African Americans have overcome many struggles as well as obstacles in the early years which have still not been terminated. African Americans have fought for freedom from enslavement, the right to earn a living, have land and a job, have equal justice, good quality education, to escape from oppression, the right to self pride and an end to stereotyping. Blacks everywhere got fed up with being treated as if they were inferior and slaves, so they banded together to form a movement. Not just any kind of movement, but a movement that would see victories as well as violence and death. That movement was the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement had a major goal, and that goal was to end discrimination based on race, creed, color, and gender, and to put an end to segregation. Its' supporters aimed for equality of all people and for the integration of society. The previously mentioned goals were achieved by many different means. The movement had its share of leaders, events, and strategies that helped to reach its' goals. There was a fair share of success and failures that accompanied the Civil Rights Movement. .
The rise of the modern civil rights movement began when a group of first- year students from North Carolina and Agricultural and Technical College decided to seat themselves at a segregated lunch counter and refused to leave until the were served. They took the advice of nonviolence from a great leader named Martin Luther King Jr. With these four men doing this each and every day they gained support of many other black students as well as some white students. These boys" actions started sit-ins in hundreds of cities. In the result of this act many blacks were arrested, beaten, jailed, deprived of their jobs, intimidated, and some even killed. With all this happening the government was forced to protect many black Americans and to guarantee them their rights. In order to enforce these rights federal legislations were passed, public facilities such as transportation and waiting rooms were now desegregated and blacks finally gained back their access to the polling booth.