Peter MacNeil 02 NOV 15 History 343 Dr. Rocksborough-Smith Chapter 6 The Great Transformation The civil rights movement's influence in the United States has been extensive and enduring. It has inspired movements to promote the rights and equality of women, gays and lesbians, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and the disabled. As Michael Omi and Howard Winant highlight in this chapter on a transformative moment in US history, the black movement deepened democracy in the Nation. The participation of African Americans in local, state, and national politics—as voters and office holders—increased dramatically as a result of the civil rights movement. The more African Americans involved with US politics including those who were elected to office served a crucial role in bringing racial issues to the table. White politicians also were more likely to take into account their nonwhite constituents and give greater attention to racial matters. Movements to obtain civil rights for black Americans have had special historical significance. Such movements have not only secured citizenship rights for blacks but have also redefined prevailing conceptions of the nature of civil rights and the role of government in protecting these rights. The civil rights movements in the United States gave birth to other new social movements as well showing that the public as a collective could push for social change and participate in public politics. Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence in the early onset of the 1960s. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theatres and train cars, from juries and legislatures. This form of discrimination had a lasting impact on American society and the sentiment held by the white majority did not disappear when the segregation law departed. In reality legislation was not sufficient to eradicate racist attitudes or improve the economic status of African Americans. The radical transformation during the 1960s demonstrated that race was not only a matter of politics, economics or culture, but all three of these levels. In industrial settings, black workers fought for decades against segregated promotion lines that denied them access to higher-paying skilled and supervisory positions. The oppressed black population would no longer tolerate this unequal treatment along with a 2nd class citizen mentality. This gave way for the rise of the “Black Power” movement, which had a more militant stance on civil rights. The prospect of not only having rights but also power was a strong driving force in recruiting members. Rejecting integration “Black Power” was seen as a way of resurrecting “Black Pride” and African-American culture. An influence of this was appealing to the current system to act according to its stated principles of justice and equality wasn't enough that a more militant form of struggle was needed to fundamentally transform society. The shockwaves of the 1960s had created a wave of change for the United States. By combining different oppositional tactics, the civil rights movement of the 1960s created a “new racial state”. This decade resulted in redefinition of American society and a redistribution of social and economic power.