American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to primarily African American citizens of United States. There have been many movements on behalf of other groups in the U.S. over time, but the term is often used to refer to the struggles between 1955 and 1968 to end discrimination against African-Americans and to end racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South. See African American for information on how various terms have been used at that time period for African Americans.

Background

See American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)

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and Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement.

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The United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, {{ussc|347|483|1954}} was a key turning point in United States history: after years of campaigning against Jim Crow laws and racial oppression, the Civil Rights Movement had obtained a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court reversing the "separate but equal" doctrine that had justified official racism for the past half century. While Brown itself was only a first step toward disestablishing school segregation in the South—a process that would require decades of litigation to accomplish, with uncertain results—it was even more important for its immediate political significance, as it gave the civil rights movement the added legitimacy of a Supreme Court decision declaring that state-sponsored segregation was both unjustifiable and wrong.

Related Topics:
United States Supreme Court - Brown v. Board of Education - Jim Crow law - South

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