The Impact of the Civil Rights Movement and Its Effect on Student Protests of the Cold War

One way that activists within the civil rights movement and others were able to show their support was through clothing pins and flags. Each one described a cause or showed black power in some way. One pin that is on display is a cream-colored pin with a drawing of a fist on the cover. The drawing was created by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This committee was a civil-rights group formed to give young blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement. The SNCC was created by students who also participated in the lunch counter sit-ins, as mention before, and represented the distinct values and struggles that the civil rights movement was all about. This fist symbol became widely used throughout the 1960s on pins, flyers, posters, and pamphlets.

Another event that was widely advertised was the March on Washington, also known as the March on Freedom. It took place in Washing D.C. on August 28, 1963, and it is most popularly known as the location of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. This march was not only for jobs and freedom, but it aimed to end racial segregation and discrimination in the Jim Crow South, as well as ensure equality for Americans of all races. Equality in education, affordable housing, and jobs that paid a livable wage. Nearly a quarter-million people (250,000) came from the nation’s capital to demand “Jobs and Freedom”. King’s speech uplifted and inspired the people ready to march and proclaimed that they all stand together for freedom.