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Civil Rights Movements from 1950s to 1960s
Civil rights movements were manifested in America in the period between 1950 and 1960s. These were movements against racial discrimination and segregation of African Americans by the Native Americans. Before the 1950s, racial discrimination in America was such that blacks were not allowed to share same social facilities with the whites. In aIDition, they were not allowed to participate in any election owing to their African origin. Consequently, civil movements were launched with motives of ending the segregation and oppression. These were launched at the time when African Americans had returned from the Second World War and began demanding uniform rights with their white counterparts. Therefore, this paper will discuss various movements that were established during this period, prominent personalities in the crusades, and the success achieved by these movements with reference to equal rights (Karson Chapter 2).
BROWN VERSUS BOARD OF EDUCATION
Similar to other social avenues, schools had been segregated in that white children attended separate schools. It was illegal for a black student to dare admission into a white children’s school, and in any case, such admissions would not have been effected. During the Spring of 1951, African-American students in Virginia joined efforts in demonstrating against the segregated educational system. Students of Moton High School demonstrated against the poor learning environment in their school. This included crowded classrooms and broken learning facilities.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ‘pleaded with the protesting students’ to stop their demonstrations saying that they were against the laws of segregation as stated by the Jim Crow Laws. However, seeing that the students would not head to their plea, the NAACP joined the demonstration. On 17 May 1954, the Supreme Court gave its ruling referring to school segregation that it was unconstitutional. The failings of the proceedings of the cases concerning school segregation were combined to make the famous Brown versus Board of education (Karson 105).
THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
This was followed by the arrest of Rosa Parks, a young African American who was arrested because of failing to offer her bus seat to a white. The buses were segregated in that the front seats belonged to the whites and blacks would only occupy the back seats after the whites had comfortably sat. In case a white person missed a seat in the bus he/she had the right to take up any available one from the blacks. However, on 1 December 1955, Rosa felt tired of the oppression, refused to give up her seat, and was therefore arrested. When Martin Luther King learnt of the Rosa’s incident, he launched a bus boycott that was attended by more than 17000 blacks in Montgomery. The boycott lasted for more than a year but yield substantial results when the Supreme Court declared bus segregations as unconstitutional (Sanders 6).

THE LITTLE ROCK 9
In September 1957, nine African American students challenged the segregation law by trying to join the Little Rock central High School in Arkansas. These bright students had excelled in their elementary school exams. Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas ordered police to keep watching such that the African students would not gain entrance to the school. On the opening day of the school, only one of the students reported to school and she had not received communication on the perils of attending that school. However, she was harassed by the white students and protestors but was later rescued by the police who held her in their patrol car.
Following this incident, military personnel would each day escort the nine students to school. The military would also guard them against their counterparts’ harassment while in school. These students experienced high school under immense harassment, especially in the absence of the federal personnel. The school ran for one year until 1958 and was then closed due to push for integration by the Brown versus Board of Education.
SIT-INS
The segregation laws were such that particular lunch counters were reserved for white students and no blacks could be served at those counters. The NAACP sponsored a sit in at the food counter of a Dockum Drug Store in Kansas. This sit-in ran for three weeks and ended up successfully with the drug store ending segregation. Having succeeded, the students organized another sit-in at a Katz Drug store in Oklahoma City, which was also successful. Black students from various colleges organized a similar sit-in at the Woolworth’s store in North Carolina following the segregation at the lunch counter. In all these sit-ins, participants had been informed to dress professionally, remain calm, and occupy all seating space so that any willing white sympathizer would join the group (Rock Hill n.p).
Students in other cities (especially in Nashville, Atlanta, and Richmond) formed similar sit-ins at Woolworth stores. Sometimes, police would disperse the demonstrating students using force to allow normal business to run at the stores. As time went by, demonstrators shifted sit-ins from lunch counters to other social avenues like parks, museums, beaches, theaters, and libraries. In April 1960, the leaders of these demonstrations formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was established on the nonviolent tactics of the sit-ins. This led to the launch of freedom rides that involved interracial students travelling to the segregated South to protest against interstate commerce (Rock Hill n.p).
FREEDOM RIDES IN 1961
These were protestors’ bus rides from the North through various cities of the segregated South, to dare the Supreme Court’s rule that segregation on interstate travel buses was illegal. The rides involved cruise through the Deep South to disintegrate sitting patterns, bus terminals, water fountains, and restrooms. Police and other security officials attacked and arrested demonstrators for disrupting peace and for using white-only facilities; however these rides survived even with the torture of most of their leaders. Following months of torture in jails, President John F. Kennedy had sympathy for them and declared desegregation on transport avenues and lunch counters.
VOTER REGISTRATION MOVEMENTS
At the closure of freedom rides, local leaders in Mississippi, with the support of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, launched voter registration exercise for the blacks. Voting was a way of influencing political power in the state, a factor that would empower the blacks. Blacks had been denied voting rights through the white supremacy campaign that was rampant in the mid 20th century. In 1961, Robert Moses, leader of the SNCC launched blacks’ voter registration in McComb and other neighboring counties in the West. This drew the attention of the state who repressed the registration efforts through beating and arresting the protestors. This agitation led to the destruction of numerous activists, among them Herbert Lee.
In order to gain influence, all civil rights movements such as the SNCC, NAACP, and the CORE merged to form the Council of Federated Organizations, COFO. This launched similar voter registration exercises in various countries, which were filled with similar protests following the white supremacy. After the declaration of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, COFO launched serious registration and protection of voters (Berman 3).
INTEGRATION AT MISSISSIPPI UNIVERSITIES
At the onset of 1956, Kennard Clyde, a black Korean tried to enroll for studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. However, the University’s President rejected his admission by quoting the laws of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. On insisting for admission, Kennard was arrested and sentenced to serve seven years in jail; however, he was paroled by the Mississippi governor after three years of imprisonment. In 1962, James Meredith succeeded to secure admission in the Mississippi University, but Ross Barnett, the Mississippi governor, severally barred him from entering the University gates. He later gained entry into the campus in September though under strict security guard of US Marshals. This evoked a student riot, which left numerous marshals dead, and others wounded. Success to disintegrate the Mississippi University was gained in 1965, and Gwendolyn Armstrong and Raylawni Branch became the first blacks to be accepted at the University of Mississippi.
CONCLUSION
Civil rights movements were founded by blacks in America in the early 1950s and worked through to the 1960s. These were against racial discrimination and segregation in social avenues and services. Prominent persons who led these movements included Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and the group of the Little Rock 9. Rosa was a black young woman who was arrested for her arrogance when she denied her bus seat to a Native American. This triggered Luther to initiate the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the end of segregation in the public bus service. The Little Rock 9 comprised of nine students who against oIDs of segregation chose to enroll at the Central high school and led to its desegregation.
The goal of equality has been achieved as it can be observed in the current state of affairs and in social avenues in America. Currently, both white and black Americans have equal voting rights, and there is no longer segregation in buses, theatres, libraries, lunch buffets, and museums. Universities in the entire America admit students based on academic qualification regardless of race. Other than African gaining equal voting rights, they are also free to vie in elected posts in America. The election of President Obama (of African Origin) over his American counterparts is enough proof that equality has been made.

Works Cited
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