Civil Rights Assesment

There are many lessons to be learned throughout the Civil Rights movement. This movement showed what will power is all about. The constitution of the United States of America says that every man is made equal, if that is so then why were blacks treated so unfairly?. If the Declaration of Independece was signed on the Fourth of July, 1776, then why was Martin Luther King Jr. still fighting for the rights of his people in the 1960s? What Mr. Shawn is trying to teach us is that the Civil Rights movement was something great that helped lots of people rise up and actually become someone better in life. The main lesson to be learned is that if you want something you need to take it, because that is what blacks had to do to gain their rights.

America still struggles with equality issues even today. The fact that blacks barley received voting rights in the 1960s is very bad. This does not show equity or equality in any way. It is totally not fair that whites have been able to vote for years and years and black are barley getting the right to do that in the 1960s. Even today that we are in the year 2012 there is unfairness, and inequality. The biggest issue with is Institutional Racism. Institutional Racism is why when blacks go to court they get a 15% longer sentence than a white person, because the system is wrong. The fact that in Google there is a very low number of African American workers isn't just a coincidence, there is something wrong with the system that makes this happen.

The events and ideas from the Civil Rights Movement can be connected to the present in a number of ways. Nowadays lots of nonviolent protests are organized how they were during the Civil Rights Movement. The Occupy Oakland movement is an example of a sit in. The people there just sit and they are protesting in a nonviolent way. This goes way back to the ways of Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movements. Nonviolent protests are really great ways of protesting that date back to the Civil Rights. Also, making the government look bad is another way. When kids got hosed down with fire hoses they wanted something like that to happen. They wanted to make the cops look bad, but they never thought they would hose them down and do something like that. Back in November students at UC Davis got pepper sprayed. This is sort of the same idea, making the cops look bad. This is also what Rosa Parks did. She wasn't a little poor old lady that was tired and her feet hurt so she didn't want to give up her seat on the bus. She wanted to get arrested.