Journey to Equality

For many centuries African American’s have been treated as if they were lower class citizens and treated as so. It has taken them many years and help from some amazing people to rise above it all. After the many centuries of segregation and ill treatment, African Americans have been able to overcome and have become more respected in society today. This is a wonderful outcome of what is known as the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1865, America had many major changes that needed to be made; this period was considered the reconstruction or silver lining, time period. America was in a hard place and needed to make many changes to its many issues that were causing the country to be less than efficient
This movement was not only for African Americans but for equal rights for all people (Hamilton, n.d). The most memorable developments occurred in year 1954, the court case of Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case debated the segregation of students due to race. This helped to revisit the Supreme Court’s decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case held in 1896 which states that there were to be equal rights among the races but that it was okay to have separate facilities such as bathrooms, fountains and other public facilities for blacks and for whites. This was known as separate but equal, which was still a form of racism. The outcome of the trial was that it was in fact unequal for there to be a separate white school and a separate black school. This was a big step forward in the civil rights movement and would help to move further to solve even more injustices.

There was a major push back for many of the whites when equality was being enforced this was called massive resistance. It was necessary to use military to be sure that the laws were being followed and that people remained safe during this major transition. During this transition even with the military on guard there were many blacks that were injured for such reasons as looking at a white woman and children endured being harmed by rocks being thrown at them on their travels to and from school.

As the Civil Right Movement progressed there were still areas that needed