Lexi Haddock
U.S History-2
8 April 2013
The Civil Rights Movement
When someone thinks about civil rights what may come to their mind? Possibly a person may wonder about over what civil rights they themselves have. Others might remember a certain civil rights leader that was brought out during one of the greatest movements in United States history. However, even though people know of the civil rights movement, a person could never really know what struggles thousands of people went through in order to reach and preserve the rights that we all enjoy today.
African Americans have overcome many struggles as well as obstacles in the early years which have still not been terminated. African Americans have fought for freedom from enslavement, the right to earn a living, have land and a job, have equal justice, good quality education, to escape from oppression, the right to self-pride and an end to stereotyping. African Americans everywhere got fed up with being treated as if they were inferior and slaves, so they banded together to form a movement. Not just any kind of movement, but a movement that would see victories as well as violence and death. That movement was the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement had a major goal, and that goal was to end discrimination based on race, creed, color, and gender, and to put an end to segregation. Its' supporters aimed for equality of all people and for the integration of society. The previously mentioned goals were achieved by many different means. The movement had its share of leaders, events, and strategies that helped to reach its goals.
"I Have a Dream" is a 17 minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28th 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, which he gave from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a huge moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. According to John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, and he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."
At 6:01 p.m. on April 4th, 1968,