civil rights movement

1. The national effort made by black people and their supporters in the 1950s and 1960s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. The first large episode in the movement, a boycott of the city buses in Montgomery, Alabama , was touched off by the refusal of one black woman, Rosa Parks , to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. A number of sit-ins and similar demonstrations followed. A high point of the civil rights movement was a rally by hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C. , in 1963, at which a leader of the movement, Martin Luther King , Jr., gave his “ I have a dream ” speech. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed after large demonstrations in Selma , Alabama, which drew some violent responses. The Fair Housing Act, prohibiting discrimination by race in housing, was passed in 1968. After such legislative victories, the civil rights movement shifted emphasis toward education and changing the attitudes of white people. Some civil rights supporters turned toward militant movements ( see Black Power ), and several riots erupted in the late 1960s over racial questions ( see Watts riots ). The Bakke decisionof 1978 guardedly endorsed affirmative action .

Example Sentences

But the real mystery and injustice came from Brooke being essentially written out of the history of the civil rights movement.

From The Daily Beast

But he also reminded the younger members of the crowd of the civil rights movement of the last century.

From The Daily Beast

Black-white relations had signifiers other than the overt events of the civil rights movement.

From The Daily Beast

In 175 well-chosen words, he sums up the trials and the grit and bravery of the civil rights movement.

From The Daily Beast

The video makes clear the struggle for marriage equality in the context of the wider post-Stonewall gay civil rights movement.

From The Daily Beast

World War II marked the beginning of an important step in the evolution of the civil rights movement.

From Project Gutenberg

Time, however, was precisely what Forrestal lacked, given the increasing political strength of the civil rights movement.

From Project Gutenberg

The influence of the church on the militant phase of the civil rights movement is one of the movement's salient characteristics.

From Project Gutenberg

First, if only for the constancy and fervor of its demands, was the civil rights movement.

From Project Gutenberg