Robert Moses Research Paper

Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. A Brief History with Documents written by David Howard-Pitney is a great history book that gives us an entry into two important American thinkers and a tumultuous part of American history. This 207-pages book was published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in Boston, New York on February 20, 2004. David Howard-Pitney worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University in 1986, and that made him a specialist on American civil religion and African-American leaders ' thought and rhetoric (208). Another publication of Howard-Pitney is The African-American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America.

During the 1700s-1800s, many slaves existed throughout the United States. Many of the slaves were treated poorly and did not have the help they needed, resulting in their deaths. These slaves also faced paternalism, as the owners often made the decisions for them. However, there are some slaves in particular who were treated differently. One slave, in particular, was Moses Montrose, and he was a king.

Robert Parris Moses and Diane Nash are two among the many vital but not well known heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Moses unceasingly fought for the voting rights of African Americans and because of Nash’s never ending effort, both, the Freedom Rides and desegregation of lunch counters were made possible. Both, Moses and Nash, had different ways to approach what they were trying to do in the Civil Rights Movement. Moses stayed in the background of the whole voter registration project while Nash was on the frontline of trying to desegregate the lunch counters by participating in the sit-ins and protests. Although they had different approaches, they were both equally successful.

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was founded in 1963 to counter the Mississippi Democratic Party which only allowed participation by whites. The party was developed during the Freedom Summer Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, of which Hamer was the vice-chair. In 1964, 40 percent of the population was black, yet they were not allowed to participate in the political system (Bramlett-Solomon 1991, 515). The party registered 60, 000 black voters in the state of Mississippi and after that effort party delegates were sent to the 1964 Democratic Convention.

Freedom Summer, or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from voting. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools throughout Mississippi to aid the local black population. The projects leadership and funding came from the SNCC and COFO, along with hundreds of white college students in the north. In 1963, the SNCC organized a mock vote for blacks, which gave them a chance to prove they were capable of understanding politics. The civil rights activists from both organizations and the white volunteers from the north faced many challenges during the campaign.

This separate party held parallel elections and sent a group of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August 1964. Since African-Americans couldn't vote for president or other officials parallel elections were held. Anyone resident of Mississippi black or white could join the party. Their main goal was to ". . . win a floor fight and be seated, sending Mississippi's 'official' delegation home in disgrace

To help African-Americans in the South register to vote, the North was gathering young Whites and preparing them for the rough time they would have when they would go South. However, “on the first day of summer in 1964, three young activists piled into a blue station wagon in Meridian, Mississippi, and headed into Klan country” (Watson). They were their back to the North going through Mississippi, but most speculate a group of racists had something to do with the situation (Watson). One of the activists helping gather these people, most were college students, was named Bob Moses (Watson). He traveled giving speeches about the Civil Rights Movement; it would only make sense he would help with this project that would last all summer but never be forgotten.

After the Civil War in 1865, Republicans in Congress introduced a series of Constitutional Amendments to secure civil and political rights for African Americans. The right that gave black men the privilege to vote provoked the greatest controversy, especially in the North. In 1867, Congress passed the law and African American men began voting in the South, but in the North, they kept denying them this basic right (“African Americans,” 2016). Republicans feared that they would eventually lose control of Congress on the Democrats and thought that their only solution was to include the black men votes. Republicans assumed that all African American votes would go to all the Republicans in the North, as they did in the South and by increasing the

Different groups of people had a variety of experiences in the new South, and these experiences were often contradictory and defied generalizations. Hahn discusses an emigrationist movement among freed slaves, mostly to go to Liberia or Kansas, in order to escape paramilitarism, become missionaries, or own land (Hahn 321). Other African Americans, particularly in Virginia, participated in biracial politics, where they took advantage of divisions among white southerners to remove barriers like the poll tax. While they had less power and lower positions than their white counterparts, this Readjuster movement gave African Americans some political influence, as black votes were needed to win majorities (Hahn 384). Hahn illustrates how there were

So many of people were scared and worried about what happened to the church and if their families were alright. Many of the civil rights protest marches that took place in Birmingham during the 1960s began at the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which had long been a significant religious center for the city’s black population and a routine meeting place for civil rights

But, when these officials were elected to Congress, they passed the “black codes” and thus the relations between the president and legislators became worst (Schriefer, Sivell and Arch R1). These so called “Black Codes” were “a series of laws to deprive blacks of their constitutional rights” that they were enacted mainly by Deep South legislatures. Black Codes differ from a state to another but they were stricter in the Deep South as they were sometimes irrationally austere. (Hazen 30) Furthermore, with the emergence of organizations such as the Red Shirts and the White League with the rise of the Conservative White Democrats’ power, efforts to prevent Black Americans from voting were escalating (Watts 247), even if the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution that gave the Blacks the right to vote had been ratified in 1870.

In Document E it talks about voting when Charles Nordhoff says, “And it is far better for him that he should act under such influences than that his vote should be masses against the property and intelligence of the white people to achieve the purposes of unscrupulous demagogues.” Southern states imposed poll taxes, and literacy requirements. However the Freedman's conflict with Bureau and other organizations tried to help blacks even though their attempts came in conflict with opposite groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who terrorized African Americans. The Freedman’s Bureau was a government aid for freedmen that was established to help and protect newly freed slaves during the transition from a life of slavery to a life of

Another thing we can learn from God and Moses relationship is obedience. Moses obeyed God in everything that God told him to fulfill. When God told Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, Moses did not stop until he led the Hebrews out of Egypt.

African Americas were severely limited and punished just for the color of their skin. Taylor Branch captured the struggle of segregation and what it took to overcome it. He wrote about the things Martin Luther King did for this country and equality through race. “Rightly or wrongly, most attention has fallen on Martin Luther King Jr…Branches ideas were that King is the best and most important metaphor for the movement, but I disagree” (King). This peer reviewed article thinks that Branch should not have us Martin Luther King as a prime example for the equality movement, but I beg to differ.

Imagine living in a world of segregation - constantly judged by color of one’s skin and not being permitted to associate with the “superior” race. From slavery to discrimination, African-Americans experienced this horror in daily life since the beginning of their existence. Due to the fear of severe punishment, blacks were scared to fight for equality; however, on April 3, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio, one brave soul finally did. His name was Malcolm Little (known as Malcolm X), a widely acknowledged human rights activist. Although he supported black equality, he attacked the problem unlike others such as Martin Luther King Jr. did.