Civil Rights Movement

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

1. Introduction

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States between 1954 and 1968, was one of the most important times in American history. With activities, protest marches and boycotts, organizations challenged segregation and discrimination. The Movement happened because not all Americans were being treated in the same way. In general white Americans were treated better than any other American people, especially African-American people. The Civil Rights Movement made the country a more fair and humane society for all. The term paper that you are about to read discussed some of the main events of the movement in chronological order, their importance, and who was involved in.

2. Early Civil Rights Struggles

2.1. Brown v. Board of Education

In the 1950’s, school racial segregation was widely accepted all over America. In most Southern states the law allowed it. In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case decided unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had set the “separate but equal” precedent.

2.2. The Emmett Till Case

In August 1955 a case that drew the most national publicity was the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi that summer. Although warned by his mother not to talk to whites, he ignored that warning, saying to a white woman "Bye, baby"