CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement

On same evening, President Kennedy addressed public in the speech broadcast by all television channels. It was clear break with previous and JFK's lukewarm position on civil rights. The bill, he was sent to Congress finally passed as Civil Rights Act of 1964.One day after Kennedy's landmark speech suggested, violence again. The place was Jackson, Mississippi. The field secretary of National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Medgar Evers, led the protest against Jackson's system of segregation. That evening, Evers home, stepped out of his car and was shot in back. He died on his watch driveway with his wife and children. (Chafe 1999:311)

The assassin was white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, the member of Ku Klux Klan and the man with an intimidating and violent personality. Beckwith was arrested, tried and acquitted by an all white jury. Years later, in 1994, reopened Assistant District Attorney, Bobby DeLaughter of case. This led to the retrial where jury Beckwith, 31 years is sentenced after fact to murder, Medgar Evers out. The story of second experimental Beckwith is subject of 1996 film titled Ghosts of Mississippi.To pressure from government and Congress, act more quickly to civil rights agenda, was the massive march on nation's capital plans, planned and carried out 28. August 1963. It is estimated that over 250,000 attended peaceful demonstration, which culminated in speech given by Reverend Martin Luther King. On Sunday morning, 15 September 1963 the bomb exploded in 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

The explosion killed four young girls who were injured in church for Sunday school and another 20 people. The FBI sent agents to investigate and four suspects were identified. The Birmingham office of FBI recommended that commission has four law. Refused, however, director of FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, and claimed that civil rights activists bombed church to win public sympathy. The FBI initially closed case in 1968. (Sitkoff 1981:2085)

Section 1:

Introduction

People, moments, triumphs and tragedies of black history in America are an integral part of history of United States, as well as an overview of past helps to paint the clear picture of how important election night Obama really was. The history of blacks in America is one of ongoing struggle to overcome and surpass all expectations, so that whole world will someday recognize that United States of America will be truly "rise or fall as one nation, one people"

Black history in America begins with first arrival of Africans on American shores in form of slavery. Enslavement of Africans in America began in early 1500's, with slaves arriving on shores of Caribbean in hands of Portuguese and Spanish slavers. However, slaves did not come to North America until 1619, when the Dutch ship with 20 African slaves from Caribbean landed at Jamestown, Virginia (Ciment, 2001). 20 slaves were quickly sold to local farmers to tobacco, although it is unclear whether their status remains as slaves or if they were indentured servant type with possibility of the future of ...