Fight the Power: The legacy of the civil rights movement

Introduction

Litvak was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1929, and received a bachelor's degree in 1951 and Ph.D. in 1958 from the University of California, Berkeley . He has taught at universities in Wisconsin and South Carolina and Colorado College.

Analysis:

The civil rights movement was a heroic episode in American history. Its purpose, to give African Americans the same civil rights that white took for granted(Litwack 2009 1). It was a war on many fronts. In 1960 it had reached an impressive judicial and legislative victory against discrimination in public places and voting. It is less complete but still significant progress in the fight against job and housing discrimination. Those that best take advantage of new features have been middle-class blacks, teachers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals who act as role models for black people. Their departure for the previously all-white areas left all-black neighborhoods apart, not only race, but now the class. The problem of poverty, aggravated by drugs, crime and broken families, has not been resolved through the civil rights movement.

The integration process started school on the decision of Brown in 1954 is regarded by some as a failure, since many schools are still separated by race, blacks and whites still mostly live in different areas. Although Brown dealt only with discrimination in education, he actually sounded the death knell for the entire Jim Crow system of second-class citizens. This is the greatest value. However, it took effort, and in some cases life, many men and women, black and white, to finally defeat Jim Crow.

Inequality remains. Median family income of blacks is still significantly lower than that of whites. Even with higher education blacks earn less than their white counterparts(Litwack 2009 1). The civil rights movement failed to achieve full ...