During the Civil Rights Movement, many people of different cultures, religions, and ethnicities struggled to secure equal treatment rights for all Americans. During the mid 1950s and the mid 1960s, they performed sit-ins in segregated restaurants and bus stops, marched through cities, and aimed to get Blacks to register in hopes of ending segregation. The U.S. involvement in the Cold War, which aimed to promote international freedom, led Americans to promote domestic freedom as well. This is where many prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement rose, encouraging a whole generation to fight to change American racial segregation and lack of equality. One of these activists was Mar ...view middle of the document...
The United States' involvement in the Cold War set the stage for Americans to fight for their freedom. The government was focused on freeing the world from Communist tyranny and containing the spread of Communism throughout the world. Yet, back in America, Blacks were not free as they were discriminated in the Southern states. For example, in 1963 many Blacks, including children and teenagers, non-violently protested for equal access to public accommodations and policies for equal jobs in the city of Birmingham and were attacked by the police force (Alvah). "Blacks were also forced to sit on top sections of movie theatres, where the image was probably not as good as the floor sections, where only Whites were allowed to sit" (Suarez). This, along with many other things, provided the hypocrisy of a nation that claimed to have equal rights for "all men" and was the beginning factor(s) for the Civil Rights movement.Martin Luther King was a model of those who joined the Civil Rights Movement. He was educated, had the great oratory abilities, and was exposed to racism at a very young age (Simmons). Martin Luther King joined the Civil Rights Movement with the hopes of getting rid of the extreme racial violence similar to what he was exposed to when growing up and during the time of many of his campaigns. He could not ignore the violence that Blacks and other minorities were suffering, so he decided to challenge the racism that he and many other Blacks endured. Unlike another peer supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X, who called for change at all cost (believing violence was necessary to eliminate racial hate), Martin Luther King gave inspirational speeches and peacefully protested (Martin Luther). He wanted Blacks to be treated the same as Whites. Martin Luther King through his motivationally charged vocabulary and demanding presence opened up many people's eyes persuaded them to join what he recognized as the "solution" to a problem that could not be ignored longer (King). He urged as many people as possible to take initiative for themselves and stand up for ultimate freedom amongst all people, asking the help of all people equal regardless of color.Many other activists were similar to Martin Luther King in different aspects of their own lives. For example, Matt Suarez, a New Orleans born activists, went to high school and growing up thought that "family…wasn't a priority at the time" but became racially conscious at "around nine or ten years old" when he became aware of the segregation in his neighborhood. He felt the presence of segregation in his community and realized the resentment factors between the whites and blacks. Upset with this matter he educated himself on current racial matters of his time and soon after took part in many sit-ins at buses and took part in many boycotts. Johnie Faye Inge, on the other hand, was an African American woman, did not actively take part in boycotts, protests or organizations at the time...
