research topics on civil rights movement

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48 Research Topics on Civil Rights Movement

Researching the civil rights movement is a fun process if you identify a perfect topic and if you have a strong foundational knowledge about the subject.

We will provide some of the best and most exciting topics you can borrow.

The civil rights movement in the United States, which was officially started in 1964 under the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, has resulted in enormous progress for African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and women. But nevertheless, much remains to be done, and real equality for all Americans remains a pipe dream for many. 

This article will list some great topics for research on the civil rights movement.

If you need assistance with your civil rights movement paper. Here at Academeter.com, we have capable writers who specialize in custom history research papers and essays.

After than brief message, let’s continue to the main purpose of this article.

Civil Rights Movements in the 1950s

By early 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that prohibited segregation in public educational institutions. As a result, the civil rights movement in the United States was born.

The Black Nationalist Movement took up the mantle left by the Civil Rights Movement and carried it forward. When compared to the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to reform the aspects of American society that contributed to social injustice, the Black Nationalist Movement sought to address the specific problems faced by African-Americans who were forced to live in slum conditions in major urban areas throughout the country.

The Black Panthers picked up where the Civil Rights Movement, the SCLC, and the SNCC left off by raising awareness of the situation of African-Americans living in ghettos, as well as the levels of injustice that still persisted at the time of their founding. Malcolm X was the most well-known leader of this movement, but several others were also influential. For example, in contrast to the Civil Rights Movement, where most of the violence was started by whites, the Black Nationalist Movement was characterized by armed blacks eager to achieve justice by any means necessary.

Civil Rights Research Paper Topics

• How did Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. influence the Civil Rights Movement?
• What were the most effective strategies employed by leaders of the Civil Rights Movement?
• How the murder of Emmett Till marked a new Beginning in civil rights movement.
• The significance of Freedom Struggle at the Library of Congress.
• How did the Youth Influence Civil Rights Movement?
• What was the place of women in the Civil Rights Movement?
• Was it more effective for civil rights groups to protest violently or nonviolently during the Civil Rights Movement?
• What impact did violence have on the Civil Rights Movement?
• The significance of integration to the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement?
• Understanding the leadership styles used by Civil Rights leaders.
• Were civil rights movements led by big name leaders or common people?
• Exploring the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest achievements and failures?
• How influential was Rosa Parks’s role in the Civil Rights Movement?
• What led to White people discriminating against African Americans?
• Significance of theatre during the Civil Rights Movement period.
• How can the 1950s be regarded as a major accomplishment for the civil rights movement?
• The Progressive Reform Stages in the Civil Rights Movement
• America’s Civil Rights Movement’s Unforeseen and Paradoxical Outcome
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• Why did the Civil Rights Movement emphasize the struggle for Aid?
• Exploring the Long-Term Consequences of the Civil Rights Movement
• Assessing Violent and Nonviolent Protest Techniques Adopted by African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement
• The America’s Supreme Court and its Role in the Civil Rights Movement
• The America’s Supreme Court and its Role in the Civil Rights Movement Did civil rights Movements Lead to Substantial Economic Empowerment of Black Populations
• The Role of Women in the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement in the United States and Its Influence on African American Communities Today.
• The Southern Jewish-Black Relationship and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Role of Students in the Civil Rights Movement
• An Examination of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the Role of Martin Luther King Jr.
• Comparing political freedoms of African Americans before and After Civil Rights Movement.
• White Opposition to the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Influence of Rock ‘n’ Roll
• African Americans and Religion and How Spirituality influenced the Civil Rights Groups.
• Discussing the Historical Accuracy of Ava DuVernay’s Portrayal of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma, a Drama Film.
• The Drug War and the Civil Rights Movement
• What role did the African-American Middle Class play in the Civil rights era?
• Experience with the police during the Civil Rights Movement.
• What achievements did peaceful protests make during the Civil Rights Movement’s Peaceful Protest Achievements?
• An examination of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.
• Exploring the history of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Connection Between Activism and the Federal Government
• To what extent did grass-roots activism play a role in the growth of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s?
• The Importance of Researching the Civil Rights Movement.
• A History of the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements in the United States.
• The Niagara Movement’s Origins and Impact on the American Civil Rights Movement.
• The Grassroots Organizers’ Role and Importance in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Impact of Society on the World of Doubt and the Civil Rights Movement
• How the Civil Rights Movement shaped Public Policy today.
• Comparing America’s North and South in the Civil Rights Movement
• Democracy in the United States and the contributions of the Civil Rights Movement

How to Write a Civil Rights Movement Research Paper/Essay

The following 8 steps to follow to when writing your research paper or essay about the Civil Rights Movement.

It is necessary for students to complete a civil rights movement essay because it allows them to reflect on historical events that have shaped present American culture. Learn some important recommendations that will assist you in earning an A on your paper about the civil rights struggle by reading this article.

Step 1: Guidelines from Your Professor for Relevance

First and foremost, thoroughly read the directions. Examine all of the materials provided by your tutor, including the grading rubric, sample papers, and essay questions about the civil rights struggle in America. Knowing exactly what is required of you makes it much easier to proceed with the task and earn a high grade on it in the long run.

Step 2: Explore Examples from Previous Research

Look through examples of previous publications on the subject. If you are unsure of what to write about in specific, you might look at the essays written by other students to get some inspiration. While reviewing civil rights movement essay samples, make notes on the content, the sources utilized, and any other pertinent issues that come to mind. This may provide you with some suggestions for what to include in your report and how to improve it to ensure that it meets the requirements of the assignment.

Step 3: Gather High-Quality Sources

Gather high-quality material to use as a basis for your essay. Scholarly publications and books are the most reliable sources. However, there are several reputable websites and news stories that provide unbiased information on the civil rights movements and other social movements. In addition, if the rules do not prohibit you from including a wide range of resources, you might include a large number of them, which would make your essay more detailed.

Step 4: Do not Ignore Background Information

Provide some background information on the civil rights movement. The twentieth century was important in the history of the United States because it saw a number of significant political and social events, notably World War II and the ensuing Cold War. Some incidents may have no relevance to the history of the civil rights movement, but their inclusion in the narrative will help readers better grasp the historical environment in which the movement occurred.

Step 5: Expand the Scope of Your Paper

Take a look at the larger history of discrimination in American culture as a whole. The most common civil rights movement essay themes center on discrimination as their central theme. The black community benefited from the movement since it helped to reduce discrimination and improve their social standing among other things. Women, Native Americans, and members of the LGBT community were among the many groups who endured prejudice throughout American history, as were other minorities and women. Are there any parallels between the ways in which these two groups campaigned for equal rights?

Step 6: Include Historical Context of Civil Rights Groups

Consider the historical context of the civil rights movement. With nearly 400 years of history of racial discrimination and oppression in America, there is a great deal of background to the civil rights struggle today. It is possible to discuss slavery and segregation regulations in this section, as well as how African-American communities responded to the conflict. For example, you may think about the Harlem Renaissance and its influence on Black identity, or you could think about other examples or cultural movements that have their roots in the African-American community.

Step: 7: Add Personal Reflection at the End

Tip number seven is to include a personal reflection if it is appropriate. In your essay, you might discuss what the civil rights movement means to you personally as well as how it has influenced the lives of your family. Additionally, you might look into racial prejudice in contemporary society to demonstrate that some concerns have yet to be resolved.

Step 8: Let a Logical Framework Guide Your Paper

Make sure your essay has a logical framework. Make certain that each paragraph fulfills its intended function. The opening to a civil rights movement essay should identify the movement and state your major argument in plain language. It should be followed by numerous main body paragraphs, each of which should explore a different idea that is related to the core argument. As a final point, address all of the points you’ve raised and illustrate how they relate to your thesis statement.

You will be able to produce an amazing paper on the civil rights struggle if you follow these few suggestions. Check out the rest of our website for more essay titles, themes, and writing tips!

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122 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

The Civil Rights Movement is a pivotal period in American history that brought about significant social and political changes. It is a topic that has captivated scholars, researchers, and students alike, as its impact on society continues to reverberate today. If you are tasked with writing an essay on the Civil Rights Movement and are struggling to find the perfect topic, look no further. In this article, we have compiled 122 essay topic ideas and examples that will help you explore different aspects of this influential movement.

• The role of grassroots organizations in the Civil Rights Movement.
• Examining the impact of Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on the bus.
• The significance of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the Civil Rights Movement.
• Analyzing the leadership styles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
• The nonviolent philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement and its effectiveness.
• The influence of the Harlem Renaissance on the Civil Rights Movement.
• Investigating the role of women in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on American society.
• The role of media coverage in shaping public opinion during the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision on school desegregation.
• The Freedom Rides and their contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.
• Comparing and contrasting the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement.
• The role of music in inspiring and mobilizing the Civil Rights Movement.
• The influence of the Black Panther Party on the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement's impact on other social justice movements.
• The experiences of African American soldiers in World War II and their influence on the Civil Rights Movement.
• Examining the role of white allies in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the feminist movement.
• The role of the Supreme Court in advancing civil rights.
• The Civil Rights Movement's impact on voting rights and political participation.
• The role of churches and religious leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
• Investigating the role of non-African American activists in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The role of education in promoting civil rights and equality.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the criminal justice system.
• The Civil Rights Movement's influence on the disability rights movement.
• The role of student activists in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on immigration policies.
• The role of grassroots journalism in documenting the Civil Rights Movement.
• The influence of international events on the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement's impact on affirmative action policies.
• Examining the role of the National Urban League in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on housing segregation.
• The role of boycotts in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement's influence on the labor movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on Native American rights.
• The role of local activists in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the fight against poverty.
• Examining the role of children and youth in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on public transportation policies.
• The role of the Black Church in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The influence of international figures, such as Nelson Mandela, on the Civil Rights Movement.
• Examining the role of African American athletes in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the representation of African Americans in the media.
• The role of the Civil Rights Movement in challenging stereotypes and promoting cultural pride.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the decolonization movement in Africa.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the desegregation of public spaces.
• The role of the Civil Rights Movement in challenging discriminatory employment practices.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of Black Studies programs in universities.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in promoting multiculturalism and diversity.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the representation of African American history in textbooks.
• The role of community organizing in the success of the Civil Rights Movement.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of ethnic studies programs.
• Examining the role of women in the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the fight against police brutality.
• The role of literature and poetry in capturing the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of Black-owned businesses.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in the fight against environmental racism.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the representation of African Americans in politics.
• The role of the Civil Rights Movement in challenging discriminatory housing practices.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of multicultural education.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in promoting interracial relationships.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of African American arts and culture.
• The role of the Civil Rights Movement in challenging discriminatory healthcare practices.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of African American studies programs.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in promoting restorative justice practices.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the representation of African Americans in the military.
• The role of the Civil Rights Movement in challenging discriminatory lending practices.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of Black feminist theory.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in promoting inclusive immigration policies.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the representation of African Americans in Hollywood.
• The role of the Civil Rights Movement in challenging discriminatory healthcare access.
• The influence of the Civil Rights Movement on the development of African American museums and cultural institutions.
• Examining the role of the Civil Rights Movement in promoting LGBTQ+ rights.
• The impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the representation of African Americans in sports.

These essay topic ideas provide a wide range of avenues for exploration within the Civil Rights Movement. Whether you are interested in the experiences of specific individuals, the impact on various social issues, or the movement's influence on other movements, you are sure to find a topic that suits your interests. Remember to conduct thorough research, cite reliable sources, and present a well-structured argument in your essay to effectively delve into the complexities of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Members of the “Washington Freedom Riders Committee,” en route to Washington, D.C., hang signs from bus windows to protest segregation, New York, 1961. Copyprint. New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Digital ID # cph 3c25958

The Relocation of Japanese-Americans, 1942-1946. Crowd behind barbed wire fence at the Santa Anita Assembly Center in California, wave to friends on train departing for various relocation centers located throughout the United States, 1942. Photograph by Julian F. Fowlkes. Copyprint. U.S. Signal Corps, Wartime Civil Control Administration, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (3) Digital ID# cph 3b07599

One of the thousands of marchers who participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in Washington, DC.  Source:  National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information Agency; Link: http://www.digitalvaults.org/record/1482.html?print=1

President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 while Dr. King and others look on. Photo from the Congress on Racial Equality's website: http://www.core-online.org/History/voting_rights.htm

Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit, following Supreme Court decision ending segregation. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (9) Reproduction # LC-USZ62-111236 (b&w film copy neg.)

Community and human rights activist, Harvey Milk, was the first openly gay person elected to public office in 1977.

A telephone switchboard during World War II.  Source: National Archives, Records of the Women’s Bureau; Link:  http://www.digitalvaults.org/record/2786.html?print=1

Father James Groppi with protestors, at Wisconsin State Capital during welfare protests.  Wisconsin Historical Society, Father Groppi and Protestors, 4934. Viewed online at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=N:4294963828-4294955414&dsRecordDetails=R:IM4934

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Civil Rights Movement Timeline

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 27, 2024 | Original: December 4, 2017

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by Black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s. Although tumultuous at times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws to protect every American’s constitutional rights, regardless of color, race, sex or national origin.

July 26, 1948: President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services.

May 17, 1954:  Brown v. Board of Education , a consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court , effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated.

August 28, 1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago is brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His murderers are acquitted, and the case bring international attention to the civil rights movement after Jet magazine publishes a photo of Till’s beaten body at his open-casket funeral.

December 1, 1955:  Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance prompts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott .

January 10-11, 1957: Sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states—including Martin Luther King Jr. —meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation.

September 4, 1957: Nine Black students known as the “ Little Rock Nine ” are blocked from integrating into Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas . President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort the students, however, they continue to be harassed.

September 9, 1957: Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote.

February 1, 1960: Four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. The Greensboro Four—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—were inspired by the nonviolent protest of Gandhi . The Greensboro Sit-In , as it came to be called, sparks similar “sit-ins” throughout the city and in other states.

November 14, 1960: Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is escorted by four armed federal marshals as she becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Her actions inspired Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With (1964).

1961: Throughout 1961, Black and white activists, known as freedom riders, took bus trips through the American South to protest segregated bus terminals and attempted to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom Rides were marked by horrific violence from white protestors, they drew international attention to their cause.

