Month honors rights leaders’ contributions
by Rawly Bransom
editor-in-chief

The struggle for civil rights began when the first slave ship hit the shores of this country.
Many would say the struggle continues. However, the actions and events of the ’50s and ’60s truly represent a time when men and women of all races worked together to end hate and bigotry in this country.
In celebration of Black History Month, a reflection of the past may help readers understand the historical aspect of the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1951 a 7-year-old girl named Linda Brown had to walk past a school just seven blocks from her home to trudge another mile through a railroad switching station just to reach the bus stop to catch a bus to her school. The only reason she could not attend the other school was because she was black.
Brown vs. The Board of Education was the byproduct of the parents and the NAACP trying to enroll Brown and other children in the segregated schools.
The case was heard on every judicial level, and it took the Supreme Court three years to finally give its verdict after one judge died and deliberations had to start over.
In the end, the court ruled unanimously for the defendant saying segregation in U.S. schools was unconstitutional.
In 1955, Rosa Parks was an average 42-year-old woman living in Montgomery, Ala. After a long day of work, Parks sat down in the first row designated for blacks on a public bus.
When several white people got onto the bus, the driver asked the black people to move further back on the bus to give the white people a place to sit.
Everyone moved but Parks. She refused and was arrested.
Because of the incident, a young Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. organized a boycott of all buses in Montgomery.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 13, 1956, Parks’ lawsuit was settled when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation on buses was unconstitutional.
In his inaugural address in 1961, John F. Kennedy promised to end racial discrimination.
During his presidency, Kennedy appointed about 40 African Americans to administrative posts, including five federal judges, an associate White House press secretary and a deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs.
In 1963, Kennedy used the Army to force then Alabama Gov. George Wallace to allow two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
He was pushing for Congress to pass a civil rights act when he was assassinated in November 1963.
Lyndon B. Johnson then took office. Continuing with Kennedy’s and his own plans, he asked Congress to pass what was to be the Civil Rights Act of 1964, providing people equal access to restaurants, hotels and voting.
In 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King led 25,000 people on his third try in three days to petition Gov. Wallace to end Jim Crow laws in Alabama.
President Johnson called out the Army to protect protesters who had been met with violence on the previous days.
On the way home from protesting, Viola Liuzzo was shot and killed by four members of the Ku Klux Klan who knew she was a part of the march.
The men were acquitted even though one of the members, an undercover FBI agent, testified against them.
President Johnson had the men charged with conspiring to deprive Liuzzo of her civil rights. They were convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
King continued his quest for equality for all people. He was chosen Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1963 and won the Nobel Prize in 1964.
King historically led 200,000 people to march on Washington D.C. where he made his famous “I have a dream” speech..