How Have African-Americans Worked to End Segregation, Discrimination, Research Paper

How Have African-Americans Worked to End Segregation, Discrimination, and Isolation to Attain Equality anc Civil Rights - Research Paper Example Consequently, various anti-racism movements emerged in order to end this trend of racism against blacks in the United States. Martin Luther King was one of the most famous black activists who paid his life for the sake of ending racism in the United States. The echo of his famous word 'I have a dream' still persists in the ears of activists and anti-racists, in an attempt to make this 'dream' come true. King himself was subjected to sever cases of racism and violence, as "during the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed, beaten, and eventually killed for his leadership in the civil-rights movement" ("Battling Racism: †¦."). In the United States, the year 1963 witnessed a major civil rights mobility with the efforts done by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in the field of fighting racial segregation. King, president of SCLC is now inspiring civil rights movements all over the United States to resist the social, economic, and p olitical practices that involve racial discrimination and segregation against African Americans. One of the most successful campaigns in this field is the Birmingham campaign, which has witnessed strategic effort that is exerted by King and his SCLC for the sake of promoting civil rights for African Americans. This campaign, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama lasted for more than two months in the spring of 1963, aiming "at ending the city's segregated civil and discriminatory economic policies" (Garrow, 1981). In fact, the effective tactics, strategies, and philosophies followed by King and his organization have played major roles in fulfilling the goals of the campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. The first and most significant aspect of King and his civil rights movement is the adoption of non-violent approaches to reach the goal of ending racial segregation in the United States. This tactic was particularly evident in the Birmingham campaign, where King and his African American fo llowers organized non-violent gatherings, marches, and boycotts in order push the city officials to review the civil laws that are considered by King and his movement unfair. King stressed the resort to non-violent approaches in Birmingham, when he declares that "the purpose of  ... direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation"(Garrow, 1981). Thus, it can be said that King, and his philosophy of nonviolence, was the dominant force in his civil rights movement that achieved great success in Birmingham. In employing the tactic of non-violent resistance against the practices of segregation, King was a strong believer in the power of non-violent approaches to attain legal demands of equality and abundance of racial segregation. In this context, King was inspired by the character of Gandhi in India, who was a strong advocate of the policy of non-resistance. Witnessing the success of Gandhi and his movement in reaching thei r goals in India, King believed that he also can succeed in forcing his government to abolish segregation laws. Thus, the core reason behind the success of Birmingham campaig