Progress In Civil Rights
How much progress was made in civil rights between 1960-80?
1960 began positively for blacks as students carried out the lunch counter protests. On 1st February black students entered Woolworths and at the whites only lunch counter, the significance of the protest was not just the defiance of whites but also to reemphasise non violent protest was the way forward and the action blacks were taking. After this event a black founded student non-violent coordinating committee was started and became an essential part in helping publicise civil rights problems by gaining lots o media attention from their actions. A year later some students, black and white, carried out freedom rides. May 4th 1961, 4 blacks and 4 whites rode the inter-state bus …show more content…
During this ride the bus was bombed and despite mass media coverage it had the opposite to the desired effect and forced the inter-state Commerce Commission and Justice Department to enforce segregation of all inter-state transport. Regardless of the media coverage emphasising black civil rights problems, the events of the original freedom rides had not successfully changed black’s social standing and they now had another law opposing desegregation. 1962, a year after these freedom rides, James Meredith tried to enrol in an all-white University of Mississippi. Meredith was only able to be admitted due to President Kennedy’s use of US marshals and troops to gain order and help put the South into place. Whilst this depicts the image of a black supporting President, it highlights that even by 1963 the South were still trying to strongly counter desegregation. Also, despite the successful admittance, Meredith was later wounded in a shouting, therefore emphasising that the South were prepared to …show more content…
This revealed how blacks were now publicly being shown as equal by their appointment into authoritative positions. Later that year, 1978, regarding the Bakke case the Supreme Court had to retreat on the issue of white student’s rights to entre University of California however in the 1980 Fullilove vs Klutznick the court upheld 10% need to allocate jobs to ethnic minorities. This shows politically the court, whilst not always able to take the action they wanted, which was a sign of struggle to progress, shows they were pro black civil
1960 began positively for blacks as students carried out the lunch counter protests. On 1st February black students entered Woolworths and at the whites only lunch counter, the significance of the protest was not just the defiance of whites but also to reemphasise non violent protest was the way forward and the action blacks were taking. After this event a black founded student non-violent coordinating committee was started and became an essential part in helping publicise civil rights problems by gaining lots o media attention from their actions. A year later some students, black and white, carried out freedom rides. May 4th 1961, 4 blacks and 4 whites rode the inter-state bus …show more content…
During this ride the bus was bombed and despite mass media coverage it had the opposite to the desired effect and forced the inter-state Commerce Commission and Justice Department to enforce segregation of all inter-state transport. Regardless of the media coverage emphasising black civil rights problems, the events of the original freedom rides had not successfully changed black’s social standing and they now had another law opposing desegregation. 1962, a year after these freedom rides, James Meredith tried to enrol in an all-white University of Mississippi. Meredith was only able to be admitted due to President Kennedy’s use of US marshals and troops to gain order and help put the South into place. Whilst this depicts the image of a black supporting President, it highlights that even by 1963 the South were still trying to strongly counter desegregation. Also, despite the successful admittance, Meredith was later wounded in a shouting, therefore emphasising that the South were prepared to …show more content…
This revealed how blacks were now publicly being shown as equal by their appointment into authoritative positions. Later that year, 1978, regarding the Bakke case the Supreme Court had to retreat on the issue of white student’s rights to entre University of California however in the 1980 Fullilove vs Klutznick the court upheld 10% need to allocate jobs to ethnic minorities. This shows politically the court, whilst not always able to take the action they wanted, which was a sign of struggle to progress, shows they were pro black civil