Jared

Black, white, male, or, female. That’s how people judged you when our country started. Is it fair that because you're born black or white, boy or girl you're better or worse off than someone else? Is it fair when you go to a store people watch you more than others? Racism and sexism tear people down. That is why for History Day my class chose to find the conflict and compromise women and blacks had to go through to be true citizens.

I used books from my teacher, my school’s library, and my public library. I feel that the books I used supplied me with a wealth of knowledge that I could use. I used note cards to store my information.

The information I gathered was about the people who believed in rights for African Americans and those who went against it with all their heart. I examined the goals they reached and the goals that fell short. I also looked for big events in the Civil Rights movement. This is what I learned. I found out things ranging from when the ringleader of the Ku Klux Klan was caught and jailed, to how long the Montgomery bus boycott lasted. African Americans had hard lives. They were treated like second-class citizens. They went to inferior schools and ate at separate restaurants that were much worse than the any white ones. They couldn't sit in the same part of a bus that a white person did. Most blacks couldn't vote because of literacy tests and poll taxes. The literacy tests made it that so that blacks were required to able to read and interpret their state constitution. Poll taxes made blacks have to pay a tax to vote and many blacks couldn't pay the required amount because they couldn't get good jobs and therefore didn't earn much money. These things were legal even under the 14th amendment because it didn't ban blacks from voting; the laws and taxes only made it extremely hard to do.

Rosa Parks from Montgomery, Alabama was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person when the state laws stated that blacks must give up their seats if a white person has nowhere to sit. Her actions inspired the Montgomery bus boycott. During the boycott, blacks and whites alike didn't use the buses. They carpooled, walked, or didn't go at all. Bus businesses lost money and some were forced to close. The boycott lasted over a year. Finally the Supreme Court ruled that laws segregating blacks and whites on buses was illegal and were unnecessary.

After small sit ins and marches the Deep South continued to resist desegregation laws. In 1946 the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on interstate buses and railroads. After all these rulings the south continued to openly refuse to desegregate its facilities.

Even with all these victories there were more challenges to overcome. The Ku Klux Klan was a big threat, trying to stop the civil rights movement and creating white supremacy. The Klu Klux Klan (or KKK) would stop at nothing to reach their goal, even beating blacks and whites supporting the Civil Rights movement and going to the extreme of lynching blacks and supporters of the movement.

Civil Rights activists and supporters of the movement went on freedom rides that expressed the freedom of desegregated buses. The freedom rides attracted Ku Klux Klan members who attacked the buses by slashing tires and throwing firebombs in the buses. But the riders kept strong and continued opposing the the the segragation of the deep south and the fact the south was ingnoring desegragation laws. They countinude and