3 Examine how modern Civil Rights movement changed over time How did Martin Luther King s message change Give specific examples of early and later goals approaches What new leadership emerged within the movement How did their approach differ from that of Martin Luther King How did popular opinion change towards the movement The Civil Rights Movement was a dynamic time in America s history From its leaders to its goals to the way it was perceived everything about it changed sooner or later Martin Luther king was the most influential of these leaders along with Stokely Carmichael Malcom X and countless others All of them had varying approaches to the issue of civil rights Martin Luther King started off preaching a nonviolent approach in order to achieve reform for blacks His tactics included sit ins boycotts and marches all in order to get the media s attention and force the government to act One of the more famous boycotts was against Birmingham businesses The blacks stopped purchasing goods from the merchants there during Easter the busiest time of the year King was jailed after this during the ensuing protests and marches and wrote Letter from a Birmingham Jail during this time He basically called the white moderate to action in order to gain more support for the Civil Rights Movement The black community responded to this with even more protests which led to terrible actions against them by the police including being hosed and attacked by dogs The media had a field day with these events which led the president at the time John F Kennedy proposing legislation to provide civil rights for all southern blacks Of course the southern states blocked this legislation which led to the greatest march of all by Martin Luther King In August of 1963 the March on Washington took place with over 300 000 Americans black and white King then gave his famous I Have a Dream speech which eventually led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act All the success King achieved helped to show that other aspects of life could also be improved His goals shifted from helping blacks to helping the poor and all those who suffered from the disparity between classes One of the main reasons King s goals changed was because of the visible anger of northern blacks All the attention was being focused on the blacks in the south while those in the north suffered from equally appalling conditions He began to advocate a more democratic socialism He wanted the government to provide more jobs free health care and equally distribute the wealth Another event that showed how much King s goals had changed was the war in Vietnam He began to publicly criticize the decision of the US to go into Vietnam This marked his shift from a race leader to a spokesperson for the poor and struggling Americans Another event that changed his approach to the Civil Rights Movement was the Chicago campaign of 1966 He took a more aggressive approach to help get better conditions economically for blacks over there While marching he was pelted with bottles and rocks which further increased his new militant outlook during this era He was a little behind the times though as other leaders such as Stokely Carmichael Malcom X and others were already promoting a more violent approach to the civil rights movement and other issues such as poverty and war Stokely was one of the more influential militant leaders during the Civil Rights Movement Unlike Martin Luther King he promoted violence if it was for self defense He created a movement known as Black Power and coined the phrase Hell No We Won t Go This referred to the refusal of blacks to participate in the Vietnam War Malcom X was another militant leader during the civil rights era He was a spokesperson for the Nation of Islam another black nationalist organization He promoted rejection of white society completely He wanted blacks to be in control of their own destiny in the workplace and their neighborhoods All these various groups coming to power and working towards equality for blacks and other races drew a variety of opinions from the public The people of the United States strongly supported racial equality in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement When the movement became violent in August of 1965 in Los Angeles opinions started to shift This uprising came about because of a police brutality case One poll showed that over 75 of whites thought that blacks were gaining too many rights too fast Another reason that public support was starting to dwindle was because of the shift in philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement A lot of the white laborers and liberals were in support of racial equality for blacks but were much less enthusiastic about social justice for the poor The Civil Rights Movement was on its way down By 1967 the Civil Rights era was coming to a close When Martin Luther King was killed in April of 1968 the movement died along with him He was a major leader in this time period and helped blacks gain racial equality When he started moving towards a policy of social justice for all his influence began to dwindle Other leaders such as Stokely Carmichael and Malcom X then took over and promoted more violent approaches in order to get social equality for blacks The public supported blacks in their bid for racial equality up until the Civil Rights Movement took on a more militant approach As the public s opinion of these various group took on a more negative tone the strength of these groups declined leading to the end of the Civil Rights Era 1 Why did the US get involved in Vietnam What was the justification for the war and did that justification reflect the reality of US intervention What problems both in Vietnam and in the US did the military face fighting the war and how did those problems contribute to the US loss The US had a huge hand in the Vietnam War They cited many reasons for their intervention in the war but they avoided the reality of why they got involved This war was unfavorable for the US forces at home and in Vietnam for many reasons that eventually contributed to their loss and removal from Vietnam The US became involved in Vietnam in order to prevent communism from spreading in the East They met with the Soviet Union and China in 1945 to discuss their plans for the newly liberated Vietnam The Geneva Accords were made which split Vietnam along the 17th parallel into a northern communist half and a southern half controlled by the US This may have been a legitimate reason