Category: Civil Rights Movement

The Evolution of Civil Rights and Marriage Equality

There is a lot of controversy in the LGBTQ community. Some people support it. Some people don’t, just like interracial couples. The case of Loving vs. Virginia is a case that changed the Constitution for interracial couples. The case of Obergefell V. Hodges is another case that changed civil rights. There are so many things that have happened in the news with the LGBTQ community. A few years ago, it was the pulse shooting in the club. Then during that same time of the Pulse shooting, it was the “lives matter movement.” That started a whole other issue with this country.

LGBTQ Struggles and Triumphs: From Obergefell vs. Hodges to Pulse Nightclub

The LGBTQ community, over the past several years, has had a lot of controversy. In 2015 there was the case of Obergefell vs. Hodges, which had to do with same-sex marriage. The court basically ruled that love is love when it comes to marriage. This case helped raise the ban on same-sex marriage in the thirteen states that still had the ban.

In 2016, there was a shooting in Orlando, Florida, at the Pulse nightclub. Pulse was a Gay nightclub; one night, a shooting went in and shot and killed forty- nine people in the club. Making this the biggest terrorist attack since 9/11. The shooter pledged to be part of ISIS on the phone to dispatch. Having the Constitution is essential to the United States; we have the right to be treated equally no matter where we come from or who we are. The First Amendment gives us freedom of expression, being who we want to be, and freedom of speech to what we feel.

Loving vs. Virginia: The Case that Redefined Interracial Marriage

Another iconic case was the case of Loving vs. Virginia. This case changed the Constitution when it came to marriage. In this case, Mildred and Richard Loving were sentenced to jail for being married. They had a set sentence of twenty- five years unless they pleaded guilty to the charge. Then it would be one year, and they could not return to the state of Virginia for twenty- five years (‘Loving v. Virginia’). The movie “Loving Story,” explains how the whole case played out.

In the end, they took their trial to the Supreme Court and got their kids involved. Since the Loving in the movie went back to Virginia before the twenty- five years were up, they got rearrested, and that’s how the case got to the Supreme Court (‘The Loving Story’). This case changed the Constitution for marriage when it came to interracial marriages. The civil rights movement has changed so much in the past centuries.

Religious Views, Marriage Equality, and Societal Change

The controversy between both same-sex marriage and marriage equality is nearly the same. It comes down to religious views on both sides. Some people, because of their religious views, don’t support same-sex marriage because God created men and women, and only men and women are supposed to get married, not ones of the same- sex.

Marriage equality is how people view and what people believe. For example, some people were raised to marry ones of their own race and not another race. Since 2015, there has been a reverse on the protected right of same-sex marriage. Ever since the case of Obergefell vs. Hodges, every state lifted the ban on same-sex marriage. Altogether, it comes down to what a person believes and how they grew up. Today, so many people have become more supportive of the LGBTQ community and have become more supportive of marriage equality. At the end of the day, love is love.

References:

1. “Guides: A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: Obergefell v. Hodges”
2. Fantz, A., Karimi, F., & McLaughlin, E. (2016). “Orlando nightclub shooting: 49 killed, shooter pledged ISIS allegiance” Source: CNN, www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html
3. OpenStax. (2016). “U.S. Constitution and Federalism.” Source: OpenStax, openstax.org/details/books/american-government-2e

Origins of Racial Disparities in America

Since the beginning of America, there has been a separation of races. The white Americans imported Africans to use as free labor, and this is how most Blacks can trace their roots today. The American Civil War freed the slaves, but it was a long, tough road for them to gain equal rights. With multiple court cases resulting in Black Americans gaining their rights, the fight for equality was not over.

Early Legal Battles: Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board

Now I will discuss the Portion of this struggle from the Brown v. Board decision to the black power movement to realize how America came to be what it is today. To understand how the Brown v. Board decision came to be, we must go back to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. This 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine meaning that it is legal to keep races separated from each other as long as both races had equal services, including schools. However, keeping these schools separate was far from equal.

A Clarendon, South Carolina case proved there was unequal funding in schools, as the local school board spent $179 per white student and $43 per black student. Also, the black students did not have running water in the buildings or indoor toilets, unlike the white schools. But another case was Brown vs. Board which a black third grader had to walk across a dangerous set of railroad tracks to get to school instead of attending a nearby school restricted to whites. But the biggest argument in the case was that segregation was inherently unequal since it stigmatized one group as unfit to associate with another group. This was found to do lifelong damage to black children by undermining their self-esteem.

Initiation of the Civil Rights Movement

The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka allowed the integration of races in public schools even though in 1964, ten years after Brown, only one percent of southern black children attended public schools with whites. The Brown v. Board decision was a big start to the Civil rights movement, it gave black Americans a goal to equality. This led to organized, nonviolent civil disobedience as a way for black Americans to get their message heard by the rest of the United States population.

In 1955, Montgomery, Alabama, had a law where if a white rider did not have a seat, a black rider must stand in the back of the bus so that the white rider could sit. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. She went peacefully, and her message was heard. This began a boycott of white-owned businesses in Montgomery and began a major leadership role of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Government’s Role in Advancing Civil Rights

In 1957 Martin Luther King Jr became a major voice in the Civil Rights Movement when he created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Also, in 1957, the Government intervened twice in the Civil Rights Movement. First, they created the Civil Rights Act, which within the Department of Justice, spawned the Civil Rights Division and Civil Rights Commission, which would investigate racial problems and recommend solutions. Second, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the admittance of nine black students into the all-white Central High School. The Government was slowly beginning to enforce laws against racial injustices, but it was not enough. White southerners, with groups like the Ku Klux Klan, would often use violence against blacks as a form of intimidation.

Nonviolent Protests and the Growth of Civil Rights Organizations

Black Americans, knowing that the Government was only showing very limited support and the court cases were moving slowly, decided they must take action into their own hands. Knowing a nonviolent protest was the way to get your message heard. They did things like organize sit-ins, where beginning in 1960, they would sit in at an all-white Woolworths lunch counter. Soon, all across the South, black Americans were conducting these sit-ins. It was especially powerful for their message when whites would turn to violence, and they would remain peaceful. These direct action tactics helped bring back old civil rights organizations like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and brought to life new ones like Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Violence and the Turning Point of the Movement

Another direct action nonviolent tactic started in 1961 was the interracial freedom rides. This was when a Supreme Court decision to desegregate interstate bus terminals was passed. Freedom riders would ride between states in a peaceful demeanor to demonstrate that the law had changed and they were now allowed to do so. White Southerners were not happy with this decision and quickly turned to violence.

