Civil Rights Movements in America and Australia
![Picture](/uploads/5/5/1/1/55114121/2229659.jpg?313)
The
American Civil Rights movement was a movement against the segregation laws put in place by
Woodrow Wilson. The movement began with Rosa Parks when she refused to give
up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery which resulting in he jailing. This led to a bus
boycott that lasted for over a year in which the African American community
refused to use the public buses. Another famous public figure that emerged during the movement; Martin Luther King Jr. and his leadership with the peaceful, passive-protesting movement is essentially what lead the movement to victory. There were several different groups protesting for equality, most using peaceful methods however, Malcolm X and many other African Americans resorted to violence as they felt that the only way to retaliate against the violence white Americans inflicted upon them would be to show the same kind of violence. Many families within black communities bought firearms to protect themselves from the racist members of the KKK or the violent general public. Martin Luther King led a number of peaceful protesting marches, one of the most famous being the march from Selma to Montgomery which ended with the protesters being violently beaten by policemen. However, the march did achieve something as the Supreme Court passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This movement was the first successful equality movement that was achieved with passive protesting however there is still racism all across the world and the effect of the violence in slavery and during the movement still affects some members in society today.
The Australian Civil Rights movement was centered around the fact that the constitution only mentioned the Indigenous people of Australian twice, and one of them was to only state that they were not to be included in the total population of Australia and were overlooked during the census. The Australian Civil Rights movement was a movement to put forward a referendum in the Supreme Court. The Aboriginal people were already allowed the vote in most states and had the rights the African American people in America were fighting for however, the Aboriginals wanted to be a part of the population in Australia. The movement began with the protest against the Warburton Ranges which was an area in Central Australia where the British and Australian governments were testing nuclear weapons in and was where nomad Aboriginal communities were known to reside. A famous leader of the Australian movement was Charles Perkins, who led both white Australians and Aborigines in fight for the referendum in a peaceful protest. A famous incident in the movement was the Moree Public Pool incident was when Charles’ group attempted to enter the public pools in the rural town (where racism still existed) but were body blocked by the townspeople, including the mayor. Charles’ group focused its protesting in the rural towns around Australia as racism still existed despite the laws in place. They decided if they could spread the news of the protesting to the rural towns where communication of current events took a while to reach (whereas gaining allies in cities was easier), the news of people protesting against racism and gaining signatures for the referendum would be easier. If they could show the young teenagers and adults of Australia about the injustices of the earlier generations on the Aboriginals, gaining signatures and popularity in the poles for the referendum would ensure the referendum working, and it did.
The Australian Civil Rights movement was centered around the fact that the constitution only mentioned the Indigenous people of Australian twice, and one of them was to only state that they were not to be included in the total population of Australia and were overlooked during the census. The Australian Civil Rights movement was a movement to put forward a referendum in the Supreme Court. The Aboriginal people were already allowed the vote in most states and had the rights the African American people in America were fighting for however, the Aboriginals wanted to be a part of the population in Australia. The movement began with the protest against the Warburton Ranges which was an area in Central Australia where the British and Australian governments were testing nuclear weapons in and was where nomad Aboriginal communities were known to reside. A famous leader of the Australian movement was Charles Perkins, who led both white Australians and Aborigines in fight for the referendum in a peaceful protest. A famous incident in the movement was the Moree Public Pool incident was when Charles’ group attempted to enter the public pools in the rural town (where racism still existed) but were body blocked by the townspeople, including the mayor. Charles’ group focused its protesting in the rural towns around Australia as racism still existed despite the laws in place. They decided if they could spread the news of the protesting to the rural towns where communication of current events took a while to reach (whereas gaining allies in cities was easier), the news of people protesting against racism and gaining signatures for the referendum would be easier. If they could show the young teenagers and adults of Australia about the injustices of the earlier generations on the Aboriginals, gaining signatures and popularity in the poles for the referendum would ensure the referendum working, and it did.