Civil rights movement

This article is about the 1954–1968 movement in the United States. For earlier movements in the United States and others elsewhere, see Civil rights movement (disambiguation). For other uses, see Civil rights movements.

Civil rights movement
The 1963 March on Washington participants and leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial
DateMay 17, 1954 – April 11, 1968[a]
Location
United States
Caused by
Methods
Resulted in

The civil rights movement[b] was a social movement and campaign in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which was most commonly employed against African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, and had modern roots in the 1940s.[1] After years of direct actions and grassroots protests, the movement made its largest legislative and judicial gains during the 1960s. The movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans.

After the American Civil War and subsequent abolition of slavery in the southern states in 1865, the three Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution had granted emancipation and constitutional rights of citizenship to all African Americans, the majority of whom had recently been enslaved. For a short period of time, African-American men voted and held political office, but as time went on Blacks in the South were increasingly deprived of civil rights, often under racist Jim Crow laws, and were subjected to discrimination and sustained violence by White supremacists. African Americans who moved to the North to enhance their prospects in the Great Migration also faced barriers in employment and housing. Over the following century, various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their legal and civil rights, such as the civil rights movements of 1865–1896 and of 1896–1954. The movement was characterized by nonviolent mass protests and civil disobedience following highly publicized events such as the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. These included boycotts such as the Montgomery bus boycott, "sit-ins" in Greensboro and Nashville, a series of protests during the Birmingham campaign, and a march from Selma to Montgomery.[2][3] The movement was led by Martin Luther King Jr., and press coverage of police violence against protesters with fire hoses and dogs during the Birmingham campaign increased its public support.

Discrimination was often supported by courts, including by the Supreme Court in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the doctrine of separate but equal. At the culmination of a legal strategy pursued by African Americans, in 1954 the Supreme Court struck down the underpinnings of laws allowing racial discrimination as unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The Warren Court made further pro–civil rights rulings in cases such as Browder v. Gayle (1956) and Loving v. Virginia (1967), banning segregation in public schools and public transport, and striking down state laws against interracial marriage.[4][5][6] In the 1960s, after the March on Washington in 1963, moderates in the movement worked with the United States Congress to achieve the passage of several significant pieces of federal legislation that authorized oversight and enforcement of civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964[7][8] banned all discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, including in schools, employment, and public accommodations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for minorities and authorized oversight of registration and elections in areas with historic under-representation of minority voters. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbade property owners from discriminating in the rental or sale of housing.

African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and the Black Power movement emerged, which criticized leaders of the existing movement for their cooperative attitude and adherence to legalism and nonviolence. Black Power leaders, including within the Black Panther Party, demanded not only legal equality, but also economic self-sufficiency for the community. Support for Black Power came from African Americans who had seen little material improvement since the civil rights movement's peak in the mid-1960s, and still faced discrimination in jobs, housing, education and politics. A wave of riots and protests in Black communities in the 1960s, including in Los Angeles in 1965, in Newark in 1967, and in Chicago in 1968 following King's assassination lessened support from the White middle class. By the early 21st century, though "affirmative action" programs had expanded opportunities for Black and other minorities, Black income levels and life expectancy remained lower than that of Whites.


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  1. ^ Williams, Heather Andrea (2014) American Slavery: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-19-992268-0
  2. ^ Newkirk II, Vann R. (February 16, 2017). "How The Blood of Emmett Till Still Stains America Today". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 28, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2017.
  3. ^ "Brown v. Board of Education". History.com. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  4. ^ "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1)". Oyez. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  5. ^ "Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States". Oyez. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  6. ^ "Loving v. Virginia". Oyez. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  7. ^ "Civil Rights Act of 1964 – CRA – Title VII – Equal Employment Opportunities – 42 US Code Chapter 21 – findUSlaw". Archived from the original on October 21, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  8. ^ "The Civil Rights Movement | The Post War United States, 1945-1968 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved October 14, 2024.