a photograph taken during …show more content…
A speech was being delivered during the height of the civil rights movement, where the oppressed black population of the USA were fighting for racial equality and for putting an end to racial discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. is the main figure in the photo and he was the one who delivered his iconic, “I have a dream” speech in which he motivates his fellow black African Americans to realise their place in society as free and equal human beings, no different to that of white people. King Jr. was at the forefront of the movement to end racial discrimination and was very influential amongst the followers of the movement mostly to black people. The USA at the time had stringent laws in place that prevented Black people from exercising their rights and blacks were heavily discriminated against all over the country. The main focus of the movement was to bring about racial equality and because it was a passive movement it involved peaceful tactics. This involved sit-ins at restaurants, Bus boycotts in Montgomery, and the passing of two acts which revealed the efforts of the movements to bring about racial equality (the Civil Rights act and Voters Registration act). The most important form of protest were the mass marches of which the most famous was the march on Washington (depicted in the photograph). Over 250 000 people took part in the March and protested for specific areas of concern. The stated demands were the elimination …show more content…
The event in question here is the march on Washington, its influence and the influence and power of the civil rights movement. The photo clearly portrays good value towards the event in question because it shows two major important aspects. The first aspect would be the presence of Martin Luther King Jr. who was a major role model and influential leader of the civil rights movement. This is valuable only because it ties in with the second valuable aspect which is the massive participation of thousands of people on the day. The fact that Martin Luther King Jr. is standing above thousands upon thousands of civil rights supporters reveals the extent of his influence during the event in question which was the march on Washington. It is clear that mane people were in support of the movement and wanted to bring about change, but the fact that he was the one leading all those people reveals a lot of value in the photo. This is because it tells us a lot about King Jr. as a person. Things like being passionate about bringing change and about being a black person are the things that come to thought when looking at the photograph. It reveals how important, massive and serious the march on Washington was by showing us the fact that thousands of people attended all striving for the same cause. This helps us understand the event in question as people would be able to recognise the efforts of those people and