How Did African Americans Influence The Civil Rights Movement

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Pages: 2

The battle for equal rights for African Americans have been lengthy and strenuous. African Americans were freed from slavery on December 6, 1865 by the thirteenth amendment but were marked as second class citizens. Although they were no longer held as slaves, they still had more to fight for. In the 1950s, African Americans started their fight for equality.This phenomenon became known as the modern civil rights movement. They participated in nonviolent protests, boycotts and sit-ins against laws that were unfair. The methods used by African Americans during the Modern Civil Rights Movement were effect.

An effective method African Americans used during the Modern Civil Rights Movement was enforcing the fourteenth amendment. In the Brown v, Board of Education of Topeka case, African Americans were denied equal education chances. In document 1a the Supreme Court states, “Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race… deprive the children of the minority group of equal education? We believe it does….” The Supreme Court’s verdict on the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case as said in document 1b, was that nobody can be deprived of equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment.
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In document 2 it shows a photograph of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted at police headquarters after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to white man. This initiated Martin Luther King Jr. to spread the message that all African Americans should not use the bus.To sustain the boycott, African American taxi drivers charged the same amount as buses. His motive to boycott the bus was that eventually bus companies will need business and allow African Americans to sit anywhere. His plan succeeded and their will to achieve equality would only