John F Kennedy became the president in 1961. He was a fairly successful leader, and supported the Civil Rights Movement, however more in spirit than practice. He did do and make some changes however these like most changes were limited, and some didn’t get passed or happen until after he died. In the summer of 1961 JFK and his brother, Robert F Kennedy had meetings with the SNCC, CORE and NAACP and devised the Voter education project to get black people to register and vote. However the success was limited by white racial attitude that threatened blacks if they voted. Kennedy also gave many high positions in the government, political and law areas to black people. The Voting Rights Act was eventually passed in 1964, allowing blacks to freely vote. However the success of this was limited, as white racial attitudes still existed. It took a long time for an official law to be passed enabling anyone to vote, this was also the case with desegregation.
To put an end to segregation was one of the major aims for the Civil Rights Movement. Nearly everything was segregated, busses, schools, benches, fountains etc. They were labeled either ‘Whites only’ or ‘for coloured people’. Busses were segregated until the bus boycott in 1955. Rosa Parks a black woman sat in the ‘white only’ seats on the bus, instead of the black section at the back of the bus. When a man came on and told her to move, she refused and was arrested. This led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which was quite successful in that, a year later it achieved a law forbidding segregation on busses. However it was not very successful, as the law forbidding all segregation on busses and bus stations in 1961. Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most southern segregated cities. This attracted many demonstrations from civil rights leaders.
In 1963 Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders arranged a large demonstration around Birmingham. City police violently attacked the peaceful protestors with police dogs, batons, fire hoses etc. This was caught by the media, which sympathized for the peaceful protesters, causing uproar in Birmingham. Which in some ways makes this protest quite a successful protest, as it created many more supporters of the civil rights movement. However there were still many white racial attitudes. This was not the only hold back limiting the success of the Civil Rights Movement; many blacks were in poverty and had poor housing making it hard for them to get a decent job, which was already hard because they were black.
In 1965 SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Martin Luther King founded in 1957) focused on black poverty. In 1968 Martin Luther King devised the Poor People’s Campaign, including a march on Washington, D.C., that was intended to draw attention to the relationship between poverty and urban violence. As part of the campaign, King and other SCLC leaders frequently spoke out against economic discrimination. In the spring of 1968 King and other SCLC leaders went to Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking black garbage workers. King was assassinated there on April 4, by an escaped white convict, James Earl Ray.
Ralph Abernathy succeeded King as head of the SCLC and oversaw the Poor People's Campaign. SCLC led the long-planned march and encampment in Washington, D.C., in May 1968. The campaign had limited success overall, but it did prompt the federal government to provide food aid to the neediest U.S. counties and pressured the U.S. Senate to approve a bill to fund the construction of low-income housing. But SCLC's broadened agenda for social change increased criticism by white officials. Abernathy also led SCLC in supporting striking hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1969. This campaign allied SCLC with labor unions and ultimately resulted in a victory for the workers.
After 1969, SCLC had trouble raising money and was forced to cut its staff. Accustomed to following King's lead, the staff often failed to agree about goals and tactics. Young left SCLC in 1970 and Jackson resigned in 1971. The organization survived, however, and its leaders continued to oppose racial injustice and advocate greater economic opportunity for the poor.
Joseph E. Lowery became SCLC president (1977- ) and led the organization in battling efforts by the administration of President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) to limit civil rights legislation. SCLC's opposition to Reagan Administration policy in Central America induced the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to begin surveillance of SCLC—along with more than 100 other civil rights, labor, and religious groups—for “alleged criminal activity.” Lowery also led SCLC's support for efforts to help end the racial segregation known as apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s.
Overall I think that the Civil Rights Movement had limited success. Even though today Black people still aren’t seen or treated equally in some parts of the world. There was quite a big change when it started, it achieved the black vote and did gain a lot of support. However there is still a lot of racism against black people today, with the ku klux klan and lynches. However the amount has decreased a lot which is why I think it had some success but couldn’t achieve a lot as the seed never falls to far from the tree, and therefore with some of one generation being racist, there will still be racism with the next generation, no matter how much anti-racial campaigns are created, however one thing that is true is that the amount is decreasing and we can only hope that one day there is no racism in the world.
