CRM (Civil Rights Movement) Reasons

Reasons for the CRM (Civil Rights Movement)

• After the American Civil War (1861-1865), segregation became the effective policy in the US, especially in the Southern states.
• Segregation is the separation between white and black or 'colored' Americans.
• The 'Jim Crow' laws legalized segregation, requiring separate facilities and services for black Americans.
• The Supreme Court upheld the right of states to have separate public facilities in the Plessy v. Ferguson judgment of 1896.
• The principle of 'separate but equal' was established, but separate facilities for black people were inevitably inferior.
• Black Americans were denied certain civil rights, especially in the Southern states, like the right to vote.
• Black americans were disenfranchised, economically exploited, and often violently attacked by groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
• The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909 to promote black equality through peaceful methods.
• World War II (1939-1945) influenced black servicemen who experienced a world where segregation wasn't the norm, leading them to assert their rights upon return.

Origins of the CRM

• In 1954, the US Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the case of Brown vs The Board of Education.
• The Brown vs The Board of Education case struck down the Plessy vs Ferguson ruling of 1896, declaring that separation in public services was unconstitutional.
• In 1955, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy, was brutally murdered for supposedly 'making a pass' at a white woman, galvanizing the CRM.

Martin Luther King Junior

• Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Martin Luther King was a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954.
• King became the spokesman for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) during Montgomery bus boycott in December 1955.
• King became a symbol of resistance to segregation and injustice against African-Americans throughout the country.
• In February 1957, King became the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
• The SCLC's mission was to lead non-violent direct action against segregation and achieve full civil rights for black Americans.

Influence of passive resistance (Gandhi) on Martin Luther King

• King believed that violence was not the way to achieve civil rights for black people because they were in the minority.
• King adopted a philosophy of non-violence, influenced by Gandhi.
• At university, King had studied the writings of philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr.
• Niebuhr argued that force was needed to defeat injustice.
• King also studied the writings of Gandhi.
• In 1959, King visited Gandhi's birthplace in India.
• King became a firm believer in the power of mass non-violent direct action and civil disobedience.
• King felt that if black people were prepared to suffer because of their protests and not strike back, they would eventually get their oppressors to see the error of their ways and change.
• After King accepted the presidency of the MIA, his home was then bombed.
• King walked out onto the front porch and spoke with an exaggerated peacefulness in his voice, trying to still the anger.
• He advocated for non-violence and loving enemies, inspired by the teachings of Jesus.

Extract from the 'I have a dream' speech by Martin Luther King

• This important speech outlined a vision for racial equality in America.
• The speech emphasized the need to conduct the struggle with dignity and discipline, avoiding physical violence.
• MLK expressed his dream that one day the nation will live out the full meaning of this tenet: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal”.
• MLK shared his dream of racial harmony and equality for his children.

Music and The Civil Rights Era

• Music became an avenue of uniting people for a common cause and giving a voice to the movement.
• Folk singers such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez influenced political events in the Civil Rights era through songs.
• They performed their music, along with other significant musicians, at events such as the 1963 March on Washington.