Custom «The Native Americans of Today» Essay Paper Sample

Their life in America marked the beginning of slavery, torture, and abuse by their white counterparts. Under Abraham Lincoln, an abolitionist, he fought for the abolition of slavery long after Europe had stopped the vice. He engaged the North's Confederate States (against slavery) versus the Southern states (supported slavery) in a civil war in a bid to end slavery. The north had people From Europe who believed that slavery was an abuse of human rights while the Southerners believed that black people were a race born into the curse of servitude. In 1890, racial discrimination in the Southern States re-emerged with laws like the Jim Crow rules that oppressed blacks.

This led to the formation of the various movements to help the black people to fight for their freedom. This essay reveals the role of the Civil Rights Movement in the fight against social discrimination, and its success. It also highlights the evaluation of the movement in the light of Shaefer's Cultural-Cognitive Theory. The real start of the Civil Rights Movement was in 1951 and was marked by a girl named Barbara Jones (McGuire, 2010). Miss Jones walked out of her school, protesting massive school segregation. The Plessy vs. Fergusson ruling of 1896 had allowed the set up of "separate but equal" schools for both whites and blacks. Jones' action sparked massive protests by blacks in the Southern States (McGuire, 2010).

The ruling in this case led to the formation of the Jim Crow rules had led to the formation of different schools for people of color and those for exclusive whites. In addition to that, the schools for whites had good facilities, a different curriculum, and professional teachers while black's schools had a curriculum for technical subjects like carpentry, masonry and ill-equipped. Even at college level, blacks were not allowed services at stores. This made them to have massive sit inns, which were very non-violent. Theydresed smartly and sat at the lunch counters waiting to be served. After so many sit inns, the whites' finally gave in and began serving them. Massive protests led to a case in the United States' Supreme Court, the Brown vs. Board of Education. The ruling of this case required that blacks be allowed to get education equal in quality to that of whites.

The other social condition that they were reacting to was segregation in transportation means. The Alabama bus boycott led by Rosa Parks marked the start of desegregation in buses (McGuire, 2010). Blacks were only allowed to sit at the back, and give up their seats if a white person got in. Another social condition was total disenfranchisement of the blacks. They were not allowed to vote thus did not have a say on the kind of leaders and the policies that they wanted. Almost everything was imposed on them, from the food they ate to the clothes that they wore. At the work place, things were no better. Blacks were restricted to menial jobs due to their little education. This limited their purchasing power and a result they could not afford good housing, food and clothes. Whites, who formed a majority of employers, were very mean even in paying them.

They believed that menial jobs required little skill and the pay should also be limited. On top of that, many blacks were denied many opportunities because of their color. In the social public areas, blacks had their own clubs, bars, and even places where they could walk. If any whites' place was infiltrated with a black or blacks, they would abandon the place and later there would be unfair arrests, jail terms and fines, violent murders, and many violent acts against innocent black women like violent rape and murder.

The organization's leaders organized people participating in cit-inns. If one group was arrested, another group was formed to replace it immediately. Their protest were non-violent, a mantra that they had borrowed from, the former Indian Prime, Mahatma Gandhi. All people participating in the protests were not to talk bad, or suggest any form of violence. They were supposed to sit up straight and look at their oppressors in the face.

Dr. Martin Luther King and fellow members of the civil rights Movement, moved to organize the March on Washington, which took place in 1963. His speech "I have a Dream" led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Both acts gave civil liberties to blacks according to the Declaration of Independence Creed. All men are equal from the point of creation, and they have the freedom to enjoy "unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

According to the cultural-cognitive theory, social movements like the Civil Rights Movement can be evaluated if they succeeded or failed (Schaefer & Carmin, n.d). The internal forces that motivated people to join this movement were personal values and beliefs. The black people believed that they had lived in servitude for too long and they needed to enjoy the civil liberties in entrenched in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Participants often want to join each other in solidarity and show the whites (oppressors) that they are united for a cause and for this movement; freedom and equality. The external forces that helped to shape this organization are division along color line, separation at all public amenities and employment and denial of the right to vote. This group focused on cultural, political, social, and economic change for all its followers. They succeeded in getting the enactment of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act that gave them equal rights and opportunities to vote and other civil liberties.

The movement's activities can be explained using the framing tool. This tool is used to interpret the needs of the organization, a method that it will use to solve their problems, explore the options, and develop a rational for its activities (Schaefer & Carmin, n.d). A frame also serves as a tool that connects individuals to a movement, communicate a common view and identity to the public. This movement communicated that they were opposed to racism and segregation; they identified themselves with non-violence and showed that they were pursuing their own causes. Cognitive attributions like the opposition to racial segregation, common ideas of staging non-violent protests helped in making the activities of this movement a success.

In addition to that, their respect for human life and the conventional wisdom that all human beings are all equal as posited by their Creator in the Abrahamic religions (Islam and Christianity). The need for the creation of racial diversity, recognition of the black man, and consequently his survival are some of the goals of the movement and they were achieved. According to the political Theory, the political processes were started (Schaefer & Carmin, n.d). Blacks started electing governors and senators. The biggest success of this movement is that America has a black president as dreamt by the founders of this movement like Luther King, Bayard Rustin and the abolitionists like Fredrick Douglass. In the light of racial segregation, participants were mobilized based on their collective identity and this led to the success of the Civil Rights Movement.