The Civil Rights Movement was one of the most pivotal eras in American history, as it sought to undo generations of systemic racism and oppression faced by African Americans. The movement faced countless challenges in the mid-20th century as segregation was continually legally enforced in almost every aspect of life, including schools, transportation, public facilities, housing, and employment.
Access to voting was restricted through a variety of means, like poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and violence, particularly in the Southern United States. These barriers ensured African Americans had little political power and remained marginalized from the wider country.
Beginning in the form in which it is thought today, in the 1950s and continuing through the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum. Activists used legal challenges, nonviolent protests, boycotts, and grassroots organizing to demand equality. The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 declared segregated schools unconstitutional and overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, setting a major legal precedent for future desegregation cases. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. brought national attention through movements such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington.
This worked well to influence the attitudes towards racial integration of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, who became more openly sympathetic and motivated to push change than their predecessors, which helped drive legislative change.
The movement encountered stiff and often horrific resistance from many sides, such as the rise of “Massive Resistance” by segregationists and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. but despite these setbacks there were significant victories and achievements such as The Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped secure African Americans’ right to vote by targeting discriminatory practices.
These victories laid the groundwork for greater freedom and equality, reshaping American society and giving hope for future generations of African Americans that they could live a better life than those before.