The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a political, legal, and social struggle by black Americans to gain full citizenship rights and to achieve racial equality. The Civil Rights movement was first and foremost a challenge to segregation. During the Civil Rights Movement, individuals and organizations challenged segregation and discrimination with a variety of activities, including protest marches, boycotts, and refusal to abide by segregation laws. Many believed that the movement began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ended with the Voting Rights act of 1965. However, there has been debate about when it began and whether it has ended yet. The Civil Rights Movement has also been called the Black Freedom Movement, the Negro Revolution, and the Second Reconstruction. There were three main tenets to the Civil Rights Movement, the Post Civil War Period, the Educational Period, and the Social Movement.

Following the Civil War, the 13th 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed. The 13th amendment made all blacks citizens of the United States. The 14th amendment granted them equal protection under the law. The 15th amendment gave black citizens the

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One of the earlier organizations was the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942 to challenge segregation in public accommodations in the North. Many of these laws were put in place specifically to hinder black voting. This was very effective because at that time no blacks would have been allowed to vote. They wanted the Civil Rights Movement to be headed by "Ghetto Negroes" because they had never lived or been influenced by the white "system. " These included free health clinics; free breakfast programs, soup kitchens, ambulance patrols, voter registration assistance, and community patrols.

The second phase of Civil Rights Reform came about through the educational system.

After the passage of the Voting Rights act of 1965 , the Civil Rights Movements began to move away from it non-violent roots. the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education. The group coordinated with the SNCC to push for voter registration. In it they claimed that the Supreme Court had exceeded its judicial authority, and encouraged school districts to subvert the decision. This was done because the blacks outnumbered whites in the South and they feared that given the chance, the blacks would attempt to take control. On February 1, 1960, four black college students from North Carolina A&T University began protesting racial segregation in restaurants by sitting at "white only" lunch counters and waiting to be served.

Approximate Word count = 1938
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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