May 2, 1963: More than 1,000 Black school children march through Birmingham, Alabama in a demonstration against segregation . The goal of the non-violent demonstration, which became known as the " Children’s Crusade ," was to provoke the city’s leaders to desegregate. Although the police were mostly restrained the first day, that did not continue. Law enforcement brought out water hoses and police dogs. Journalists documented the young demonstrators getting arrested and hosed down by the Birmingham police, causing national outrage. Eventually an agreement was made to desegregate lunch counters, businesses and restrooms and improve hiring opportunities for Black people in Birmingham.

June 11, 1963: Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two Black students from registering. The standoff continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus.

August 28, 1963: Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, stating, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

September 15, 1963: A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham , Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests.

July 2, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. Title VII of the Act establishes the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to help prevent workplace discrimination.

February 21, 1965: Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.

March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday. In the Selma to Montgomery March , around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery—the state’s capital—in protest of Black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25.

August 6, 1965: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.

April 4, 1968:  Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.

April 11, 1968: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act , providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin.

Executive Order 9981. Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum. Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library. Governor George C. Wallace’s School House Door Speech. Alabama Department of Archives and History . Greensboro, NC, Students Sit-In for US Civil Rights, 1960. Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Action Database. Historical Highlights. The 24th Amendment. History, Art & Archives United States House of Representatives. History—Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment. United States Courts. History of Federal Voting Rights Laws. The United States Department of Justice. “I Have a Dream,” Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford. Oldest and Boldest. NAACP. SCLC History. Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Selma to Montgomery March: National Historic Trail and All-American Road. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. National Archives.

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Research Library

Find resources that will broaden your personal and global perspective on civil and human rights movements and eras.

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This installation lives in the atrium of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and presents a new set of cultural heroes for our time. This mural signifies a global movement of champions fighting side-by-side for human rights

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Martin Luther King Jr. Resources The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institution The Morehouse College, Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection The King Center

Human Rights Resources The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Freedom House Global Freedom Status Amnesty International Minority Rights Group International Human Rights Watch Human Rights First Freedom House

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African-American Firsts

• Miami hires first Negro police
• United Negro College Fund founded
• Dizzy Gillespie pioneers bebop jazz
• Smith v. Allwright – Supreme Court rules against Democratic Party of Texas on Negro voting rights issue
• First issue of Ebony magazine
• Todd Duncan, first Negro member of New York City Opera
• Richmond hires first Negro police Paul Robeson founds
• Crusade to End Lynching Morgan v. Virginia – Supreme Court rules against segregated seating on buses
• King v. Chapman – U.S. Circuit Court rules that Negroes should be allowed to vote in Georgia Democratic Primary
• Paschal’s restaurant opens in Atlanta
• Jackie Robinson, first Negro Major League baseball player
• Don Barksdale, first Negro All-American basketball player
• All-Negro Comic, first comic book produced by Negroes
• President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in the armed services
• Alice Coachman, first Negro woman to win an Olympic gold medal
• Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma – Supreme Court rules University of Oklahoma Law School cannot deny admission based on race
• Shelly v. Kraemer – Supreme Court rules that racially restrictive property agreements violate the 14th Amendment
• Truman administration proposes legislation to make lynching a federal crime and end segregation on interstate transportation, but neither bill is brought to a vote in Senate
• Edward R. Dudley, first Negro ambassador of the United States
• Jackie Robinson, first Negro to win an MVP award
• William Grant Still, first Negro composer to have his work performed by major U.S. opera company
• Gwendolyn Brooks, first Negro to win Pulitzer  Prize
• Ralph Bunche, first Negro to win Nobel Peace Prize
• Ethel Waters, first Negro star of TV sitcom
• Nat King Cole, first solo Negro singer to have #1 hit on Billboard Charts
• Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton, and Earl Lloyd, first Negro NBA players McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents – Supreme Court rules against  discrimination
• Sweatt v. Painter – Supreme Court rules against University of Texas Law School’s separate-but-equal policies Henderson v. United States – Supreme Court abolishes segregated railroad dining cars
• Duke Slater, first Negro named to College Football Hall of Fame
• Georgia state legislature votes to deny funds to schools that integrate
• Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man published
• In Michigan, Cora Brown becomes first Negro woman elected to a state senate
• Supreme Court hears first arguments in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
• Willie Thrower, first Negro quarterback to play in the NFL
• District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., Inc. – Supreme Court rules against segregation in Washington, D.C. restaurants
• Supreme Court orders re-argument in Brown v. Board of Education
• Dorothy Dandridge is first Negro woman nominated for Best Actress Academy Award, and to appear on the cover of Life magazine
• Charles V. Bush, first Negro page for the Supreme Court
• Hernandez v. Texas – Supreme Court rules that Mexican Americans and other races are entitled to equal protection under the law
• In response to the Brown v. Board ruling, Mississippi adds amendment to its state constitution, abolishing  public schools

A New Civil Rights Movement, a New Journal

Freedomways , the African American journal of politics and culture chronicled the civil rights and Black freedom movements starting in the early 1960s. Read it on JSTOR.

Freedomways , the African American journal of politics and culture that for nearly a quarter century chronicled the civil rights and Black freedom movements beginning in the early 1960s, started in 1961, a year that was a kind of transitional one for the civil rights movement. The sit-ins that had begun in early 1960, and the continuing demonstrations and emerging fervor, had made national headlines, but the movement hadn’t yet achieved the national stature that it would a couple of years later. Nevertheless, the civil rights movement was still a significant, if not yet overwhelming, news media story. The 1961 Freedom Rides, in which Black and white movement volunteers tested a recent Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on interstate bus travel by sitting together on trips through the South, brought headlines, photographs and television news footage of racist mobs, burning buses and bloodied civil rights activists.

In addition to this, the Cold War still raged. John F. Kennedy had been elected on a platform of liberal policies at home and anti-Communist assertiveness abroad. The war in Vietnam was a set of kindling getting ready to blaze. Domestic McCarthy-era persecutions of American Communists and those who associated with them had not yet abated. Several political prisoners remained incarcerated. Anti-Communist trials of political activists were continuing. The Communist Party itself would be indicted under the McCarran Act, which demanded that the Party plead guilty to being the government’s almost cartoonish caricature of the organization and register itself and its members under those terms or face draconian fines and prison sentences. Yet despite all this, the winds of change were in the air. One example involved one of the country’s most prominent political prisoners, the Black American Communist activist Henry Winston , who had been convicted under the Smith Act a decade earlier. He had been blinded in prison due to medical neglect, and an international campaign was mounted demanding his release. In July, 1961, President Kennedy would commute Winston’s eight-year prison sentence. Winston would go on to lead the Communist Party, USA as its chair for two decades.

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At the same time, a new generation of nationally prominent Black artists, not content to portray themselves as apolitical figures, embraced the new freedom movement. Some of these artists would become associated with Freedomways over the years. Among them were Lorraine Hansberry, whose A Raisin in the Sun was the first prominent Broadway drama written by a Black writer; actors Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee , and Harry Belafonte; visual artists like Margaret G. Burroughs, Charles White, Jacob Lawrence , Elton Fax, Romare Beaden, Elizabeth Catlett Mora; pioneering cartoonists Brumsic Brandon, Jr. , and Ollie Harrington; musicians like drummer and modern jazz pioneer Max Roach, as well as trumpeter Bill Dixon, saxophonist Archie Shepp, and their cohorts in what was called the jazz avant garde; and a host of new writers, led by novelists James Baldwin , Alice Childress, Rosa Guy, John Oliver Killens, and Julian Mayfield, and including a host of poets (Alice Walker published some of her earliest poems and stories in the journal), essayists, and political analysts. My own contributions to the journal came late in its run, with a couple of book reviews, and, in 1984, with an article on jazz .

The foregoing history was the setting in which a small group of African American left wing activists, headed by the then-legendary and notorious W.E.B. Du Bois, founded yet another Greenwich Village-based little magazine. Freedomways was unusual even in the world of little magazines of the era, where what may have looked unusual to mainstream society was actually, in the diverse intellectual world of the Village in the late 1950s and early 1960s, quite commonplace. But what distinguished this magazine were qualities that came not only from its editorial personnel and outlook, but from its history as well.

Key Figures

Within the context of the domestic Cold War, the African American community was one of the few places where the organized left still enjoyed a reservoir of good will as well as personalities that commanded widespread respect. Among the top Communists tried and jailed by the federal government at the end of the 1940s was New York City Councilman Benjamin J. Davis, one of the most important Black elected officials in the country. Du Bois, who was arguably the most highly educated American of his generation, had spent more than half a century pursuing a career that splendidly blended activism and scholarship. He was a guiding figure in the effort to create the philosophical and political framework for the civil rights movement. Yet the federal government had indicted and tried him on charges of being an unregistered agent of a foreign power for the “crime” of heading an effort that collected 2.5 million signatures to ban the atom bomb. Du Bois was acquitted. Others, such as Trinidad-born Claudia Jones, who had been one of the leaders of the country’s youth movement during World War II and became a prominent Communist leader, were deported. Still others, like Paul Robeson, had his passport revoked and was hounded and harassed by Federal authorities throughout the 1950s.

Robeson had founded a newspaper, Freedom , which gathered many African American left wing writers. It would only last a few years, but the group of writers that supported it would go on to become part of the nucleus for Freedomways . Founded as “A Quarterly Review of the Negro Freedom Movement” (it would later drop “Negro” from its subtitle, indicating that the Black freedom movement could no longer be thought of as a strictly parochial affair), the new journal’s earliest editors included not only Du Bois; Shirley Graham, an experienced, world traveling novelist, biographer, playwright, and journalist, served as the journal’s first editor. She was married to Du Bois. Early editorial board members also included John Henrik Clarke, the prominent academic historian W. Alphaeus Hunton, who was a leader in the movement for solidarity with the newly assertive, and increasingly victorious, anti-colonial movements in Africa (Hunton would spend his final years in Africa, in Gambia, Ghana, and Zambia, where he died in 1970), and Augusta Strong, a linguist, journalist, and educator who had been active in the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC) of the 1930s and 1940s, a group that historians credit as having trained many of those who would go on to play significant roles in the 1960s movements.

At the journal’s helm was Esther Cooper Jackson, another veteran writer and activist, who had been a leader of the SNYC and received some prominence during the 1950s as the wife of Smith Act defendant James E. Jackson, a prominent Black Communist who spent several years a fugitive after refusing to surrender to authorities to serve his term as a political prisoner. From the very first issue of Freedomways , Cooper Jackson was its managing editor — in effect the editor in chief — and would continue in that role during the journal’s entire 25 year run. She was its main organizer, and it was she who, most important of all, maintained the journal’s high standards of literary integrity, its array of prominent contributors from all wings of the freedom movement, and its enduring relevance.

Her primary collaborator on the journal in this effort was Jean Carey Bond, an essayist, fiction writer, member of the Harlem Writers Guild, and the niece of Benjamin J. Davis, who joined the journal in 1962 as a book reviewer. She continued to write reviews and essays, and she eventually shared editorial duties with Jackson, first as a contributing editor before becoming associate editor. Margaret G. Burroughs, who served for many years as the journal’s first art editor, was a prominent Chicago artist and a founder of the institution that is now the Du Sable Museum of African American History. John Devine, a labor activist from Philadelphia, would succeed Burroughs as art editor in 1963, and would serve as the only white member of the magazine’s editorial board. He remained with the magazine for the rest of its run. Burroughs would also continue with Freedomways as a contributing editor. Most of the people named so far in this essay would contribute to the magazine at one point or another as editors and writers, and the magazine would produce special issues on Robeson , Du Bois , and Hansberry , and on topics ranging from Harlem, Africa, Mississippi, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, to education and the Black image in the media.

It would be easy to conclude from this history that Freedomways was just another staid and dogmatic periodical, pontificating already digested truths about current affairs while relying on the certainties of a dubious ideology to make sense of and simplify the challenges of a complex reality. (This is a conclusion one can draw from what remains the most significant myth-making critique of the journal yet published, Harold Cruse’s anticommunist attack in his widely-read The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual [1967], an assault best answered by browsing the journal itself.) Such a description would miss the reality of Freedomways by a wide mark. For one thing, the magazine maintained its formal independence from political ideologies and organizations throughout its existence; and while it is true that many Communist and other left wing contributors helped solidify its political identity as a magazine of the left, what also distinguished this periodical was that it was a true tribune and mirror of the actual freedom movement that was changing the country’s social reality.

A Voice of the Movement, a Voice for the Movement

Part of the journal’s strength came from the fact that the voices one found in Freedomways were the voices of the movement itself. The first issue contained, among other things, a stunning nine-page historical essay by Du Bois, tracing the story of “The United States and the Negro” from 1861 to 1961; a report from Conakry by Alphaeus Hunton on the newly independent Guinea; John Henrik Clarke’s report on his trip to Cuba (the same trip that Le Roi Jones, aka Amiri Baraka, famously chronicled in his “Cuba Libre” essay of the same year); a speech to the United Nations by Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana; and a militant, pro-integrationist artistic manifesto by Elizabeth Catlett, praising the founding the National Conference of Negro Artists (which still exists as the National Conference of Artists), and denouncing the forced segregation imposed on Black artists, as well as on all African Americans at the time. The second issue contained an essay by one of the Freedom Riders who survived the attack in Alabama that left his bus a burned out hulk. Joanne Grant was already a well-known left wing journalist (she was the associate editor of the National Guardian, the country’s biggest-circulating radical weekly newspaper, and would go on to publish important work in African American studies) when she contributed first-hand reporting on Southern activism to an early issue. A 1962 letter from Julian Bond (credited to “Horace Julian Bond”), then a staff member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), offers readers one of the first histories of that pivotal organization. Bond, who died in 2015, also contributed an essay on nonviolence to the Spring, 1963 issue.

One singular contribution of Freedomways to the growth in public awareness of African American history and culture was the “Recent Books” feature that appeared in the back pages of every issue. This was an annotated bibliography compiled and written by associate editor Ernest Kaiser, a Black writer and essayist who was also one of the best-known librarians of the day. He spent forty years as librarian, archivist, and research associate at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. His bibliographies constituted a kind graduate-level bibliography in Black Studies, long before such studies became standard university fare.

Part of the radicalism of Freedomways was its insistence on being a journal that was edited and managed by Black writers and literary figures that also welcomed the contributions of white writers. The poet Walter Lowenfels was the only significant modernist American poet to be convicted under the Smith Act; he contributed poems and essays to early issues. Anne Braden, a well-known white activist based in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote on “The White Southerner in the Integration Struggle” for the Winter, 1963 issue. NAACP researcher Herbert Hill contributed a pair of analytical articles to early volumes of the journal.

