The Civil Rights Movement: Striving for Justice

When Congress passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, black Americans were guaranteed equal protection under federal law and could attempt to bring an end to the deep-rooted racial discrimination in the United States. At first, blacks sought to achieve equal rights through the lobbying efforts of such civil rights organizations as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Established in 1905, the NAACP set out to combat the so-called "Jim Crow laws" that were used to enforce racial segregation in the South. Through the work of Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund won a series of cases culminating in the Browne v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954. The case declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional. After this historic decision, the civil rights movement began to gain momentum. Activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. engaged in nonviolent protests in the form of boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. Thanks to the hard work and determination of these defenders of civil rights, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law outlawed discrimination in public places, ensured that schools and other public facilities would be integrated, and made employment discrimination illegal.

Tim McNeese is associate professor of history at York College in York, Nebraska