A bus with black passengers, as it passed through Alabama, was firebombed, resulting in all the passengers sustaining injuries. The Government soon intervened when President Kennedy sent Federal Marshals to the scene. The Governor of Alabama sent state troops, and they struck a deal to have the riders arrested in Jackson at the next stop. The U.S. Government, at the time, was dealing with the Cold War and didn’t want to jeopardize political relationships in the South.

This was the case in the Old Miss campus, where it took 400 injuries and two deaths before federal marshals were sent in to restore order. These acts of violence against peaceful blacks were beginning to attract public attention. This was the case in 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama, when Martin Luther King organized peaceful protests. The police used high-powered fire hoses and attack dogs against the nonviolent demonstrators.

They physically assaulted blacks and arrested children, all while being captured by television cameras. This was shown to a national audience, and Americans were shocked. This outrage sent a message to the Federal Government that they had to act now to promote civil rights. In 1963, Kennedy called for a federal civil rights law to prohibit segregation in public accommodations. After President Kennedy was assassinated in 1964, his predecessor President Johnson signed the bill into law.

The Government, taking a stronger stance on the issue than expected, added a job-discrimination title and included the creation of a new agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This was a decisive victory toward ending segregation. Turning their sights toward the right to vote brought more heartache and violence against activists in 1965.

After organizing and conducting a fifty-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, with television cameras running, the mistreatment of the marchers gave Johnson even more support for strong reforms. That summer, the Voting Rights Act was passed, which was another hurdle overcome by the peaceful protesters. Unfortunately, the movement was about to lose momentum as the nonviolent protest turned to rage. Violent protests erupted in Watts, a community outside of Los Angeles, California, just five days after the Voting Rights Act was passed. This was accompanied by other riots in other cities.

Shift from Nonviolence to Militancy

Next came the formation of non-peaceful groups like the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, who brought a type of militaristic attitude and rejected interracialism in their ranks. They would protest in a threatening manner using the saying “Black Power,” meaning that they had to fight the white race and take them over. These groups fired whites in their ranks that were trying to help their cause. This ended with these groups losing support for their cause and also the fall of organizations such as CORE and SNCC in 1968. They had lost sympathy for their cause and eventually lost funding from whites.

Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement

With the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr on April 4, 1968, and the new violent civil rights groups that had recently developed, the movement had lost serious momentum. It has come a long way since, in a short time, Brown v. Board in 1954, and we, the American People, need to realize it will be a continuing struggle until we are all truly equal.

References:

1. Foner, Eric. “Give Me Liberty: An American History, Seagull Forth Edition.” 2014.
2. Patterson, James T. “The Civil Rights Movement: Major Events and Legacies.” www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/civil-rights-movement/essays/civil-rights-movement-major-events-and-legacies

Simeon Wright, Emmet Till’s cousin, once wrote “It never occurred to me that Bobo would be killed for whistling at a white woman”. This quote could not be any truer for how Emmett Till faced his murder in Money, Mississippi after playing a prank on a white lady. Till’s story created recognition on the bigotry that was pervasive in the south in 1955, significantly after endeavors across the country to integrate and become equivalent. Till’s Death signified a new symbol for the Civil Rights Movement and enabled the ultimatum of equivalent rights for all nationalities and races in the United States.

Till spent his early days in a working-class neighborhood on Chicago’s southern side, where he had gone to a segregated elementary school, which did not set him up for the extent of racism that he experienced in Mississippi. Although he was cautioned by his mother to look out for himself due to his race, the young man appreciated pulling tricks. On August 24, 1955, Emmett visited a country store in Money, Mississippi with his cousins and a few partners where he relished that his hometown girlfriend was white. This resulted in his African American sidekicks who at the same time distrusted him, dared him to request the white lady residing at the store counter for a date.

As he walked into the store to purchase some chocolates, Till remarked on his departing “Bye, baby” to the lady. There had been no observers in the store to witness the situation, except for one – Carolyn Bryant who witnessed the event the whole time behind the counter. Emmett was forced to carry a 75-pound cotton gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River where he was commanded to remove his garments. From there, the white woman’s husband and her brother physically abused him until he was dead. Emmett had his eye plucked out, a bullet was fired through his head and his neck was strapped with barbed wire around the cotton-gin fan he carried, in which he was drowned in a river.

Although Emmett’s death was a brutal suffering not only for him but for his community, his loss was witnessed by 18-year old William Teed who was approached by a man with a gun if he had seen or heard anything of the events. In order to save his life, Teed answered “No.” Teed was not the first to witness the event but Moses Wright, Emmett’s uncle, who failed to see his nephew the past night went out to find him only to have discovered later on that his corpse was in the Tallahatchie River. Emmett’s corpse appeared in bad, condition while the only asset of his body remaining recognizable was the ring his mother gave him before his parting.

Emmet’s mother, Mamie Till was aware of the heartbreaking news and decided to have her son’s remains get delivered to Chicago. Her son’s lacerated body convinced her to coordinate an open casket funeral for the entire community to understand the brutality of her young son. Mamie Till notified Jet, an African-American magazine to take part in the memorial service and take photos of Emmett’s unidentifiable corpse. The magazine company before long distributed the terrible photographs as the nation paid heed.

Fourteen days had preceded the covering of Emmett’s body, where Milam and Bryant were on trial in an isolated town hall in Sumner, Mississippi. Moses Wright, one of the few bystanders, decidedly distinguished the litigants as Emmett’s executioners. On September 23, 1955, the all-white jury spent under an hour prior to giving a ruling of “not guilty,” clarifying that they accepted the state had neglected to demonstrate the personality of the corpse. Numerous citizens were shocked by the choice and furthermore due to the state’s solution to avoid prosecuting Milan and Bryant on the disparate charge of murder.

A year following the Supreme Court’s milestone choice in Brown v. Board of Education to order the completion of racial isolation in government funded schools, Till’s loss gave a significant impetus to the American social liberties development. A hundred days later, Till’s legacy encouraged Rosa Parks not to surrender her seat on an Alabama city transport, causing the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott to take place. Nine years passed and Congress enforced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting numerous types of racial separation and isolation. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting unfair democratic practices, was enacted.

The Emmett Till murder preliminary uncovered the severity of the Jim Crow isolation in the South and was a driving force behind the African-American social liberties development. In 2017, Tim Tyson, writer of the book The Blood of Emmett Till, stated that Carolyn Bryant abnegated her declaration, conceding that Till had never contacted, compromised or irritated her. She remarked, “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him”. Unlike her husband, Carolyn Bryant felt deep regret as far as it mattered for her in the fierce homicide.

The inheritance of a little fellow transformed the views of racial issues, and possibly changed the route of the Civil Rights Movement. Emmett Till’s inheritance is still passed on to ensure that the community will demonstrate tolerance and bring an end to prejudice and other segregation. An occurrence as little as conversing with a store agent does not legitimize savagery or murder. Crosswise over America, the nation will recollect Emmett Till and how he was simply carrying on with his life. Every citizen has the option to have this joy and it should not be prosecuted with separation. It is great news the United States is less bigot and keeps progressing in the direction of correspondence and participation with one another.

On August 31, 1955, the body of Emmett Till was found at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River in northern Mississippi. Beaten to a pulp and with his eye gouged out, his face was disfigured almost beyond recognition. His great-uncle Moses Wright may have only recognized him because the 14-year-old boy was still wearing his father’s initialed ring. News of Till’s murder sent shockwaves through the Black community. Five days after his body was recovered, more than 50,000 mourners paid their respects at his open-casket funeral in Chicago. And exactly 100 days after he was killed, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, a revolutionary act that snowballed into a national movement for civil rights. How did the murder of Emmett Till galvanize so many Americans to fight back against racism?

TIME magazine’s 100 Photographs that Changed the World identifies a single turning point: the published image of Till’s mother standing with a man over her son’s mutilated body. After the corpse was recovered, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley traveled to Money, Mississippi, to see her son for herself. According to TIME, she refused to bury him in Mississippi, as the funeral parlor had urged her, but instead loaded her son’s body onto a train headed back home to the South Side of Chicago. There she said to the funeral home director: “Let the people see what I’ve seen.” Mamie allowed David Jackson, a photographer from the Black-owned JET magazine, to photograph her son with her standing behind him. As JET would later describe the scene, “Her face wet with tears, she leaned over the body, just removed from a rubber bag in a Chicago funeral home, and cried out, ‘Darling, you have not died in vain. Your life has been sacrificed for something.’ ”

According to The New York Times, no white-centred media publications printed this image. But the work had been done. The story of Emmett Till, as told through the images published in JET and other Black-owned media, shocked the entire nation. The image of his body set in motion a movement for civil rights that would forever change the lives of Black Americans.

Catherine de’ Medici might say that the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day was never intended to happen. After all, she was originally involved in a plan to kill only one person, not thousands.

The start of the massacre can be traced to familial, and religious, origins. King Charles IX of France was Catherine’s second son to sit on the French throne after the death of her husband in 1559. Charles succeeded her eldest son, Francis II, whose reign was a short and unsuccessful one; before Francis died in 1560, his sickly demeanor and weak will had made him susceptible to manipulation from the powerful Guise family, Roman Catholics who wanted to dilute the political power of the rival Huguenots (French Protestants).

In 1572 Catherine was seeing another son fall prey to outside influence—this time, in the opposite direction. One of Charles’s key advisers was Admiral Gaspard II de Coligny, a Huguenot who supported war against Spain as a way to prevent the resumption of civil war in France between Huguenots and Catholics. Charles was expected to approve the plan that summer, starting one war to prevent another.

Though her exact actions are difficult to track, Catherine likely took matters into her own hands. She gave her approval to a plot hatched by the house of Guise to assassinate Coligny, whom they held responsible for the murder of François de Guise in 1563. The assassination was planned for the week of her daughter Margaret’s wedding to the Huguenot Henry of Navarre, an occasion that brought Huguenot nobility from across France into Paris. Four days after the wedding ceremony, the assassination was attempted—but it failed. Coligny was merely wounded, and the Huguenot nobility, conveniently on the scene, demanded answers. Charles IX promised to investigate.

Afraid of her involvement being discovered, Catherine scrambled to cover her tracks. She met secretly with a group of nobles at the Tuileries Palace to hatch a new plot: this time to completely exterminate the Huguenot leaders in Paris. With the approval of Charles, who was possibly misled into believing that the Huguenots were about to rebel, the massacre began just before dawn on August 24, 1572.

Coligny was one of the first to die, the original assassination plan successful at last. All visiting Huguenots except Navarre and Henry I de Bourbon were quickly slaughtered. Nonroyal Huguenots were dragged out of their homes and shops and murdered, their bodies often thrown into the Seine. Soon the violence was no longer being carried out just by those involved with the royal family: Catholic citizens took it upon themselves to kill their Huguenot neighbors.

On August 25 the king decreed that the violence should stop, claiming that it was a government-sanctioned move against a Huguenot threat to the crown. Instead, it continued in Paris and spread to the provinces. Estimates of the number of victims range from 2,000 (a number proposed by a Roman Catholic apologist) to 70,000 (proposed by the contemporary Huguenot Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully). Modern writers put the number of deaths at 3,000 in Paris alone.

But if Catherine had hoped the massacre would frighten the remaining Huguenots into submission, she was sorely disappointed. Tensions heightened between Catholics and Huguenots, the latter of whom abandoned John Calvin’s principle of respecting earthly leaders, such as the French royal family. Maybe, they came to believe, in some circumstances regicide was acceptable after all. That fate did not befall Catherine, who died of pleurisy at age 69. Nor was Charles assassinated—he died of tuberculosis in 1574—but his brother, who succeeded him on the French throne as Henry III, was killed. Not by a Huguenot, though, but by a Catholic friar. The chaos that Catherine had sown had grown voraciously.

