Prejudice

Prejudice usually begins when someone behaves or acts differently towards someone else without any reason. People usually make judgements against others without propersly getting to know them by experience. Prejudice usually comes from pre-judgemens made by people who may seem arrogant, ignorant, or irrevelant. Unfortunately, prejudice still exists. Even though we have tried to eliminate the barriers that prevent us from becoming equal, there are still subtle signs in our society that show us that prejudice still exists. There are still people out there who make pre-judgements against others due to stereotypes. In our society, there are stereotypes about race, gender, and ethnicity. These stereotypes represent how each group is portrayed and everyone percieves these stereotypes differently. These kind of stereotypes make it possible for prejudice to occur. Unfortunately, we can't really change the way that our society percieves these stereotypes. Our society has made it so that we don't really question our judgements against others, or understand that our judgements are wrong. This is why prejudice cannot be avoided in today's society due to our inability to understand that  our pre-judgements against others aren't always right. Our thoughts come from our consciousness and these thoughts against these different stereotypes are all within us. Our natural extinct is to listen to our gut feeling and judge people based on what we think. If we start to let ourselves get to know a person without judging them, we can find that our pre-judgments against them may be different from how they truly are. We need to give the chance to let people prove themselves to show that stereotypes and pre-judgements don't matter.

source: http://dailyuw.com/archive/2010/01/20/imported/unfortunately-prejudice-still-exists

Fighting for Change

In order to affect change, citizens performed various forms of protests. Essentially, these protests were divided between two categories; violent and non-violent. Often, leaders like Martin Luther King promoted passive resistance. An example of this is the Nashville sit ins. In this form of protest, blacks would simply sit at a white lunch counter. When they were taunted and hit,  they did not fight back, nor flee.The philosophy behind this idea is that protesting with violence would actually further damage the violent reputation that blacks have already held for so many years. Yet others would argue that it is because of this subordinate behavior that they were still discriminated against in the South. Furthermore, non violent tactics did not attract the attention of the media. Consequently, other Civil Rights leaders like Malcolm X, resorted to violence in order to get the point across. The Watts Riot was the largest and most costly uprising of urban protesters during the Civil Rights era. Various other violent incidents occurred in which civil rights activists were murdered or held captive by groups like the Ku Klux Klan. To me, it seems that the nonviolent tactics resulted in change more so than violence. Although sometimes violent behavior arose from the passive protests, less people were hurt or killed in the end, and I think that is what makes passive resistance a better tactic.

On Violence and Nonviolence  http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/articles/62/the-civil-rights-movement-in-mississippi-on-violence-and-nonviolence

Watts Riots http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome

Nashville Sit Ins http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nashville_sit_ins.htm

Moments that were never forgotton from the Civil Rights Movement

When we think of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. , Rosa Parks and Malcom X come to our mind as well as other famous African Americans that made a differrence. It all started from Truman that signed the Executive Order in 1981 , that states that all people are treated equally. This became the start of the Civil Rights movement. On December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks sat in front of a bus and wouldn't give up her seat to a white man. The Montgomery black community started a riot and didn't ride the bus for a little more than a year. In September of 1957, nine black students wanted to try going to an all white high school, but weren't allowed to enter. Today these children are known as the Little Rock Nine. A couple years after that incident, on February 1st , at a lunch counter four black students began a "sit-in". After this incident it became effective all around including swimming pools, parks, theatres and libraries all throughout the south. Some turning points today definetely include our first African American president. Back in the 1950's no one would never think America would be even able to have an African American president. Fortunately this has changed history, and brought more possibilities for African Americans all around the Country.



Sources: http://school.familyeducation.com/civil-rights/african-american-history/47046.html

Civil Disobedience

Civil Disobedience is defined as instead of a violent protest, people would try to get their point across by a peaceful protest. Gandhi was a main advocate for this type of protest. Soon, African American leaders heard of this new type of protest so they started to adapt to this idea of nonviolence. Gandhi's influence formed the orgainzation called CORE. CORE, even though it was a small orgainzation, had many sit-ins. By 1960, these type of sit-ins spread and it helped the public become more aware of the cause. The arrests at the sit-ins helped spread the word of equality rather than hindering the cause.
-Alex Earls
 http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/index.php/movements-and-campaigns/movements-and-campaigns-summaries?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=17&sobi2Id=22

What Are Civil Rights?

The definition of Civil Rights, according to the "The Free Dictionary," is: "The rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, especially the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and by subsequent acts of Congress, including civil liberties, due process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from discrimination." However, looking back on history, one can see that there is so much more attributed to the title, "Civil Rights." History tells us a lot about Civil Rights, and the further we delve into it, the more we learn. Civil Rights is more than just a few amendments of the U.S. Constitution; it's a vital show of dignity and respect that all humans are entitled to give to one another. To all races and genders, Civil Rights allows minorities to have the ability to be like everyone else; complete equality and fairness. The Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 60s was a major turning point in American History. It marked a change that was way past it's due.

Sources: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/civil+rights