The Importance of the Civil Rights Leaders Essay Example

📌Category: Human rights, Social Issues, Social Movements
📌Words: 676
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 21 June 2022

Are the actions of Civil Rights leaders catalysts for the advancement and development of the Civil Rights Movement? There are mixed opinions when it comes to the people who were catalysts for the advancement. Without supporters standing behind Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders, there would be few Civil Rights movements. There are many ways you can look at this to find an answer. These Civil Rights leaders were catalysts for the advancement and development of the Civil Rights movement, but without the support from others, the movement wouldn’t have known as it was.

These leaders were important and still are to this very day. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was/is still very important because of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks is known for refusing to give up a seat for a white man on a bus. For refusing to move she was put in jail, which caused a community outburst. She was also known for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts in 1955-1956 or for 381 days. Emmett Till was also important though he was not an activist like Rosa Parks. He was accused of whistling at a white woman. Her husband shot him, desecrated his body, and threw him in a river. Though he did not advocate for Civil Rights, people in the community were very outraged and wanted to change the community. A known Malcolm X encouraged the Muslim and Black community to take freedom. He founded the Black Power movement, which black youth followed in the 1960s-70s. To protest, supporters would do peaceful sit-ins to “overwhelm white supremacists” said Max Boland in a high school newspaper. Martin Luther King played an important role in the civil rights, but without these people, the civil rights movement would not have gone so far.

With MLK supporters laying the groundwork MLK rose to become one of the most important faces in the civil rights movement. If MLK never rose to become well known then someone else would have been a well-known figure. If a woman would have spoken in public about the racism, segregation, and many ugly things she wouldn’t have been taken seriously. A black woman by the name of Dorthy Cotton was one of King’s aides. She served as a planner and trained thousands of activists to participate in nonviolent protests, learning skills, and voter rights. She also typed King's ‘I have a dream’ speech in 1963.

These leaders were more of a face to this movement than the supporters. The supporters fought more than the leaders. Protesters died on the streets protesting and got put in jail for days just fighting for equal rights. Though the leaders founded and organized peaceful protests, boycotts, and talks they relied on their supporters to carry out the actions. During this time, the general public did not like nor support this movement. According to a 1966 Gallup poll, “almost two-thirds of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of Dr. King and a third had a positive opinion, a 26 point unfavorable rate increase from 1963”(Dupuy par. 2). Without supporters protesting and devoting their lives to the cost maybe the movement would have been taken off.

On February 18, segregationists attacked a group of peaceful demonstrators in Marion, Alabama. As a result of this chaos that arose Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by an Alabama State trooper. After this event from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama protesters marched on a 54-mile route in response to Jackson’s murder. They were met with nightsticks, tear gas, and whips. The protests forced back into Selma. During this people were either injured or killed. This event was known as Bloody Sunday. With the events happening in Selma the “public opinion and mobilized Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act” (Klein par. 20) that was signed in 1965. Without this event taking place, the movement could not have come to fruition.

These Civil Rights leaders were catalysts for the advancement and development of the Civil Rights movement, requiring the support from protesters the movement would not be the same. While these leaders were very important without their supporters they would have gained any traction. These supports did more of the groundwork while these leaders were the face. These unknown individuals are often forgotten or not discussed as much as others in history. Regardless, of who was more important or the catalyst for this movement people of today are grateful for it.

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