In the years 1961-1963 the campaign to advance the rights of African Americans made only limited progress in the face of bitter opposition. Assess the validity of this view.

The first reason as to why the statement is not valid is because of the use of protest and student groups. This makes the statement less valid because, despite facing opposition, protest groups were influential in enacting change for the civil rights movement. To begin with, the student protest group SNCC were heavily influential in bringing about change. They played an active role in the Greensboro sit-ins in 1960. SNCC used non-violent tactics to tackle segregation in public. The sit-ins proved successful because by 1961, this act of direct protesting spread widely across the south of the USA and in the same year a desegregation order was released in over 810 towns and cities. The protest did not come without resistance however; during these peaceful protests, the opposition hackled the students, spat on them and abused the youths. Despite this butter opposition, the desegregation order was still signed and enacted, showing the huge influence that protest groups had. In addition to this, protest groups proved to be influential in the Freedom Rides of 1961 in orchestrating desegregation on inter-state buses, thus advancing the rights of African-Americans. Both SNCC and Core were the main groups who played a vital role in organising the bus journeys and eventually persuading businesses and the Federal Government to bring about change desired by these activists. Furthermore, we can infer that protest group involvement was a powerful weapon in bringing about change, which therefore counters the statement because change did happen to ensure desegregation and campaigns were a success because of protest groups. With the help of SNCC, Core and the newly emerging Women's Movement, the ICC issued an order of banning segregation in all facilities in November 1961 as well as sparking the interest for other youths and protesters to engage in the civil rights movement, thus making the statement lack validity.On the other hand, it can be argued that the statement is valid and between 1961-6, campaigns to advance civil rights were limited because of the bitter opposition from the resistance of campaigners who were brutal and persistent. President Kennedy did very little meaning that change was slow. On the freedom rides, student groups like SNCC and Core were killed as well as some buses were set on fire. Futhermore, although an order was eventually passed enacting desegregation, many opposition continued to challenge this and the order was not enforced. In addition, the campaigns in Albany proved to be a fail. No aims from the campaign were actually acheived throughout the protests meaning the campaign was largely a failure in advancing civil rights. However, many also argue it was due to the violent police led by police chief Laurie Pritchett, where nearly 500 demonstrators were jailed. Police were specifically brutal at events in Birmingham in 1963. Bull Conor was a notorious segregationist known for his violent police tactics and forces used. He used high pressure hoses, which tore of the clothes of school children and attacked African-Americans who were peacefully protesting with police dogs. This shows the lack of progress to civil rights from the fact that the opposition from resistance groups in Albany proved to be a fail in regards to advancing civil rights, as it only sparked larger and more bitter opposition to the movement. Lastly, there was much opposition from government officials and the fact progress was extremely slow in civil rights exemplifies this. President Kennedy's three year term proved to be somewhat unsuccessful in terms of advancing civil rights. The civil rights bill was not passed until 1964, when President Johnson was in office. Furthermore, the bitter opposition through violent brutality and resistance groups as well as J.F Kennedy's presidency of doing little to promote civil rights meant that some of the civil rights campaigns did little to advance the rights of African-Americans because of this extreme bitter opposition.