Civil Rights in 1960s

60s Paper

In previous grade school classes, I learned some things about the Civil Rights movement. However, I have always been interested in the topic and I want to know more about the key players such as Martin Luther King, James Farmer, John Lewis and many others who fought for racial equality. Therefore, I have chosen Bloom & Brines chapter one titled "Keep on Walkin', Keep on Talkin' " to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States during the 1960s.

In Chapter one of "Takin' it to the streets" there are many primary sources associated with the Civil Rights Movement such as; Martin Luther King's "The power of Nonviolence", " James Farmer's "The Freedom Rides", John Lewis's "Wake up America", and "Letters from Mississippi" which had various authors.

Dr. Martin Luther King was a African American minister and Nobel Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr. King originated the nonviolence strategy within the activist Civil Rights Movement. King was one of the most influential black leaders of his era. (Martin Luther King, Jr)

Martin Luther King wanted to use a nonviolent approach to overcome the racial segregation, he wanted to attack "system" rather than attack the individuals that are associated with it. Dr. King said "violence was not the answer" and in his speech "The power of Nonviolence" uses Greek terminology to express his ideas and values of love and racial integration. King also says that his main goal was not to humiliate anyone but only to win the struggle between justice and injustice. His religious beliefs and intelligence helped him as a reformer since he incorporated his spiritual and social values when fighting for racial equality and justice. "Civil Rights is an eternal moral issue which may well determine the destiny of our civilization...."

James Farmer was a founder of the Congress of Racial Equality also known as CORE. Farmer helped shape the civil-rights struggle in the United States in the mid-1950s and 1960s. Farmer risked his life in several demonstrations such as in 1963 Louisiana State troopers armed with guns, cattle prods and tear gas, went from door to door trying to hunt him down when they found out that he was trying to organize protests.

In "Freedom Writers" Farmer tells how he wrote to President Kennedy, F.B.I, Greyhound and Trailways bus companies about the demonstration that was planed On May 4, 1961, and how Farmer and many other Civil Right Activists will board two buses in Washington, D.C., and traveled from Virginia south to Atlanta and then to end there trip west in New Orleans Virginia. In "Freedom Rides" Farmer writes "We got no reply from justice. Bobby Kennedy, no reply. We got no reply from the FBI. We got no reply from the White House, from President Kennedy. We got no reply from Greyhound or Trailways..." So Farmer and the Civil Rights Activists figured no one was on their side but as their trip began Farmer and many others realized that both bus companies had taken down their colored and whites signs.

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