Activists that wanted help explaining why it was that the South seemed so ripe for the emergence of a historic movement for social change in the late 1950s and early 1960s could look to the theoretical writings in Freedomways by one of their own. J.H. O’Dell had been a union activist in Louisiana and staff member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, with duties ranging from fund raising to voter registration. He had been a Communist until the McCarthy-era repressions impacted the CPUSA organization and membership in the South, limiting the organization’s public presence in the region. The intervention by the Attorney General of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, into the movement’s internal affairs illustrated how the government’s hounding of political radicals was brought to bear on the movement itself. Kennedy demanded that King fire O’Dell and other left wingers, or face open, official hostility. King complied. Nevertheless, O’Dell kept his ties to the movement while becoming more involved with Freedomways, and his first article for the magazine, “The Negro People in the Southern Economy,” appearing in the Fall, 1963 issue, was a landmark study of its kind.

“The Negro People and the Southern Economy” summed up both the conditions under which Black people lived in the region, charted how those conditions had changed in the nearly two decades since the end of the Second World War, and helped clarify some of the issues that catalyzed the civil rights movement. O’Dell firmly located the movement not only in the world of ethical and moral concerns, but in economic ones as well, focusing on jobs, occupational access, income, and unemployment. The movement, he concluded, was “crossing the threshold of its present, and entering a new period in its historical development.” It should be remembered that this article was written in the weeks after the 1963 March on Washington. This “ new period ,” O’Dell said, “ is increasingly marked by the struggle for economic well-being and greater political power, the two basic conditions necessary for the full enjoyment of ‘equal rights ’” (italics in original). Following “The Negro People and the Southern Economy,” All told, writes Ian Rocksborough Smith, in an invaluable 2003 study of the journal’s history, “O’Dell would have a tremendous impact on the magazine, penning over sixty percent of the staff editorials, writing twenty key strategy pieces over the twenty-five years of the magazine’s existence, and playing a central role in soliciting materials from activists for publication.” Freedomways would continue to chronicle, reflect, and advocate for these concerns, and for others as well. It came out early, for instance, against the war in Vietnam in 1965 (starting with an editorial written by O’Dell), published a two-issue special on the Middle East in 1983, and championed the presidential runs of Rev. Jesse Jackson, for whom O’Dell would serve as a principal advisor.

This essay has charted the early history of Freedomways , but the breadth, scope, and impact of the journal can hardly be successfully recounted in this short space. Let this short account serve, then, as an introduction, and as an invitation to read the entire run of this extraordinary publication . When read as a whole, this journal, founded by a small group of left wing intellectuals who were trying to find their way beyond the repression of the McCarthy era and contribute to the burgeoning movement of Black people for civil and human rights, offers an unprecedented and intimate view into the most important social movement of our time. By the end of its run, Freedomways had become something close to a journal of record of the mid-to-late 20th Century African American freedom movement.

READ THE FULL RUN OF FREEDOMWAYS ON JSTOR

Editor’s note: This essay first appeared as a Reveal Digital blog post in August of 2018.

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• The Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement sought to win the American promise of liberty and equality during the twentieth century. From the early struggles of the 1940s to the crowning successes of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts that changed the legal status of African-Americans in the United States, the Civil Rights Movement firmly grounded its appeals for liberty and equality in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
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At the River I Stand

Memphis, Spring 1968 marked the dramatic climax of the Civil Rights movement. AT THE RIVER I STAND skillfully reconstructs the two eventful months that transformed a strike by Memphis sanitation worker into a national conflagration, and disentangles the complex historical forces that came together with the inevitability of tragedy at the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Source: Kanopy

The Civil Rights Movement

The Supreme Court's decisions in the Brown case (1954) and the Montgomery bus boycott (1955-1956) inaugurated the activist phase of the civil rights movement. Disputes over busing and affirmative action clouded bitter political disagreements. The interracial civil rights coalition broke up in the face of militant Black Power.

Perspectives

At Canaan's Edge: American in the King Years, 1965-1968

These concluding years of the freedom era show King at the height of his powers even as his worldly prestige falls under withering attack. We witness non-violent advances for democracy in the face of growing factionalism and fear. We meet heroines and martyrs; enter a world battered by private doubts, public dreams, contagious inspiration, official harassment, and poisonous discord over the Vietnam War. The narrative begins with violence before the pivotal 1965 Selma march for the right to vote, a dangerous time. From landmark victory there, King's movement comes under threat from competing forces. Branch chronicles dramatic campaigns in Mississippi and Alabama, King's tormented alliance with Lyndon Johnson, his painful break with Stokey Carmichael over black power, and persecution by Hoover's FBI. Like PARTING THE WATERS and PILLAR OF FIRE, AT CANAAN'S EDGE is a magnificent achievement that brings the decades of the Civil Rights struggle alive and preserves the integrity of those who marched and died.

A More Beautiful and Terrible History

Praised by The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Bitch Magazine; Slate; Publishers Weekly; and more, this is "a bracing corrective to a national mythology" (New York Times) around the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement has become national legend, lauded by presidents from Reagan to Obama to Trump, as proof of the power of American democracy. This fable, featuring dreamy heroes and accidental heroines, has shuttered the movement firmly in the past, whitewashed the forces that stood in its way, and diminished its scope. And it is used perniciously in our own times to chastise present-day movements and obscure contemporary injustice. In A More Beautiful and Terrible History award-winning historian Jeanne Theoharis dissects this national myth-making, teasing apart the accepted stories to show them in a strikingly different light. We see Rosa Parks not simply as a bus lady but a lifelong criminal justice activist and radical; Martin Luther King, Jr. as not only challenging Southern sheriffs but Northern liberals, too; and Coretta Scott King not only as a "helpmate" but a lifelong economic justice and peace activist who pushed her husband's activism in these directions. Moving from "the histories we get" to "the histories we need," Theoharis challenges nine key aspects of the fable to reveal the diversity of people, especially women and young people, who led the movement; the work and disruption it took; the role of the media and "polite racism" in maintaining injustice; and the immense barriers and repression activists faced. Theoharis makes us reckon with the fact that far from being acceptable, passive or unified, the civil rights movement was unpopular, disruptive, and courageously persevering. Activists embraced an expansive vision of justice--which a majority of Americans opposed and which the federal government feared. By showing us the complex reality of the movement, the power of its organizing, and the beauty and scope of the vision, Theoharis proves that there was nothing natural or inevitable about the progress that occurred. A More Beautiful and Terrible History will change our historical frame, revealing the richness of our civil rights legacy, the uncomfortable mirror it holds to the nation, and the crucial work that remains to be done.

From Civil Rights to Human Rights

Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely celebrated as an American civil rights hero. Yet King's nonviolent opposition to racism, militarism, and economic injustice had deeper roots and more radical implications than is commonly appreciated, Thomas F. Jackson argues in this searching reinterpretation of King's public ministry. Between the 1940s and the 1960s, King was influenced by and in turn reshaped the political cultures of the black freedom movement and democratic left. His vision of unfettered human rights drew on the diverse tenets of the African American social gospel, socialism, left-New Deal liberalism, Gandhian philosophy, and Popular Front internationalism. King's early leadership reached beyond southern desegregation and voting rights. As the freedom movement of the 1950s and early 1960s confronted poverty and economic reprisals, King championed trade union rights, equal job opportunities, metropolitan integration, and full employment. When the civil rights and antipoverty policies of the Johnson administration failed to deliver on the movement's goals of economic freedom for all, King demanded that the federal government guarantee jobs, income, and local power for poor people. When the Vietnam war stalled domestic liberalism, King called on the nation to abandon imperialism and become a global force for multiracial democracy and economic justice. Drawing widely on published and unpublished archival sources, Jackson explains the contexts and meanings of King's increasingly open call for "a radical redistribution of political and economic power" in American cities, the nation, and the world. The mid-1960s ghetto uprisings were in fact revolts against unemployment, powerlessness, police violence, and institutionalized racism, King argued. His final dream, a Poor People's March on Washington, aimed to mobilize Americans across racial and class lines to reverse a national cycle of urban conflict, political backlash, and policy retrenchment. King's vision of economic democracy and international human rights remains a powerful inspiration for those committed to ending racism and poverty in our time.

Seventh-Day Adventists and the Civil Rights Movement

Seventh-day Adventists and the Civil Rights Movement is the first in-depth study of the denomination's participation in civil rights politics. It considers the extent to which the denomination's theology influenced how its members responded. This book explores why a brave few Adventists became social and political activists, and why a majority of the faithful eschewed the movement. Samuel G. London, Jr., provides a clear, yet critical understanding of the history and theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church while highlighting the contributions of its members to political reform. Community awareness, the example of early Adventist pioneers, liberationist interpretations of the Bible, as well as various intellectual and theological justifications motivated the civil rights activities of some Adventists. For those who participated in the civil rights movement, these factors superseded the conservative ideology and theology that came to dominate the church after the passing of its founders. Covering the end of the 1800s through the 1970s, the book discusses how Christian fundamentalism, the curse of Ham, the philosophy of Booker T. Washington, pragmatism, the aversion to ecumenism and the Social Gospel, belief in the separation of church and state, and American individualism converged to impact Adventist sociopolitical thought.

Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches

Including a never-before published speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., this is the first compilation of its kind, bringing together the most influential and important voices from two hundred years of America's struggle for civil rights, including essential speeches from leaders, both famous and obscure.

Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience

Spanning nearly 400 years from the early abolitionists to the present, this guide book profiles people, places, and events that have shaped the history of the black struggle for freedom.

The Race Beat

This is the story of how America awakened to its race problem, of how a nation that longed for unity after World War II came instead to see, hear, and learn about the shocking indignities and injustices of racial segregation in the South—and the brutality used to enforce it. It is the story of how the nation’s press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the twentieth century. Drawing on private correspondence, notes from secret meetings, unpublished articles, and interviews, veteran journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff go behind the headlines and datelines to show how a dedicated cadre of newsmen—first black reporters, then liberal southern editors, then reporters and photographers from the national press and the broadcast media—revealed to a nation its most shameful shortcomings and propelled its citizens to act. We watch the black press move bravely into the front row of the confrontation, only to be attacked and kept away from the action. Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision striking down school segregation and the South’s mobilization against it, we see a growing number of white reporters venture South to cover the Emmett Till murder trial, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the integration of the University of Alabama. We witness some southern editors joining the call for massive resistance and working with segregationist organizations to thwart compliance. But we also see a handful of other southern editors write forcefully and daringly for obedience to federal mandates, signaling to the nation that moderate forces were prepared to push the region into the mainstream. The pace quickens in Little Rock, where reporters test the boundaries of journalistic integrity, then gain momentum as they cover shuttered schools in Virginia, sit-ins in North Carolina, mob-led riots in Mississippi, Freedom Ride buses being set afire, fire hoses and dogs in Birmingham, and long, tense marches through the rural South. For many journalists, the conditions they found, the fear they felt, and the violence they saw were transforming. Their growing disgust matched the mounting countrywide outrage asThe New York Times,Newsweek, NBC News, and other major news organizations, many of them headed by southerners, turned a regional story into a national drama. Meticulously researched and vividly rendered,The Race Beatis an unprecedented account of one of the most volatile periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it.

Pure Fire: Self-Defense as Activism in the Civil Rights era

Pure Fire is a history of self-defense as it was debated and practiced during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s. Moving beyond the realm of organized protests and demonstrations, Christopher B. Strain reframes self-defense as a daily concern for many African Americans as they faced the continual menace of white aggression. In such circumstances, deciding to defend oneself and one's family was to assert a long-denied right and, consequently, to adopt a liberating new attitude. To grasp the subtleties of this activist approach to self-defense in the struggle for black equality, Strain says we must break down the dichotomies of the movement constructed by journalists, scholars, and even activists: pre-1965 versus post-1965 eras, nonviolence versus violence, integration versus segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. versus Malcolm X. These and other oversimplifications have led to a blurring of distinctions between the violence of racial animosity and the necessary force of self-defense and to the misinterpretation of nonviolence as passivity. Pure Fire looks anew at familiar figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and Huey Newton and at such events and issues as gun ownership, the Watts riot of 1965 in Los Angeles, and the rise of the Black Panther Party. It also profiles Robert F. Williams of North Carolina, Charles Sims of the Louisiana-based Deacons for Defense and Justice, and other outspoken black advocates of armed self-defense. This provocative new study reveals how self-defense underpinned notions of personhood, black advancement, citizenship, and ""Americanness,"" holding deep implications for civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights.

Eyes on the Prize

Produced by Blackside, EYES ON THE PRIZE tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Winner of numerous Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award, an International Documentary Award, and a Television Critics Association Award, Eyes on the Prize is the most critically acclaimed documentary on civil rights in America.

Watch on Kanopy>>

Civil Rights and the 1950s: Crash Course US History

In which John Green teaches you about the early days of the Civil Rights movement. By way of providing context for this, John also talks a bit about wider America in the 1950s. The 1950s are a deeply nostalgic period for many Americans, but there is more than a little idealizing going on here. The 1950s were a time of economic expansion, new technologies, and a growing middle class. America was becoming a suburban nation thanks to cookie-cutter housing developments like the Levittowns. While the white working class saw their wages and status improve, the proverbial rising tide wasn't lifting all proverbial ships. A lot of people were excluded from the prosperity of the 1950s. Segregation in housing and education made for some serious inequality for African Americans. As a result, the Civil Rights movement was born. John will talk about the early careers of Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and even Earl Warren. He'll teach you about Brown v Board of Education, and the lesser known Mendez vs Westminster, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and all kinds of other stuff.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S64zRnnn4Po

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History Day Topic Guide: Civil Rights Movement: Home

Quick context.

Edith Lee-Payne at the March on Washington, 1963. 

The civil rights movement to to end discrimination and gain complete rights of citizenship and began in the African American community in the early 20th century with the founding of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) under the leadership of W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett . The movement gained momentum in the 1950s with events such as the murder of Emmett Till , the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision and the Montgomery bus boycott . The civil rights movement reached its peak during mass non-violent protests of the early1960s under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. and creation of new organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration marked the culmination of the movement. 

For more background information on the civil rights movement see:

• BlackPast.org

• King Online Encyclopedia

Recommended Websites

The websites contain substantial primary source material on the civil rights movment. For additional websites see the primary sources section of the African American history guide .

• Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: Challenges and Triumphs in the Pursuit of Equality
• Brown v. Board of Education Digital Archive
• Civil Rights Digital Library
• Freedom Riders
• Martin Luther King Jr. Archive
• Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Oral Histories of the American South - Civil Rights
• Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project

Recommended Books @ UW Libraries

The UW Libraries has hundreds of books dealing with the civil rights movement.  See this list of books that provide overviews. 

Additional books can be found by searching for the terms " african americans civil rights history 20th century " as well as " civil rights movements united states history 20th century " in UW Libraries Search .

Recommended Primary Sources @ UW Libraries

• Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967
• Reporting civil rights

Search for Articles from the Time @ UW Libraries

Recommended films @ uw libraries.

Request DVDs at the Central Circulation desk on the first floor of Suzzallo Library. You can view DVDs in the Government Publications, Maps, Microforms & Newspapers (GMM) area on the ground floor of Suzzallo. Streaming films can be viewed while in the Libraries on your own devices. Ask for a guest UW NetID at a information desk to access streaming films.

• 4 little girls
• Eyes on the Prize
• Freedom riders (American Experience)
• Martin Luther King Jr. : the man and the dream

Recommended Manuscript Collections @ UW Libraries

The following manuscript collections are just a small selection of those available in Special Collections  (located in the basement of Allen Library South) that document local history. Manuscript collections contain unique documents (handwritten or typed letters, diaries, meeting minutes, photographs, news clippings, etc.) produced by people and organizations.

• Central Seattle Community Council Federation records, 1945-1984
• Civic Unity Committee Records 1938-1965
• Congress of Racial Equality, Seattle Chapter, records, 1961-1970
• Tyree Scott papers, ca. 1970-1995
• Last Updated: Jun 15, 2022 10:53 AM
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Civil Rights Law Research

• Civil Rights Legislation
• Civil Rights Cases
• Civil Rights History
• Civil Rights Archives
• Civil Rights News Sources
• Other Civil Rights Research Resources
• Getting Help

Originally written by former Harvard Law School Library reference librarian, Meg Kribble, this guide is a work in progress and suggestions on resources and types of resources that would be helpful to HLS researchers are welcome. 

While the initial focus of this guide was on the 20th century African-American civil rights movement, we are expanding to include material covering the civil rights struggles of other groups in the United States as well. 

Some "best bets" for getting started below. 

• Civil Rights resources on Lexis
• Civil Rights cases on Westlaw
• Civil Rights texts & treatises on Westlaw

Need more help?

• Request a Research Consultation Need resources that aren't covered in this guide or just want some personalized research advice? Members of the Harvard University community and researchers at HLSL may request an appointment with a research librarian who may provide advice on defining your topic, developing your research strategy, locating and using subject-specific data sources, and identifying potential research problem areas.

Subject Guide

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African american studies, archival collections, civil rights digital library, civil rights history project, civil rights in mississippi, federal response.

Global Nonviolent Action Database

Media coverage of the Civil Rights Era

Naacp (proquest history vault), finding aids and microfilm collections.

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Archives Unbound   

Digital collections of historical material on many topics. Includes manuscripts, printed books and periodicals, and government documents. Material comes from the U.S. National Archives, the U.K. National Archives, and many other libraries and archives.  Click on the titles below to read more about individual collections. 

The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries .

The Civil Rights History Project.   Survey of Collections and Repositories

The Civil Rights History Project Act was created by an act of Congress in 2009, sponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Carolyn McCarthy (NY) and co-sponsored by Representatives Sanford D. Bishop (GA), William Lacy Clay (MO), John Lewis (GA) and Mike Quigley (IL). The law directs the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights Movement (CRM), and to record new interviews with people who participated in the Movement.   There are 1308 collections are available in the database.

Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive

“ Mississippi was a focal point in the struggle for civil rights in America, and Hattiesburg, home of The University of Southern Mississippi, had the largest and most successful Freedom Summer project in 1964. The civil rights materials collected at the University document a local history with truly national significance. The Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive includes a selection of digitized photographs, letters, diaries, and other documents. Oral history transcripts are also available, as well as finding aids for manuscript collections.”

Civil Rights Movement and the Federal Government: Records of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, School Desegregation in the South, 1965-1966 .

This collection brings together a large number of documents on the implementation of "freedom of choice" school desegregation plans in the South and bordering states.

Federal records pertaining to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) ,  compiled by Walter B. Hill, Jr. [and] Trichita M. Chestnut. 

"The database, which continues to grow, already includes 50 civil rights cases.   You'll find iconic campaigns like the Montgomery bus boycott and some that are less known, like the 1958-59 sit-ins in Kansas City, MO and the 1960 St. Paul's College student boycott of a segregated movie theater in Virginia. The database is sponsored by Swarthmore College with support from Tufts and Georgetown Universities."

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement, 1854-1985

Life Magazine

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow

Television News of the Civil Rights Era,1950-1970

The NAACP Papers collection consists of 6 modules. The NAACP Papers collections contains internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the NAACP's work and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues. With a timeline that runs from 1909 to 1972, the NAACP Papers document the realities of segregation in the early 20th century to the triumphs of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and beyond.The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century consists of four modules: two modules of Federal Government Records, and two modules of Organizational Records and Personal Papers, offering unique documentation and a variety of perspectives on the 20th century fight for freedom. Major collections in these modules include Civil Rights records from the Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush presidencies; the Martin Luther King FBI File and FBI Files on locations of major civil rights demonstrations like Montgomery and Selma, Alabama or St. Augustine, Florida; and the records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files  

S earch this Module    Browse Collections

NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files  

Search this Module    Browse Collections

NAACP Papers: Special Subjects   Search this Module    Browse Collections

NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces  

NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files   Search this Module    Browse Collections

NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor,

and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses 

Printed guides to accompany microfilm sets are housed in Microform Services on A-floor in Firestone Library.

American Civil Liberties Union Archives, 1917-1950

MC001  Seeley G. Mudd Library           Finding Aid  

Consists of the records of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), documenting its activities in protecting individual rights under the leadership of Roger Baldwin. Its primary aims have been the defense of free speech and press, separation of church and state, free exercise of religion, due process of law, equal protection of the law, and privacy rights of all citizens. The collection contains primarily correspondence and clippings. Also included are the records of the ACLU’s predecessor organization, the National Civil Liberties Bureau (1917-1920) of the American Union Against Militarism (AUAM) and some material documenting a 1912 Industrial Workers of the World free speech trial.

American Civil Liberties Union Archives, 1950-1995

MC001 Seeley G. Mudd Library           Finding Aid  

Documents the activities of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in protecting individual rights between 1950 and 1995. The collection contains correspondence, clippings, court documents, memoranda, printed matter, minutes, reports, briefs, legal files, exhibit materials, and audio-visual materials. Also included are materials from ACLU affiliate organizations, the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee and national office legal department records (1945-1960).

Civil Rights and Social Activism in the South, Series 1-3

ReCap Microfilm 12030            Printed guide (FilmB) E185.6.C585 2007          104 reels

Online guide  to Series 1, Parts 1-2            Online guide  to Series 2

Series 1, Civil rights and social activism in Alabama. Part 1, The John L. LeFlore papers, 1926-1976 (15 reels); Part 2: Records of the Non-Partisan Voters League, 1956-1987 (29 reels) -- Series 2, The Legal Battle for Civil Rights in Alabama. Part 1, Vernon Z. Crawford reords, 1958-1978 (6 reels); Part 2: Selctions from the Blacksher, Menefee & Stein records (37 reels) -- Series 3: James A. Dombrowski and the Southern Conference Educational Fund (17 reels).

Civil Rights During the Bush administration: subject file of the White House Office of Records Management, 1989-1993

ReCap Microfilm 12460           Guide  (FilmB) E185.615 .B87 2008     23 reels

"Microfilmed from the holdings of the George Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas." “The documents reproduced in this publication are records of the Bush Administration, 1989-1993, in the custody of the National Archives."

Civil rights during the Carter administration, 1977-1981

ReCap Microfilm 12451           G uide  (FilmB) E185.615 .C3518 2006 

Part I, Sections A-D  

Reproduces document files collected by the office of Louis E. Martin, special assistant to the president, whose primary focus was on civil rights issues and minority affairs. Documents include internal White House memoranda, correspondence between White House and federal agency officials, government reports, invitation lists for major events, correspondence from individuals and organizations, and newspaper articles and editorials.

Civil Rights During the Eisenhower Administration

ReCap Microfilm 12450           G uide  (FilmB) E185.61.C483 2006          14 reels

Part 1. White House central files.  Series A, School desegregation.

Civil Rights During the Kennedy Administration, 1961-1963

ReCap Microfilm 05859            Guide  (FilmB) JC599.U5 C59                     47 reels

A collection from the holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts. Part 1. The White House Central Files and Staff Files and the President’s office Files.  Part 2. The Papers of Burke Marshall, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969.

ReCap Microfilm 05445            G uide  (FilmB) JK1717.L38          69 reels

Part 1. White House Central Files.  Part 2. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Administrative History.  Part 3. Oral Histories.  Part 4. Records of the White House Conference on Civil Rights, 1965-1966.  Part 5. Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission).

Civil Rights During the Nixon Administration, 1969-1974 . 

ReCap Microfilm 09172             G uide  (FilmB) E185.615. C587          46 reels

Part 1. White House Central Files.

Detroit Urban League Papers, 1916-1950, at the University of Michigan

ReCap Microfilm 09607                      Printed guide (FilmB) F574.D49 N454          35 reels 

Fannie Lou Hamer  Papers, 1966-1978

ReCap Microfilm 11839                        Printed guide (Film B) E185.97.H35 A3 2005a          17 reels

Noted civil rights activist and co-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations

ReCap ReCap Microfilm 12390                      Printed guide: (FilmB) E806 .F6917 2008          18 reels

This is a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement--concerned with the issues of lynching, segregation, race riots, and employment discrimination.

Papers of the Civil Rights Congress

ReCap Microfilm 11925                      Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.C59 1988          125 reels

Part 1. Case Files.  Part 2. Files of William Patterson and the National Office.  Part 3. Publications. Part 4. Communist Party USA files.  Part 5. Citizens Emergency Defense Conference.

“The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was established in 1946, and fought for the protection of the civil rights and liberties of African Americans and suspected communists primarily through litigation, political agitation, and the mobilization of public sentiment.  African American lawyer and Communist leader William Patterson served as executive secretary of the organization throughout its existence.”

Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967

ReCap Microfilm 04276            Printed guide (FilmB) Z1361.N39 M46 1980     49 reels

Founded in 1942 by a group of interracial pacifists, CORE was one of the most important national organizations of the African American freedom movement.

Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality: Addendum, 1944-1968

ReCap Microfilm 04562                      Printed Guide (FilmB) E185.61.P36

Papers of the NAACP

ReCap Microfilm 05354                       G uide  (FilmB) Z1361.N39 G84          1001+ reels

Organization records of America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.

President Truman’s Commission on Civil Rights

ReCap Microfilm 05573                       G uide  (FilmB) E813.J84           10 reels

Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970

Microfilm 10096                  Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.S687      61 reels

pt. 1. Records of the President’s office (21 reels) -- pt. 2. Records of the Executive Director and Treasurer (22 reels) -- pt. 3. Records of the Public Relations Dept. (10 reels) -- pt. 4. Records of the Program Dept. (29 reels).

Bayard Rustin Papers 

ReCap Microfilm 11662                Printed guide (Film B) E185.97.R93 B392    23 reels

Reproduces the papers of noted civil rights leader and political activist Bayard Rustin.  The originals are in the A. Philip Randolph Institute, New York N.Y., which were transferred from the Institute to the Library of Congress.

The Sixities: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974  (Digital)

Contains letters, diaries, oral histories, posters, pamphlets, and audio and video materials documenting the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America.

Southern Civil Rights Litigation Records for the 1960s

ReCap Microfilm 05448       Printed guide (FilmB) KF4756.A1 G84 or (SF) KF4756.A1 G84     170 reels

Contains the records of major civil rights cases from the archives of the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Lawyers Constitution Defense Committee, and individual attorneys.

William H. Hastie Papers.  Part 2. Civil Rights, Organizational, and Private Activities

ReCap Microfilm 11824                        Printed guide (FilmB) KF373.H38A25          42 reels

Attorney William Henry Hastie was the first African American appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Truman in 1949.  Part 2 of the collection documents his activities as a civil rights lawyer, educator, and judge.  Part I, covering his opinions are available in the Federal Reporter in print, LexisNexis and Westlaw (online in both the academic and law school versions).

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• Last Updated: Apr 16, 2024 11:33 AM
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While the Reconstruction Amendments were an important step in ensuring equal rights for all people, regardless of race, racial injustices throughout the United States continued into the late 19th and 20th centuries, leading to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and the passages of Supreme Court decisions and legislation, including Brown v. Board of Education , the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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What was the civil rights movement when was it active who were some of its leaders what were some of the civil rights movement’s core constitutional arguments, what did the original constitution say about civil rights, and how did later amendments transform our nation’s charter, what was the warren court, and what were some of its key rulings in the 1950s and 1960s what were some of the landmark civil rights laws passed during the civil rights era, what is the constitutional legacy of the civil rights movement, videos: recorded clases, civil rights class briefing document, civil rights class slide deck, civil rights class worksheets, historic documents and cases, brown v. board of education of topeka.

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116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples

Trying to write a successful civil rights movement essay? Questions about the subject may flood your brain, but we can help!

📃 8 Tips for Writing a Civil Rights Movement Essay

🏆 best civil rights movement topic ideas & essay examples, 🎓 most interesting civil rights movement topics to write about, 📌 good civil rights research topics, 👍 interesting civil rights essay topics, ❓ civil rights movement essay questions.

As a student, you can explore anything from civil disobedience to the work of Martin Luther King Jr in your paper. And we are here to help! Our experts have gathered civil rights movement essay topics for different assignments. In the article below, see research and paper ideas along with tips on writing. Besides, check civil rights essay examples via the links.

A civil rights movement essay is an essential assignment because it helps students to reflect on historical events that molded the contemporary American society. Read this post to find some useful tips that will help you score an A on your paper on the civil rights movement.

Tip 1: Read the instructions carefully. Check all of the documents provided by your tutor, including the grading rubric, example papers, and civil rights movement essay questions. When you know what is expected of you, it will be much easier to proceed with the assignment and achieve a high mark on it.

Tip 2: Browse sample papers on the topic. If you are not sure of what to write about in particular, you can see what other students included in their essays. While reading civil rights movement essay examples, take notes about the content, sources used, and other relevant points. This might give you some ideas on what to include in your paper and how to enhance it to meet the requirements.

