Black Civil Rights Movement example essay topic

How Important were the actions of Rosa Parks to the civil rights movement? Explain your answer. Rosa Parks was a black American who it has been said, started the black civil rights movement. Rosa Parks was fro Montgomery, and in Montgomery they had a local low that black people were only allowed to sit in a few seats on the public buses and if a white person wanted their set, they would have to give it up. On one bus journey Parks was asked to move for a white person, she refused and the police were call and she was arrested and convicted of breaking the bus laws. The black people of Montgomery decided that the best way to show their anger at what had happened and how they were being treated would be by boycott, not use, the local bus service.

One the first day of the boycott the buses were almost empty. The black community worked together and arranged another forms of transport such as car pool, or waling. Black taxi companies only charged back passengers the price of the bus fair and some white people who could do without their servants even when to pick them up form their homes. During the boycott the bus company lost 65% of their earnings.

This showed people who powerful non-violent protest could be, by challenging black segregation laws without committing a crime. It also showed the black people how powerful they could be if they worked together. When Parks case went to court a black civil rights lawyer helped her fight her case, and in December 1956, on year after Parks was arrested, the Supreme Court decided that the Montgomery bus law should be illegal. This also meant that all through the United States, segregation of public services was illegal, they could no longer ask black people to move from their seats for a white person. Rosa Parks's case was very important for all black Americans as it acted like a test case showing them that if Parks was able to make a difference then maybe they would be able to make a difference as well. I also showed the black people that they also had rights, and they shouldn't just accept the law forcing them to be classed as lower, second-class citizens.

It gave the black people of America the feeling that they have a chance to change the laws and improve their lives for the better. It also showed people that they didn't have to use violence to get their point across. They could use other non-violent methods such as sit-ins, a point which Martin Luther King believed greatly in. This started a chain reaction of civil rights campaigns all across the south east of America.

One example of this would be the 1963 march, where Martin Luther King and over 200,000 black and 50,000 white people marched to Washington with the intention of pressuring President Kennedy into introducing the Civil Rights Bill, this is also when Martin Luther King gave his 'I have a dream's peach. Another example of civil rights campaigns would be the sit-ins in restaurants, libraries and churches organised by students in the southeast of the country. There was also an increase of civil rights groups being set u such as the SCLC (southern Christian leadership conference), who were formed by Martin Luther King and also the SNC C (Students non-violent coordinating committee), which was formed by students. Both these groups believed in protesting peacefully with methods such as sit-ins and boycotts. There were also some violent groups that were formed such as the Black Panthers. They believed in arming themselves and forcing white people into giving them equal rights.

However it was not just down to Rosa Parks, there were other people who were also fighting for equal rights such as Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King wrote speeches and fair right and was known for promoting peaceful methods of protest. His favoured method of protesting was sit-ins, boycotts, speeches and marches. One example of this would be his 'I Have a dream speech', which he delivered on the 28th of August 1963, outside Washington DC. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people a mixture of both black and white people turned out to hear him give it, taking the issue of segregation from a southern sideshow into a national movement. He also formed the SCLC, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which ran conferences and trained civil rights activists in techniques of non-violent protest and how to handle the law and media.

He helped to show people that black people also deserved the same rights as white people. Another person who was fighting for equal rights was Malcolm X. However he believe in more violent methods of protest and would do almost anything to show people how he felt, even break the law. He wanted to form a separate state for black people, which contained no white people. In conclusion I think that although Rosa Parks was important to the civil rights movement I do not think that she was the most important person in the civil rights movement. I think that Martin Luther King's actions were more important as he took the problem of segregation from just a southern problem and turned it into a national problem, raising people awareness about what was really happening top black people in the southern states. I think that if Rosa Parks had not been arrested black people would still have had had the bus law changed however I don't think that it would have happened for a long time.

I think that Rosa Parks was a spoke that helped getting the wheel of black rights in motion. The Civil Rights Act was introduced was introduced in 1964, 9 Years after she was first arrested.