Black Arts Era

This is my response to Kelly McCann, her question was… Discuss how the civil rights movement and the difficulties it faced affected the literature of the time period using examples from the assigned readings.
The Civil Rights movement faced a lot of adversity during its active years, especially in the Southern states where segregation and racial tension were still evident. Members of the Civil Rights movement were often arrested and imprisoned, despite the fact that they often used nonviolent demonstrations to promote their cause. Nonviolence was often countered with violence, which administered tremendous pressure on the Civil Rights movement to find the strength to stand up and continue fighting for their cause. The Civil Rights Movement took place between the years of 1955 and 1968, making it an integral part of the Black Arts era. The Black Power movement was initiated simultaneously along with the Civil Rights movement and helped broaden the objectives that the Civil Rights movement sought to achieve. Among these objectives were desegregation and freedom from racial oppression. Some of the organizations that had a hand in the Civil Rights movement included the NAACP, CORE, SNCC and SCLC. Some of the well known individuals who were heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. Perhaps the most active and outspoken advocate for the Civil Rights movement, Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Due to the immense impact that the Civil Rights movement had on the African American community at the time, its effect on the Black Arts era literature was inevitable. Some examples of the influence that the Civil Rights movement had on the assigned readings include “In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr.” by June Jordan, and “Riot” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Both of these poems were based on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the aforementioned leader of the Civil Rights movement.