Tip 3: Collect high-quality material to support your essay. The best sources are scholarly articles and books. However, there are also some credible websites and news articles that offer unbiased information on the civil rights movements. If the instructions don’t prevent you from using these, you could include a wide array of resources, thus making your essay more detailed.

Tip 4: Offer some context on the civil rights movement. The 20th century was instrumental to the history of America because there were many political and social events, including World War II and the subsequent Cold War. While some events may not relate to the history of the civil rights movement, they are important for the readers to understand the context in which the movement took place.

Tip 5: Consider the broader history of discrimination in the American society. Discrimination is the key focus of most civil rights movement essay topics. For the black population, the movement was instrumental in reducing prejudice and improving social position. However, there were many other populations that faced discrimination throughout the American history, such as women, Native Americans, and people from the LGBT community. Can you see any similarities in how these groups fought for equal rights?

Tip 6: Reflect on the sources of the civil rights movement. The story of racial discrimination and oppression in America spanned for over 400 years, so there is a lot of history behind the civil rights movement. Here, you could talk about slavery and segregation policies, as well as how the black communities responded to the struggle. For instance, you could consider the Harlem Renaissance and its influence on the Black identity or about other examples or cultural movements that originated in the black community.

Tip 7: If relevant, include a personal reflection. You can write about what the civil rights movement means for you and how it impacted the life of your family. You can also explore racial discrimination in contemporary society to show that some issues still remain unsolved.

Tip 8: Maintain a good essay structure. Ensure that every paragraph serves its purpose. A civil rights movement essay introduction should define the movement and state your main argument clearly. Follow it with several main body paragraphs, each one exploring a certain idea that relates to the key argument. In conclusion, address all the points you’ve made and demonstrate how they relate to your thesis.

With these few tips, you will be able to write an excellent paper on the civil rights movement. Check the rest of our website for essay titles, topics, and more writing advice!

• Impact of Civil Rights Movement The freedom to vote for all Americans became central in the civil rights movements, and one of its successes was the legislation that culminated in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• Civil Rights-Black Power Movement Barack Obama was aware of the violence and oppression of black people in the United States. It shows self determination of the black people in struggles for civil rights- black power.
• Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War The Vietnam War caused unintended consequences for the civil rights movements of the 1960s as it awakened the African-Americans’ consciousness on the racism and despotism that they experienced in the United States.
• The Civil Rights Movement in the United States In the United States, the 1960s was characterized by the rise of Civil Rights Movements, the aim of which was to suppress and end discrimination and racial segregation against African Americans.
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Leader of the Civil Rights Movement The psychology of a leader is the psychology of a winner. One such example is one of the early leaders of the civil rights movement, American investigative journalist Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, who, thanks to her […]
• Plan: Civil Rights Movement in United States The following assessment plan has details on the objectives of the assessment plan, the types of assessment plans, and the adaptation of the lesson plan to fit special groups of students.
• Music of the Civil Wars, Civil Rights & Freedom Movements of Europe, Africa, North & South America During the 20th Century The aim of Giovinezza was to reinforce the position of Mussolini as the leader of the Fascist Movement and of Italy.
• Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement is an era that was dedicated for equal treatments and rights to the activism of the African American in the US.
• Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement Based on 36 personal interviews and multiple published and archived sources, the author demonstrates that black women in the South have played a prominent role in the struggle for their rights.
• African-American Women and the Civil Rights Movement The key factors that left the Black women unrecognized or led to recognition of just a few of them as leaders are class, race and gender biases.
• The Civil Rights Movement: Historical Interpretation Rosa Parks was one of the pivotal figures in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and a critical event in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Goals and Achievements Despite the considerable oppression of non-white groups of the population and the fear accompanying it, the Movement continued to fight and achieved success in its goals, affecting the country even in the modern period.
• The Civil Rights Movement: I Have a Dream The civil rights movement has changed many aspects of the nation, such as housing, the economy, and jobs. The movement changed the outlook, the power structure, and the very core of the nation.
• Music and the Civil Rights Movement It was famous in the 1960s and 1970s and continues to live now.”We Shall Overcome”, like many other freedom songs, reflects the goals and methods of the early protestors.
• “The Souls of Black Folk” and the Civil Rights Movement At the beginning of the 20th century, multiple decades had passed since the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
• Law History From Jim Crow to Civil Rights Movement It was not until the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.that the problems of law enforcement in the South was truly recognized and reforms started designed to reduce the influence of political agendas on the […]
• Civil Rights Movement: Fights for Freedom The Civil Rights Movement introduced the concept of black and white unification in the face of inequality. Music-related to justice and equality became the soundtrack of the social and cultural revolution taking place during the […]
• Civil Rights Movement and Political Parties One of the examples of the effects of social unrest on political institutions in American history is the Civil Rights Movement, and it defined the general courses of the main parties as well as the […]
• Civil Rights Movement Distorted Image The study of the role and image of historical characters in CRM is incorrect and distorted. Rosa Parks is considered the person who informally initiated the movement due to the refusal to give up a […]
• Protest Music and the US Anti-Lynching and Civil Rights Movement In the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movement continually challenged the government to fulfill the promise of equality and justice.
• Civil Rights Movement in the USA Brief History From the Time Before the Civil War This was part of a planned act of civil disobedience in which Plessy was to be arrested, charged and tried, and the court case would then be used to challenge the law.
• Newspaper Coverage of Japan-America Internment in WW2 and the Civil Rights Movement The media covered this because this movement persuaded whites to join them in their mass protests and they were killed in the event.
• “Black Power” in the Civil Rights Movement They wanted to reform the system to ensure a more democratic and actively participating society in the decision-making process of governance for the country.
• Civil Rights Movement in “Freedom Riders” Documentary As a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of freedom movements, Nelson’s movie is a story of segregation and racism, abhorrence, courage, and the general brutality of the depicted events.
• The Civil Rights Movement: Martin King and Malcolm X’s Views King also stressed that the major concepts he adopted were taken from the “Sermon on the Mount and the Gandhian method of nonviolent resistance”.
• President Johnson in the Civil Rights Movement The problem of gay and lesbian rights appeared to be rather challenging and disruptive to the society. They include hippies and other social layers that were not eager to change things while others were trying […]
• Medgar Wiley Evers in the Civil Rights Movement Following the rejection of his application to study at the University of Mississippi, NAACP hired him as a field secretary to Jackson that was to the Deep South in recognition of his effort and contribution […]
• Civil Rights Movement by E. Durkheim and K. Marx The theories will also be used to predict the future of racism in the United States. The level of segregation experienced in the country led to new interferences and constraints.
• Civil Rights Movement: Purposes and Effects The civil rights movement was a popular lobby group created to advocate for equality in the United States for both blacks and whites. To a large extent, the civil rights movement completely transformed the lives […]
• Coalition Politics After the Civil Rights Movement Such coalitions also forced the American government to address the challenges affecting different cities. New policies and laws emerged in order to promote the rights of many American citizens.
• Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance in the Civil Rights Movement by Lance Hill The book describes the tension and struggles that existed between the African Americans and the members of the white citizens’ council, Ku Klux Klan.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King noticed the negative trend and he took his stand to make people see the devastating effects of the war.
• Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson: the Civil Rights Movement The social historians have managed to cogently present the politics that surrounded the civil rights movement. The movement also managed to gain the support of the aims of government, the executive, legislature, and even the […]
• The Civil Rights Movement in the USA The movement’s main aim was to end the racial segregation and fight for the voting power of the black people in America.
• The Civil Rights Movement Although the positive role of the Civil Rights Movement for changing the role of the African Americans in the American society is visible, this topic is also essential to be discussed because the movement for […]
• The Contributions of Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks to the Civil Rights Movement Among these were Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks who used literary works to voice out their displeasure on the discrimination against blacks as well as portray a humanitarian point of view on the plight of […]
• The Civil Rights Movement: Oppressing the Black Population In response, the black citizen resorted to fighting for his rights; thus, the rise of the civil rights movement. In conclusion, these key events helped to reinforce the African American struggle for equal right rights, […]
• Silent Voices of the Modern Civil Rights Movement This is the why she gets my nomination for recognition in the “Museum of Silent Voices of the Modern Civil Rights Movement”.
• Dr. King’s Role in United States Civil Rights Movement His popularity started after he led other activists in boycotting the services of the Montgomery Bus Service in the year 1955 after an incident of open discrimination of a black woman in the bus. Martin […]
• The Civil Rights Act as a Milestone Element of American Legislation Although the Civil Rights Act has undergone several amendments, the Civil Right Act amendment of 1964 was the main amendment that addressed the above types of discrimination.
• Harold Washington With Civil Rights Movement Hence, this study examines the main achievements of Harold Washington in the fields of employment, racism, equality in provision of social amenities, gender equality, freedom of expression, and the creation of the ethics commission in […]
• American Africans Action in the Struggle for Equality Community leaders in various segmentations of the society had showed resistance to the white supremacy and domination against the African Americans which had been abounded in some states.’Everyday’s Use’ written at the peak of the […]
• The Civil Rights Movement: Ending Racial Discrimination and Segregation in America Finally, the paper will look at both the positive and negative achievements of the civil rights movements including an assessment of how the rights movement continues to influence the socio-economic and political aspects of the […]
• Civil Rights Movement Major Events in 1954-1968 This research paper seeks to highlight the historical events that took place in 1954-1968 in the United States which were instigated by the Civil Rights Movement in the hope of securing the civil and basic […]
• The African American Civil Rights Movement During the 1960s notable achievements were made including the passage of a Civil rights Act in 1964 that outlawed any form of discrimination towards people of a different “race, color or national origin in employment […]
• Theatre in the Era of the Civil Rights Movement
• To What Extent Can the 1950’s Be Viewed as a Great Success for the Civil Rights Movement
• The Stages of the Progressive Reform in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Contradicting Outcome of the Civil Rights Movement in America
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• The Fight for Aid from the Civil Rights Movement
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• Violent and Non-violent Methods of Protests Embraced by African American in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Role of The Supreme Court in the Civil Rights Movement
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• U.S. Democracy and the Civil Rights Movement
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• White Resistance to the Civil Rights Movement
• The Impact of Rock ‘n’ Roll on the Civil Rights Movement
• African Americans and Religion During the Civil Rights Movement
• The Historical Accuracy of the Portrayal of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma, a Drama Film by Ava DuVernay
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• Analyzing the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War
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• The Relationship Between Activism and Federal Government During the Civil Rights Movement
• To What Extent Was Grass Roots Activism a Significant Reason to Why the Civil Rights Movement Grew in the 1950s and 1960s
• The Value of Studying the Civil Rights Movement
• A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Feminist Movement in the United States
• The Foundation of the Niagara Movement and Its Influence on the Civil Rights Movement in America
• The Role of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement
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• The Laws in the Reconstruction Era and the Civil Rights Movement
• How Effective Was the Early Civil Rights Movement in Advancing Black Civil Rights in 1880-1990?
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• How Did the African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s?
• Did Minority Rights Campaigners Copy the Tactics of the Black American Civil Rights Movement?
• What is the NAACP’s Impact on the Civil Rights Movement in the US?
• How Did Gandhi Influence the Civil Rights Movement?
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• How Far Was the Effectiveness of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s Limited by Internal Divisions?
• How the Cold War Promoted the Civil Rights Movement in America, and How It Promoted Change?
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• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Change America?
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• How Did Kennedy and His Administration Effect the Civil Rights Movement?
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• How the Civil Rights Movement Influenced the Women?
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• Are the Problems Faced by the Feminist and Sexual Emancipation Movements Similar to Those Faced by Civil Rights Movement, or Are There Major Differences?
• Was the Civil Rights Movement Successful?
• Has America Really Changed Since the Civil Rights Movement?
• Why Was the Civil Rights Movement Successful by 1965?
• How Did Religion Influence Martin Luther King, Jr as He Led the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Significant Was Martin Luther King Jr. to the Black Civil Rights Movement?
• How Did Martin Luther Kings Jr Death Affect the Civil Rights Movement?
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• Was the Civil Rights Movement a Success or Failure?
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IvyPanda. (2024, February 23). 116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/civil-rights-movement-essay-examples/

"116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples." IvyPanda , 23 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/civil-rights-movement-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples'. 23 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples." February 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/civil-rights-movement-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples." February 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/civil-rights-movement-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "116 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics & Examples." February 23, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/civil-rights-movement-essay-examples/.

