Civilrightsinnorthcarolina Coltongoodson

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Colton Goodson

Mrs. Dunbar

AP United States History

22 May 2017

The Civil Rights Movement in North Carolina

During the 1950s and 60s, North Carolina proved to be a key opponent in the race for

civil rights amongst African American communities. Leading up to the issuing of the Civil

Rights act of 1964 by congress, many factors influenced Congresss decision and a lot were set

in North Carolina. Sit ins, integrated schools, the organization of various civil rights groups,

protesting segregated public transportation led to African Americans making gains towards

social, economic, and political equality.

The fight for equality amongst the black community promptly started to gain ground in

the 1930s and protesting began to start. During this time the Jim Crow laws were still in effect

and this meant that public facilities were all segregated, everything from schools to water

fountains. This was under the notion that the community was separate but equal (stated in

Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896) where the community all had equal opportunities and equal public

facilities for Blacks and Whites,. Civil Rights leaders and the NAACP protested this because

what was given to the black communities were usually of lesser quality than that of what the

whites had. African Americans were protesting these laws ever since the 1930s with no success.

It wasnt until 1960 that African Americans were able to get rid of these laws. The most

notorious protest of the Jim crow laws in North Carolina also occurred in 1960, the Greensboro
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sit-in. Four students named Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph

McNeil, from the North Carolina A&T University walked into the Woolworth lunch counter and

sat in the whites only section and requested to be served without budging. The students were

bombarded with various food and drink. This was a major turning point in the history of North

Carolina. These sit ins got the ball rolling in the Civil Rights movement for North Carolina.

According to Franklin McCain, an older woman sitting at the lunch counter said to the students

Boys, Im so proud of you. I only regret that you didnt do this 10 years ago (qtd. By McCain

In Norris, 1). This shows that there were people that were in support of the protests but they

werent courageous enough to take action. Because of this courage, others started to perform

sit-ins at lunch counters all over the country, sparking this national movement. Public

transportation was also protested during this time. In 1947 The popular civil rights organization

C.O.R.E sponsored the Journey of Reconciliation, an interracial bus trip designed to test

compliance with the Morgan v. Virginia court case, a 1946 decision outlawing segregated

interstate bus travel. The riders left Washington D.C. and traveled on buses through the South,

stopping in Chapel Hill and Durham. The riders face violence in Chapel Hill and were eventually

arrested in Durham and Asheville, North Carolina. These bus rides foreshadowed the Freedom

Rides of 1961, which aimed at testing the court case Boynton v. Virginia declaring segregation in

interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. These protests proved to be effective because

legislation was eventually decided on the matter.

There were a several anti-segregation groups that worked in North Carolina including

C.O.R.E., S.N.C.C., N.A.A.C.P.,and S.C.L.C that systematically devised protests that challenged

segregation in the South. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was most notable for
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sponsoring the Freedom Rides in 1961, which challenged the public transportation system in the

south and in North Carolina. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) helped

educate rural African Americans and also registered them to vote. The National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was arguably the most notorious civil rights

organization in the south. The NAACP was the legal arm of the civil rights movement, it worked

to ensure that the law was applied in a nondiscriminatory manner. These groups worked together

with different people from all over the country to put together sets of protests to break down

society. Of course, these groups had a major impact on the gaining of equality for the African

Americans. These different groups, especially the NAACP, organized the majority of the Civil

Rights movement in the 1960s. The reason that Civil Rights groups worked so efficiently and

effectively is due to the media at the time. Many of the demonstrations staged by these

movement leaders made the front of newspapers, spreading the word through communities and

societies. The media heightened the intensity of the movement and allowed more people to

recognize the cause and even join the masses of protestors. For example; once the students that

sat at the Woolworths lunch counter caught the attention of the media, the number of students

protesting rose from four to thousands in a matter of weeks. This is because the media put these

four students on the front pages of newspapers. Because of the newspapers, the awareness of the

movement was increased exponentially. According to an account from David Forbes, witnessing

the birth of the SNCC, he witnessed all of the protests as a young black boy in North Carolina.

He described all of the protests around him before the upbringing of the SNCC, including lunch

counter sit ins. He states that the SNCC came to shaw because the field representative for the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference was [because of] Ella Baker. This shows how these
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groups had a big impact on North Carolina by saying the SNCC came to North Carolina because

of the SCLC. All of the groups influenced and worked with each other in North Carolina.

There is still a impact in North Carolina from the Civil Rights Movement today. While

African Americans have gained more rights and equality, there are still racial tensions that exist

today. The difference between todays civil rights movement and the 1960s movement is the

method of protest. Almost all protests today are extremely violent and are almost always riots.

The protesting methods back then were usually nonviolent street walks and sit-ins. Yet, the

protesting of today is mainly inspired by the well known civil rights leaders. For instance, The

Black Lives Matter movement of today marches occasionally with the theme OUR WORLD,

HIS DREAM: FREEDOM - MAKE IT HAPPEN!!, which is derived from Martin Luther King

Jr.s I Have a Dream Speech except in our world (qtd by the Black Lives Matter). This shows

the impact of King on todays civil rights protesting. Today the African American community is

are still suffering from oppression, they might be different forms of oppression but altogether in

the big scheme of things, civil rights groups are still fighting, they are fighting police brutality,

unequal pay, and poor education. The push for racial equality in the United States began with the

dawn of slavery and did not end with the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. As long as

white society continues to perpetuate hate and discrimination the struggle for civil rights will

continue. When interviewing Eva Mae Lunsford on how the Civil Rights Movement impacted

her life she said Nothing much changed at all in my life, I lived in a rural area with little to no

racists folk so the colored people near my town were not oppressed as much. Everybody still

worked, slept, and ate in the same places. In the rural areas of North Carolina, the Civil Rights

Act/Movement might not have changed as many aspects of societies as people think nowadays.
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African Americans in the United States have had to put a lot more effort into gaining a

better life than than many other racial groups.. Nonetheless, many still suffer from oppression

from different businesses, schools, and racist people and groups.

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