The civil rights movement in the United States

The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement in the United States began in the mid-twentieth century. The impetus came from African Americans who did not have equal access to public amenities, equal opportunities in education, job recruiting, and housing, the ability to vote, and freedom from racial discrimination as whites. The movement fought to restore African Americans’ right to citizenship, which had been eroded by segregationist Jim Crow laws. It also resulted in the reemergence of the court as a guardian of personal liberty against majority power. In the journal written by Jackson & Thomas, the movement benefits not only the African Americans but also women in general, the disabled and other needy groups.

Rosa Parks and the Birth of Civil Rights Movements

Rosa Parks, a secretary to the national association for the advancement of people of color, was the reason for the birth of civil rights movements. Her arrest because of not giving a white man a seat on a bus got to persuade the African Americans to rise against racial prejudice. The Women’s Political Council’s request for the city buses to boycott due to the arrest of Rosa and the local African American leaders joined in. The great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was then chosen by black residents after the boycott to lead them in fighting the whites for segregating them (Taylor & Clarence 1). Raymond and Rosa Parks Institute for self-development was the avenue that Rosa Parks used to bring the youth into the freedom movement.

Coretta Scott King’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement

Coretta Scott King was a political activist and Martin Luther’s wife. She was responsible for the inspiration of Martin to join in the campaign for global peace. During the Vietnam war, she publicly was opposing the continuity of the fighting. Her struggle as a widow to continue the good works of Luther King is shown by the fact that she did not give in after his assassination. Mrs. King called for unity of all women to form a strong power that would rally against war, poverty and racism. She brought focus on poor black community, the calamity of HIV/AIDS and fought the segregation of LGBT society.

Septima Clark’s Advocacy for Equality in Schools

Septima Clark was a teacher in South Carolina whose advocacy was about equality in schools for both teachers and students. Charleston took in black teachers in its white schools following a push by Clark. After joining the campaign to have black and white teachers receive the same amount of salary, her employer fired her. She went ahead to develop Citizenship schools as a strategy in motivating southern blacks by conducting rallies for registration of voters and literacy. The schools’ primary achievement was training more than twenty-five thousand people and registration of black voters in the South (Leffler & Phyllis 5).

Pauli Murray’s Fights Against Discrimination

Pauli Murray could not get admission in the University of North Carolina and Harvard because she was an African American female. Consequently, obtained an arrest for going against the bus seating arrangements where blacks sat separately from the whites. Murray was among the organizers of the pure blacks’ march on of the Washington Movement (Leffler & Phyllis 3). During her years as a law student, she was a participant in the debate about the Brown decision. The Brown decision maintained the separation of white and black schools. In addition to that, history attributes her to developing the constitutional argument to educate activists on peaceful civil defiance to complain about Jim Crow practices. Murray candidly fought against the discrimination of women by pioneering the Fourteenth Amendment as a tool to debate about the rights of women.

Ella Baker and the Freedom of Blacks

In their book Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism, and History, Ware & Vron talk of Ella Baker who was a coauthor of The Bronze Slave Market, an article exposing the reasons jobless black female house helps had to trade their labor to the top bidder. The National Association of Advancement for Colored People hired her to coordinate local outlets in the South. The efforts she inputs in creating and strengthening the relations between African American leaders were vital in the struggle for the freedom of the blacks. Baker was responsible for the formation of an organization by bringing together the demonstrators who were students. Through this body, she sought the empowerment of the poverty-stricken and marginalized black communities. Up to date Baker’s organization structures inspire young leaders into team-guided leadership that is nonhierarchical.

Dorothy Height’s Efforts Towards Racial Injustices

Dorothy Height was an activist, educator, and a social worker. “Wednesdays in Mississippi” was the title of her forums where she brought together black and white women to create and intensify the understanding between them (Leffler & Phyllis 3). The discussions were efforts towards fighting racial injustices. Despite being a high pillar for the movement and sharing podiums with the male leaders, they offered no chance for her to address the people. Together with Rosa Parks, their support for the civil rights movement brought on board more women and youths alike.

Female Activists in Africa

In Africa, Lady Oyinkan Abayomi was the founder of the Women’s Party of Lagos to rally for the rights of women in Nigeria. The focus of the group was to advocate for more employment and educational chances for women. Mabel Dove and Hannah of Sierra Leone led in a demonstration against the increase in the cost of food in Freetown (Britton et al 300). Dove’s appointment as a legislator helped restore the market of rice and palm oil to the women. Some aged women in Cameroon held a significant role in speeding up peace after the violence during a post-election period. South African women were forming groups in the communities to look for solutions to poverty, gender segregation, joblessness, child mistreatment, and domestic violence. Their protests against the government’s intent to do away with squatter camps were successful otherwise many people would have to walk a long distance to get to their workstations.

Eleanor Harding’s Campaign for Indigenous Rights

Eleanor Harding of Australia was a campaigner for education and equal rights for the native people. Through a countrywide rally, she illustrates the need to improve the rights of the indigenous people in the constitution that changed after a referendum (Rimmer & Susan 91). Pearl Gibbs, also a female activist for the natives, was part of different demonstrations. The critical achievement in her lifetime is ensuring that there is a representation of women in matters concerning injustices and equality struggles in Australia.

Female Activists and Scholars in India

Women activists and scholars in Maharashtra, India, through a front, took an unswerving action to counter the perpetrators who were intentionally causing the shortage of essential commodities. Among them, Ahalya Ranganekar, Mrinal Gore, Manju Gandhi, and Tara Reddy, brought people of various social classes together through their capability in correlating minor problems to macro-political truths (Singh, et al 24). The initiative to protest against women’s oppression by different groups had the females in India acquiring platforms, a united identity, and legitimacy they had no ownership of previously (Singh, et al 25).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the struggles and influences of the female society in civil rights are still a subject whose content is inexhaustible. In the article, The World of Women: In Pursuit of Human Rights by Wetzel & Janice, shows that studying the contributions of women enhances the comprehension of the movements as well as adding the knowledge about them. Moreover, women advocating for civil rights are increasing each day, ensuring that there is respect for human rights. The world, a formally male society, is improving by openly accepting the leadership of women in activism and political positions and appraising their achievements.

Works cited

Britton, Hannah, and Taylor Price. ““If Good Food is Cooked in One Country, We Will All Eat from It”: Women and Civil Society in Africa.” The Handbook of Civil Society in Africa. Springer New York, 2014. 293-309.

Bolt, Christine. The Women’s Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s. Routledge, 2014.

Jackson, Thomas F. From civil rights to human rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the struggle for economic justice. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

Leffler, Phyllis. ”Introduction Black Leadership: A Collective Biography.” Black Leaders on Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014. 1-15.

Molyneux, Maxine. Women’s movements in international perspective: Latin America and beyond. Springer, 2016.

Rimmer, Susan Harris. ”5. The big stage: Australian women leading global change.” Diversity in Leadership (2014): 91.

Singh, Raghu N., David Hurley, and Divyajyoti Singh. ”Towards identifying and ranking selected types of violence against women in North India.” International journal of comparative and applied criminal justice 41.1-2 (2017): 19-29.

Taylor, Clarence. ”African American Religious Leadership and the Civil Rights Movement.” History Now: American History Online 8 (2016).

Ware, Vron. Beyond the pale: White women, racism, and history. Verso Books, 2015.

Wetzel, Janice Wood. The world of women: In pursuit of human rights. Springer, 2016.