Children were taken from their families in violent ways, only to never see them again. This is what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had to endure for 60 years (1910 – 1970). This period is also known as ‘The Stolen Generations’. Racial discrimination and segregation in the US was also prominent, and this sparked mass protests and Civil Rights movements such as the ‘Bus Boycott’ of 1961. Movements in the US inspired protests in Australia too, and this led to racial discrimination being changed forever. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s rights were substantially affected by the US Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s – 60s. This resulted in significant alterations towards their right to vote and land entitlements, although, there are still forms of segregation and discrimination occurring that were not altered by the activists in Australia or the US, and these forms of racism must be covered sooner rather than later, and attempts by activists to abandon all forms of racism must be supported so future generations can live without any forms of segregation or discrimination.

The US Civil Rights Movement started in December 1955, when NAACP activist Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white man. When the white man got on the bus and couldn’t find a seat in the white section, the bus driver ordered Rosa Parks and three other black people to give up their seats. Parks refused to do this and was later arrested. On May 4, 1961, the ‘Bus Boycott’, sparked by Parks’ dramatic arrest, involved seven African American people and six white people boarding a bus in Washington D.C, beginning a tour of America’s south to protest against segregated bus terminals. This would help remove the racist laws of the Jim Crow South and would help turn a young preacher named Martin Luther King Jr into the country’s best-known civil rights leader. Nine months earlier, a 15-year-old black woman named Claudette Colvin was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus. She went on to become one of five plaintiffs in the first federal court case filed by civil rights attorney Fred Gard in 1956, as the Browder vs Gayle case challenged bus segregation in the city. This case ended up in the Supreme Court, which resulted in the court affirming order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end bus segregation, which ended in the bus boycott being called off. Other protests include the ‘Bloody Sunday’ protest in 1965, where 600 innocent demonstrators participated in the ‘Selma to Montgomery March’ to protest the death of the black civil rights activist Jimmie Jackson, who was shot by a white police officer. These campaigns and protests were all carefully planned and demonstrated with peace and determination so they could gain mass amounts of attention and to raise awareness.

Many people would know the famous name, “Martin Luther King Jr.” or the speech, “I have a dream…”, but not many know the true extent of that speech and the affect that it had to not only America’s racial laws but to other country’s racial laws around the world too, such as Australia’s. This speech was seen by 250,000 people during the ‘March on Washington’ on August 28, 1963. He knew that this was an opportunity to reach a wide audience and to persuade the public and government to act against racial segregation. At the current time, racial segregation was still occurring, and he knew that he must keep peace, remain calm and speak well in order to prove a point. The American Civil Rights Movement had a significant impact on the Freedom Rides in Australia. The Freedom Rides in Australia was approximately a two-week event in February 1965 in New South Wales. The goal was to protest for equal rights for the Aboriginal peoples who faced discrimination in Australia. During the 1950’s, there was an increasing international outrage at the way countries like America and South Africa treated their black populations. Australia was also receiving criticism for this, with the London Anti-Slavery Society threatening to act against how these people were being treated. Over the next 15 years, the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement campaigned for change, equal wages, access to social service benefits, and other important things such as land rights. Meanwhile, Aboriginal activist Charlie Perkins formed the SAFA (Student Action for Aborigines), which contained students for the University of Sydney. In 1965, the SAFA planned, with great detail, the ‘Freedom Ride’, a bus tour of western and coastal New South Wales and towns which aimed to raise public awareness about the poor state of Aboriginal health, education and housing, encourage and support Indigenous people to fight against racial discrimination. This event strengthened the Indigenous civil rights campaigns that followed in the later years.

Segregation and discrimination throughout Australia at the time was just as bad as America, it just went un-noticed by other countries. Different forms of segregation in Australia included segregated buses, colour bars, and the denial of access into town halls and pubs, they were even segregated at hospitals. There were several significant civil rights events in Australia, one of which being the announcement in 1962 that Aboriginal people were allowed to vote in Federal elections. When the Aboriginal people won this vote, they were able to vote like a ‘white human’ and had access to medical services and education. They were taken more seriously by politicians and they were given the ability to have a seat in the government. The right to vote was a very significant to indigenous people as before 1962, they had been denied the access to vote. This vote was important to them as their votes are now counted and influenced in the outcomes of the elections and federal, state and local levels.

United States is a country where there are people with different social levels, nationality, race, skin color, and religion. The history of the United States is one of the most interesting of all time, because of the different obstacles, difficulties, and setbacks that its inhabitants had to cross with to consolidate what is today of our nation. It is necessary to remember that the United States has had extremely important events and individuals that impacted the shaping of the United States. Two events that had a great impact in America are the Second Industrial Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement. The individual that created great impact is Booker T. Washington.

The second industrial revolution happened between the end of the Civil War and the early twentieth century, it was stated that “the United States underwent one of the most rapid and profound economic revolutions any country has ever experienced” (Foner, E.,2014). It was a historical period characterized by the great socio-economic changes that occurred between 1850-1870 and 1914. These transformations were caused by technical advances in the chemical, oil, electrical and metallurgical industries, as well as the emergence of inventions such as the telephone or the telegraph. According to author Foner. E “The country enjoyed abundant natural resources, a growing supply of labor, an expanding market for manufactured goods, and the availability of capital for investment” (Foner, 2014, p.476). In addition to the industry and technological advances, the society of the time was also profoundly transformed. New working methods appeared, creating, on the one hand, a new type of mercantilism and monopoly capitalism and, on the other, workers’ organizations that tried to improve the conditions of the proletariat.

In addition, there were other very important developments in the field of transport and communications. All these transformations had a reflection in society, which changed significantly. The most used means of transport continued to be the railroad, which made possible the second industrial revolution. The railroad had great success, that it created a national market for manufactured goods. Also, it created an increase in the population. On the one hand, the improvement of agricultural techniques allowed an increase in production. On the other, the demand for workers by the industry caused a transfer of population from the countryside to the city. The Second Industrial Revolution affected all social aspects. Its positive consequences were the increase in production, its scientific advances or the improvement of transport. On the negative side, the creation of a mass of industrial workers living in subhuman conditions can be noted.

