The Declining Role of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:
New Challenges for the 21st Century
Over the past several decades, the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s has nearly
disappeared in national focus and significance. Its
main purpose of fighting for and ensuring that
civil and human rights for all are preserved in
America, is now history.
But were it not for the strong demands and
presence of leading civil rights organizations, life
for African American citizens and all minorities in
America would be quite different than it is today. The narrow
structure of America’s pre-civil rights society, intended to benefit only
one segment of its population would still be in place.
The struggle for civil rights began with and became the bailiwick of
those Africans who first arrived to the shores of America in about
1619. They soon learned the difference between slavery and freedom,
and their struggle for liberty was a continuous thread of soci