Anne Moody Civil Rights Movement

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After enduring the struggles of the Great Depression, groups of Americans who suffered unequal rights, specifically, African Americans, gays and lesbians, and women, began to relentlessly battle for the rights that they had been unjustly deprived of for so long. Authors Anne Moody, Betty Friedan, and Allen Young all give glimpses into the reality of the struggles of these three groups, and how they eventually emerged victorious and won broader rights for themselves. Though these three movements had distinct individual goals and strategies, by all occurring simultaneously, they created a landslide of social change that swept the nation, resulting in vastly better conditions for all involved. The 1950s and 1960s were pivotal for the success…show more content…
The goal of the sit-in itself was not as big as gaining completely equal rights for African Americans, although in the end, equal rights was of course the goal. The Civil Rights Movement had to start small; they simply wanted to be able to walk into a restaurant or diner and have the right to be served. Throughout the course of the sit-in, the protestors were harassed physically and verbally for several hours. In the end, the protestors were escorted out by the President of a local college, as the police refused to escort them out and protect them from the angry, dangerous mob. Moody stated “After the sit-in, all I could think of was how sick Mississippi whites were. They believed so much in the segregated Southern way of life, they would kill to preserve it” (Moody, “Coming of Age in Mississippi,” 239). The sit-in at Woolworth’s was a perfect example of how bad equality was in the United States during this era, specifically in the South; a completely peaceful protest met with brutal physical attacks, including a young man named Memphis who was repeatedly kicked in the head, and scalding verbal…show more content…
The battle for these rights, again, was sparked by the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, which led to the formation of many gay rights organizations. The primary way these men and women fought for their rights was by simply protesting. “Gay men and women denied that homosexuality was a crime or a sickness and publicly “came out,” holding marches, pushing for legislation to end decades of bias and discrimination, and calling for “gay liberation.”” (Rosenzweig, “Who Built America?” 668). These brave men and women began their fight by intentionally outing themselves as homosexuals, which at that time, was like putting a big red “X” over their heads. However, after a few years of such protests and activism, all their hard work finally paid off, “in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association ended its classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, and by the mid-1970s, a slight majority of Americans opposed job discrimination based on sexual orientation” (Rosenzweig, “Who Built America?”
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