Civil Rights Essay Examples

Civil Rights in America

Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement is something many Americans, including myself, are aware of. Even though I knew about events that happened and the way African Americans were treated it’s always harder to hear testimonies from first-hand sources. This video left me feeling sad and angry. Angry that people, including the government in many instances thought this behavior was acceptable.

The ruling of the Supreme Court “separate but equal” allowed the mistreatment of African Americans for many years in the South. Our nation was founded on the principles of equality and the pursuit of happiness, however, these freedoms only applied to white people. The institution of slavery is one of our country’s biggest atrocities. Even after slavery had ended and African Americans were “allowed” to vote, there were many obstacles in their way that prevented them from registering.

In the video, “Voices of Civil Rights”, Hazel LeBlanc Whitney describes how she attempted to register in Louisiana and was told she could not register on that day. Then when she went to work, she found out her name had been turned over to the school board and she had been labeled a Communist. This was a clear attempt to intimidate her to prevent her from registering to vote. When she tried to register in Mississippi, she was given a test along with her friends and they were told they had all failed the test.

Later, she found out the individual who administered the test only had an 8th grade education (2016). These are clear examples of the injustice many African Americans faced and how our federal government failed to protect their rights during this time. Unfortunately, I believe inequality towards minorities still exists. It is not as overt and blatant as it was before. Minorities now share the same rights, such as the ability to vote, and there has been a lot of change and progress since the Civil Rights movement began.

However, there are still those who try to suppress and exert their power over minorities, especially African Americans. Even today this still happens when it comes to voting. In 2017, Alabama made attempts to limit the African American vote. To be able to vote, Alabama residents were required to “have one of a limited set of forms of photo ID, while, at the same time, making it more difficult to obtain photo ID by closing 31 driver’s license offices in counties — including every county in which African Americans are 70 percent or more of the population” (Seung Bickley, 2017).

Another subtle way that minorities are discriminated against when it comes to voting are lack of polling places. States that have historically discriminated against minorities (mostly Southern states), have been shown to have less polling places in large minority communities. In North Carolina during the 2016 election, the 40 predominately African American counties had overall 158 fewer early polling locations. This leads to an increase in wait times which can be a barrier to minorities.

“Long lines are problematic, most notably for low-income people and people of color, who are less likely to have flexible employment and child care options that allow them to wait in line for hours at a time” (Maxwell & Root, 2017). A study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that “Hispanic voters spend one and a half times as long in line than their white counterparts. African Americans spend nearly twice as long in line to vote” (Maxwell & Root, 2017).

After Civil Rights

Since the Civil Rights Act was legislated, the United States has gone through a dramatic change in regards to race and racism in our society. This essence of change includes the ideas of racial and ethnic composition in the United States today, and in regards to this review, the shift in employer behavior. Today, employers seek a more diverse workforce, with hopes of achieving organizational goals because of it.

John Skrentny’s After Civil Rights: Racial Realism in the New American Workplace, exemplifies how the workplace today contradicts the anticipations of the Civil Rights Act, when it was passed in 1964. Skrentny divides his book into several chapters including topics from the public sector, to media and entertainment, and shows his audience that there is a new presence of racial realism taking place in the workplace today, while justifying this with social scientific research. Skrentny’s framework allows his audience to understand that his goal is to not only rethink, but to bring up to date the policies of Title VII, and to get them to interpret how well our laws align with our behavior and practices .

Skrentny argues that the system of offering minorities employment today for the benefit of the employer’s business, not only violates equal opportunity laws, but it also violates the guarantee of equal treatment stated in the Civil Rights Act. Many workers are not hired based on relevant conditions or requirements, but by “racial realism,” which is the process of “using membership in a racial group as a qualification for employment”, in order for a workplace to promote diversity and “fairness” (Skrentny 3). According to Skrentny, there are two types of racial realism in the workforce, which are hiring minorities to increase the company’s market share, and getting favorable responses from the company’s audience due to the deployment of an employee’s race .

Civil Rights and the Media

The media played a vital role in bringing to light the trials of the people who fought for civil rights of the African American right into the living rooms and offices of thousands of people. Some examples of media use are television, newspaper, and radio. Several interest groups used the aforementioned media as forms of promotion. One of the major groups that used the media in all forms was the NAACP with the circumstances of the Little Rock High School incident, the Birmingham conflict, to include the death of a fourteen-year-old boy – Emmett Till
Interest groups like NAACP influence the government by using the media to spread incidents of fear during the Civil Rights movement.

Such is the case of the “Bloody Sunday” incident on March 7, 1965, as 600 protesters started to walk from Selma to Montgomery Alabama protesting the murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson by a white highway patrolman. When the protestors of the Selma march refused to disperse, law enforcement charged on horseback with billy clubs and tear gas. The Selma demonstration violence was captured in pictures by the national news media and capturing the nation’s interest which provided an immediate spark for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The role that women played in the formulations of the Civil Rights was as profound as the role of their male counterparts. Their role, despite less credited for, was key amongst many movements that brought about changes that would break through the laws of segregation and were very much critical in the fight for racial equality. When marches in Southern communities evolved as key to nonviolent strategy, women were essential to communicating what peaceful protests consisted of.

They went into the community that marches would be held in and contacted churches and community activist teams to debate planned events. They contacted women’s groups to recruit volunteers, facilitate and determine safe residences, centers, churches and wherever else the marchers were able to stay. This was just the beginning of how women’s roles helped orchestrate the Civil Rights. They played roles such as organizers, activists, teachers, political actors and overall were prominent active participants and leaders in groups like the Women’s Political Council, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Council.

How Did Women Impact Civil Rights

The Women’s Political Council (WPC) was one of the many and maybe even most pivotal contributions to not only the Civil Rights Movement but in gaining rights as a woman overall. This group was formed to address the racial issues in Montgomery, Alabama but it evolved into much more than that. The Women’s Political Council (WPC) wanted to extend the political leverage of the black community by promoting civic involvement, increasing elector registration, and influence town officers to handle racist policies.

The group’s work expanded to incorporate public protests such as the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. This event ultimately brought Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights struggle into the national spotlight. The Women’s Political Council (WPC) contributed in many ways. Even if it was under the shadow of their male counterparts, after the successful non-violent protest of boycotting busses, it inspired other non-violent protests such as “sit-ins” to initiate against establishments that had racist policies against people of color.