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a long struggle, primarily non-violent, to extend full access to civil rights and equality before the law to groups that do not have, especially to African-American citizens. There have been numerous movements in favor of other groups in the US. overtime, but the term is generally used to refer to the struggles that took place between 1955 and 1968 to end discrimination against African Americans and end racial segregation, especially in the southern United States. The period considered usually begins with the boycott of Montgomery buses in 1955 and ends with the murder of Martin Luther King in 1968, although the civil rights movement in the United States continues in many ways to this day.

The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a watershed in the history of the United States: after years of campaigning against the laws of Jim Crow and racial oppression, the Civil Rights Movement had obtained a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that threw back the doctrine of ‘separated but equal’ that had been used to justify official racism for half a century ( Forner, 2014). On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks (the ‘mother of the Civil Rights Movement’) refused to get up from her seat on a public bus to leave it to a white passenger. Rosa was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced for disorderly conduct and for violating a local law. When the incident was known among the black community, 50 African-American leaders met and organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott to protest the segregation of blacks and whites on public buses. The boycott lasted 382 days until local segregation law between African Americans and whites was lifted. This incident is frequently cited as the spark of the Civil Rights Movement. led to greater social and economic mobility for African-Americans across the nation and banned racial discrimination, providing greater access to resources for women, religious minorities, African-Americans and low-income families.

Booker T. Washington was an important figure of the American black community from 1890 to 1915, especially after a speech he gave at the Exhibition of Cotton and International States in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895, called The Atlanta Commitment. It was a very well accepted speech between the black community and the white liberals of the North and the south. At that time he received support from W.E.B. Du Bois, but then they had a disagreement. Washington appreciated industrial education aimed at the jobs available to most blacks and Du Bois wanted for them the same classical education in liberal professions that whites received. Washington contributed to raise funds to make legal changes on segregation and suffrage, as in the case of Giles vs. Harris, who was the first one related to the vote given in the Supreme Court of the United States.

A brave woman, Rosa Parks played a key role in starting the civil rights movement for African Americans.

Rosa Parks lived in Montgomery, Alabama, a city with a reputation as the first pro-slavery capital of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Rosa Parks, a seamstress at a downtown department store, had a prior history as a civil rights campaigner, having served as a youth organizer for the local branch of America’s oldest and most effective civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1954, the US Supreme Court verdict in the case of Brown v. Board of Education signaled federal opposition to racial segregation, this inspired Rosa Parks to stand, or in this case, sit for her belief in equality.

Rosa was arrested for civil disobedience. It happened one day when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a crowded bus. When asked in an interview about the reason for the rejection, she emphasized that she was an activist and long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Moreover, according to Anne Schraff, Rosa’s grandfather, also black, taught her to stand up for principles when the Ku Klux Klan tried to harm their family.

This outright defiance of a black woman sparked the push for racial equality. Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat and her subsequent arrest seemed to offer activists from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Women’s Political Committee to use the situation to see the extent of bus segregation laws in federal courts. Through the leadership of a magnetic but unknown preacher named Martin Luther King Jr., the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) initiated a year-long boycott that encapsulated the attention of the world and heaped pressure on the city’s white authorities to respond to black demands – reforming laws regarding segregation on buses. Finally, In November 1956, the US Supreme Court issued a brief and narrow ruling that racial segregation on private buses in Montgomery was unlawful under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Rosa Parks was a minority, she was a woman and she was African American, she stood up for what she believed in and was righteous, she went against established social norms to improve not only herself but society as well. Her role in the civil rights movement and in history in general is extremely significant.

Since the beginning of time people have always found a certain aspect in one another to find a fault in, as an excuse to discriminate and persecute others they don’t deem deserving of human decency. The time period that notably spurred on an ever-growing movement for all-inclusive equality would be the 1930s; while this decade caused progressive thinking for future generations this achievement was a result of many sacrifices and tragedies. While this decade may have propelled the movement for equality, people of color had an especially tough time fighting for this right due to the national economic devastation of the Great Depression. Due to the glorified depiction of the 1930s by different literatures and media, people often romanticize this time period. What they fail to understand from the censored depictions of history is the overwhelming presence of racial inequality and white bigotry in society. These socially accepted acts of injustice against minorities were committed without any proper justification; only with the mindset that people with different skin colors were inferior, and didn’t deserve to be treated humanely. The oppression of different races created even more strife and discord during the toilsome time of the Great Depression, resulting in a much larger conflict, The Civil Rights Movement. This movement became a crusade against racial oppression that would continue to gain traction in future generations to come.

In the 1930s many different forms of racism were instituted against people of color, but the racial group that had been targeted the most would be African Americans. The most common form of discrimination and white bias would be in the Justice System. Injustice in the Judicial Court was the main source of inequality due to the imprisonment and killing of wrongly accused African Americans, of which fell victim to the preconceived notions people held against their race. Other than the failed justice system, African Americans faced many more forms of racism during the Great Depression. During the economic crisis many White Americans were losing their jobs, so “they decided that they shouldn’t be unemployed while African Americans still held jobs. This thought process resulted in African Americans being kicked out of jobs they traditional occupied, jobs that White Americans had previously seen as beneath them, resulting in a higher unemployment rate for African Americans.” (Burrel Kristopher). Not only were African Americans kicked out of their jobs, but they had to face institutionalized discrimination as well. A study by the “National Community Reinvestment Coalition properly shows and explains that the economic segregation of neighborhoods in our current society reflects the prejudice held by the housing markets during the 1930s. Neighborhoods that were marked as hazardous by the HOLC were home to many minorities.” (Meisenhelter Jesse). This discrimination profoundly impacted the structural segregation in many cities, further expanding the gap between the rich white middle class and minorities.

Racism was present in the everyday lifestyle of African Americans; causing them to be endangered any time they left their homes, or in simpler terms, any time they came into contact with a White Americans. Many African Americans were victims of unauthorized acts of “justice” White Americans felt they needed to enact, most commonly known as lynching. These acts of racial violence rose in occurrence during the 1930s, with “twenty- eight documented cases.” (Burrel Kristopher). Being subject to continual racial discrimination as well as being hit the hardest by the effects of the Great Depression, African Americans were in constant fear for their lives. It was much more difficult for this group of people to survive during the economic crisis; not only were their wages “at least thirty percent less than the average person” (Sustar Lee), but white workers would also conspire to have African American workers fired to allow white workers to take their jobs. Being a person of color in the 1930s and striving to live a normal life was an unattainable dream in that decade.

