Just What IS the Civil Rights Movement?:

The Civil Rights Movement is actually an era dedicated to an active period in U.S history in which people fought for both equal rights and treatment of the African American people. Throughout this period of time, people came together to fight for social, legal, political, and cultural changes in order to prohibit discrimination and ultimately, end segregation. It was a violent, dark point in our history, but also one that helped to make our country what it is today. There is no exact timeline of this era, but action against slavery began in the early 1860's  and ended in the late 1960's. Even in today's society we still see acts of racism, but nothing in comparison to that time period. This era took place mostly in the Southern United States. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and parts of Texas and Arkansas were the worst for discrimination. 

Civil Rights: The nonpolitical rights of citizen; especially those guaranteed to the U.S citizens by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and by acts of Congress (Miriam-Webster Online).

Movement: A series of organized activities working towards an objective; also, an organized effort to promote or attain an end (Miriam-Webster Online). 


The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment & the Emancipation Proclamation: The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864. The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, and it was ultimately a declaration that all the slaves were to be free. 50,000 slaves were free immediately, and the rest (around 3.1 million) were freed as the union army advanced into the south.