History: Making Sense of the Sixties (Essay Sample)

Making Sense of the Sixties
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The 1960s has had both its good and its bad. It was a golden age to some Americans especially because of president John F. Kennedy. However to some Americans it was a period of anguish fighting for change. People especially the black Americans were putting up different types of strategies to lay claim to greater equity. This strategies include initiating political participation so that people have the power to choose people representing them. Direct action is another plan to get greater equity, sit-ins, boycotts and strikes without violence were Luther’s suggestion. Unity and a different perspective of the whole issue of segregation was the plan Malcolm X suggested people should take. And Chavez went for the work unions as a tool of fighting inequity. In the following paragraphs, the above mentioned strategies will discussed in detail.
According to CITATION Joh151 \l 2057 (Hollitz, 2015), the black people in America in the sixties found that the only way to get equality was through political participation. They believed that through voting, they would have made a big step in achieving greater equality. That is why by July 1963 many people were encouraged to vote through an affidavit CITATION Joh151 \l 2057 (Hollitz, 2015) “Unregistered citizens to vote provided they provided an affidavit asserting they were qualified to vote” (Hollitz pg. 253). They made sure everyone knew about this so that they come out in large numbers to vote. This was a strategy into winning as many political offices as possible. They wanted to create their own power now that the privileged did not want to share their power. They also started providing education that would fill up the intellectual vacuum. They created ‘freedom schools’ that changed the black people’s thinking. They felt this will be a tool to greater equality. “Freedom school program to fill an intellectual and creative vacuum in the lives of young Negro…” (Hollitz pg. 256).
According to Martin Luther king Jr in his public letter “Letter from Birmingham Jail” direct action was the only way to deal with the inequality they had encountered. They had tried to negotiate with the people in power but all they got is an answer of ‘wait’ (Arts, 2021). The waiting is frustrating and one would even say it is adding fuel to the fire of fighting for equity. They had gone to court but unjust rulings had been given. They resolute to using direct action, to get what they deserved. According to Luther King oppressors cannot give them what they deserved without the people demanding and taking action. The non-violent pressure is one of the ways the oppressors are driven into giving them what they deserve. “Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish creative tension that a community…is forced to confront the issue” (Luther King pg.2). They wanted to fight for their rights without violence and without hurting anyone. Luther felt they were doing this in accordance with the Christian scriptures. Although they had opposers who came from the black American camp, this people had been oppressed to an extent of taking the inequity as their new normal.
Malcolm X in his speech of “The Ballot or The Bullet” believes that the only way to achieve equality was to unite CITATION Bil21 \l 2057 (Institute, 2021). They should not fight separately, all the people being discriminated against should come together and fight as one. The Latin Americans, Indian Americans, Black Americans and Chinamen should join hands and have one big fight. “Take it into the United Nations, where our African brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our Asian brothers…where our Latin-American brothers… and where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there waiting to throw their weight…” Also they should have a broader interpretation of their fight into something they all can connect to, into something both the Americans and the whole world can understand. From Black Nationalism to human rights violations. “When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the UN”