this is my dbq 4 am history the question asked was agree or disagree; african americans have gained political, economic and social equality

The Civil Rights movement was successful in getting African Americans political, economic, and social equality. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and the Black Panthers were some of the leaders in the movement. In the beginning of the movement African Americans believed in non-violent protesting but near the end the protesting became violent. Before the movement there were laws of equality but no one followed them. After the movement the government enforced those equality laws way more.

The Civil Rights Movement began when an African American woman named Rosa parks refused to move from her seat on the bus and was arrested. The specific protest that she started was the Montgomery bus boycott. African Americans were upset that Rosa parks had been arrested and they all decided to not ride the busses and walk or get rides from employers.At first it was hard for blacks to do this because they would get beaten and arrested but the government was loosing a lot of money and they decided to give the blacks freedom to sit were they wanted to on busses.This law was not followed as well as hopped. When people realized that the segregation on busses was still happening in 1961 they gathered a large group of blacks and whites. These people got several busses and had the whites sit in the back and blacks in the front. They rode the busses all over and were beaten along the way. At one point some of the busses were burned (C).After these protests African Americans finally got their freedom on busses.

In 1963 James Meredith was admitted into the University of Mississippi. He felt that even though the university had admitted him that it was still not segregated an that he was alone (J). But the Board of Education felt that they had desegregated their school and was following the laws. In an earlier case that was Brown vs. Board of education they fought for desegregated schools. In the fourteenth amendment it states that facilities can be “separate but equal.” They fought that separate schools was not equal (G). Brown had won this case and the schools were to be desegregated. The northern states were starting to desegregate. The desegregation of schools helped African Americans get better paying jobs because they started to get higher education. The income of most African American families had increased (E). When the African American families started to get higher income they started to move into housing in better conditions then in the homes they were forced to live in.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a main leader in the movement he fought non-violently. In the march on Washington he gave his famous “I have a dream…..” speech. Not long after this he was arrested and continued to fight from jail and wrote a letter (H). When the non-violent protests were not working as well as hoped African Americans started to go for violent protesting. Malcom X and the black panthers were main voices of violent protesting. The Black panthers had written a platform to state what they wanted. They wanted freedom and power to do what they want with their lives, full employment, better education opportunities, better housing, exemption from military, end to all violence toward them, and freedom to the blacks in jail. African Americans also wanted the right to vote. In 1960 Tennessee was the only state that had over 50 percent of blacks voting (B). With all the fighting and protesting done by 1966 at least three more state had over 50 percent of blacks voting(B)>

In all the Civil Rights movement gained African Americans social political and economic equality. Today it is not completely equal but it is way more equal then it has been in the pat. Thanks to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, The Black Panthers and all the people who fought for the rights of African Americans. The African American people living today can go to school, work, and public places with all kinds of races.