The Twentieth Century and Beyond
Civil Rights Movement
African Americansā fight for equal rights began immediately after the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a continuation of that struggle. After African Americans were freed, they had to fight for better treatment from society. After Reconstruction ended, lawmakers in the South limited the rights of African Americans until they had lost the right to vote, had separate public accommodations, and were kept in a deliberate second-class economic status. Southerners murdered thousands of African Americans in lynchings. The migration of many African Americans north and west in the Great Migration was part of an attempt to escape persecution.
After World War II, the Civil Rights Movement gained strength as African Americans fought for their rights. The most visible leader in time was Martin Luther King, Jr., a Southern Baptist preacher who advocated nonviolent resistance to racist laws. Other groups and individuals also played prominent roles. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought racist laws in court, overturning school segregation in 1954 with the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. The Congress of Racial Equality led sit-ins and boycotts of businesses with racist practices, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee carried out voter registration in Alabama and Mississippi.
Much of the Civil Rights Movement focused on drawing attention to and disobeying racist laws in the South, which were collectively termed āJim Crowā laws. While usually nonviolent, this often provoked violent responses from Southerners. By the early 1960s, Americans from all over the country watched as law enforcement in the South attacked peaceful protesters with fire hoses and dogs. This created momentum for civil rights legislation. African Americans around the country put pressure on their representatives to pass federal laws to end Jim Crow practices. The bad press this created for the United States also pressured representativesāthe U.S. government found that the negative press over racism was embarrassing internationally. In 1964 and 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, respectively, ending many of the Jim Crow laws.
BE CAREFUL!
The Civil Rights Movement was not confined to the South. African Americans across the country protested against racism, ranging from workplace discrimination to police violence.
Example
The Civil Rights Movement was about winning equality for each group?
A. Women
B. Chicanos
C. Jewish Americans
D. African Americans
The correct answer is D. The Civil Rights Movement focused on African Americans, though there were other groups striving for civil rights in this period.
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