Pop Culture

Pop culture incredibly influenced the Civil Rights movement. Many African Americans needed a way to let out how they felt about being treated unfairly. This caused many of them to put their feelings into the arts. They would right songs, poems, and books about what was going around them. This also influenced the African Americans to create visual representations of their feelings and the events that were occurring. 

Listen to Sam Cooke's song "A Change Gonna Happen"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-X9JkM9Bgo 

The African Americans would also take part in movies. It wasn't very common to have a black filmmaker or a black actor but they made it common. Many movies were made that went against the typical black stereotype. These movies drew large audiences, mostly filled with African Americans. 

A big event that took place during the Civil Rights movement, influenced by pop culture, was the desegregation of African Americans and white people in professional sports. The most known person for this is Jackie Robinson. He was on the baseball Negro League, a team known as the Kansas City Monarchs. In 1946, he broke the division between the two different leagues and was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. A year later, Larry Doby was signed by the Cleveland Indians. Both of these men ended the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball became desegregated. How would you have felt if you were on an all white team and an African American joined? How do you think you would've felt if you were in Jackie's or Larry's shoes?

Watch Jackie Robinson steal home!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XY-XshGhMU

Civil Disobedience

What is civil disobedience? Civil disobedience is a purposeful way of refusing laws and anything the government says. In short, civil disobedience is a way for the people to resist the government without being violent.

Why is this important you may ask? Well looking at the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, we can see African-Americans participating in civil disobedience. This is important because in order to obtain the freedoms they deserved, African-Americans had to resist the laws that continued to segregate them. African-Americans had to basically go against the government which put their lives on the line because they were breaking laws and upsetting many of the white people. As the white people got more and more upset and violent, the African-Americans had to remain nonviolent if they wanted to prove that they were as humane as the white people, if not more humane than them.

 

Civil disobedience proved to work very well as it would eventually lead to the complete equality of African-Americans. Because African-Americans stood up for their rights by breaking laws and getting the attention of people all over the United States, they earned their right to equality. One of the key factors of this movement was the fact that the African-Americans remained nonviolent, proving to everyone that they were not animals and therefore, they deserved the rights that the white people had.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Examples_of_civil_disobedience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955%E2%80%9368)

One of the most powerful of the civil disobedience acts was quotes and speeches. Simple quotes had such a big impact on the perception of African-Americans and many African-Americans gave speeches that lasted a lifetime.
http://www.quotegarden.com/civil-disobedience.html

Ruby Bridges

Most of you know who Ruby Bridges is. But do                                    you know the reality of what she faced?

"Every morning, as Bridges walked to school, one woman would threaten to poison her; because of this, the U.S. Marshals dispatched by President Eisenhower, who were overseeing her safety, only allowed Ruby to eat food that she brought from home. Another woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said "scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges

"As Bridges describes it, "Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras."^[5] Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, "She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we're all very very proud of her." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges

Roles and Responsibilities of Citizens

In order to affect change, the citizens had to step up and do something so their voices would be heard. Instead of actually using their voices or fists to make a change, they would stay silent and would not use violence. If the African Americans fought back, the white people would say that they're "animals" and don't deserve to be equal. 

The African Americans had many different ways to protest silently. One of the ways were sit-ins. They would sit in segregated restaurants and not order anything. As they would get yelled at and spit on, they still had to remain calm and friendly. They had to sit straight and face the counter at all times. They could not talk to anyone in the restaurants, not even to each other. The African Americans felt that if they went against any of these rules, the white people would not take the protest seriously. 

Another one of the ways the African Americans protested was freedom rides. These people were known as freedom riders. They would get on segregated interstate buses and ride them into segregated parts of the U.S., especially the South. The freedom riders would get beat up and their buses would get set on fire but they continued to ride the buses. 

Both of these tactics were extremely successful in affecting change. The fact that they continued to keep protesting after getting called terrible names shows how strong they were and how much they wanted the change. 

What are Civil Rights??

The literal definition of civil rights is, "the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality." 

But, what does this mean to us?  

When people hear "civil rights" they generally think of the African American Civil Rights Movement. This is where groups of people banded together to fight racial discrimination. This is most well known because groups of people were able to come up with the strength and integrity to have non violent protests. For more information on this civil rights movement go to  -                                        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955%E2%80%9368)

We should know that this is not the only example of civil rights. Even today, we are facing civil right movements. The most common one today is gay rights. Check out this awesome source!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory

Another common case today for civil rights is the Immigrant Rights Movement.  Check out this great source for more info! -   
http://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights
Take time out today to ask yourself what some common civil right movements have done for you. Where would you be if it weren't for the brave few who silent protested for African American Civil Rights? Is there anything you could do to join in on a movement of today?