For many minority groups, the Civil Rights Movement signified that their fights against racial inequity were now being confronted. Many people who were freed from enslavement would not have classified themselves as liberated for decades after the Emancipation Proclamation was written and the slaves were declared “Free.” They depict a period marked by oppression, bigotry, and injustice. Unfortunately, the connotation of racial segregation and prejudice still exists today. Many prominent Civil Rights Activists have been taught in our schools, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X to mention a few. All those whom spent a significant amount of their life demanding retribution for not only African Americans, but all people’s freedom. They, along with many other activists of the time, intended the Declaration of Independence’s words to be preserved.
Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s effectiveness
Due to the severe and extreme examples of racial prejudice and ethnic-based violence in the government’s southern areas, the Civil Rights Movement began in 1960. After assuming the presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson, the then-new president-elect, pushed for the measure. He brought an end to most of the apparent conflicts, protests, and inequities that afflicted the south of the country. Unexpectedly, the “Civil Rights Act” was enacted by the U.S Congress in 1964 for the core purpose of alleviating ethical disputes and problems in the state (Mazumder, 2018). As a result of this Act, the government started to see increased equality among southerners, and fewer instances of racial discrimination. The Civil Rights Act, which was passed by Congress, safeguarded people’s basic human rights, including the ability to vote for all minority populations without being refused access to voting facilities. Following the coup, the Civil Rights Movement was spread to the north and west, where African Americans experienced the same racial discrimination and inequity as in the south. Surprisingly, the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest success was the abolition of racial injustice and discrimination in the United States. Because they had the right and freedom to live like any other American citizen, African Americans in the United States were able to experience freedom and equality thanks to the Civil Rights Act. The Act provided African Americans and low-income families with access to and resources to help them improve and sustain themselves. While the movement did not entirely transform the country, it led to various shifts in the position of racism from a worse state to a better state. The Act provided African Americans and low-income families with access to and resources to help them improve their lives.
Effect of Civil Rights Acts on minority groups
As the ultimate and most practical recourse for abolishing racist actions in American society, the Civil Rights Act was enacted and enforced. This Act also targeted the injustice and discrimination experienced by numerous minority groups in American society. Due to fear, minorities had no opportunities or ways to voice their concerns and thereby had never communicated their dissatisfaction with inequalities, inequality, and poor personal qualities among the majority population in American society. On the continent, activists were similarly apathetic about them. The Civil Rights Act, for example, outlawed segregation, seclusion, and the barring of minority groups from public settings.
It is one of the discriminating features that lead ethnic minorities to comprehend, perceive, and believe that they were not being recognized in the state, and that they had been routinely abused and exploited by the government’s other main ethnicities, particularly for violating their fundamental human rights. Human rights advocates knew how to apply the concepts of the “Civil Rights Acts” to guarantee that marginalized communities’ rights were acknowledged and valued at the time. The Act has recognized and ignored minority groups across the continent. Such acts have never occurred before in American history. Minority and majority groups have equal citizenship status and shared the same public spaces without being isolated or discriminated against.
These are the victories that all minority populations in America have won over time as a result of the Civil Rights Movements. Minority groups in the state have enjoyed and won the freedom to live freely in society as a result of the Civil Rights Act. They are provided the opportunity to obtain various work prospects and ensure that there are no features of discrimination at any level with the St. Moreover, the “Civil Rights Act” provided them the ability to cast their votes and express themselves without fear of retaliation, and to worship as they saw fit.
