Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement

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What were the major stages in the Civil Rights Movement's development?

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There were several stages and aspects of the Civil Rights Movement that all eventually led into the Black Power Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1940s/early 1950s the first major aspects of the Civil Rights Movement stemmed from the desegregation of the U.S. military in 1948 and the federal desegregation of public schools in 1954. Many schools, particularly in the South, refused to follow the order to desegregate. As a result, the country erupted into violence as white racist vigilantes (often aided by local police) blocked black students from entering desegregated schools. Black students were viciously attacked by racists. A movement developed as black people and anti-racist whites came together to force the public schools to desegregate and protect the black students. Once schools were desegregated, the desegregation fight spread to other institutions and places such as public buses. On December 1st, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the front of a bus. This action led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott as activists fought for the desegregated seating of public transportation. By the late 1950s, Martin Luther King Jr. had emerged as a prominent figure within direct action protests against systemic and vigilante racism. King helped coordinate numerous direct action protests across the South. In the early 1960s, black college students began fighting to desegregate restaurants and other places of business and entertainment. Their efforts led to the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which grew into a large Southern effort of black and anti-racist whites that focused on desegregation and voting rights for black people. This monumental effort, wherein several SNCC members and volunteers were murdered for their work, directly helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. While SNCC kept its name, many in the group eventually armed themselves as they faced horrific violence from white vigilante racists and racist police. Some within SNCC went on to help co-create the Black Panther Party.

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First, please be aware that there is no single “official” answer to this question.  Different historians can define the phases of the movement differently.  You may want to consult your text and/or the notes given by your instructor to see what the right answer for your particular course is.  That said, we can generally say that the Civil Rights Movement went through three main phases in the time after World War II.

The first of these phases was the phase in which it used the court system in an attempt to gain rights for African Americans.  This phase started very soon after WWII.  In this phase, activists focused mainly on using law suits to force the desegregation of schools in the South.  The major victory for this phase of the movement was the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education.

In late 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.  This marked the beginning of the second phase of the Civil Rights Movement.  (Please note, though, that this does not mean that the movement stopped using law suits altogether.)  This was the phase in which activists used direct action to try to promote integration and black rights.  This phase included the bus boycott, the sit-ins at lunch counters, the Freedom Riders, the march from Selma to Montgomery, and many other of the most iconic moments of the movement.  This was the phase dominated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Its greatest victory was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (or perhaps the Voting Rights Act of 1965).

As the movement continued, however, some African Americans became disillusioned with the ideas of nonviolence and integration.  This led to the third phase of the movement.  In this phase, more radical black leaders came to the fore.  They were less willing to work with whites.  They were also less interested in rights and integration and more interested in black nationalism.  This phase of the movement was characterized by leaders such as Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.  It did not have any specific events that can be pointed to as victories.

In this way, the Civil Rights Movement changed over time.  However, we should be sure to remember that these phases did not occur at completely separate times.  Instead, they overlapped to a considerable degree.

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