When any group is being oppressed, there’s bound to be people who are willing to fight in order to make their dreams a reality. As a result of the developing harshness of racist act, the community found a way to retaliate against the injustices being acted upon them. They helped and supported each other when no one else would. Several movements were started and many groups held a helping hand out for those in need. As many African Americans were left unemployed as a result of the Great Depression, black churches widely spread their services to the community. The services included providing “housing, clothing, and food for the needy” (Unit 11 1930s: The Great Depression”). Besides the Church’s help, other groups of African Americans sought to change their grim situation. Political development among African Americans began to change, beginning with the “St Louis Urban League launching a national movement for African Americans that boycotted stores that employed only White Americans.” (Lynch Hollis). Another movement among African Americans led to the founding of the “National Negro Congress as well as the Southern Negro Youth Congress.” (Lynch Hollis). Other than the movements that further escalated the political presence of people of color, the NAACP put into motion a legal campaign against segregation, as well as focusing on inequalities held in the public-school system. The community came together to fight against societal norms, retaliating against the years of persecution they withstood throughout history.

The occurrence of the Great Depression economically as well as socially affected all walks of life in the 1930s. As a result, the government strived to support its people, excluding African Americans. They received considerably “less aid in early government issued assistance programs, as well as being excluded from charitable organizations offering help during the national crisis. Despite African Americans abandoning their allegiance to the Republican party and converting to Democratic supporters, there was no relief offered from the liberal Roosevelt administration.” (Sustar Lee). Although the National Recovery Act was stated to be nondiscriminatory; “its projects hired substantially more White Americans and held racist wage differences, resulting in this act being referred to as the Negro Removal Act.” (Sustar Lee). Being neglected by the government left African Americans at a disadvantage. Society refused to give them the same chances as White Americans had.

In a difficult time when the nation should’ve been united, there was a divide due to a conflict that had been going on for generations. The whole nation discriminated and oppressed its own people due to the preconceived notions held against others with a darker skin-color than white. The inner strife that had been building up for years finally exploded, resulting in a greater conflict that changed society’s social structure forever. The fight for equality is still as strong as ever, leaving masses wondering if this deep-rooted societal issue will ever fully be resolved.

Works Cited

1. “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Jim Crow Stories. The Great Depression: PBS.” The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Jim Crow Stories. The Great Depression | PBS, www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_depression.html.
2. Locke, et al. “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom The Segregation Era (1900–1939).” The Segregation Era (1900–1939) – The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom | Exhibitions – Library of Congress, 10 Oct. 2014, www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/segregation-era.html.
3. The Civil Rights Movement: 1919-1960s, Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe®, National Humanities Center, nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/crm.htm.
4. Burrell, Kristopher, and Hostos Community College. “United States History: Reconstruction to the Present.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-hostos-ushistory/chapter/the-depths-of-the-great-depression/.
5. Sustar, Lee. “Blacks and the Great Depression.” SocialistWorker.org, socialistworker.org/2012/06/28/blacks-and-the-great-depression.
6. Lynch, Hollis. “African American Life during the Great Depression and the New Deal.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Feb. 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/African-American/African-American-life-during-the-Great-Depression-and-the-New-Deal.
7. “Unit 11 1930s: The Great Depression.” New Jersey State Library, 4 Mar. 2020, www.njstatelib.org/research_library/new_jersey_resources/highlights/african_american_history_curriculum/unit_11_great_depression/.
8. Meisenhelter, Jesse. “How 1930s Discrimination Shaped Inequality in Today’s Cities ‘ NCRC.” NCRC, 28 Mar. 2018, ncrc.org/how-1930s-discrimination-shaped-inequality-in-todays-cities/.

The American civil rights movement describes the decades-long protest which aimed to highlight and overturn the systematic discrimination African Americans faced in the 1950s and 1960s. Deep inequalities in society impacted on every aspect of civilian life, from segregated education, transportation, eateries and interracial marriage was prohibited. Discrimination and the treatment of African Americans as second-class citizens inevitably impacted on the economic opportunities and employment available, which entrenched rates of poverty. Despite segregation in the armed forces, African American soldiers had played a full role in fighting for the liberation of Europe in WWII and in defeating the Axis powers. Asked to make sacrifices equal to those of white US soldiers, yet denied equal treatment, a movement seeking to erase pernicious inequalities gathered ground. Yet it can be argued that resistance and the drive for civil rights had been in evidence for far longer. Abolitionists an activists such as Frederick Douglas not only campaigned for the abolition of slavery in 1865 but campaigned for the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1871. As the struggle for equal rights in America has a long history and was the focus of many politicians, activists and organisations, whether the success of the civil rights movement can be credited to the leadership of Martin Luther King deserves closer analysis.

Historians are divided when it comes to crediting a leader or a set of specific circumstances which led to success of the civil rights movement, during a time of often bitter social divisions that were evident in 1950s and 1960s. There are historians that argue that it took the inspirational leadership of Dr Martin Luther King to galvanise discontent and channel it into a movement with the moral authority able to unite people of all colours. By spearheading and leading a mass protest movement, it is argued that Dr King must be credited with creating the conditions that led to the success of the civil rights movement.

The civil rights movement employed a variety of methods to organise and had numerous leaders. From the NAACP who took a constitutional approach, fighting for the legal end to segregation, to the black power movement of the 1960s which no longer saw non-violent protests as a viable method to promote radical change. However, the approach taken by Martin Luther King has long been identified as the most influential as a non-violent philosophy created a groundswell of support for the civil rights movement.

Within this source, Martin Luther King highlights his stance on violence within the civil rights movement and the problems that would be exacerbated by its use. He discusses the benefits of loving your enemies to the extent of allowing them to understand your view and further the development of their own. The source also includes Robert Penn Warren discussing the strong appeal of Martin Luther King to white Americans due to the non-violent approach he had pioneered throughout the civil rights movement. As such, one can begin to comprehend reasons for Martin Luther King’s mass support across races, and his strong influence on the ultimate success on the civil rights movement.

