Civil Rights Reflection

Throughout the course of the Civil Rights Movement, we have learned how the minorities of the American citizens had struggled throughout history to gain equal civil rights as the rest of the American people. One lesson Americans have learned is that you must never give up. In the non-violent protests conducted at Greensboro, four African American students of North Carolina sat at a white-only lunch counter. This caused great attention to the sit-ins which caused many more black and white anti-segregationists to join the protests. Even when people were assaulted and put into danger, these people did not give up and eventually, the lunch counters were desegregated. Another lesson that the Civil Rights movement taught us was that literacy is an important weapon. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X provided motivation for many Americans nationwide just by their speeches. Malcolm X made people believe that they must start taking action in fighting for rights while Martin Luther King believed that non-violent protests can help bring success to equality to all races.

There are many struggles that America faces today that challenges the success of equity and equality. America having a bad economy gives many Americans problems. The economy has caused many people to lose their jobs and not be able to afford many important things such as health insurance. Not all Americans are protected medically or financially stable. Another struggle that America faces is poverty. 15.1% of Americans are in poverty which means that over 46.2 million people lack a socially acceptable amount of possessions and do not make up to $22,000 a year (based on a family of four). America has slowly overcame the discrimination towards other races, but as those problems disappear more become present.

The events that happened in the Civil Rights Movement are still easily present in today. The Brown v. Board of Education case ruled that separated schools were wrong and they must be desegregated at a constant pace. If it weren't for this case over turning the Plessy v. Ferguson, Washington High School today could easily be an All-Whites school. The organizations that were created during the Civil Rights Movement are still present today which still address the same problems that were faced in the 1960s. For example, the National Organization for Women was originally created to promote the equal rights and recognition of womens' status in society. Today, the organization still promotes the rights of safe abortion, economic justice, lesbian rights, etc. The discrimination that the women of N.O.W. faced in the 1960s had created a large phenomena that has spread nationwide to help with current issues. The discrimination faced in the 1950s through 1960s had given America knowledge on how to help fight issues of discrimination today.