How successful was the post war civil rights movement up to 1965?

Small groups caused many changes during this period. Prominent examples of these are the sit-ins. These were where Negroes sat in a whites only restaurant or café to try and force them to desegregate. This was started by 4 black students from the Students Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee [SNCC or SNICK] in Greensboro, North Carolina and inspired seventy thousand other black students across the USA to follow their lead. The four returned to the same restaurant the next day with 80 more supporters and despite having to put up with verbal and physical abuse they stayed true to their non-violent nature. One of the students said, "We are willing to go to jail, be spat upon and even suffer physical violence to obtain first class citizenship". This cost restaurants a lot of business as people could not get to the counters to buy anything and they were eventually forced to desegregate. This was again a trivial victory but it showed that the Negro population had economic strength and that a small number of people were able to make a big difference.

The medium of television was used at great length to create sympathy for the black civil rights movement. Martin Luther King was a great manipulator of the media. He set up events to publicise his protests, for example he had a letter already written out for the newspapers before he was sent to jail before the march on Selma, Alabama. He would make sure his marches would be through possible sources of white violence so that if any violence was used against the protestors it would create sympathy for them, for example he set up the march through Birmingham Alabama, as it was the most segregated city and was known as "Bombing-ham", as he knew the film shown in newsreels would be of police and white supremacists attacking non-violent protestors. For his infamous "Dream Speech" he had live coverage from four American channels and also worldwide television coverage. These all helped to create a huge amount of publicity and momentum for the black civil rights campaign of the late 50's and early 60's.

Direct action was often taken during this time. The Freedom Rides are one example of this. This was when thirteen members of the Congress for Racial Equality [CORE] used segregated interstate busses to travel around the country. One of these thirteen members was a man called Stokely Carmichael, who went on to become the leader of the Black Panthers, a violent civil rights group, and was the first person to use the phrase "Black Power". They stopped off at whites only facilities and used these facilities. They were often met with violence and at one point the bus they were riding was blown up by the Ku Klux Klan [KKK] and The 13 members were severely beaten. However despite this violence and a plea from Martin Luther King to stop due to the danger the CORE members continued on the journey, on a different bus, upon which they were again beaten. They did win in the end and interstate busses were desegregated. It was another example of a trivial victory as it only desegregated interstate busses but it again showed that a small number of people could make a difference and as it was interstate it was a federal victory. As written in a CORE publicity leaflet, "anyone who opposed segregation...could drive a nail into the coffin of Jim Crow"

There were three confrontations between state and federal governments over the segregation of schools. The first was the "Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education" case where Linda brown was not allowed to go to the school that was closer to her home and better than her present school as it was white only. The Browns had the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People [NAACP] who helped them present their case to the Supreme Court, who ruled in their favour with the comment, "separate but unequal". They deemed that this segregation was unconstitutional and that all schools should become desegregated. However, despite this ruling, this federal law was never reinforced.

The second confrontation was in Little Rock Arkansas. Nine Negro children were enrolled in an all whites school in Arkansas and when they tried to go to school an angry mob of white supremacists and a group of state troopers tried to prevent them. As the Supreme Court in had ruled segregation unconstitutional in 1954, President Eisenhower sent in 1000 federal soldiers to make sure the nine children were safe in the school.

The third encounter was between James Meredith and the Mississippi Law School in 1962. He was blocked from attending again by state troops and again federal troops had to be sent in to protect him. This time 123 federal marshals, 316 US Border Patrolmen, 97 Federal Prison Guards and 16000 troops were used to protect him from the mob of 2000 angry protestors. By the end of this confrontation 28 US marshals had been killed and another 160 law enforcers injured.

These were all victories for civil rights as it showed they had federal backing and they gained the results they were looking for but it did nothing to change white, racist attitudes and if anything helped fuel the fire.

In August 1963 Martin Luther King led a march on Washington DC, the US capital. This is where he gave the infamous "Dream Speech", "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character...one day be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice". This was one of the most important moments in the civil rights campaign and led on to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal to discriminate on grounds of race.

In 1965 there was a march on Selma, Alabama. Over a month before the march, Martin Luther King deliberately got himself arrested. This was a publicity stunt for the march and before he was incarcerated he wrote a letter for the newspapers, which was sent to them while he was in jail. Part of the speech said, "There are more Negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting registers" setting the theme for the march. Television coverage of the march showed people being beaten up and attacked as they marched down the roads of Selma. This shocked the USA and led to a huge amount of sympathy for the cause. This march led directly to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This greatly increased the number of blacks on the voting register and in turn led to better conditions for blacks as the politicians now needed to cater for them to win votes.

The post war civil rights movement was very successful as it culminated in black civil rights and black voting rights. The two most important events leading up to these were the marches on Washington as it was a main factor in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Selma Alabama as it was the main factor in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Also the Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education case was important as it expressed the federal view that segregation was unequal. Although these are in my opinion the most important events in the fight for civil rights every event is important as they all improved standards and introduced important figureheads, groups and ways of protest. However, even though the laws had been changed, people's attitudes had not. There were still many white supremacists and the KKK still existed, and still does today. Laws did not make everything perfect, as demonstrated by some of the laws passed during the period between 1945 and 1965 and there was still as much discrimination as there had been before, there was just no official segregation.