Historical Factors Relevance To The Civil Rights Movement Essay Samples

Long before the reconstruction period, activists fought for a great economic, social, and political equality. The struggle led to the introduction of civil right movements. These civil rights movements were a global series involving political movements advocating equality under the law that had its peak moments during the 1960s. Many a times, the political movement used the method of campaigns of national revolts aiming for change using peaceful forms of rebellion. Under certain circumstances, the campaigns were in the company of state unrests. Despite the long and shaky struggle, majority of the movements failed to attain their goals in full. Their activities involved their grassroots efforts to ensure the African Americans obtain fundamental rights pledged to American citizens as enshrined in the constitution. Primarily, the classical phase of the civil rights movement entailed ideologies underpinnings that helped shape its motives. The Cold war, McCarthyism, and World War 2 had tremendous effects on shaping the civil rights movement.
Early activists checked on the global influences such as communism with a bid to offer radical solutions to the broad level of inequalities regarded as prevalent in systems imposed by the Americans. They had the desire to do away with capitalism, which advocated racial inequalities (Roland p. 6). They fought the capitalism by taking advantage of the Great Depression that increased lost hope in that system. By 1930, communism dominated America thereby playing a vital role in the influence of the movements’ radical philosophy and their global attention of their struggle in America.
Dramatization of the twentieth century to try developed based on prior conflicts. The NAACP’ fought against lynching in the 1930s (Janken, par. 4). The movement entailed spread publicity concerning the reasons and expenses of execution. Campaigning against lynching was a tool used to defeat a nominee of the Supreme Court, who favored white supremacy and had anti-union opinions. It was also a wise move to considering it could act as a room to help lobby the Congress to approve a federal regarding an anti-lynching law. The efforts of the civil rights organization rendered productive when the southern senators could not hinder the formation of a consensus to advocate against lynching. By the year 1938, executions declined in a steep manner. These efforts of the NAACP, civil rights organization, made it the most recognized and influential activist group by mid-1950s (Ezra, p 83).
Civil rights movements also advocated desegregated education. The move was a massive effort to redesign the outlines of America based on race, politics, and economic control (Janken par. 5). The focus on segregation education was due to the belief that it acted as an expression concerning the inequalities endured by the blacks (Moody p. 98).
The black power movement was formed to ensure self-determination of the blacks as well as to fight for Africa's shared heritage and dignity (Moody p. 125). The advocates of the group argue that Africans have played a great role to secure their land from the wrath of the colonialists and that it would be treason to integrate into the society (Roland p. 7). This group has in turn proved to be an essential movement to date. They further argue that Africans’ assimilation to the Americans brought more oppression the blacks. The black power never marked the end of evolution of movements but brought in the continued fight for the same goals of economic opportunity and equality.
Chicano movement (part of civil rights movement of the Americans) fought for political empowerment and inclusion of Mexican-Americans in the nation. The advocates involved with the group embraced a historical content based on nationalism. The movement from the West exposed the unique struggles of the Japanese Americans and the Mexican Americans to the understanding of civil rights movement. The efforts of the movement regarding the Japanese and Mexicans illustrated unity. The unique challenges faced by the Mexican Americans unified them. They were affected by a colorblind argument and racial inequality in school systems.
Contest for economic fairness is a unifying factor of the civil rights movement. It entailed the march to Washington, which is regarded as the most central moment in the history of the classical phase of changes. The journey to Washington was a march to economic freedom and employment. The emphasis on jobs and economic opportunity was a unifying factor during the long national rights movement.
Historical factors had a large impact on the shape and scope of the civil rights movements. They influenced the nature of the ultimate effectiveness (or non-effectiveness) of non-violence in securing civil rights for minority Americans. The cold war had a hold in expansive origin of the civil rights. Individuals who criticized the activists’ foreign and domestic policies that surpassed tightly defined limits were branded un-American thereby seizing from the consciousness of the Americans (Janken par. 9). The movements and the cold war highlight correlation in America’s approach to the issue of racism and their relations internationally.
After World War 2, individuals viewed capitalism as good compared to communism. Americans now had the desire to search chances to improvise their lifestyles while the minority group felt excluded from such efforts. It is because they were denied the opportunity to exercise their rights. The feeling of exclusion led to the African Americans’ fight for their equal space in enjoying the privileges that come with the constitution regarding all citizens. This situation saw an enormous sum of civil rights movements formed for the purposes of fighting for the African American rights that repeatedly became trespassed by the white.
The McCarthyism era contributed to the reduction of the impulse of reforms by diverting attention to the movement of labor from exterior organizing to interior politicking. McCarthyism also destructed the communist party to a level of insignificance, as well as making the organizations linked to the party disappear (Moody p. 87). The demise of the party made the nation loose its institutional network. Moreover, the desertion of an active movement made reform groups more open to attacks rendering them ineffective. The phase of the civil rights movement entailed ideologies that helped shape its motives.
Ultimately, it is important to note that the discussion at stake is a broad comprehension of the fight for equality. The fight for justice was lengthy and tenuous. Not all movements achieved their required goals. Their activities involved their grassroots efforts to ensure the African Americans obtain fundamental rights pledged to American citizens as enshrined in the constitution. Such efforts cannot go unmentioned given that it is due to their efforts that America today enjoys a good system of governance that has reduced to extreme levels cases of racism. It has in turn redefined America to be a country whose citizens enjoy the privileges enshrined in the constitution by anyone regardless of the of the race.

Works Cited

Ezra, Michael. Civil Rights Movement: People and Perspectives. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print.
Moody, Anne. Coming Of Age In Mississippi. New York: Bantam Dell. 2011. Print.
Janken, R., Kenneth. The Civil Rights Movement: 1919-1960S, Freedom's Story, Teacherserve®, National Humanities Center. Nationalhumanitiescenter.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Feb.
Roland, Candice. 'Analysis Of The Long Civil Rights Movement Thesis'. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.