Challenging the Status Quo in the Civil Rights Movement Essay

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Civic EngagementThe right to vote is a constitutional one in the US and it was passed by Congress in 1869: it ensured that everyone had the right, regardless of race, creed or color. Yet nearly a century later in the US, people were still being segregated and discriminated against because of race, creed and color. Why? The reason is that the power structure in the US did not want certain types of people voting or having influence or power of their own. It is why many immigrant communities were broken up by federal plans to create new interstate roads. It is why there have only been two Catholic presidents and one black one in the nation’s more than 200-year history. The US has always been a fundamentally WASP-driven affair, with help from elite (often Jewish) families that dominate banking, finance, and media. There is no room in that paradigm for other races, creeds, or colors since the “founding fathers” of the US and the financial elites both viewed themselves as the chosen people of God. The “chosen ones” do not want competition—and voting rights open the door to competition. The elite ruling class wants to keep the status quo.The Civil Rights Movement was a movement against the status quo. One big issue for blacks was the ability to have equal employment: after the end of slavery, blacks were still treated as second-class citizens. The Movement was about an oppressed people lifting itself up to challenge the status quo and the ruling elites. One of the keys to change was education—but blacks were still forced to learn in their own schools. White schools, where the best education was to be found, were denied to blacks.

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The Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 changed all that and opened the door to integration—but it also provoked racism in various states, particularly in the South. Activists fought back, with the Freedom Riders doing their part to draw attention to the…

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…actions were seen as heroic by many.Even though the status quo did not want these people to have a full right to vote, in the end the status quo was knocked back on its feet. It still was not willing to give up, however, which is why the fight continues to this day. But all the same, the Civil Rights Movement showed that voting rights matter because in a democracy all people have the right to determine their government. The government is supposed to work for us—not us for the government. The idea that we are subject to the government goes against the idea of democracy. The trouble is maintaining democracy when so many people of influence and power want to restrict the ability of the people to act and have a voice, by manipulating the media and controlling people’s funds and finances. Today, it would be difficult to have a successful social movement without the support of the media, which is how word gets….....

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