Civil Rights Act
-African-Americans protesting against segregation and fighting for justice.
Left Picture: <http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/3/27-0268a.gif>
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Left Picture: <http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/3/27-0268a.gif>
Right Picture:
Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still inhabited an unequal world of segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. “Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring change, and the federal government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the decade and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring change, and the federal government made legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others.