The Troubled 1960's Had It's Roots in the Affluent 1950s

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The Brown v. Board of Education decision sparked a fire in the fight for equality, first tackling the school system, next public transportation. “On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a black tailor’s assistant who had just completed her day’s work in a Montgomery, Alabama, department store, refused to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white rider, as required by local law. Parks’ arrest sparked a year long us boycott, the beginning of the mass phase of the civil rights movement in the South.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 945) “When news of Parks’s arrest spread, hundreds of blacks gathered in a local church and vowed to refuse to ride buses until accorded equal treatment. For 381 days, despite legal harassment and occasional violence, black maids, janitors, teachers, and students walked to their destinations or rode an informal network of taxis. Finally, in November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregation in public transportation unconstitutional.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 946)

This triumph did not come without opposition soon after the Brown Decision and the Supreme Courts decision to desegregate public transportation the Southern Manifesto was signed in 1956 “signed by 101 southern members of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Southern Manifesto repudiated the Supreme Court decision and offered support to the campaign of resistance in the South.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 948) The Southern Manifesto claims that the Supreme Court decision is a threat to constitutional government because it claims “We regard the decisions of the Supreme Court in the school cases as a clear abuse of judicial power. It climaxes a trend in the Federal Judiciary undertaking to legislate, in derogation [violation] of the authority of Congress, and to encroach upon the reserved rights of the States and the people.” (Southern Manifesto, 1956) “The Southern Manifesto denounced the Brown decision as a “clear abuse of judicial power,” and calling for resistance to “forced integration” by “any lawful means.” State after state passed laws to block desegregation, some make it illegal for the NAACP to operate within their borders.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 951) “Many states adopted “freedom of choice” plans that allowed white students to opt out of integrated schools.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 951) “The white South’s refusal to accept the Brown decision reinforced the conviction that black citizens could not gain their constitutional rights without Washington’s intervention. This was not immediately forthcoming. When the Supreme Court finally issued its implementation ruling in 1955, the justices declared that desegregation should precede “with all deliberate speed.” This vague formulation unintentionally encouraged a campaign of “massive resistance” that paralyzed civil rights progress in much of the South.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 951)

By the end of the 1950s the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, college students across the country determined to make a stand for a equality and justice started staging sit-ins, these non-violent demonstrations were the first of many like it thought out the country. The most predominate sit-in was in Greensboro, North Carolina and started on February 1, 1960. “Four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a black college in Greensboro, entered the local Woolworth’s department store. After making a few purchases, they sat down at the lunch counter, an area reserved for whites. Told they could not be served, they remained in their seats until the store closed. They returned the next morning and the next.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 956) “After resisting for five months, Woolworths in July agreed to serve black customers at its lunch counters.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 956) This event in Greensboro “launched the 1960s: a decade of political activism and social change.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 957) These sit-in also ignited activism in a way that American had never seen before, they brought about bravery and solidarity in young college students across the country. “With sit-ins, college students for the first time stepped onto the stage of American history as the leading force for social change. In April 1960, Ella Baker, a longtime rights organizer, called a meeting of young activists in Raleigh, North Carolina. About 200 black students and a few white students attended. Out of the gathering came the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), dedicated to replacing the culture of segregation with a “beloved community” or racial justice and to empowering ordinary blacks to have control of the decisions that affected their lives.” (Foner, 3rd Edition, 958) (SNCC Statement of Purpose, 1960) Organizations like SNCC took a stand in times where doing so could mean jail time and often was met with violence. SNCC’s Statement of Purpose clearly outlines that these activists did not want violence but were met with it regularly. They were fighting for “freedom” the same rights and freedoms that all citizens of this country are entitled to. “We affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose, the presupposition of our belief, and the manner of our action. Nonviolence, as it grows from the Judeo-Christian tradition, seeks a social order of justice permeated by love. Integration of human endeavor represents the crucial first step towards such a society. Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear. Love transcends hate. Acceptance dissipates prejudice; hope ends despair. Faith reconciles doubt. Peace dominates war. Mutual regards cancel enmity. Justice for all overthrows injustice. The redemptive community supersedes immoral social systems. By appealing to conscience and standing on the moral nature of human existence, nonviolence nurtures the atmosphere in which reconciliation and justice become actual possibilities.” (SNCC Statement of Purpose, 1960)

The troubled 1960s had their roots in the affluent 1950s because the events of the 1950s ignited a movement for change and equality in the 1960s that would give people a voice and start a conversation about how the Constitution was meant to be interpreted, what our country stands for and what freedom really means. The mass Civil Rights Movements of the late 1950’s and the 1960s were a testament to the struggle, the strength and the courage of a generation, which instead of reacting with fear and violence, leaned heavily on faith, unity and justice. It is important to understand that the events of the 1960s had its roots in the 1950s because if you only look at the 1960s you can’t understand the struggle that lead to the movement. You can’t understand the courage it must have taken for Justice Warren to read the decision that changed history and sparked a massive movement for justice and the