Effectiveness of 1960's Civil Movement Goals, Strategies and Support

The African American Civil Rights movement in the mid 20th century is still one of the most famous social movements in American history. Through the motivation of many organizations and individuals, the social status of the average black American advanced ridiculously because of the many efforts put forth during this time period. Throughout the 1960's, African Americans discovered newfound support such as students and well-known leaders, as well as made use of large-scale group societal movement methods such as marches and freedom rides, and also through black pride, to reach their aspirations of equal voting rights, desegregation, and equality in general.

The goals of this movement were a very mixed variety of both vague and very specific aspirations. However, one major aspect of this movement was equal voting rights for black citizens. Many African Americans had to pay poll taxes which they couldn't afford and endure literacy tests and other limiting factors. Furthermore, another leading idea of the movement was the concept of desegregation, or the end of the separation of black and white facilities and other public forms of education, transportation and recreation. This did become an active change such as when segregating of transportation was declared unconstitutional after Rosa Parks. However, there were many more specific goals of the Black Civil Rights movement, such as the right of African Americans to bear arms, as said in the statement by the minister of defense of the Black Panthers Party on May 2, 1967, "..the time has come for black people to arm themselves..", as well as equality in military service, raised back in WWII.

To achieve these goals, a huge collection of strategies were exercised throughout the 1960's by the variety of organizations and individuals fighting to make a difference. The most popular was probably the technique of marches and demonstrations, such as Martin Luther King's March on Washington in 1963. He gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to which an astounding 200,000 people attended, making a huge step forward for the movement. Another strategy was the utilization of freedom rides. An example of this was conducted in 1961 when an integrated group took interstate buses down to the south to test federal anti-discrimination laws on interstate transport. Lastly, a more vaguely defined strategy was the general encouragement of black pride. One aspect of this was the widespread style of "afro" hairstyles and the new idea of "Black Power" that was exercised by many involved medias