The tactics and strategies of the civil rights activists
Most Civil Rights Movement activists used numerous nonviolent ways to manage and eliminate institutionalized racism and ethnicity issues. These activists were aiming for constructive approaches to regulating and resolving issues. They employed direct activities to address issues such as discrimination in institutions on occasion. They used nonviolent rallies to coerce and compel higher authorities in this respect, and government entities were more likely to seriously resolve their problems (Jones-Eversley et al., 2017). However, the types of methods used earlier then have become less effective and impactful in today’s society. The benign tactics of Civil Rights methods were effective in addressing prejudice, racial, and ethnic segregation in the 1960s; however, since the development of current strategies to alleviate and manage such concerns, the patterns have significantly changed. Activists utilized a range of techniques to get the state’s higher authorities to amend local legislation. The strategies they utilized in the 1960s were successful in their endeavors to settle significant issues, and they managed issues through primary and secondary strategies based on situation, but activism in the western age has substantially influenced both the perspective and the techniques. The American Civil Rights Movement is currently concentrating on the creation and development of organizational systems capable of dealing with ethnic and racial bias. As a result of technological advancements, the discipline has become more accessible. Li (2017) shows that the bulk of activists have utilized social media networks to put pressure on government authorities to intervene in cases of unethical behavior in society. Citizens are also more aware of the social paradigms and how inequalities might undermine the overall effectiveness and harmony of the community. As a result, people are more likely to refrain from such behavior.
Relevance of ideas of the 1960s today
African Americans continued to face racial and ethnic prejudice from whites for years, until current America. There are significant underlying issues that the American public failed to recognize, and they assumed, building on the notion that white people and Black People would coexist without certain issues arising. However, the problems of racism and inequality still persist throughout the United States. In some areas in the United States, there are still considerable areas marked as racial and ethnic prejudice hotspots because of the highly prevalent racial discrimination. Racism is expressed in different entities, including workplace.
Segregation in organizations is still a prevalent concern in today’s society, with approximately 20% of lawsuits filed alleging racial discrimination in institutions, which commonly occurs between teachers and students, and occasionally among students themselves (Hahn et al., 2018). Americans must comprehend and benefit from the 1960s experiences; if they are reluctant to change their perspectives toward ethnic and minority groups, or even accept the 1960s manifestos, they will not be able to counteract or effectively deal with the issues of social discrimination, which will only lead to the exacerbation of the concern.
Civil Rights Movement’s impact on diversity in America today
In past few decades, the United States’ demographic has become highly diverse. several populations from multiple racial and ethnic groups have immigrated to the United States and inhabited there. Similarly, in the United States, there are major racial discrimination issues (Berghel, 2017). African Americans are becoming more numerous, and minority groups are becoming more numerous as well. Relatively, white people continue to rule and dominate society. The Civil Rights movement has attracted a larger number of population and concerns that must be examined deeper in order to develop better and more reliable answers for society. More modifications to policies and methods are required in light of the Civil Rights Movement to enable interested parties to handle such vast kinds of diversity in American society.
Conclusion
The Civil Rights Movement sparked change in our country, but it did not change the beliefs of many southern government officials. Housing, neighborhoods, schools, eateries, and nearly every other public space remained divided. Much of this subtle segregation may still be seen presently in destitute towns with a demographic of over 68 percent African Americans. The argument we pose is whether the mass protests in the United States actually changed the country and whether the black and civil rights activists successfully reconciled their differences. That response would be yes, but only in the long run. Many of the strategies utilized to promote African Americans’ rights are still effective today. The fight against prejudice took a long turn of events including campaigns that involved visiting door to door and having conversations about the judicial system and creating relationships in order to make different ethnicities more visible in communities and expand voting rights. African Americans were also given citizenship education lessons so that they could pass voting registration tests and register to vote.
References
Berghel, S. E. (2017). ” What My Generation Makes of America”: American Youth Citizenship, Civil Rights Allies, and 1960s Black Freedom Struggle. The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 10(3), 422-440.
Hahn, R. A., Truman, B. I., & Williams, D. R. (2018). Civil rights as determinants of public health and racial and ethnic health equity: Health care, education, employment, and housing in the United States. SSM-Population Health, 4, 17-24.
Jones-Eversley, S., Adedoyin, A. C., Robinson, M. A., & Moore, S. E. (2017). Protesting Black inequality: A commentary on the civil rights movement and Black lives matter. Journal of Community Practice, 25(3-4), 309-324.
Li, V. (2017). Resistance redux: Civil rights lawyers from the 1960s have lessons for today’s social activists. ABA Journal, 103(8), 38-47.
Mazumder, S. (2018). The persistent effect of US civil rights protests on political attitudes. American Journal of Political Science, 62(4), 922-935.