Celebrating Black Culture The civil rights movement in the Deep South is well known and familiar to all of us. We all know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the charismatic preacher who was unquestionably the leader of the civil rights movement in the South. We have all also heard of Rosa Parks, the black woman who did not give up her seat on the bus and was arrested for it, she was the catalyst that sparked the civil rights movement. They were the famous people often mentioned in the civil rights movement. However, they were not the only people involved in the civil rights movement, there were many others and their stories are just as important as that of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. This reason is perhaps rightly the main reason why Howell Raines decided to compile this book, so that people who were present at the Civil Rights Movement would have a chance to tell their story. Rosa Parks, without a doubt, was the catalyst for all of this. it started the whole civil rights movement. His arrest and subsequent trial under a segregation ordinance was “inviting a federal court to test the Jim Crow laws on which segregation depended throughout the Deep South” (47). Thus the Montgomery Improvement Association was born in conjunction with the Rosa Parks trial, and later Martin Luther King was elected President of the MIA. Everyone attributes the beginning of the movement to Martin Luther King. However, according to ED Nixon, "If you want to talk about a boycott, it should start from the day Rosa L. Parks was arrested and not just from December 5, when Rev. King was elected president" (50). Clearly, Rosa Parks deserves credit for starting the Civil Rights Movement... middle of paper... Lately, the Movement has transformed the South and the entire nation. Finally there was equal rights for blacks, now they could sit at the front of the bus without having to fear a trial. There was no longer public segregation and blacks were allowed to integrate with whites. Now, some fifty years later, black culture has penetrated everyday life and become fully integrated into American culture. The airwaves are flooded with black music, black actors and actresses are gaining traction, and black culture seems to be the hottest thing right now. You can't walk around without hearing some sort of praise about black culture, from both whites and blacks. Some fifty years later, black people are no longer ostracized, they are now celebrated. Life, it seems, has come full circle for them.