Background: When the first world war began, African American leaders pressed the government to provide Black men the right to go to combat to prove their devotion to their country. Hoping that their service would lay a stake on citizenship that the nation would have no choice but to honor, the “New Negro” of the 1920s adopted a more militant stance toward civil rights. The civil rights struggle envisioned at the time, however, made few concrete gains. Discrimination and disenfranchisement persisted.
African American leaders responded to the second world war much as they had to the first, offering their services while expecting recognition in return. They intended to fight a “Double-V” campaign against fascism abroad and racism at home. They helped to kill fascism abroad; racist policies at home survived, but only for a time. Less than a decade after the war ended, the Brown case struck down the principle of “separate but equal” in schools. A grass-roots movement emerged to challenge discrimination elsewhere. By 1965, nonviolent means had murdered Jim Crow. Yet, the1960s were nothing if not a violent decade, marred by war, riots, and assassinations. By the end of the decade, Americans were as divided in some ways as they had ever been, and hopes for integration into a single American nation largely gave way to an emphasis on the unique needs and interests of different groups within the nation.
- Time line: Civil rights timeline.
- Video: Save our history: Voices of civil rights [Video] from the Films on Demand database.
- Scholarly Source: May, E. (2008). Fanning the home fires. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era [electronic resource] NY : Basic Bks. Retrieved from Ashford University Library Ebook Collection.
Instructions: Based on your textbook and the required videos and reading, analyze the development and success of the Civil Rights Movement using the following questions as the basis of your analysis:
- What precisely did the African American Civil Right Movement gain?
- What objectives did it fail to achieve?
- What are some similarities and differences between the African American Civil Rights movement and one other social movement pushing for equality discussed in your textbook during this period?
Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references. Your references and citations must be formatted according to APA style