The Civil Rights Movement

The first change in the South's segregated way of life came in 1954 when the United States Supreme Court declared that no state could send students to different public schools based on race. After this historic decision, many other discriminatory practices were declared illegal.

The Supreme Court's school-desegregation decision stimulated the hopes of blacks for a better life in the U.S. During the mid 1950s, blacks throughout the nation began demanding equal rights and taking steps to accomplish this goal. There were boycotts (large numbers of people refusing to buy certain services or products). There were sit­-ins (groups that included African-Americans sitting peacefully for hours at lunch coun­ters or in restaurants that refused to serve them). There were freedom rides (busloads of northern liberals coming to the South to force integration of public facilities). And there were protest marches (large groups of people walking in the streets carrying signs that stated their goals). In many of these activities, African-Americans were joined by white Americans.

During the 1960s, the greatest black leader was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1955, King was a young Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama, when he formed an organiza­tion to boycott his city's buses. Because of regulations requiring blacks to sit in the back of the bus and to give their seats to whites if the bus got crowded, nearly all of Mont­gomery's 50,000 blacks refused to ride the city's buses for more than a year. Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that dividing buses into black and white sections was unconstitutional, and therefore, illegal.

The Montgomery bus boycott made Dr. King a famous man and the unofficial leader of the nation's growing civil rights movement. King's philosophy showed the influence of his Christian beliefs and the example of Mohandas Gandhi, the great Indian leader whose nonviolent protests helped to free his country from British control. Like Gandhi, King urged people to refuse to obey evil laws and regulations, but to protest without fighting and without resisting arrest. For more than a decade, King led nonviolent protests and traveled around the country speaking to American audiences both in per­son and on television. His most famous speech was delivered in 1963 in front of the Lin­coln Memorial in Washington, D.C., before a live audience of 200,000 and a TV audience that included almost the entire nation. His message included these memorable words: "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'" ( The transcription of the whole speech you can find in the Appendix).

In 1964, at the age of 35, Dr. King became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. During the next few years, his concerns expanded from the problems of seg­regation in the South to discrimination in the North and, finally, to the suffering of poor people of all races. Dr. King was organizing a poor people's march at the time of his assassination, on April 4, 1968. He once said that the assassination of Gandhi only "shot him into the hearts of humanity." Surely the tragic killing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led to the same result. Today, a great many buildings, streets, and schools are named after him, and his birthday is a national holiday.

During the 1960s, Americans of African descent rejected the term Negro and began referring to themselves as black. (Today, however, many prefer to be called African-American.) The popular slogan "Black is beautiful" expressed their newfound pride. Blacks also de­veloped a greater sense of identification with their African heritage. African hair styles and clothing became fashionable. Courses in black history became common in college curricula as blacks became interested in studying about their African past and their role in the development of the United States.

Check your comprehension.

What were some of the activities that Martin Luter King Jr. led to help African-Americans fight for their civil rights?

African-Americans Today

Since the 1960s, African-American leaders have worked hard to increase two kinds of black power - economic and political. Of course, there is a connection between these two. More political power can lead to increased state and federal spending to meet African-Americans' greatest needs - for education, financial assistance, job training, and better housing. Many urban blacks still live in poor neighborhoods, with deterio­rating and abandoned buildings and empty lots. In these slum areas, the crime rate is high, drug dealers and addicts are common, and residents fear violent gangs.

Poverty continues to be a significant problem for blacks. African-Americans remain far behind white Americans in employment and income levels. The unemployment rate for blacks, about 8%, is about twice that of whites. The median household income for blacks is about $28,000, compared to about $44,000 for non-Hispanic whites. About 26% of blacks are poor, compared to 11 % of whites. This high poverty rate is largely because many blacks do not have skills that are needed for better-paying jobs.

Realizing that more education will help them get better jobs, blacks are staying in school longer now than in past decades. In 1960, only about 20% of young black adults finished high school. Today, the figure is about 75%. In 1980, about 42% of black high schools graduates enrolled in college. Today, about 60% do (compared to 67% of whites).

Blacks are also trying to improve their financial position by going into professions or starting their own businesses. There are now more than 600,000 black-owned compa­nies in the U.S. And blacks are more numerous than ever in the professions - as teach­ers, doctors, lawyers, judges, and ministers.

In politics, African-American gains have been impressive. Now that more blacks are voting, more are getting elected. For example, African-Americans hold positions as mayors of big cities and as members of Congress. However, blacks are still quite under­represented in government. Although making up 13% of the population, they hold only 1.5% of the nation's elected offices. In the mid- 1990s, they held about 8,000 of the 500,000 elective jobs in the U.S.

In 1952, Ralph Ellison, an African-American author, wrote a book about blacks in the U.S. called The Invisible Man. Since the I960s, blacks have become more visible on TV and in movies and magazines. Networks, filmmakers, and advertisers now realize that black consumers want to see their race represented. Today, African-Americans in signif­icant numbers work as newscasters, TV actors and actresses, and movie stars.

Despite progress in many areas, discrimination is still part of the African-American experience. Today, federal laws prohibit racial discrimination in housing and employ­ment. However, fear and distrust still hamper race relations. Police officers and airport customs officials are more likely to search an African-American (or other minority group member) than a white person. And African-American comedians often joke about being invisible to taxi drivers.

Check your comprehension.

What are three different areas in which African-Americans have made great progress?