This source can be seen to illustrate that the leadership of Martin Luther King was the main reason for the success of the civil rights movements as his non-violent approach is widely noted as a turning point in the civil rights movement. King’s theologically-based belief in non-violence was powerfully argued and enacted throughout his own life. True progress, he argued, could only be made when the cycle of violence and hate was broken. This can be said to have set the agenda for the next ten years of civil rights protests.

King’s persistent encouragement of a non-violent approach can be seen to be the only realistic strategy open to African Americans if they wished to achieve civil rights. Any other approach would have resulted in a more violent backlash. King’s strategy elevated the civil rights cause to a spiritual and religious level. It can be said that as baptist minister, who skilfully utilised the leadership potential of a minister of religion subsequent to having the respect of his community, King turned the civil rights cause into a religious movement.

King can furthermore be seen as the main reason for the success of the civil rights movement because of his non-violent strategy. African Americans, in theory at least, already had civil and political rights – both of which being secured by the civil war amendments of 1865-70. By utilising peaceful protest, King and his supporters were able to shame America into recognising this fact. Through the use of the media and highlighting the direct link between the civil rights cause and the declaration of independence and the constitution – King was able to guarantee the high moral and political ground.

It was not only the contextual impact that King’s non-violent approach had but also its knock on effect. King’s methods inspired the lunch counter protests in 1960 – which in turn led to the formation of the SNCC. Alongside this, the non-violent agenda also galvanised white liberals to participate. The moral, non-violent stance was able to act as a link between a fragile coalition of interests.

Many historians believe that the civil rights movement began to reach its climax in the mid 1960s, and as this source is from 1964, it provides an insight into the movement as it gathered critical pace. 1964 also saw one of the one of the most important developments – the introduction of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Essentially, this act saw the end of segregation on the grounds of race, religion or national origin at all places of public accommodation, including courthouses, parks, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas and hotels – allowing for an end to blacks or other minorities being denied service based on the colour of their skin. As such, this was deemed the ‘second emancipation’ by Dr King. This source allows an historian to view him at the peak of his influence, and his position at such a critical point in the movement.

Despite decades of activism, civil rights leaders had to accept that segregationists would not relinquish their privileges and the social and economic power they held over African Americans. In the South, violence against people of colour was endemic and civil rights activists believed that if this was witnessed by citizens who lives outside the former Confederate states, there would be greater pressure for change.

Activists such as Bob Moses wanted their struggles and the violent oppression they faced to be documented by newspaper journalists and television stations. With the physical suppression and brutality clearly in evidence, it would underline the limitations of a passive and peaceful movement. One such example was the 1955 case of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was savagely beaten and murdered by white men who accused him of flirting or whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The men were arrested but acquitted by a white jury. Emmett’s mother decided to allow the casket of her son to be open so everyone could witness how brutally her son had been disfigured. The wider public were shocked and appalled. It caused some to wonder if violence would inevitably promote other acts of violence.

Dr King remained resolute and refused to consider the use of violence as part of the campaign for equal rights. Many white people recognised that the unjust and unpunished violent acts African Americans faced in the South could trigger a backlash and even an armed uprising. By continually emphasising his Christian beliefs that violence is wrong, he was able to calm the fears of white communities and encourage them to support the civil rights movement’s push for peaceful reform. Dr King was a Baptist minister but also recognised that the Indian civil rights movement had enjoyed success by following the non violent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.

This source can be seen to illustrate that the leadership of Martin Luther King was the main reason for the success of the civil rights movements as it

King used charisma as a tool for mobilizing black communities, but he always used it in the context of other forms of intellectual and political leadership reflecting his academic training and suited to a movement containing many strong leaders. King undoubtedly recognized that charisma was one of many leadership qualities at his disposal, but he also recognized that charisma was not a sufficient basis for leadership in a modern political movement enlisting numerous self-reliant leaders. Moreover, he rejected aspects of the charismatic model that conflicted with his sense of his own limitations.

Recent scholarship of King’s leadership has displayed a growing understanding of the interplay between King’s exceptional oratorical abilities and the expectations and understandings of his various audiences. The King myth emphasizes his supposedly charismatic qualities as an explanation for his unique role in the struggle.

Introduction

There are various reasons as to why one may be regarded as a leader; the term leadership is faced with the ambiguity of definition (Pfeffer, 1977). In regards to the chosen theoretical perspective, it would be argued that the more effective leaders may be trained or selected or the situation configured to offer for an enhanced leader through the analysis of the style of leadership, characteristics and behaviour. Charismatic leadership produces escalated self-worth and self-esteem for the leader escalated collective efficacy of the entire group and self-efficacy both the identification with the entire group and the leader and the internalization of the values (Gardner & Avolio, 1998). This type of leadership depends on the whole situation that surround the leader, for instance, behaviour, identity, culture, followers identity as well as all the group entwined. This essay analyzes Malcolm X’s leadership and the reasons why his leadership is regarded as effective.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X was born in an America where the environment was dominated by white supremacy and racism. Seen in his biography, he was charged with larceny and sentenced to imprisonment for a decade. Though he dropped out of school, (Mason High School), he made efforts to bridge that gap while still in jail through involvement on class debates and reading. Leadership in his life was brought out in various stage. For instance, a class president while at school a leader in prison, a leader in the streets, a spokesman of the Nation of Islam and the last leadership stage being pan-Africanism. Besides his qualities and characteristic, Marable (2011), described him as a natural born leader in regards to his biography. First, Malcolm X’s incessant drive as well as the ability to order or command his followers by repeating the pet themes and speaking rapidly to overtop other (Marable, 2011). Given the social context during this time Malcolm X’s leadership was characterized with assertiveness harping and combativeness, which fitted the situation as well as the people he operated. His followers appreciated his strength, vigor and intelligence.

Romanticized leadership

The idea of a business leader as well as the ideals and value exercised in the leadership concept, seem to bring out a different connection to the ethical. There is hardly any neutral functionary, and the leader ought to compound the authority of office with charismatic and authority (Wray-Bliss 2015). The work of a leader is to enthrall, inspire and seduce his/her followers. Wray-Bliss (2015) highlights that leadership has a significantly romanticized and had a mythological status, which goes beyond the usual constraints of the scientific inquiry. Therefore, every leader ought to be endowed with qualities of a superhuman as that is the only way they would really be perceived as a leader, both respected and accepted. Leadership is a repository of anxieties, hopes, desires and aspirations, not least around the ethical. Beyond the mere policy or rule to follow, a leader offers the mission, vision, values and ethics for their followers or organization (Wray-Bliss, 2015).

