The civil rights movement was a violent time in the United States. For an example, the multiple bombings in Birmingham, and it got to the point that people would call it Bombingham.
One bombing that was marked a turning point in the United States during the civil rights movements was the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. The morning of September 15, 1963, as the congregation’s children get prepared for the annual Youth Day celebrations, a bomb exploded the stairwell of the church. The explosion killed four young girls and injured many others in the assembly. Riots and violent demonstrations broke out, throughout Birmingham, resulting in the death of two young African American boys. Following a tainted investigation by the FBI, Robert Chambliss, an active member of the KKK, was arrested and charged with murder and the possession of dynamite without a permit.
Another example is the beating that people would get for the peaceful protests. On February 26, 1965, Jimmie Lee Jackson, an Alabama civil rights activist, had died after he was brutally beaten and shot for protecting his mother and his 82 year old grandfather. His death sparked the Selma to Montgomery marches, organized by SCLC (Southern Christain Leadership Conference). The Selam to Montgomery marches, three in total, were organized as a part of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. The first march took place on March 7, a day that would become known as Bloody Sunday. 600 peaceful marches were met on the other side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, by state and local police. The police had tear gas and billy clubs. Two days later, Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful, symbolic march to the Bridge. The third and final march was on Sunday March 21, where 3,000 marchers began a 54-mile trek to Montgomery. By the time they had reached the steps of the state capitol on March 25, the number of marchers had grown to 25,000.
The Jim Crow laws were laws that were enforced racial segregation. All laws were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures. The first law in Alabama was marriages between races will cause penalties. In 1875, Alabama said that there will be separate schools for black children. In 1878, they said that they had to follow the law of 1875. The last law in Alabama was no children are allowed to go to a place that is racially mix. In 1954, President Kennedy outlawed segregation, but the jim crow laws were still enforced until 1965.
Do you think racism has stopped? If hasn’t stopped,how can we get it to stop? Maybe by stop thinking we are better than everyone, and stop thinking that we should get everything we want. We have to think that there are people in some races that can’t get a lot of things, and we should help them out.