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Civil Rights Movements

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Finding Primary Sources about Civil Rights Movements

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By Leffler, Warren K., photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

General Primary Source Collections

• UC San Diego Digital Collection (View by Collection) View the UC San Diego Digital Collections by collection, including Chinese Cultural Revolution Posters, the Herman Baca Collection, Tell Us How UC It: History of Student Activism Timeline, etc.
• NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) is a scholarly organization devoted to forging links between the material archive of the nineteenth century and the digital research environment of the twenty-first.
• Brown University Archives and Manuscript Collections Online The manuscripts and archives of Brown University are a rich and diverse resource for students, faculty, and other researchers from a variety of disciplines. The collections are particularly strong in the following areas: American literature (especially poetry and drama), American political and diplomatic history, Rhode Island history, women's studies, history of education, and history of science.
• Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Digital Collections (Yale Universlty) Search for photographs, textual documents, illuminated manuscripts, maps, works of art, and books from the Beinecke's collections. Some materials in this database may be protected by U.S. or international copyright laws or by privacy and publicity rights. Be sure to use the pull-down menu to view all the available collections.
• Internet Archive The Internet Archive was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

Collections that Span Multiple Civil Rights Movement

• The '60s Center-University of Virginia Sixties Project: Primary Document Archive has several good links to primary source archives related to 1960’s civil rights movements, like the Black Panther Party, National Indian Youth Council, and the Young Lords Party.
• Decolonization Resource Collection: the Americas The Teaching Decolonization Resource Collection provides a range of materials to support the study of decolonization in the classroom. This diverse collection of resources is, in part, an outgrowth of the National History Center's decade-long International Decolonization Seminar. Primary and secondary sources are organized by region and theme, this collection is about movements in the Americas.
• Crowded Page (University of Nebraska-Lincoln & Lehigh University) The Crowded Page is an effort to test a theory: can digital technology give scholars a better understanding of the intricate network of relationships that bring works of art and literature into being? Can data mining and visualization tools reveal what might not be readily apparent through traditional methods of research? The datasets right now are focused on two discrete creative communities: the group located around Charles Pfaff's beer cellar in mid-nineteenth-century New York City; and the Greenwich Village "Bohemians" of the 1910s.
• Documenting the American South Documenting the American South (DocSouth), a digital publishing initiative sponsored by the University Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.
• Early Americas Digital Archive (Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities) The Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820. Open to the public for research and teaching purposes, EADA is published and supported by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) under the general editorship of Professor Ralph Bauer, at the University of Maryland at College Park. Intended as a long-term and inter-disciplinary project in progress committed to exploring the intersections between traditional humanities research and digital technologies, it invites scholars from all disciplines to submit their editions of early American texts for publication on this site.
• Witness to the Early American Experience The digital images of historical documents in this archive preserve the words of hundreds of eyewitnesses to the American Revolution in and around New York City. The letters, newspapers, broadsides, legal records, and maps presented here record events from the early years of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam through the British occupation of the city during the Revolution. Here you can explore the history of New York through the words of those who lived it.
• Making of America (Cornell University) The Cornell University Library Making of America Collection is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
• Modernist Journals Project The MJP is a multi-faceted project that aims to be a major resource for the study of modernism and its rise in the English-speaking world, with periodical literature as its central concern. The historical scope of the project has a chronological range of 1890 to 1922 (though the earliest journals that currently appear on the site date from 1896 and 1904), and a geographical range that extends to wherever English language periodicals were published.
• Text Creation Partnership (TCP) TCP provides access to subsets of the texts contained in three large historical text collections: Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, and Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans. Texts in the TCP subsets have been enhanced by additional textual mark-up to enable searching options more sophisticated than what is possible in the original databases.
• National Park Service: Civil Rights Movement Archive The Civil Rights Movement Archive is a website dedicated to telling the history of the movement from the perspective of those who were there. For many years, the name of the website was "Civil Rights Movement Veterans." The name was changed in 2019 to "Civil Rights Movement Archive" to reflect its growing importance as a repository of up from below and inside-out history as seen and interpreted by thse who were on the front lines of the movement. The Civil Rights Movement Archive provides a history of the movement through photographs, digitized versions of original movement documents, personal stories and histories, narratives and interviews, as well as memorials and tributes to those who have passed on. The site also includes frequently asked questions (FAQs), poetry, a speakers list, veteran contact information, and an extensive movement-related bibliography and list of web links.
• National Archives: Civil Rights Primary Sources and Collections Items and collections related to civil rights movements, including arrest records of Rosa Parks, court documents related to Martin Luther King Jr., and others.
• Civil Rights Digital Library: Documenting America's Struggle for Racial Equality The struggle for racial equality in the 1950s and 1960s is among the most far-reaching social movements in the nation's history, and it represents a crucial step in the evolution of American democracy. The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries. The CRDL provides educator resources and contextual materials, including Freedom on Film, relating instructive stories and discussion questions from the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia, delivering engaging online articles and multimedia.

Collections pertaining to a Specific Topic/Movement/Person

• Washington Prison History Project The Washington Prison History Project is a multimedia effort to document the history of prisoner activism and policy in our state. The site features a robust collection of prisoner-produced newspapers from the late 20th century; oral histories and testimonials about the Washington state prison system; research on local histories of punishment; and a text-adventure computer game designed inside a maximum security prison.
• Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective is a group of researchers, educators, students, archivists and technologists dedicated to preserving imperiled Chicanx and Latinx histories of the long Civil Rights Era. Started by Professor Maria Cotera and filmmaker Linda Garcia Merchant in 2009, CPMR has traveled to over one dozen states to collect hundreds of hours of oral histories with notable Chicanas, Latinas, and allies. The project has also scanned personal archives for preservation and access.
• The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project-The University of Washington This multi-media web site brings the vital history of Seattle's civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies, more than 300 pages in all. Based at the University of Washington, the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project is a collaboration between community groups and UW faculty and students.
• African American Women Writers of the 19th Century (NYPL) African American Women Writers of the 19th Century is a digital collection of some 52 published works by 19th-century black women writers. A part of the Digital Schomburg, this collection provides access to the thought, perspectives and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920.
• Charles Chestnutt Digital Archive This site offers an extensive collection of works by Chesnutt, including novels, short stories, essays, reviews, and poems. In addition to electronic versions of those works by Chesnutt that are readily available in print, our collection includes hard-to-find stories, reviews, essays, and poems, (including one transcribed from a manuscript in the Chesnutt collection at Fisk University). Many of the texts have been scanned directly from original print periodical versions. The site also includes a deep collection of reviews by others of Chesnutt's works, and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
• Digital Thoreau Digital Thoreau is a resource and a community dedicated to promoting the deliberate reading of Thoreau's works in new ways, ways that take advantage of technology to illuminate Thoreau's creative process and facilitate thoughtful conversation about his words and ideas.
• Women's Travel Diaries (Duke University) The diaries in this digital collection were written by British and American women who documented their travels to places around the globe, including India, the West Indies, countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as around the United States.
• Wright American Fiction 1851-1875 (Indiana University) American fiction was still in its infancy in the years 1851-1875, but this period saw publication of works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Dean Howells, and Herman Melville. Many of these authors, especially Twain, Harte and Howells, had just begun their writing careers during this period and went on to write their best known work later. However, most of the authors contained in the bibliography are little known.
• Mark Twain Project (University of California) Mark Twain Project Online applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents.
• Melville Electronic Library The Herman Melville Electronic Library (MEL) is an in-progress project that aims to be an online center for Melville studies. The "Editions" section currently includes digitized versions of the first British and American editions of Melville's Moby-Dick and Billy Budd.
• Radical Scatters: Emily Dickinson's Late Fragments and Related Texts, 1870-1886 Radical Scatters, developed by Marta Werner and hosted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a collection of digitized facsimiles and transcripts of over one hundred fragmentary texts composed by Emily Dickinson between 1870 and 1886. Documents can be searched and browsed in a variety of ways. The site also includes critical introductions to the fragments.
• The Valley of the Shadow (University of Virginia) The Valley of the Shadow is a digital archive of primary sources that document the lives of people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania, during the era of the American Civil War. Here you may explore thousands of original documents that allow you to see what life was like during the Civil War for the men and women of Augusta and Franklin.
• The Vault at Pfaff's (Lehigh University) Charles Pfaff's beer cellar in lower Manhattan was a magnet for some of the most unconventional and creative individuals of nineteenth-century New York City, including Walt Whitman, poet and actress Adah Isaacs Menken, journalist and social critic Henry Clapp, playwright John Brougham, and artist Elihu Vedder. The Vault at Pfaff's is bringing together in one place the poetry, drama, art, fiction, and social commentary that the Pfaff's bohemians produced, including The New York Saturday Press, the weekly periodical that served as the group's literary organ during this period.
• Walt Whitman Archive The Walt Whitman Archive is an electronic research and teaching tool that sets out to make Whitman's vast work, for the first time, easily and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers. Whitman, America's most influential poet and one of the four or five most innovative and significant writers in United States history, is the most challenging of all American authors in terms of the textual difficulties his work presents.
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• URL: https://library.mcla.edu/civilrightsmovements

Articles on Civil rights movement

Displaying 1 - 20 of 86 articles.

Maya Angelou’s newly uncovered writing from Egypt and Ghana reveals a more radical side to her career

Alex White , University of Cambridge

Beyoncé’s ‘Blackbiird’ breathes new life into a symbol that has inspired centuries of Black artists, musicians and storytellers

Katie Kapurch , Texas State University and Jon Marc Smith , Texas State University

Hope is not the same as optimism, a psychologist explains − just look at MLK’s example

Kendra Thomas , Hope College

Anti-immigrant pastors may be drawing attention – but faith leaders, including some evangelicals, are central to the movement to protect migrant rights

Brad Christerson , Biola University ; Alexia Salvatierra , Fuller Theological Seminary , and Robert Chao Romero , University of California, Los Angeles

Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral stance against the Vietnam War offers lessons on how to fight for peace in the Middle East

Hajar Yazdiha , USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Lessons for today from the overlooked stories of Black teachers during the segregated civil rights era

Marlee Bunch , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

US has a long history of state lawmakers silencing elected Black officials and taking power from their constituents

Rodney Coates , Miami University

Emmett Till’s accuser, Carolyn Bryant Donham, has died – here’s how the 1955 murder case helped define civil rights history

Davis W. Houck , Florida State University

Saving broadcasting’s past for the future – archivists are working to capture not just tapes of TV and radio but the experience of tuning in together

Michael J. Socolow , University of Maine

Black students in Washington state played key role in the Civil Rights Movement, new book states

Marc Arsell Robinson , California State University, San Bernardino

The women who stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and sustained a movement for social change

Vicki Crawford , Morehouse College

Fences: August Wilson’s play powerfully affirms the value and struggles of black life

Merle A. Williams , University of the Witwatersrand

Civil rights legislation sparked powerful backlash that’s still shaping American politics

Julian Maxwell Hayter , University of Richmond

A Black history primer on African Americans’ fight for equality – 5 essential reads

Howard Manly , The Conversation

Meet Bayard Rustin, often-forgotten civil rights activist, gay rights advocate, union organizer, pacifist and man of compassion for all in trouble

Jerald Podair , Lawrence University

‘The most dangerous Negro’: 3 essential reads on the FBI’s assessment of MLK’s radical views and allies

Voter intimidation in 2022 follows a long history of illegal, and racist, bullying

Atiba Ellis , Marquette University

Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott pull from segregationists’ playbook with their anti-immigration stunts

Greta de Jong , University of Nevada, Reno

The Cleveland Indians changed their team name – what’s holding back the Atlanta Braves?

Peter Dreier , Occidental College

Jackie Robinson was a radical – don’t listen to the sanitized version of history

Related topics.

• African Americans
• Black Lives Matter
• Civil rights
• Donald Trump
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK)
• Segregation

Top contributors

Professor of English, North Carolina State University

Bizot Family Professor of History, University of Memphis

Professor of Geography and Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State

E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College

Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State

Professor of Africana Studies, Morehouse College

Adjunct professor of Justice, Law and Criminology, American University School of Public Affairs

Lecturer of Labor Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Professor of American History, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Professor of History, North Carolina A&T State University

Paul and Charlene Jones Chair in Law, University of Alabama

Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art

Professor of American History, University of Sussex

Professor in American Studies, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Professor of Sociology, Tulane University

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The African American Civil Rights Movement (1954-1968): Home

• Library FAQ

A Timeline of Major Events

1954 - The Supreme Court rules against the "Separate but Equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education .

1955 - President Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10590, creating a committee to enforce nondiscrimination in Federal Employment.

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1957 - President Eisenhower federalizes the National Guard and orders US Army troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to school.

1963 - 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is bombed, killing four girls.

1963 - The March on Washington.

1964 - Mississippi Freedom Summer, college students from across the country register African American voters.

1965 - March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama results in attacks on peaceful marchers by State Troopers.

1965 - Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law.

1968 - Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed into law.

Selma, Alabama (1965)

Image credit: Louisiana Weekly Feb. 27, 2012

This research guide will introduce you to sources at the Lehman College Lief Library that will help you research topics related to the American Civil Rights Movement from 1954-1968.

Where to begin?

Secondary materials, such as reference books and articles are a good place to begin your research process. Gaining a general understanding of a topic will be helpful before moving on to more specialized  research. 

African American Studies Majors

For more details on required and elective courses for African American Studies Majors see the  Lehman College African American Studies Department Page .

Related Research Guides

• Africana Studies by Janet Munch Last Updated Apr 19, 2024 17 views this year
• CREATED EQUAL: America's Civil Rights Struggle by Janet Munch Last Updated Jan 19, 2023 23 views this year

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This guide was created by Tamara Townsend in the Fall Semester of 2014.

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• Last Updated: Apr 15, 2024 4:45 PM
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Climate and environmental justice have left us better off. This Earth Day, let’s celebrate that success.

Subscribe to planet policy, manann donoghoe manann donoghoe senior research associate - brookings metro @manannanad.

April 22, 2024

When researchers, policymakers, and activists talk about climate, they are increasingly using terms such as “justice” and “equity.” These terms are now pervasive enough to appear in documents from groups as diverse as Extinction Rebellion , the United Nations , and Deloitte . But recent polling has found that relatively few Americans know what “climate justice” actually is.

With increasing claims of “greenwashing” directed at corporate America—and some state leaders fighting federal actions to advance climate justice—this Earth Day, it’s worth taking a closer look at climate and environmental justice (CEJ). When deployed in public policy and civic action, CEJ concepts can reveal the links between placed-based social injustices, climate impacts, and pollution, as well as offer pathways to inclusive and ultimately effective climate policy.

What is climate and environmental justice?

According to organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) , climate and environmental justice is about ensuring that all people and communities are provided the support, resources, and opportunities they need to thrive under an unstable climate. It means that individuals—regardless of race, ethnicity, income, gender, age, sexuality, ability, or location—can share in the benefits and opportunities created by climate and environmental policies, such as community investment, green jobs, and access to renewable energy. It also means that the unequal burdens of climate impacts and pollutants are minimized.

CEJ is closely related to the environmental justice movement, which Robert D. Bullard and others founded in the late 1980s and early 1990s after documenting highly unequal distributions of toxic pollutants across racial groups in the U.S. South. It’s deeply connected to concepts such as environmental racism and sacrifice zones , which attempt to identify how harmful developments are unfairly concentrated in majority-Black and other historically marginalized communities. It is also associated with movements such as that for climate reparations , which combine climate justice with racial justice, reparations, and decolonization movements.

In the most basic sense, CEJ is about the equitable distribution of costs and benefits between demographic groups, regions, occupations, and sectors. But achieving that equitable distribution often requires addressing the lingering legacies of policies rooted in structural racism, such as residential segregation. This means asking questions such as: Which groups are included in decisionmaking processes that affect local land use? Who’s at the table when the plans for a new development are drawn up? How have historic policies shaped the flow of capital and resources across groups and regions? Who has a stake in the ownership of public assets like electricity utilities?

These are important questions to ask, because the current pattern of climate impacts and vulnerabilities within the U.S. is highly inequitable. That’s not a moral claim, but a statement of fact. A plethora of studies demonstrate that communities of color are more likely to be located in areas with a lack of green space and parklands, hotter heat waves , less affordable electricity , and lower rates of compensation after climate-related disasters. These disparities mean that as the impacts of climate change intensify, they’re likely to drive a wedge in health, wealth, and well-being between demographic groups, thus worsening the existing gaps in these areas.

