Key individuals and organisations in the civil rights movement in the United States
The meaning behind the slogan “we shall overcome” was the capital force that drove key individuals and groups to strive for civil rights and equality during the 1950s and 60s, thus overcoming racial discrimination at the time and improving life today. African Americans in the United States suffered from slavery until the 13th amendment was passed which removed all types of slavery in the United States. After this Jim Crow laws were put into place which sated that “separate is equal”, this was not the case as black people always received the worst of facilities and treatment. Then came the horrific violence which included acts like lynching’s cheered on by large crowds. The black people were in desperate need of a civil rights movement and Rosa Parks was a key individual who overcame disadvantages and obstacles to spark the civil rights movement. The NAACP was a group of black and white people determined to achieve equality and justice for African Americans. The event that took place in Birmingham made the country and world realise their actions were horrifically wrong and that change was needed immediately.
The black people were in desperate need of a civil rights movement and Rosa Parks was a key individual who overcame disadvantages and obstacles to spark the civil rights movement. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was and an African American Women, who worked as a seamstress, boarded a Montgomery bus to go home from work. She was arrested for violating the laws of segregation as she quietly did not give up her seat to a white man. Ms parks appealed her conviction and challenged the legality of segregation. Evidence that Rosa Parks was arrested can be seen in the finger print cards taken when she was arrested. The card clearly states her name “Rosa Parks”. This primary source made Rosa Parks look like she had done something so bad that she is now a criminal who needs their finger prints to be taken in case of future violations and murder. But in reality there is no way that this morally courageous act can be compared criminally. Although Rosa Parks has been called the “mother of civil rights” ( Rosa Parks: The story behind the bus), there were also other hard working determined African Americans who devoted their time to the success of the civil rights movement before Rosa Parks. This is evident in the same secondary source as it contradicts what it has said by stating that “it was not just an accident that the civil rights movement began on a bus, in a famous 1896 case, Plessey vs. Ferguson.” This quote tells us that there were cases before Rosa Parks that initiated the civil rights movement but then at the beginning of the source they state that she was the mother of civil rights.
