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.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

civil rights movement

Stern: Ordinary people standing up for what they know the Constitution guarantees: That turns out to be the origin story of pretty much every major civil rights movement in America.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

The Dream became particularly popular in political rhetoric, Ghosh says, in the mid-60s with the civil rights movement and more expansive immigration policies.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

British music star FKA twigs is to play Josephine Baker in a new biopic of the Roaring Twenties icon who became a hero of the French Resistance and the American civil rights movement.

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

Chavez was one of the most revered figures in the Latinx civil rights movement.

From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2026

The civil rights movement cleared the way legally so we could progress.

From "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose