Civil Rights Movement

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This was written July 4, 1776 but yet slavery was not abolished until

1865. “If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a

restaurant open to the public, if he can not send his children to the best

public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who

represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which

all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color

of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would be

content with the counsels of patience and delay? One hundred years

have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs,

their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the

bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic

oppression. And this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not

be fully free until all its citizens are free.” John F. Kennedy said this

June 11, 1963 with the signing of the civil rights acts.

During the Civil Rights Movement the

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