The term "civil rights movement" refers to the.
collective efforts of African Americans to advance in.
defined as a mass popular movement to secure for.
African Americans equal access to and opportunities.
for the basic privileges and rights of U.S.
citizenship. Although the roots of the civil rights.
movement go back to the 19th century, the movement.
peaked in the 1950s and 1960s. African American men.
and women, along with whites, organized and led the.
movement at national and local levels. They pursued.
their goals through legal means, negotiations,.
petitions, and nonviolent protest demonstrations. .
The civil rights movement centered on the American.
South, where the African American population was.
concentrated and where racial inequality in education,.
economic opportunity, and the political and legal.
processes was most obvious. Beginning in the late 19th.
century, state and local governments passed.
segregation laws, known as Jim Crow laws, and mandated.
restrictions on voting qualifications that left the.
black population economically and politically.
powerless. The movement therefore addressed primarily.
three areas of discrimination: education, social.
segregation, and voting rights.
By the time of the Little Rock incident, the nation.
had already become aware of the heightened struggle in.
the South. In 1955 blacks in Montgomery, Ala.,.
organized a boycott of city buses in protest of the.
policy of segregated seating. Lasting 381 days, the.
boycott, started by Rosa Parks, succeeded in.
integrating the seating. It also led to the formation.
of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
(SCLC). In Atlanta, Ga., as a national organization.
presided over by a local black minister, Martin Luther.
King, Jr. As SCLC head, he would later become a.
central leader in the larger civil rights movement.
As late as 1969, only 1 percent of the black students.
in the Deep South states were attending public schools.
with whites. After a series of legal cases in the late.
