Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s

The civil rights movement of the 1950s in the United States was the start of a political and social conflict for African-Americans in the United States to gain their full rights in the country, and to have the same equality as white Americans. The civil rights movement was a challenge to segregation, the laws and ordinances that separated blacks and whites. This movement had the goal to end racial segregation against the black American’s of the United States.

Many different acts and campaigns of civil resistance represented this movement. African-Americans and whites performed forms of protest and civil disobedience including 'sit-ins', boycotts, marches and other nonviolent activities. Out of this movement, came many successful achievements such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the segment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that “restored and protected voting rights for African-Americans.” But along with achievements, many outbreaks and controversies swept the South and caused casualties and the side track of acts of violence.

Background

After the American Civil War, three constitutional amendments passed that favored African-Americans. The Thirteenth Amendment of 1865, “abolished slavery.” The Fourteenth Amendment of 1868, “secured the former slaves their rights as citizens.” And the Fifteenth Amendment of 1870, “gave African-American males the right to vote in elections,” where at the time only white males were able to vote in the United States.

From the period 1877-1965, the United States went through a Reconstruction Era that tried to “establish free labor and civil rights of freedmen in the South.” Many whites living in the South did not like these changes and began to form their own mov...

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... a ten year struggle for freedom and justice, the Civil Rights Movement, that stimulated others to do the same at home and abroad.” It was an inspiration for those who pursued to disassemble de jure or de facto segregation.

Conclusion

The civil rights movement throughout the 1950s, was a threatening turmoil of violence, movements, and social reforms that helped shape America and show the result that men were not all equal. Civil rights still continue to be a struggle today in the United States, but there is a clear image of the forward direction us, as citizens, are going. Several Americans, black and white, protested, demonstrated, and boycotted all over America to end segregation, and gain equality for all. The process of the civil rights movement in the 1950s was a long and hard one, but the full efforts led to improvements in the equality of African-Americans.