African Americans had been fighting for their civil rights for almost a century. Then suddenly they made great progress in the 1950s and 60s. There are a couple of possible reasons why African Americans could have started to succeed. These are Media was nation wide now and college students.

During the late 1940s and early 50s TV became very big in American life. Now instead of only being able to read and hear about news the public could see the news. This would make it very much real to people. During the 50s African Americans realized that they could use the TV to help their cause. If they could show what they suffered on TV, it would make it possible to get support from people who don t like to see suffering. And if they used non-violence tactics and showed how they got beaten this would really make whites support their cause. Then African Americans got organized and went to some of the most racist areas in the south and making sure there was media there, they would march and let the police and other people beat them. The media would then let the rest of the country know about it and the rest of the country would realize what was happening in the south. This is one main reason why the civil rights were very affective in the 50 s and 60 s.

Another reason why the civil rights movement was college students. College students during this time were against the system and would help out however they could. This is because they saw what was going on the African Americans on the media. They didn t like what they were seeing. The college students then wanted to help the African Americans fight for their civil rights. They would probably help them because they wanted to change the world. The college students would form groups and perform sit-ins with the African American students and adults. This would show that African Americans were just as much equal as whites. Racist Whites didn t like this and considered these white college students almost as bad as African Americans. So they would beat these students as well as African Americans. Which would get on the News and then more whites would support African Americans because the racist whites were also hurting whites. This would be another reason why the Civil Rights movement did well in the 50s and 60s.

The world now in some senses is better for pushing for rights, because now media is everywhere and will do almost anything to get the stories. The net is also a way to get talk to people around the world. But you can only find things on the net that you want find not things that you don t really want to know about. Also our society is not as much willing to go out and help other people so it might not do as well. But I also think it would because anything major happens the media is there.

The world today is very different then the world in the 1950s and 60s. I m glad that the Civil rights movement happened then because I don t think it was right for us not to grant them rights for + of a century. I not really sure if it would do as well today as it did then.