Introduction
The civil movement was a struggle for social equality that predominantly occurred during the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. The campaign’s goal was for African-Americans and Whites in the USA to have equal access to the law. The institution of slavery had been legally eliminated as a result of the Civil War; nevertheless, this did not end prejudice against African Americans. Black people continued to suffer the debilitating effects of racism, particularly in the South. By the middle of the 20th century, Africans and Americans in the United States such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Thurgood Marshall had endured enough discrimination and violence directed at them. Together with many other white Americans, they organized themselves and launched an unparalleled campaign for equality that lasted for twenty years. Therefore, this essay aims to describe the different meanings that freedom fighters ascribed to equality. In addition, the paper highlights how they tried achieving equality and the limitations they faced in gaining fairness.
Meaning of Equality
Different Americans who fought to achieve inclusivity gave different definitions of the term ‘equality,’ as highlighted in this section. During his time, Martin Luther King Jr. mainly fought for African Americans’ economic fairness. Therefore, he defined economic justice as a fantasy of a society where men do not remove essentials from the majority to provide riches to the few; a vision of economic equality, privilege, and possessions is widely disseminated (Dorrien, 2018). The tenacity, unwavering commitment to duty, and selfless sacrifice that Medgar W. Evers defined equality as offering equitable opportunities and not discriminating based on a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, sex, ethnic background, age, disability, relationship status, or sexual preference may be considered unacceptable behavior (Burns & Granz, 2022). He displayed in his fight for racial liberation and equality exemplified the finest qualities of African American sovereignty.
On the other hand, Thurgood Marshall played a significant role in ensuring that equality and justice were made equitable for all American. He defined equality by listing its components, which included acquiring the same thing at the same time and in the same location as everyone else. Frederick Douglass was an influential abolitionist and public speaker who leased his guidance to the women’s suffrage campaign and remained unwavering in his judgment that women should be accorded constitutional freedoms equal to those accorded to men. As a result, he interpreted equality in terms of political liberties as the privileges people deem a woman to be legitimately committed to, regardless of whether or not people claim those benefits for a male.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Malcolm X was a prominent African American clergyman and campaigner for human and civil liberties. He defines equality as allowing white aggressors to stop persecuting, manipulating, and demeaning African Americans if white people do not want Africans to be anti-white (Jones, 2020). Consequently, White minorities such as the Quakers led by Francis Daniel Pastorius were against lack of inclusivity among other minority groups. Francis defined equality as the abolition of enslavement and provision of fair opportunity for Black Americans (Longley, 2020). Therefore, as opposed to their fellows who practiced slavery, the Quakers helped in the fight for inclusivity and equitable treatment of all regardless of color.
Techniques used to Achieve Equality
The civil rights movement employed lawsuits, mass media, boycotts, protests, sit-ins, and other passive resistance tactics to sway public opinion against entrenched racism and attain equality under US law. As the first form of protest, they withdrew from business and social relationships. The victory in Montgomery, for example, encouraged other African American civilizations in the South to challenge racial inequality and energized the immediate nonviolent defiance stage of the civil rights campaign. Secondly, litigations involved various strategies, including filing lawsuits, petitioning the national government, widespread mobilization, and black power for equitable reasons. In September 1962, for instance, a state judge mandated the University of Mississippi to enroll James Meredith, a 28-year-old Black Air Force soldier, much to the chagrin of white supremacists.
Thirdly, sit-ins, freedom rides, and demonstrations formed another methodology American civil rights activists used to attain equality. The freedom rides were organized by student activists affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in the spring of 1961. They aimed to oppose discrimination on statewide vehicles and transportation hubs and enhance inclusivity. The protesters were riding buses from Washington, District of Columbia, to Jackson, Mississippi, when they ran into violent opposition in the region known as the Deep South. This drew a lot of coverage from the media and eventually led to government oversight by the management of John F. Kennedy. Lastly, the mainstream media’s involvement in the equality struggle was significant. Activists around the time of the civil rights movement thought that broadcast was an exciting future medium that would allow them to prevent the rest of the world from turning a blind eye to brutality committed against black individuals.
Obstacles and Limitations Encountered
The following are some challenges Americans faced to achieve equality within American society. Most of them were assassinated in their endeavor to end inequality issues practiced mainly by the White majority. Byron De La Beckwith shot and killed African-American civil rights activist Medgar Evers on the roadway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Evers’ murder inspired the August 1963 March on Washington, and his killing is primarily regarded as a turning point in the fight for fairness campaigns. In addition, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 to end his anti-white activities that viewed racial inequality as unjust. His execution resulted in an outburst of rage among African-Americans, and a time of commemoration that assisted pave the way for the passage of an equitable housing measure, the last major legislative success of the epoch of civil rights.
In addition, most of them were arrested and detained for different periods to curb their state-wide influence among their fellow Black and white counterparts. Local authorities obtained indictments for civil rights advocates, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jo Ann Robinson, Rosa Parks, and Reverend Ralph Abernathy, on February 20, 1956, for orchestrating the Montgomery bus reprisals. The next day, a preliminary hearing charged 89 protest participants, accusing them of breaching a 1921 law prohibiting walkouts without justification. Several African Americans assembled outside the police station as the convicted boycott organizers turned themselves in as a gesture of solidarity for their efforts to eradicate racial injustice and inequality in Alabama.
Conclusion
From the above essay, it is evident that most African Americans were segregated and unequally treated in places of learning, employment, and political functions. Most civil rights activities view inclusivity as providing equitable opportunities to all regardless of color, gender, race, and religion. The civil rights struggle deployed litigation, broadcast media, general strikes, demonstrations, sit-ins, and other peaceful resistance strategies to shift public sentiment against institutionalized racism and reduce inequalities under US law. However, their preponderance, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers, were slain in their efforts to stop the White majority’s practice of unfairness. In addition, most of them were imprisoned and held for varying durations to limit their statewide impact among their Black and white peers. Despite all the obstacles encountered, the efforts of these courageous and unyielding individuals brought about significant reforms, such as the elimination of racism and bigotry, and laid the groundwork for others to continue the fight.
References
Burns, M. D., & Granz, E. L. (2022). “Past injustice and present prejudice”: Reducing racial bias and increasing sympathy by framing historical racism as recent. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25(5), 1312-1332. Web.
Dorrien, G. J. (2018). Breaking white supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the black social gospel. Yale University Press.
Jones, T. (2020). The ideological and spiritual transformation of Malcolm X. Journal of African American Studies, 24(3), 417-433. Web.
Longley, M. (2020). Quaker Carpetbagger: J. Williams Thorne, Underground Railroad host turned North Carolina politician. McFarland.