The Success of the Civil Rights Movement
A social movement can be defined as an organized effort by a given group of individuals or a community intended to achieve a social or political goal. There have been several movements in history among them the Feminist movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay Rights Movement, and the Peace Movement. While movements are promoted by masses of individuals in most cases significant figures in the society, their success or failure is only gauged by whether 0or, not the reforms suggested were effected. The best criterion for evaluating the success or failure of a movement, therefore, entails the evaluation of the government’s or community’s response towards the grievances and issues raised by the movement. This paper explores the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement in an effort to evaluate the success or failure if the movement.
The Civil Rights Movement that took place between 1865 and 1896 was generally aimed at eliminating racial discrimination against Black Americans. At the centre of the grievances forwarded by the movement were improvement of employment and educational opportunities and the establishment of electoral power. Prior to the Civil War, approximately four million African Americans had been enslaved in the Southern states. Also, only White men of a significant social status were allowed to vote. The two factors compounded by the Naturalization Act of 1790 that only granted White Americans American citizenship, therefore, provoked the Civil Rights Movements in 1865( Bloom 44). The greatest achievement of the Civil Rights Movements was realized approximately one hundred years later marked by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The period after the start of the Civil Rights Movements did not realize many social reforms until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act served to bring to an end the various forms of discrimination that had dominated the American community. Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Black community in the United States was legally exposed to various forms of segregation in various sectors such as employment, housing, disenfranchisement, and education (Klarman 30). The Civil Rights Act not only banned racial discrimination but also resulted in greater economic and social mobility for Black Americans across the country.
Secondly, the Act enabled vulnerable groups in the community such as women, religious minorities, and low-income families to have greater access to resources. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, additionally, addressed the electoral grievances that had been tabled by the Civil Rights Movement including the removal of voting barriers and on property ownership in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 respectively (Klarman 50). Through the Americans with Disabilities Act if 1990, the Civil Rights Act was also able to provide exclusive legal protection to Americans with disabilities.
In conclusion, an analysis of the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement characterized by political reforms in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shows that the movement was a success. Through the Civil Rights Act, crucial social and political reforms were realized that led to a significant reduction in the incidents of systematic and institutional discrimination. Other than reducing the racial gap that had characterized the United States in the twentieth century, the movement was also successful in protecting vulnerable members of the community such as women, American with disabilities, and low-income families.
Works Cited
Bloom, Jack M. Class, race, and the civil rights movement. Indiana University Press, 2019.
Klarman, Michael J. “Brown, racial change, and the civil rights movement.” Virginia Law Review (1994): 7-150.