The Struggle for African-American and Women's Rights Persuasive Essay by Nicky

The Struggle for African-American and Women's Rights
A discussion on the similarities between the overall causes, goals and leadership of the African-American civil rights movement and the women's rights movement.
# 149638 | 2,105 words | 5 sources | MLA | 2011 | US
Published on Dec 27, 2011 in African-American Studies (Historical Figures) , African-American Studies (Civil Rights) , Women Studies (Feminism)


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Description:

The paper presents the thesis that the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s share many similarities related to the process used to gain their rights, their underlying causes, their overall goals and especially the leaders who guided each of these movements. The paper explores the beginnings of the African-American civil rights movement, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott and Dr. Martin Luther King and his non-violent protests. The paper then looks at the American Equal Rights Association, the leadership of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Outline:
Thesis Statement
The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Martin Luther King and his Non-Violent Protests
Women's Liberation (the Feminist Movement)
The American Equal Rights Association
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Although African-Americans have been discriminated against and viewed as less than second-class citizens going back as far as the founding of the United States of America in the late 18th century, it appears that the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement happened in May of 1954 when the US Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Board of Education that racial segregation in the US public schools was unconstitutional. In the opinion of Chief Justice Earl Warren, "separate schools are inherently unequal" and help to breed "in the minds of Negro children a sense of inferiority. . . Therefore, these Negro children" have been denied "the equal protection of the law" required by the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution (Riches, 45).
"Certainly, this important decision by the Supreme Court inspired African-Americans to continue their struggle for civil rights, especially when President Dwight D. Eisenhower "accepted the desegregation ruling of the court as valid" and then in 1956, sent one of the first civil rights bills to the U.S. Congress, "designed to fulfill the obligation of Congress to enforce by appropriate legislation the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments" and to create a division in the Department of Justice to "enforce the civil rights of the individual," including the right to vote. This bill, although not supported by many Southern democrats, was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Eisenhower in September of 1956 (Powledge, 134)."

Sample of Sources Used:

  • Berkeley, Kathleen C. The Women's Liberation Movement in America. New York:Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999.
  • Frederick Powledge. We Shall Overcome: Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
  • Gurko, Miriam. Ladies of Seneca Falls: The Birth of the Women's Rights Movement.New York: Easton Press, 2000.
  • Riches, William T. Martin. The Civil Rights Movement: Struggle and Resistance.New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003.
  • "The History of Women's Suffrage." Women's History Month. 2008. Internet. RetrievedMay 26, 2009 from http://www.history.com/content/womenhist/the-history-of-women-s-suffrage.

Cite this Persuasive Essay:

APA Format

The Struggle for African-American and Women's Rights (2011, December 27) Retrieved September 28, 2023, from https://www.academon.com/persuasive-essay/the-struggle-for-african-american-and-women-rights-149638/

MLA Format

"The Struggle for African-American and Women's Rights" 27 December 2011. Web. 28 September. 2023. <https://www.academon.com/persuasive-essay/the-struggle-for-african-american-and-women-rights-149638/>

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