Civil Rights movement: The Movement Shifts North - Business in United States of America

Civil Rights movement

Civil Rights movement: Pioneers of the Movement

Civil Rights movement: Outcomes

The struggle in the South won African Americans legal access to better schools and public places, including theaters, restaurants, and hotels. When the focus shifted North, where African Americans had legal rights but often lived in impoverished areas separated from whites, these gains seemed irrelevant and middle class to many African Americans. Access to a luxury hotel was useless to someone paid minimum wage. In the North, the Civil Rights movement’s goals became more pointedly economic. Businesses and professions were targeted, with activists promoting proposals for compensatory treatment for disadvantaged minorities. Although nonviolence had worked well as both theory and tactic in the South, where the movement was led by students and clergymen, less idealistic activists in the North leaned toward militancy. Organizations such as the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) became more strident in their protests, as new leaders such as Stokely Carmichael preached of “black power.” Some militants even advocated a separate economy, with black businesses to be patronized exclusively by African Americans.