The Civil Rights Movement: An Embodiment of Perseverance

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Perseverance is a continuous or continuing Course of Action without heeding to opposition, discouragement or previous failures. For someone to preserve he or she has goal or trageted aim to be achieved. Such man or movement remains everly focus and keeps pushing on even when the situation is contrary, even in the face of furious opposite that was the driving force of The Civil Right Movement.

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The Civil Right Movement was a persevering movement of Black Americans fighting for equal rights, their freedom, their destiny, freedom to live freely. This was a movement driven by a shared experience of discrimination. Men, women and children who were ready to sacrifice all to be from the oppression of the laws that were created to subdue them and in the face of brutal opposition they kept pushing on. Black people were subjected to inhumane condition, deprived and eliminated from the American dream.

A whole race impoverished and disadvantaged by the laws which were supposed to protect them. During this period people of color were not allowed to vote, attend the same schools or use the same facilities as their white counterpart, they were deprived of jobs or promotion at work even when they deserved it. The laws were bent to subdue them. But the hunger for Freedom!!!!! Freedom!!!!! was strong.

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After the working hours of December 1, 1955 a Black woman from the little town of Montgomery, Alabama boarded a bus back to home, most probably the impoverished areas black people were segregated to. The day must have been a very long one, she must have been refused to be served at restaurant because she was black, the spiteful looks at her workplace or the consistent reminder that she was a good for nothing Negro. Fed up with the Second Class Treatment she must be tired of being pushed around, she will rather die fighting, enough is enough. That lady was Rosa Parks, on that faithful day she was arrested for refusing to give up her sit for a white person.

Her resistance was the spark needed for the
Civil Right Movement to flame on. This led to a massive bus boycott led by
Martin Luther King Jr a prominent minister and later the face of the civil rights movement. This boycott crippled the transportation company and in turn changed the segregative policy accompanied with bus rides.

This small victory sparked off numerous protests across the Southern part of America both men, women, children, young and old were involved. Sit-ins
were organized in Schools, Freedom Rides followed suit. The movement was growing bigger.

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On August 28th, 1963 the famous March on Washington attracted 200,000 people from different race and that was where Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous speech I Have a Dream. This movement like any other faced brutal opposition, On March 7th, 1965 a peaceful protest in the State of Alabama turned bloody, protesters who approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge were blocked by the Alabama State Police Force, the protesters refused to stand down and as they moved forward they were brutally attacked and teargassed by dozens of police which left scores of people severely injured and hospitalized. It was tagged BloodySunday.

Yet more protesters and protests were organized. With this movement black people became victims of hate crime, blacked owned businesses and churches were destroyed. Scores of black children were killed in the infamous Birmingham Church Bombing. Civil Rights figure heads like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were assassinated but yet the movement kept growing and a lot of results were achieved like

The voting rights act of 1965 which outlawed racial discrimination in voting
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 which guaranteed equal employment, outlawed segregation in schools, public places or jobs were all passed.

The case of Brown v. Board of Education was also a huge victory for the Civil Rights Movement.

The freedom people of color in the United States of America enjoy is a direct result of the persevering attitude of this vibrant movement. The men and women who raised up there voices and stood against oppression. They will forever be remembered, their perseverance paved the way for equality.