Malcolm X was very inspirational hence able to capture the desires and seduce his followers. For instance, his aspect of movements was seen to acquire masses of followers, whereby he was capable of changing the thoughts and lives of people. From all walks of life, Malcolm x was able to motivate his people. Characterized by audacity and defiance, Malcolm X made the black Americans acquire their pride (Graaf, 2016). During his time, America was entangled in a crisis, and the black Americans faced racism, victimization and oppression from the ruling class. The black Americans or African Americans sought a leader who would give them hope which Malcolm X provided. Such a situation of the crisis was a significant influence in his mode of leadership.

The romanticized leadership conception proposes that every leader ought to have the capability of controlling and influencing their organization’s fate when they are in charge. According to Meindl, Ehrlich and Dukerich (1985), this form of assumption of the responsibility and control leadership engenders is double-edged first implying the giving of credit for the positive outcomes and second for laying the blame or accountability for the negative ones. Example of a positive outcome for Malcolm X was his achievement in helping the black Muslims acquire their civil rights. Additionally, he stood up and confronted racist authorities and became a model for the Black Panther Party (BPP), a national organization with groups from BPP in over 15 states and which showed success in 1967 (Graaf, 2016). Secondly he laid the blame on Elijah Muhammad for being corrupt and hypocritical.

Leadership qualities and attributes

Another reason why Malcolm X was a leader is his leadership qualities and attributes. Malcolm X was associated with both the characteristic of flexibility and open-mindedness (BIrd, 2013). In his most of his speeches, Malcolm X would embrace change which was evident in the transition of his leadership stages, at school, on the streets, in prison and lastly as the spokesman for the Nation of Islam alongside the International Pan African leadership. He avoided errors by the application of critical thinking alongside the revision of his perceptions accordingly. For example among his speeches, he asserted that regardless of his convictions, he made every effort to face the facts as well as accept the reality of life (Graaf, 2016). This as Malcolm X explained, was based on the reasoning that new experiences are unfolded by new knowledge. In the same speech, Malcolm X drew his point home by bringing out that throughout his life, he kept open-mindedness at the forefront as a base to his flexibility.

A second leadership quality demonstrated in Malcolm X’s biography was his courage and confidence. For instance, in his time in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X confronted Elijah Muhammed, whereby he disagreed with him after the realization of his hypocritical and corrupt ways. The outcome was leaving the Nation of Islam and commencing his Muslim Mosque Inc (MMI) and The Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) (Graaf, 2016). Malcolm X would always and readily confront injustice and inequality with what he deemed to be true. Despite Muhammed threats of killing him and making the environment hostile for him, Malcolm X never backed away from his plans of advocating for justice and equality. When Malcolm X was assassinated he was in the middle of giving a speech located in a ballroom despite Muhammed’s threats.

Authentic leadership

To some extent Malcolm X practiced authentic leadership. Authentic leadership style is one that refuses to appreciate or acknowledge one’s imperfections and regardless of the confirmations to seeking the core self, or other one’ true this leadership privilege organizational/collective self over an individual self (Ford & Harding, 2011). Therefore, authentic leadership hampers subjectivity to the follower and the leader. In his early years, Malcolm X was a collective leader he refused to acknowledge what some people believed to be imperfections as a Black Muslim and strived to fight for the rights of all.

Charismatic leadership

Leaders may be named as charismatic for various reasons. One reason is that they lead the people or the organization away from a disaster or risk and by virtue of a visionary approach where the turnaround is implemented (Bryman, 1993). Malcolm X’s leadership depicted a visionary approach assisting black Americans in acquiring their freedom and independence alongside halting oppression of the black Americans by white supremacists. This was regardless of the concern that arose from his status as a Black Muslim. At times these leaders gain their reputation due to a distinctive tactics in their organization as well as gaining a personal following. Though most people contested against Malcolm X’s violent tactics and approaches when tackling racism, they barely denied his commitment or fight and stood for oppression and injustice of the blacks Americans.

Charismatic leaders tend to experience great loyalty from their followers. Such resolute devotion or commitment is owed to these leaders due to their mission and exceptional characteristics (Bryman et al, 1993). Weber and Bryman (1993) explained that a charismatic leader is one who men do not obey by virtue of a tradition or a statute, but their belief for him. The commitment of his followers come from their admiration of his qualities and persona. Malcolm X had loyal followers and supporters who loved his courage in confronting the immorality of corruption with the truth. Rather than collaborating with Elijah Muhammad, he took a different path and resigned from the Nation of Islam. People loved him for the ethics-based authenticity that allowed him to continue with his principles as well as policies of transforming both the collective self and also to acquire justice for all.

Creating impression

The visionary approach for charismatic leadership is highly controversial though, for the ultimate good of his followers. A charismatic leader should seek to act in unconventional ways, for instance through idealized visions with the intent of acquiring desired identity images such as trustworthiness and credibility and morally worthiness (Gardner & Avolio, 1998). Impressive management involves a ubiquitous aspect of social behavior. By risking his/her life for the vision as well as course they owe the people. Malcolm X openly confronted the ruling class and made a speech in a way that many considered to threaten American society. The primary reason why his followers trusted and became loyal to him was his self-sacrificing qualities and the trait that he was not in any way motivated by financial rewards, but rather his vision about the Nation of Islam. They loved him because he showed commitment to the cause.

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite the ambiguity surrounding the concept of leadership, it was argued that it would be shaped through training, selecting or configured in the environment or situation. Nowhere in his biography was it documented that Malcolm X was trained to be a leader. Instead people chose him and his environment or other the situation, (black crisis ad American crisis) became a primary driver. Though leadership has been said to be highly romanticized, Malcolm X has shown an excellent example of a leader. According to his biography he had an incessant drive and ability to order or command people and spoke rapidly to overtop them. Additionally, he had the necessary qualities such as courage, flexibility and open-mindedness. He also had the courage and confidence to confront the oppressive and corrupt ruling class like Elijah Muhammed. Malcolm X practiced authentic and charismatic leadership.

References

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