Climate and environmental justice gains in 2023 are shaping policy

After decades of pressure by activists and civic organizations, Americans are seeing the benefits of CEJ. Below are just a handful of highlights from 2023 that demonstrate how government agencies and civic organizations have applied CEJ approaches to advance more effective and equitable climate and environmental policy, from the local to international level.

Human- and civil-rights-based arguments have gained traction in litigation

In 2023, coalitions of activists, citizens, and academics used human- and civil-rights-based arguments to win environmental protections for some states and communities. These successes set precedents that can inform future litigation strategies. In August, a coalition of young Montanans sued their state, arguing that it had contravened their constitution by favoring the fossil fuel sector over the health of residents and the environment. While the U.S. has the highest rate of climate litigation internationally, few of these cases make it to trial. This was the first time a U.S. court declared that laws barring state agencies from considering the links between climate change and fossil fuel projects were unconstitutional.

In another U.S. first, the UN declared that the DuPont and Chemours factories in Fayetteville, N.C. violated international human rights by knowingly polluting the lower Cape Fear River Basin for decades with the “forever chemical” PFAS . The declaration came after a local citizens group—Clean Cape Fear, with the assistance of the University of California, Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic— filed a complaint with the UN accusing the companies of withholding toxicity data that clearly demonstrated disparate impacts on residents.

In the past, litigators have not been able to successfully use rights-based arguments; for example, the EPA has been burdened under legal challenges when they’ve attempted to enforce civil rights . Yet the above successes demonstrate a growing momentum around linking environmental injustices to human and civil rights.

The Biden administration’s CEJ policies are taking effect

Justice and equity have been a pillar of the Biden administration’s approach to climate and environment policies. Over 2023, these policies started to take effect in tangible ways. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund , designed to enable low-income and historically marginalized communities to benefit from climate investments,  has mobilized $14 billion to establish national clean financing institutions that provide affordable financing for energy projects in marginalized communities; issued $6 billion for technical assistance hubs that build capacity in communities for more effective climate infrastructure projects; and solicited notices of intent for $7 billion in solar investments in low-income and disadvantaged communities. Moreover, the EPA set stronger standards for local air quality, including soot pollution and methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, which are likely to directly improve the health of residents living alongside high-emitting industrial facilities.

The administration has also taken steps to embed CEJ across functions of government by releasing the National Climate Resilience Framework and establishing a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and Environmental Justice Interagency Council .

Disaster relief got an overhaul

After years of research showing failures in the ways that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) distributes disaster relief (including our own research on the subject ), the agency made extensive changes to their processes.

Many of these changes are likely to directly make disaster relief more equitable. One of the most notable—increasing the flexibility of individual assistance—will get relief to people sooner, provide displacement assistance, and automatically provide $750 for basic needs. Other changes, such as expanding eligibility for assistance and simplifying the notoriously complicated individual assistance application process, will reduce the barriers to accessing relief and get funds to more families quicker.

Chicago launched a bold plan to advance environmental justice

Chicago’s EJ Action Plan Report , released in December 2023, is perhaps the most comprehensive city plan yet in attempting to remedy historic environmental injustices. The report details a plan to target resources toward newly designated “environmental justice neighborhoods” identified in the city’s Cumulative Impact Assessment . These neighborhoods—representing roughly 30% of census tracts across the city—rank high in cancer-causing pollutants and diesel emissions, are proximate to industrial facilities, and have demographic factors associated with vulnerability, such as high asthma and heart disease rates, low incomes, high housing stress, and a high proportion of non-white residents.

The action plan’s proposals are far-ranging and practical, including updating zoning regulations to offer greater protections to over-polluted and marginalized communities; placing air quality monitors in these neighborhoods to improve the enforcement of pollution standards; and creating a fund to invest in amenities that improve residents’ long-term health and well-being. The city’s next step will be to enshrine the action plan into city ordinances later this year. This is no small task, and Chicago’s progress may set a new standard for municipal environmental justice policies.

The international community has moved closer to phasing out fossil fuels

While many in the CEJ community were rightly disappointed at the outcomes of COP28—the largest global forum to negotiate national commitments to take climate action—the final agreement was the first to agree to “transition” away from fossil fuels. The U.S. also pledged to support “largely” phasing out fossil fuels, signaling the administration’s movement toward formally adopting this stance.

Committing to phase out fossil fuels in the U.S. would not only help to mitigate climate impacts, but it would also directly benefit those living amid the industry’s local pollutants. A 2022 study estimated that nearly 14 million Americans across 236 counties lived in areas with an increased cancer risk because of air pollution emitted by oil and gas extraction. And even more Americans live alongside refineries and other industrial processes that are further down the oil and gas supply chain.

The decision to include the phrase “transition away from fossil fuels” in the COP28 agreement comes after sustained pressure on the international community from civic organizations and nations facing pronounced or existential climate threats. One example is the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty —somewhat of a parallel to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty of 1970—which continues to gain influence. Several countries have agreed signed the treaty, including Colombia and Vanuatu, as have cities and subnational and civil society organizations. In the U.S., cities and states including California, Maine, and Austin, Texas have signed the treaty.

The CEJ movement has been focused on prevention—now it needs to shift toward building

In 2022, 71% of Americans said their community had experienced an extreme weather event. In this sense, climate impacts are an equalizer, with a unifying quality that crosses ideological, class, and racial divides. Yet current policy gaps and a history of unaddressed inequities mean that the threshold for a disaster is a lot lower for some households than others. These disparities turn climate change into a dividing force.

The actions and policies above show how CEJ can overcome these divisions by building new and more equitable policy structures. Pioneers of the CEJ movement developed its focus around prevention issues such as stopping high-polluting industrial developments in low-income neighborhoods. While prevention is still an important goal, the movement now needs to reorient toward building—creating new policies that embed justice and equity as measurable targets. This would include, for example, where and how governments distribute public funds to finance and build climate-resilient infrastructure.

By embracing this new approach, on future Earth Days the CEJ community might not only reflect on the environmental damage prevented, but also on the advancements made toward a more equitable future.

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As Civil Rights Era Fades From Memory, Generation Gap Divides Black Voters

Many older Black voters see moral and political reasons to vote. Younger Black voters feel far less motivated to cast a ballot for Democrats or even at all.

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By Maya King

Reporting from Atlanta

For years, Loretta Green has voted at her Southwest Atlanta precinct wearing the same custom T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of her first voter registration card, dated to 1960. The front of it reads: “This is why I vote.”

Since gaining the legal right, Ms. Green, 88, has participated in every possible election. This November will be no different, she said, when she casts a ballot for President Biden and Democrats down the ticket.

But conversations with her younger relatives, who have told her they’re unsure of voting or considering staying home, illustrate some of the challenges Mr. Biden’s campaign faces in reassembling his winning 2020 coalition, particularly in key battleground states like Georgia. While Ms. Green and many older Black voters are set on voting and already have plans in place to do so, younger Black voters, polling and focus group data show, feel far less motivated to cast a ballot for Democrats or even at all.

“To me, voting is almost sacred. Look at what people went through. The struggles. The people that allowed themselves to be beaten,” Ms. Green said of the civil rights movement that ignited her determination to vote in every election. “I think there are some young Blacks who probably feel like it didn’t even happen.”

Black voters have long been Democrats’ most loyal constituency, and high turnout from this bloc is crucial to Mr. Biden’s re-election. Any drop-off in support could imperil his chances of winning in November. And surveys have shown a striking generational divide within this bloc, driven by what many young people see as broken campaign promises and what party leaders have suggested is a difficulty in communicating Mr. Biden’s accomplishments to voters.

There is still time for Democrats to close this gap. But growing discontent from young voters, especially concerning the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza — illustrated in an April New York Times/Siena College poll that shows just 4 percent of voters under 45 strongly approve of Mr. Biden’s handling of foreign policy — underlines the scale of the response that may be required of the president’s re-election campaign to bring young voters back into the fold.

The stark difference between how older and younger Black voters respond to Mr. Biden and Democrats further highlights how different the messages to these voters will have to be.

“It is a generational divide. They don’t know the people who fought and died for their rights,” said Terrance Woodbury, a Democratic pollster, whose polling has found a nearly 30-point gap in support for Democrats among Black voters 18 to 49 years old relative to Black voters over 50. The latter group, he said, “does know those people. They saw that fight. Some of them were in that fight.”

Young Black voters point to higher costs of living, crises abroad and the old ages of both major candidates — Mr. Biden, 81, is the oldest U.S. president, and former President Donald J. Trump is 77 — as reasons for their discontent. They also say that they feel their lives have not improved under Mr. Biden’s presidency and that they have seen little of his campaign promises to lower housing costs, relieve student loan debt and promote racial equity.

These gripes are not unique to young Black voters. In polls, focus groups and interviews, record numbers of Black Americans across ages and genders have expressed disenchantment with Democratic leaders. And the generation gap in support for Democrats is not unique to one race. While most young voters support Democrats and turned out en masse during the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm elections, many have also said they are deeply dissatisfied with the party and see less reason to turn back out for them.

“I can understand,” said India Juarez, 46, a Southwest Atlanta resident and Democratic voter. “You’ve got two people who really should be retired, enjoying their golden lives.”

Still, for older Black voters, many of whom see Mr. Trump as a threat to their fundamental rights, stopping him and other Republicans from reclaiming power in November outshines their frustrations with Democrats. By an overwhelming majority, Black voters continue to support Democratic candidates and some encourage the younger people in their lives to do the same.

Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, an influential Biden ally who led civil rights protests in college, said he had spent much of his time outside Washington on college campuses to encourage students to vote. But, he said, “it needs to be an informed vote.”

“I don’t want people going out there talking about, ‘There’s no difference between Trump and Biden.’ I’m going to show them what the differences are. I want them to see why you need to go out and vote,” he said. He lauded the older Black voters who encourage their younger relatives to register and cast a ballot.

Tari Turner, 52, a Black Democratic voter from Detroit, is one of them. She said she often encourages her son, Brice Ballard, 34, to vote in elections even when he is reluctant to.

“I make him vote. He votes,” she said. “I don’t play about him voting. I’ll go pick him up to vote.”

This November, she said she planned to vote and support Mr. Biden’s re-election — a fact she acknowledged tepidly. Mr. Ballard, however, said he would not vote this year, despite his mother’s urging.

“I just don’t feel a connection with either candidate,” he said, adding that he voted in the last presidential election. If he did vote in November, he said he would more likely support Mr. Trump because he felt he was economically better off under his presidency.

Mr. Ballard’s feelings align with another concern for the Biden campaign: a rightward shift among nonwhite voters that is particularly pronounced among young men of color. Mr. Trump and his campaign have recognized this and made some efforts to court Black voters in recent months. Still, many are rooted in stereotype and often offensive.

Mr. Biden’s campaign has aimed to encourage young Black voters to turn out through increased direct contact with them. Senior campaign officials for Mr. Biden underlined his campaign’s presence on college campuses, online and at music festivals and sporting events. They added that the campaign was hiring a director of campus engagement who will focus on mobilizing students at historically Black colleges and universities.

On the airwaves, the campaign is running several ads targeted to Black voters that emphasize the Biden administration’s work to lower health care costs and its large investments in historically Black colleges and universities. Democrats have also enlisted celebrities and local Black elected officials to serve as surrogates.

That hasn’t kept concerns from some Black community leaders at bay. The New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan voter mobilization group, has held more focus groups with voters and adjusted its talking points during canvassing operations to address disaffected younger voters and the policy issues that matter to them. That way, said Kendra Cotton, the group’s chief executive, organizers can explain to young voters how government can work — rather than admonish them for declining to participate in the political process.

“This narrative that people have that ‘oh, you should vote because so many people died for you to have that right,’ that is not resonating with this new generation at all,” Ms. Cotton said. “And I think us continuing to propagate that narrative, no matter how true and rooted in fact that may be, is off-putting.”

Davan’te Jennings, the Georgia Young Democrats’ Black caucus chair, said he had held a range of conversations with younger Black voters who are not enthusiastic about voting. Some, he said, have expressed interest in supporting Republicans this November.

“They’re like, ‘We’ve been on this Democratic side for so long, they tell us all these things and nothing happens,’” he said. “Let’s see what’s over here on the Republican side.’”

Ms. Green, who said she, too, had concerns about young voters’ involvement, said she planned to volunteer with Mr. Biden’s campaign operation in Georgia to encourage young Black voters to turn out and to talk to them about the importance of their vote — something she sees as both morally and politically significant.

“That’s why we have to tell them our story. They don’t understand it,” she said. “They haven’t seen it. And if we do not continue to talk to them, tell them the history, then they won’t know.”

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misspelled the surname of Tari Turner’s son. He is Brice, not Bryce.

How we handle corrections

Maya King is a politics reporter covering the Southeast, based in Atlanta. She covers campaigns, elections and movements in the American South, as well as national trends relating to Black voters and young people. More about Maya King

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

The Trump campaign and the Republican Party plan to dispatch over 100,000 volunteers and lawyers to monitor elections in battleground states  — and work in concert with conservative activists.

The prospect of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatening to upend the presidential race  went from an idea to a reality in one of the country’s most consequential battlegrounds, when Kennedy qualified for the ballot in Michigan .

Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, a potential vice-presidential pick for Donald Trump, refused to say whether she would have certified the 2020 election  if she had been in Mike Pence’s position. She also dodged questions about exceptions to abortion bans.

Other Key Races

A high-energy crowd rallied in Pittsburgh to support Representative Summer Lee, a left-leaning congresswoman whose primary is a high-profile test  of whether she can stave off a challenge aimed in part at her stance over the war in Gaza.

After Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, pro-Israel political groups put the Democratic Party’s most outspoken critics on notice. The groups have raised millions to challenge candidates they see as not sufficiently pro-Israel, but have spent little  as public opinion shifts.

Pressed on his claims of 2020 election irregularities, the Republican candidate for Senate in Wisconsin has questioned the mental capacity of nursing home residents  to vote.

Nevada’s once-sleepy Republican primary for Senate, which has been dominated by Sam Brown, a U.S. Army veteran, was jolted to life when a deep-pocketed rival  took aim at the front-runner.

Million Dollar Sense

20 Most Crucial Milestones in the American Civil Rights Movement

Posted: April 19, 2024 | Last updated: April 19, 2024

#1. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

This landmark Supreme Court case declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning the “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson. It marked a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, inspiring further challenges to segregation laws across the United States.

