The whole point of the Civil Rights movement was to make the statement our country was founded on "All men are created equal" true. Slavery in America showed that this statement was ignored. Even when slavery was abolished, African Americans were segregated and did not have all the rights that whites had. Once again ignoring the founding statement. Slavery had been abolished for almost a century when finally someone decided to do something about it.
Segregation was shown around the country but mostly in the south. Segregation trapped blacks in the corner of society and deprived them from their freedom that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, should have been theirs at birth. African-Americans had limitations. They had separate bathrooms, separate drinking fountains, separate schools, they couldn't even try on clothes without buying them. Black communities were made of dirt yards and roads and the trash was rarely picked up. Living in the black community was all about knowing your place like in the back of the bus or the colored waiting room.
The sad thing about the segregation was that it became normal to black and white children at this time. They didn’t know any different. If you were a white child, you accepted that your black housekeeper had a separate plastic drinking cup and a different bathroom even though she is practically your second mother and has raised you since birth. White children were also taught that they could not say yes ma’am to their African-American housekeeper.
NAACP was formed partly because of a race riot in Illinois. It is an organization to prevent segregation and founded in 1909. To grow this organization, they published a magazine called The Crisis. The magazine spoke honestly of blacks and how they were treated but no one seemed to listen. Through the years the NAACP did many great things like helping people in the Great Depression. Eventually, NAACP had offices in big cities like Boston, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. Later they stopped segregation in public schools.
The Civil Rights Movement which started in 1954 echoed the NAACP's goals. It started with small nonviolent acts like Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus or small protests. It only started getting violent when the protests got bigger. At one point the leader of the movement's leader Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for protesting in Birmingham. Birmingham was such a violent city during the movement that it received the nickname "Bomingham".
When blacks heard of King's arrest, they decided that as a peaceful protest that they would fill up the jails on purpose. The adults didn't want to go to jail so the children stepped up. The adults who did participate in the protest were worried about the children and did not want them to participate. It was a difficult debate. Was it worth it to risk lives? The children refused to step down. They knew that in order to gain freedom they had to fight and risk getting hurt. They met at 16th Street Baptist Church. Police and firemen were waiting for them to come out. Police beat them, dogs bit them, and firemen sprayed them with strong water hoses to hurt them before they got arrested. They didn't even make it past Kelley Ingram Park.
Not only were blacks protesting but so were whites. Most of them were protesting in a more violent way though. The KKK was bombing places and burning crosses and beating blacks. Because 16 Street Baptist Church was so active in the movement, it was a target to the KKK. A former KKK member placed a bomb outside the church and killed 4 little girls. Acts like these were devastating but only made African Americans want to work harder for their freedom.
They kept marching and protesting. They marched all the way to Washington D.C. where King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech. Soon they were victorious and all segregation laws were abolished.
I actually got to visit these places during my visit to Birmingham. It was very interesting but also very sad. I am very glad that I did research before I visited.
16th Street Baptist Church
Where the bomb was placed
Girls who lost their lives
MLK mugshot
MLK I Have a Dream speech
People getting hosed at Kelley Ingram park
