We should be thankful because nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern states still inhabited a starkly unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence.
“Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and
bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. In 1954,
the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed
the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and
international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the turbulent decade
and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and
civil disobedience to bring about change, and the federal government made
legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and
the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American
community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including
Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They
risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality.
“Jim Crow” laws at the local and state levels barred them from classrooms and
bathrooms, from theaters and train cars, from juries and legislatures. In 1954,
the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine that formed
the basis for state-sanctioned discrimination, drawing national and
international attention to African Americans’ plight. In the turbulent decade
and a half that followed, civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and
civil disobedience to bring about change, and the federal government made
legislative headway with initiatives such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and
the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Many leaders from within the African American
community and beyond rose to prominence during the Civil Rights era, including
Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They
risked—and sometimes lost—their lives in the name of freedom and equality.