Introduction
For the majority of white people in the south of the US, denying African Americans their right to vote was central. The African Americans were the majority particularly in the profound South and this meant that if they were to vote then they could manage to transform the power organization. Voting was and still is the key aspect to political control and the privileges of might. In 1962 an education program was started but was met with great resistance which also turned to be violent. In Mississippi there was a black man who was shot by a white when he was trying to register as a voter.
Discussion
In his book, Sitkoff illustrates the cautious and meticulous preparation of African American future leaders which were characterized by several boycotts, protest marches, and liberty rides. These leaders arranged these protests and also informed their followers on how to deal with any resistance either from government or other un-official groups. Sitkoff shows that the then US president Kennedy initiated one of the most all inclusive laws on civil rights in the history of US following the upraising of Black protests. (pg, 158)
One of the fundamental motives that Kennedy’s had was to help King, Farmer and Wilkins in achieving their goals for fear that the faction can be taken over by radicals. It was in the late 1964, when the SCLC staff and King ‘schemed an approach’ which they set as their goal; the implementation of a strong voting-rights law. They unanimously opted for Selma, Alabama the place to begin their campaign, this was because they somewhat believed that the reaction of that county sheriff would turn to be cruel and brutal and that this would offer the infamy and martyrdom which was needed for the countrywide attention and would effect in the voting rights law (pg, 156-188).
In his book Sitkoff illustrates the position of the leadership in those early times of southern civil rights movements but when it comes to the subsequent half of the 1960’s he asserts that a greater percentage of those riots had no proof of planning (pg, 206) even though leftist black leaders portrayed these unrests as ‘calculated radical aggression to defeat a intransigent, racist culture.’ (pg, 204)
He then indicates that some activists concluded that the involvement of some liberals from the white community had harmed these pressure groups when they forced leaders from the black community to compromise (pg, 210). As observed by Sitkoff that African American Power like the unrests ‘brought about psychosomatic gains at the dreadful cost of extra disintegrating the lobby group, polarizing the races, allowing the culture of hostility, and also encouraging the white backlash. (pg, 208)
The author also sets the pitch of his learning of the Civil Rights group with his yearning for people who reads his book to meet the suffering and anticipation, the violence and passion that the black activists for freedom went through during this quest. Sitkoff argues that his perception originates from involvement and recognition with the movement in the early years of 1960. His backing for these movements is absolute, he also has no empathy for white Southerners and in his book he makes no effort whatsoever to clarify their positions or investigate the assortments of Southern perspectives. He insists of the brutal confrontation of deep South chauvinistic and the gallantry of those who fought for black equal opportunities.
Conclusion
It is improbable that the US president would be an African-American man if there was no quest for civil rights in the early 1960’s. Not only did these civil rights lobby groups just end prejudice, inequity and racial discrimination, but also they did made major advances such as improving opportunities for African-Americans. Due to these civil rights movements, there were significant changes in the legislature, legal decision and also the changes in the way of thinking of both white people and black community.
Work Cited
Harvard Sitkoff. The struggle for black equality, 1954-1992, Hill and Wang, Washington DC. 1993.