#2. Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)

Sparked by Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pivotal protest against segregated seating on public buses. Led by Martin Luther King Jr., the boycott lasted over a year and ultimately led to the desegregation of Montgomery’s bus system.

#3. The Little Rock Nine (1957)

In 1957, nine African American students faced violent opposition as they attempted to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Despite facing harassment and threats, they persevered with the support of federal troops, marking a significant victory for the Civil Rights Movement.

#4. Sit-In Movement (1960)

Beginning with the Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina, the sit-in movement spread across the South as African American students protested segregated lunch counters. These peaceful demonstrations drew attention to the injustice of segregation and played a crucial role in desegregating public spaces.

#5. Freedom Rides (1961)

Organized by civil rights activists, the Freedom Rides were a series of integrated bus trips through the South to challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals. Despite facing violence and arrests, the Freedom Riders’ efforts brought national attention to the struggle for racial equality.

#6. March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963)

The March on Washington, led by civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It culminated in King’s iconic  “I Have a Dream” speech, which urged an end to racism and discrimination in the United States.

#7. Civil Rights Act of 1964

Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination, marking a significant victory for the Civil Rights Movement.

#8. Voting Rights Act of 1965

Following years of voter suppression and discrimination against African Americans, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overcome legal barriers to voting. It prohibited racial discrimination in voting practices, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, and helped enfranchise millions of African American voters.

#9. Selma to Montgomery Marches (1965)

The Selma to Montgomery marches were a series of nonviolent protests organized to demand voting rights for African Americans in Alabama. The first march, known as ” Bloody Sunday,” was met with violent resistance from state troopers, but subsequent marches led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

#10. Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His death shocked the nation and sparked riots in cities across the country, underscoring the deep divisions and ongoing struggles for racial justice in America.

#11. Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex. It aimed to address housing segregation and promote equal access to housing opportunities.

#12. Black Power Movement

Emerging in the late 1960s, the Black Power movement emphasized racial pride, self-determination, and collective action among African Americans. It advocated for cultural and political empowerment, challenging systemic racism and calling for social justice and equality.

#13. Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964)

Organized by civil rights groups, Freedom Summer was a voter registration and education campaign aimed at increasing African American participation in Mississippi politics. Despite facing violence and intimidation, volunteers worked to register voters and highlight the need for voting rights protections.

#14. Emmett Till Case (1955)

The brutal murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, in Mississippi shocked the nation and galvanized support for the Civil Rights Movement. Till’s killers were acquitted by an all-white jury, highlighting the deep-rooted racism and injustice prevalent in the Jim Crow South.

#15. Civil Rights Movement in Literature

The Civil Rights Movement inspired a wealth of literature, including autobiographies, essays, and novels that captured the experiences of African Americans during this pivotal era. Works such as “The Autobiography of Malcolm” and “To Kill a Mockingbird ” shed light on the struggles for racial equality and social justice.

#16. Black Panther Party (1966-1982)

Founded in Oakland, California, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense advocated for armed self-defense, community empowerment, and revolutionary change. The party’s programs aimed to address systemic inequality and provide social services to African American communities, leaving a lasting legacy in the fight for civil rights.

#17. Integration of Professional Sports

The Civil Rights Movement also impacted professional sports, leading to the integration of leagues such as Major League Baseball and the National Football League. Trailblazers like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays broke racial barriers and paved the way for future generations of African American athletes.

#18. Freedom Summer Murders (1964)

During Freedom Summer in Mississippi, three civil rights activists-James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner-were abducted and murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Their deaths shocked the nation and underscored the dangers faced by civil rights workers in the struggle for equality.

#19. Civil Rights Movement in Music

Music played a powerful role in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a soundtrack for protests and expressing the hopes and frustrations of African Americans. Artists like Sam Cooke, Nina Simone, and Bob Dylan wrote songs that became anthems for the movement, inspiring activism and solidarity.

#20. Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement transformed American society, leading to legal victories, social change, and greater awareness of racial injustice. Its legacy continues to resonate today, inspiring ongoing efforts to address systemic racism, promote equality, and build a more just and inclusive society.

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11 Things You're Too Old For After Age 50

Reaching your 50s brings about a shift in priorities and perspectives. It’s a time to reevaluate habits and behaviors that might no longer serve you as you embrace the wisdom that comes with age. In this article, we’ll explore 11 aspects of life that you might want to leave behind once you hit the big 5-0. From focusing on health and relationships to letting go of unnecessary stressors, this guide offers practical advice for navigating the later stages of adulthood with clarity and purpose.

11 Things You're Too Old For After Age 50

20 Things Your Boss Is Legally Forbidden to Ask of You

Navigating the workplace can sometimes feel like a delicate dance. You want to be a dedicated employee, but you also deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. While your boss holds a position of authority, there are legal limitations on what they can ask or request of you. Understanding these boundaries is key to maintaining a healthy work-life balance and a professional environment. Here’s a breakdown of 20 things your boss is legally forbidden to ask of you, empowering you to navigate your work life with confidence.

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10 facts about Black Republicans

The relationship between Black Americans and the Republican Party has drawn considerable attention in recent years. Discussions have ranged from why Black men voted for Donald Trump at higher rates than Black women in the 2020 presidential election to more recent debates about Black pop culture and the appeal of GOP-aligned candidates in both national and local politics.  

The partisan balance among Black adults in the United States is little changed over the last several decades , but it shifted substantially in the mid-20th century. In the 1930s, Black adults were just as likely to support the Republican Party as the Democratic Party. The share of Black adults who affiliated with the GOP started to decline in the 1940s, particularly after President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, issued an executive order to desegregate the U.S. military in 1948. This shift was solidified after the passage of the Civil Rights Act under Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Today, only about one-in-ten Black adults identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. And in a Pew Research Center survey in October, only 4% of Black registered voters said they would vote for the Republican candidate for the U.S. House seat in their district, while 69% said they would back the Democratic candidate.

When it comes to their views on race, Black Republicans differ from Black Democrats in one key way: They tend to support individualistic approaches to addressing racial inequality, while Black Democrats tend to support institutional approaches. For example, Black Republicans and those who lean to the GOP are more likely than Black Democrats and Democratic leaners (59% vs. 41%) to say that the bigger problem for Black people is racist acts committed by individual people, as opposed to racism in our laws. And they are less likely than Black Democrats to support complete institutional overhauls to the prison system (35% vs. 57%), policing (29% vs. 52%) and the judicial process (35% vs. 50%) to ensure fair treatment of Black people. 

Here are 10 facts about Black Republicans and what they think about race and identity, based on recent Center surveys. All findings about Republicans and Democrats include independents who lean to each party.

Related: Latino Republicans hold distinct views on guns and immigration, highlighting their shaky ties to GOP

In recent years, Pew Research Center has conducted multiple studies that focus specifically on Black Americans and their views on religion , personal identity , science and medicine , and racial inequality . This analysis of Black Republicans relies on data from two of these focused surveys.

The first was conducted among 8,660 Black adults (ages 18 and older) from Nov. 19, 2019, to June 3, 2020, and contains data from four sources: Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (conducted online), NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel (conducted online or by phone), Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel (conducted online) and a national cross-sectional survey by the Center (conducted online and by mail). For more information on this study, see its methodology and questionnaire .

The other survey was conducted among 3,912 Black adults from Oct. 4 to 17, 2021. The survey includes 1,025 Black adults on the Center’s American Trends Panel and 2,887 Black adults on Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel. Respondents on both panels are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. For more information on this study, see its methodology . The questions asked in this survey can be found here and here .

Recruiting panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all U.S. Black adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population (see our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling).

Black Republicans are younger than Black Democrats, as well as White Republicans. Around three-in-ten Black Republicans (28%) are ages 18 to 29 – higher than the share among Black Democrats (17%) and White Republicans (10%). Black Republicans are less likely than Black Democrats and White Republicans to be 65 and older: 9% are in this age group, versus 18% of Black Democrats and 28% of White Republicans.  

Black Republicans have a similar income profile to Black Democrats. Black Republicans are about as likely as Black Democrats to live in upper-income (12% vs. 10%) or middle-income households (37% vs. 40%). And roughly half of both groups live in lower-income ones. However, Black Republicans are much more likely than White Republicans (50% vs. 18%) to live in lower-income households.  

As is the case among Black Democrats, roughly half of Black Republicans live in the South. Black Republicans are about as likely as Black Democrats to live in Southern states (52% vs. 56%), but more likely than White Republicans (38%) to do so. Black Republicans are less likely than White Republicans to live in the Midwest (17% vs. 27%) or the West (13% vs. 20%).

Black Republicans are less likely than Black Democrats to attend Black churches. In both parties, most Black adults identify as Protestant. However, Black Republicans are less likely than Black Democrats (22% vs. 34%) to attend predominantly Black Protestant churches. Black Republicans and Democrats are about as likely to be Catholic (6% each) or religiously unaffiliated (24% vs. 21%).

Black Republicans are less likely than Black Democrats to say being Black is a significant part of their personal identity. While about six-in-ten Black Republicans (58%) say being Black is an extremely or very important part of how they think about themselves, an even larger share of Black Democrats (82%) say the same. Black Republicans are also more likely than Black Democrats (21% vs. 6%) to say Blackness is a little or not at all important to how they think about themselves. 

Black Republicans are about as likely as Black Democrats to see their ancestry as important to how they see themselves. Black Republicans are just as likely as Black Democrats (66% vs. 65%) to say their ancestry is an extremely or very important part of their personal identity. They are also about as likely as Black Democrats to know that their ancestors were enslaved (54% vs. 59%) and to speak to their relatives about their family history (78% vs. 77%).

Black Republicans are less likely than Black Democrats to express a sense of “ linked fate ” with Black people in the U.S. About four-in-ten Black Republicans (39%) say that everything or most things that happen to Black people in the U.S. will affect their own lives . A larger share of Black Democrats (57%) say the same.  

Black Republicans are about as likely as Black Democrats to report frequent experiences of discrimination. About eight-in-ten Black Republicans (79%) say they have personally experienced discrimination because of their race or ethnicity. This includes 20% who say they have experienced discrimination regularly and 59% who say they have experienced it from time to time. Similarly, 80% of Black Democrats report experiences of racial discrimination, either regularly or from time to time.  

Black Republicans differ from Black Democrats in their views on racial discrimination as a barrier to progress. Despite experiencing racial discrimination at similar rates, Black Republicans and Democrats differ in how they view its effects. Black Republicans are less likely than Black Democrats (44% vs. 73%) to say racial discrimination is the main reason Black people can’t get ahead in the U.S., and they are more likely to say Black people who can’t get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition (45% vs. 21%).

Black Republicans are just as skeptical as Black Democrats about the prospects for equality. Black Republicans are about as likely as Black Democrats (39% vs. 45%) to say equality for Black people in the U.S. is a little or not all likely. In fact, only about 15% of Black adults in either partisan coalition say equality for Black people is extremely or very likely.

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8 facts about black americans and the news, black americans’ views on success in the u.s., among black adults, those with higher incomes are most likely to say they are happy, fewer than half of black americans say the news often covers the issues that are important to them, most popular.

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Opinion: Republicans have become 'de facto White Party' by rejecting multiracial democracy

I have been reading "Tyranny of the Minority" (2023), by Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. Through it I came to realize that America has experienced not one, but a series, of separate “beginnings.” We are familiar with the founding of the United States of America, our first “beginning,” through our revolution against Great Britain. However, we should recognize there have been other important “beginnings” since then.

Certainly, an important beginning took place with the Civil War wherein the Emancipation Proclamation freed a large segment of our population to become U.S. citizens. This was literally a rebirth of freedom to be enjoyed by the nation and African Americans, who were already important to the economy of the nation, including numerous building projects and government buildings. America was already a multi-ethnic and multi-racial society from its earliest days.

The Civil War was followed by the Reconstruction era, where the white population in Southern states that were part of the Confederacy was given free rein to reassert white domination over the former slaves. The most precious part of any democracy — the right to elect local and national government representatives — was denied to former slaves by many methods. These ranged from making unrealistic requirements on Black voters, such as reciting long passages from the founding documents, to violence against those who tried to vote.

Direct segregation (Jim Crow) laws were passed to suppress Black people by making them clearly second-class citizens. The various effects of legalized segregation and the acts and threats of violence were to create a caste society with Black people considered a lower type of citizen, unworthy and unqualified to participate actively in government. Women also were not fully integrated citizens because they were considered unqualified to vote. Another new beginning of the nation awaited granting women the vote in 1919 after World War I. This happened only after an extended struggle by women, beginning in the 19th century.  

Another new beginning took place after World War II with court decisions culminating with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Until then, the Black population had not been full participants in American democracy. Adolph Hitler himself was an admirer of America for making laws that excluded part of the population from full participation. The new beginning based on court cases was backed by Democrats and Republicans. I remember clearly in the 1950s and 1960s when America took steps based on the Civil Rights movement that created a more equal multi-ethnic and multi-racial society. There was no actual Civil War, but there were serious violence and deaths.  

The white population strongly supported the revolution against Great Britain, but has been a major obstacle in the new beginnings affecting America becoming more fully multi-ethnic and multi-racial. The Republican Party, under Abraham Lincoln, brought about the new beginning caused by the Civil War. But women struggled mostly alone to cause the new beginning marked by their gaining the vote. The new beginning caused by the Civil Rights Movement was supported by the Republican Party and liberal Democrats. But it was strongly opposed by Democrats in the South (Dixiecrats) and other conservatives.

Now the Republican Party, joined by some former Southern Democrats, has completely reversed itself. They rejected the effort in 2021 to restore the Voting Rights Act. A leading Republican senator, Mike Lee of Utah, questioned democracy itself. Republicans have reacted against the multiracial democracy it helped to create, becoming the “de facto White Party.” Evangelical Christians, concentrated in the South and rural areas, have been drawn by Trump toward the illiberal Republican Party or its extreme right, while the Democratic Party has become a strong follower of multi-racial or liberal democracy that includes strong support for labor unions and women’s reproductive rights.

I would remind my fellow Christians that Christianity is based in God’s love, which is for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Churches themselves and all religions have had to struggle to reach this goal. Christianity and America should follow this same road and continue to make new beginnings that bring more justice and equal rights to all its people. The new beginnings of our past serve as a model of possibilities to us and to the world.

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Rev. Robert L. Montgomery, Ph.D., lives in Black Mountain.