What New York Had To Say

Let's take a look at how people's views on African-American civil rights changed throughout the years. 

Everything here is from nytimes.com. They are free online previews of articles that were searched using the words "civil rights". 

What do we think of civil rights?

1949

WASHINGTON, March 19 -- The furious events of this week in the Senate have left the shaken and battered forces of the Truman Administration facing yet another great dilemma on the filibuster-civil-rights question.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0711FE3958107A93C2AB1788D85F4D8485F9

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 -- The Administration's Congressional leaders, with the approval of President Truman, abandoned today any effort to pass the President's civil rights program in this session. 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40717F93A58177B93C6A9178BD95F4D8485F9

Here should be a page titled "TALMADGE SEES PLOT; Says Civil Rights Legislation Is Communist Plan". It costs money to view. However, I think the title gives us a pretty good idea on what's going on.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F16F7355F177B93C0A91789D95F4D8485F9

1952

CHICAGO, July 17 -- A Democratic platform for 1952 pledged to the civil rights programs that Presidents Roosevelt and Truman tried and failed to get through Congress in a generation was demanded today by fifty-four fraternal, church, labor and professional organizations that asserted their membreship ran into millions of voters. 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50A11FA3E5E177B93CAA8178CD85F468585F9 

1956

WASHINGTON, May 25 (AP) --Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, urged the Senate today to approve the same civil rights bill already voted by the House Judiciary Committee. 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C14F73C5E16738FDDAF0A94DD405B8689F1D3 

1957

On both sides of the Capitol the proponents of civil rights legislation are edging forward toward an inevitable showdown with the diehard opposition. 
 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10910F73D54177B93C2AB1789D85F438585F9

WASHINGTON, April 20-- The civil rights bill, which has had to pick its way through a thicket of parliamentary barricades and trip wires, missed this week the first of a series of deadlines that had been tentatively set for it at the start of its journey through the Congressional maze last February.

 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10A12F6345A137A93C3AB178FD85F438585F9

1958

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 -- Changes made by the voters this week in the complexion of the United States Senate enhanced the already good prospect for significant action by the Eighty-Sixth Congress in the civil rights field. 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70A1EFB385B117A93CBA9178AD95F4C8585F9

1960

WASHINGTON, May 6 -- The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was signed today by President Eisenhower. However, it was expected to have little effect on Negro voting in this year's election. 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0B14FC3D5C1A728DDDAE0894DD405B808AF1D3

1963

In submitting--at long last--his omnibus civil rights bill to Congress in June, President Kennedy said: "In this year of the Emancipation Centennial, justice requires us to insure the blessings of equality for all Americans and their posterity--not merely for reasons of economic efficiency, world diplomacy and domestic tranquillity--but, above all, because it is right."
 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00D17FB355912718DDDAE0994D8415B838AF1D3

1964

New York's civil rights leaders, a large and varied collection of persons who represent all races and inclinations, are devoting more and more time to self-examination. They are asking themselves a question that society has been asking for some time: Just what constitutes a civil rights leader? 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C12F9385C147A93C1A8178AD85F408685F9

Civil rights leaders went ahead with plans to conduct a massive traffic stall-in tomorrow, the opening day of the World's Fair, despite a court order that was obtained yesterday barring the demonstration.  
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30817FF3B5415738DDDA80A94DC405B848AF1D3

1965

The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith has warned that despite the progress of civil rights there still exists a "stubborn obstacle -- the residue of prejudice left by long years of human slavery and segregation."
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A16FB345B147A93C1A9178AD85F418685F9

1966

Public support for the Negro and his problems is waning, white opposition is growing, and the civil rights movement is falling into increasing disarray.  
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B16FA3F5F137A93CBA81782D85F428685F9

1974

Five Federal regulatory agencies have failed to carry out their responsibility to erase employment discrimination in the industries they regulate, the Commission on Civil Rights charged today. 
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4071EF8385F137B93C0A8178AD95F408785F9 

1978

WASHINGTON--It was almost as if Benjamin Hooks were thankful for the opportunity to protest against South African participation in the Davis Cup tennis finals next month at Vanderbilt University. There will be the "biggest demonstrations this country has seen since the 1960's," said Mr. Hooks; the new executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50E14F93C5413728DDDAC0894DA405B888BF1D3

1983

The Supreme Court agreed today to decide whether Federal courts can hear certain civil rights suits that would ordinarily be kept out of court by state procedural barriers.  
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/15/us/justices-to-consider-the-time-limits-on-civil-rights-lawsuits.html

1987
 
Although a few civil rights stalwarts still confess to being uncomfortable with having anon-black lobbying for issues affecting millions of black Americans, others say Mr. Neas has long since removed doubts about his ability to represent, articulate and protect the interests of the conference's constituents. ''I don't think anyone could have done a better job,'' said Mr. Hooks, who is chairman of the conference, a coalition of 185 national groups representing blacks, Hispanic people, women, the disabled, the elderly and handicapped. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/17/us/washington-talk-leadership-conference-civil-rights-administrator-many-hats.html

And so you see the way the media of New York wrote about the Civil Rights movement. 

Reading even the summaries of these articles really gives you an idea of how the opinions of the general public were changed, and how the government was in the end influenced by their citizens' actions. These kinds of movements aren't easy, but they happen, and if they grow strong enough they can change something as huge as the problem of segregation.