It comes as a great shock…to discover
that the flag to which you have pledged
allegiance…has not pledged allegiance to you.
–James Baldwin
People on road demanding equal rights for blacks
Civil Rights Movement gained its momentum in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States of America (USA). The central demand of the movement was seeking social justice for blacks as they were denied equal rights and treatment under the American law. While slavery had long been abolished after the Civil War concluded, the end of the war didn’t bring an end to discrimination against blacks. Even in the middle of the twentieth century, the blacks in the South were bearing the brunt of racism that was rampant in the USA.
Nevertheless, the real incident that ignited the movement was the Rosa Parks refusal to vacate her seat for a white on a bus and her subsequent arrest. Her arrest made her the “mother if modern-day civil rights movement.” This movement, unprecedented, was instrumental in securing equal rights for black.
However, even today the blacks in America are living with racism against him. The racism against the blacks in American society today is evident from the fact that American prisons have the highest concentration of blacks. Even today the blacks are often discriminated against under American legal system as statistics shows. According to one recent study, black Americans are incarcerated five times more than white people. “Black Lives Matter” is the new movement that is revealing how racism is yet to be uprooted from within the USA.