civil rights movement

Cultural  

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

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Example Sentences

A fundamental tension has always underlain the history of the Civil Rights movement, much as it did contemporaneous news coverage.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 3, 2026

King won the Nobel Peace Price in 1964 for his leadership during the Civil Rights movement and commitment to nonviolent protest.

From Barron's • Jan. 19, 2026

The bar had survived the Civil Rights movement; the Olympics in 1984 and the L.A. riots in 1992.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 17, 2025

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement and a close Biden ally, co-chairs the president’s reelection campaign.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 14, 2024

I was proud that I had participated in the Civil Rights movement, singing freedom songs and marching peacefully with my friends.

From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry