The American Civil Rights Movement

The American Civil Rights Movement was a movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern United States. It came to national prominence during the mid 1950s. The purpose of this movement was for blacks to gain equal rights and integrate into schools and other public places. But most importantly, they wanted to be treated the same as whites and not to be treated differently. When I was just a kid, local whites burned a cross in our front yard. My parents, who were very politically active had a hard decision to make, to either wake me up or let me sleep through it, they chose to let me sleep. In the upcoming years that followed, my parents raised me to leave old predigests behind. Even still, there were so many things …show more content…
Tension had been rising for several days due to the resistance of James Meredith. September 25, 1962 James Meredith arrived at Ole Miss to register in the custody of the Federal Government. The U.S supreme Court ordered Ole Miss to omit James Meredith, a 29 year old Mississippi native. After high school, he spent 9 years in the air force before attending Jackson state for 2 years. James was trying to become the first African American student at Ole Miss. The governor denied James of omission to the University of Mississippi. President Kennedy called Governor Ross and negotiated with him to let James be omitted at Ole Miss. Governor Ross agreed and told the President that he would announce his decision at the football game later that night. When it came time for Mr. Ross to tell the thousands of people in the crowd with not one black person there, he couldn’t do it. He was so used to being hated and now the people finally loved him, he wasn’t going let James Meredith ruin that. A few hours later, when President Kennedy found out what Mr. Ross did, he was so livid he signed an order sending federal marshals to Mississippi. Meredith was secretly ushered onto campus. Mississippi in the fall of 1962 was a doomed civilization at it’s peek. There was segregated schools, restaurants, everything was segregated back then. September 30, 1962 federal marshals sent my President Kennedy surrounded the campus where Meredith will be registered the next morning. Students began circling about the campus yelling “nigger lover” and making other vulgar remarks towards the officials. Not long after, someone threw a cigarette lighter onto one of the cameras. Suddenly, the marshals unleashed a bottle of tear gas. No one could see or walk, their eyes stung and they continually gagged trying to breathe. Next thing you know, a riot had broken out. People