Essay Sample about Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement brought us many different historical groups and figures that we still look back at today. The struggles and hardships they went through trying to advance civil rights is courageous, inspiring, and historic. Through my research on more of these figures it’s amazing how they could affect so many people, and bring so many people together. They didn’t just have a movement but you could say it was a family. 

One man, Robert F Williams, made many strides. He taught men not to back down and don't fear the white man. He did that by confronting Klansman face to face. The klansman would roll through black neighborhoods and people would go back in their houses and close their curtains. But Williams' group would “come out in line and stand along the street with their guns” basically saying we’re not afraid of you and we have guns too. He actually confronted the klan at a pool also which ended up in a shootout. He then later integrated his own pools with the help of his movement. 

His movement thought in a way that to combat the way they were being treated they “must use whatever method in our possession, we must use the gas bomb, the lye can, the ice pick, the switchblade, the ax, the hatchet, the razor, the brick and the bullet”. William’s was a big fan of the component of teaching black men to arm themselves in defense of the violence that they were 

receiving from whites. If these groups like the KKK know you're armed you’re going to be taken much more seriously. And some cried in fear saying it wasnt fair that the negro had guns. 

William’s movement was inspired by Castro’s Cuba, in a way that a “small group of revolutionaries could overcome a government” and thought it was possible. But with William’s and Castro’s link together many accused him of being a communist. 

E.D  Nixon, president of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP attempted to enroll black kids in a white school, but they were ultimately turned down by the police. Nixon knew the “racial logjam” (257) was not going to end the way he was going about it. A big issue during this time was between Black women and public transportation. Before Rosa Parks' arrest there was a boycott, they knew the boycott would be a good tactic because “we knew the women supported it so the man would go along” (260). They told people not to ride the bus anywhere as another black woman was arrested. 

When Rosa Parks was arrested “they knew that moment had come, that the arrest of the parks would be the rallying point for challenging the stubborn south. In the first place, Rosa Parks was the perfect symbol for the campaign” (261). She was charged with a segregation ordinance which could be challenged. It had to go through the federal courts which sparked interest from E.D Nixon to create a boycott, the bus boycott that we know today. It was a mass protest that ultimately had the supreme court rule that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The boycott lasted over a year, and it attracted national attention. 

What I can conclude from both of these movements is that they were both successful. Williams inspired black power groups in the future with his movement, he was one of the first groups that had a more militant look to them. As with the Bus boycott it led to desegregation on buses, definitely helped progress the United States. One could say the bus boycott was the better approach rather than William’s as it was non violent. The lessons that we might draw today from the Civil Rights Movement is that if enough people get together massive change could happen. As we saw from the past year and half of the protests that have occured from police brutality.