How Did Youth Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

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African Americans arrived in America as early as August of 1619 to be servants. It was not until July of 1964 that an African American could live in the United States free with no restrictions. The Civil Rights Movement was a long and difficult process. It took 14 years to finally reach success. It took several different leaders, protests, and marches in the process. The most important part of this success was the youth. The young people made the biggest difference in the fight. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, youth had the biggest contribution to the success because of their innocence, treatment, and dedication. Children contributed to the movement with their innocence. “Emmitt Till was a fourteen year old African American boy who was accused of flirting with a white woman at a convenience store in Mississippi. He …show more content…
A few days later, he was kidnapped and killed by two white men. After his death, Devery S. Anderson, author of a book on Emmitt Till Murder, interviewed Mamie Till-Mobely, Emmit’s mother. He asked her many questions about her son, including the type of boy he was and then about his death. While answering these questions, Till-Mobley states, “… people really didn’t know that things this horrible could take place, and the fact that it happened to a child, that make all the difference in the world” (Till-Molbey). Emmitt Till’s movement opened people’s eyes to the fact that children have to suffer too. People simply just do not want to believe what children have to go through. When tragedies like this happen, children’s innocence really becomes more intensified and people get upset. Children’s innocence was also exploited in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. On September 15, 1963, four parent’s live were changed forever when four little girls were killed in the bombing right before church services. Immediately after the bombing many African Americans went protesting, but the bombers unfortunately got away with their