The Selma Incident Of The Civil Rights Movement - 1320 Words

On November 4th, 2008, American voters elected Barack Obama president of the United States, the first time an African American candidate has been elected to the office of the presidency. This historic election was described by John Lewis, a longtime civil rights activist as â€Å"what comes at the end of the bridge in Selma†. (413) This was a reference to the incident on March 7th, 1965 when â€Å"police officers used clubs and tear gas against a group of civil rights demonstrators led by the reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as they protested the denial of voting rights in Alabama.† (pg 95) However, news reports of this horrific incident helped galvanize support for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.† The Selma incident was just one of many hurdles faced by the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was the effort made by black people and their supporters in the 1950s and 1960s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. The movement was led by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. In order to bring attention to unfair laws plaguing the African-American community in the United States at the time, Dr. King used nonviolent protest to call attention to unfair laws. This strategy of protest was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. King undertook Gandhi s non-violent passive resistance form of protest and never resorted to violence even when violence was done to them. King believed the same strategy that Gandhi employed in India could work in America and that â€Å"nonviolence is aShow MoreRelatedAva Duvernay Directed The Educational Film About The Historic Peace1248 Words   |  5 Pagesabout the historic peace march Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led in Selma, Alabama. DuVern ay focuses her film towards the Civil Rights Movement, a topic she holds close to her heart. The film illustrates the life behind King and the people involved with the peace march to Selma as they were organizing this march that had the potential to turn the tides during the Civil Rights Movement. The way DuVernay wanted to capture King’s movement was interesting and eye popping to viewers who are not aware of howRead MoreMartin Luther King Day And Black History916 Words   |  4 Pagesalthough coming from a past of inequality. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing Selma because I knew what it represented. I feared to cry and get emotional over the hardships of post-slavery and the battles of the Civil Rights Movement. I knew it was going to be gruesome to watch because of its vivid depiction of how our nation used to be and a touch of reality of how it continues to become. The movie Selma had a different vision of who Martin Luther King was. He was not just seen as a heroRead MoreProtest Movement Essay1341 Words   |  6 PagesProtest Marches in 1960s Civil Rights Movement as A Nonviolent Tactic. We will show around the world that it is a lie that rulers have said black people are satisfied with the present situation (Electronic Journal, 2007, para. 3). This is the part of what Martin Luther King, Jr. said to explain how his nonviolent tactics work for acquiring civil rights of African Americans. In fact, nonviolent tactics contributed to several progresses of the civil rights movement, though it unfortunately shiftedRead MoreCivil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s1425 Words   |  6 PagesThe Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s Once upon a horrible time, the United States was a segregated country in which blacks were considered some sort of subspecies. Although the civil war addressed segregation it didn’t enforce it. While black and white citizens were becoming a group of equals in the north, the story was much different in the segregated south. Black citizens in the south still faced unequal treatment, wages, and were often persecuted by everyone from store workers toRead MoreThe Fight to Vote Essay1312 Words   |  6 Pagesthe right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state allowed them the privilege. The dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the Civil Rights Movement in the early and mid 1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the rights to vote. It would have not occurred if the Civil Rights Movement had not taken place. The Nineteenth Amendment would not have occurred either if not for the Civi l Rights Movement. TheRead MoreAnalysis Of The Film Selma 1360 Words   |  6 PagesEquality and Justice - false promises a nation was created to protect. The historical drama, Selma (2014), directed by Ava DuVernay, depicts some of the struggles African-Americans faced in the pursuit of equality and justice during the mid 1950’s to 1960’s, and the role Martin Luther King Jr. played in his attempt to overcome such inequalities. Even before its release, Selma received backlash from critics who claimed it falsely depicted Lyndon B. Johnson at odds with Martin Luther King Jr, and allegedRead MoreThe Civil Rights Movement : Martin Luther King Jr.1174 Words   |  5 Pagesencountered oppression in the 1960s and many have resisted from it. One memorable figure that revolutionized equally in the United States is Martin Luther King Jr. King was an activist leader during the Civil Rights Movement who nonviolently protested along with many of his followers, involving civil di sobedience, peaceful symbolic protests and economic noncooperation. He used great and powerful speeches regarding racial discrimination and used other ways to fight back against inequality. For instanceRead More Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement Essay1651 Words   |  7 Pages Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African American experience. The origins of the civil rights movement date much further back than the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which said, separate but equal schools violated the Constitution. From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the United States. Read MoreThe Civil Rights Movement Essay examples1639 Words   |  7 PagesFor many years after the Civil War many African-Americans did not truly enjoy the freedoms that were granted to them by the US constitution. This was especially true in the southern states, because segregation flourished in the south wwhere African-Americans were treated as second class citizens. This racial segregation was characterized by separation of different races in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to theRead MoreMy Soul Is Rested1631 Words   |  7 PagesOption B The Civil Rights Movement in the United States refers to a set of events and reform movements in that country aimed at bringing to an end public and private acts of racial discrimination and racism against African Americans between 1954 to 1968, Whenever the civil rights is brought up there are names that almost always come to mind like Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. But there are others both black and white that participated in the movement. That are not as famous