Artifacts+of+African+Americans+during+the+Civil+Rights+Movement



The “Equality Now!” sign symbolizes, the signs that were used for protesting for freedom and equality. These were mostly used during silent, nonviolent marches. (Most marches were usually nonviolent, however sometimes, they would become rowdy). This replica of the sign represents what was used during the marches to get their point and words across. Martin Luther King lead many marches in which these signs were held. Also, there would be different messages on them. This one says equality now, but some others would say thing such as: We want our rights, or Freedom Now. What ever the message was, every single sign meant pretty much one thing and one thing only, and that was the African Americans wanted their equal rights. The way that the sign is symbolic to the Civil Rights Movement is because they were connected with peaceful protests, and peaceful protests were a major way to express their opinions. Protest signs were essentially one of the better ways that their points were made. Aside from large speeches, they were very helpful. All in all, a protest sign is a great example for an artifact because they were used all the time during our Civil Rights Movement.

The artifact is fingerprints. This is an artifact because many of the main leaders of the civil rights movement got arrested and then they had to get their fingerprints taken. They got arrested for many reasons such as running protests, and/or not following orders on a bus ride such as Rosa Parks did. We did this artifact mainly because of her. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. both had to take multiple amount of fingerprints through out their protesting years because they were the main leaders, and were the easiest targets to arrest. Taking fingerprints is symbolic to African Americans during the civil right movement because they were the ones that had work the hardest to get equality, and most of the time ended up in jail for doing what they thought was right. Also they are the ones who were not afraid to get arrested to stand up for their beliefs. All in all the artifact of a finger prints sheet that Rosa Parks placed her prints on is symbolic to blacks and their civil rights because it shows that the blacks were fearless while protesting.

This is a model of a bar. It has a counter, two stools, a milk carton, and a ketchup bottle. This is an example of an artifact for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. The ketchup and milk are are examples of what would be poured on the people that were sitting at the counter. (To learn more about what a “sit in” is, read the section of sit ins on our display board). As you have learned, the Civil Rights Movement held a lot of peaceful protests, and nonviolent ways of getting a point across. Very rarely would a person, or group of people use violence in a protest act. Sit Ins were another one of those examples of nonviolent protests. People would walk into a lunch bar and sit down, knowing they probably wouldn’t be served. They would just sit there until typically a group of whites would start poring foods and drinks on them. It was a very different way to get a specific point across, but actually worked well. A sit in is symbolic to the Civil Rights Movement because it was a major or main way to protest. All in all sit ins often took place during this time, and they were a great ban wagon effect because many people would be attracted and begin to participate in similar events.

This Artifact is a picture of a globe which obviously is representing the world, and then around the globe is a bunch of little black boys and girls joined hands with a bunch of little white boys and girls. This artifact relates to the speech that Martin Luther King Jr. made in his I have a Dream speech. Not only did he and some others talk about world peace, but there were many very special African American leaders who made it the focal point of their lives. Martin Luther King said he wanted to see the day when little black boys and little black girls joined hand as one. He also wanted people to “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. He made it his personal goal, to in his life time see the coming together of all citizens of all different colors. This artifact is a very powerful one. It pretty much sums all up what the whole Civil Rights Movement was. The intentions of these people such as Martin Luther King were none other than to watch our country change into a wonderful place for everyone. As you can see, this artifact of a globe with different races of people holding hands around it, is symbolic to the Civil Rights Movement because it was the main point that every black activist was trying to get across.

This is another one of our artifacts, it is a podium. You may be wondering why we chose a podium, but there is a very good reason as to why we did. You see, during the Civil Rights Movement there were many marches, protests, and other forms of fighting the segregation. But the one that we are representing here is public speeches, and other ways of speaking out to different crowds. It was very common for someone to speak out to a crowd at the end of a long protest, or march. For example, the most famous speech ever made was by Martin Luther King Jr. After a very long march called the “March on Washington” on August 28, 1963 from Birmingham to Washington D.C., Martin made the “I have a Dream Speech”. This was a speech he made that spoke out about wanting whites and blacks to rise up, and become one nation where everyone is treated equally. He made this very heroic speech in front of of thousands and thousands of people. The podium also shows that people no matter if they were as powerful as Martin Luther King was, they could still make a powerful public speech. In other words, this strongly symbolizes how blacks earned their freedom of speech. So as you can see, this artifact of a podium is symbolic to the Civil Rights Movement because all different kinds of powerful and meaningful speeches were made to the black community during this time.