The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s aimed to achieve equal treatment and civil rights for African Americans. It was sparked by Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. In response, African American women and leaders organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The movement protested issues like employment, housing, and education discrimination as well as a lack of voting rights and access to public facilities. New laws like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were passed to resolve these issues and prohibit discrimination. However, problems with poverty, health, and racially motivated violence continued to face African Americans beyond the mid-1960s.

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The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s And 1960s
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The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s And 1960s
The civil right movement of the 1950s and 60s was a struggle by African-American, as
the campaign intended to achieve the civil rights and be treated equally just like the whites. The
main reason on to why the Blacks people formed the civil rights movement in the 1950s was due
to the arrest of Rosa Parks, as she was detained just that she declined to give up her chair to a
white man on a city bus. According to Hewitt, and Lawson, (2012) the action spread through the
Blacks people quickly, after an exchange of phone calls, a group of Blacks women, the political
council decided to conduct a boycott as a response to the arrest of Rosa Parks. This is to mean
that the movement involved the African American women, local African American leaders, and
the influential black clergy.
The Key Issues of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s And 60s
The movement key issues included activism for the equal opportunities in the
employment sector, housing, and education. As history tells the reader that the movement was
made up of different individuals, among them the courageous African-American people, college
students, and religious leaders, its core issue was equal opportunity especially for the college
students who were seeking for employment chances in America (Hewitt, and Lawson, 2012).
Therefore, to communicate their grievances concerning equality of opportunity, the group used
tactics such as civil protests, which included sit-ins, marching in the streets, and freedom rides.
The other significant issue that the civil rights movement was protesting about is regarding the
right to vote, the right to access the public facilities, and right to be free from the concept of
racial discrimination. In the era of 1950s and 60s, most of the Blacks people were the subject of
prejudice, which denied them the right to vote or even access any public facility such as a sit on
the bus. Here the movement used different initiative, as the effort to see African-American

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receives the rights to vote and use the public facilities or they are not discriminated by the
whites.
How These Issues Were Resolved Through Judicial Rulings and New Laws
Throughout this period of 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movements continued to
suffer the brutality of the Whites. The aspect of murder affected the protesters by the Whites
federal government, but this also has impacts as it made the movement get more popular within
the Whites and even some supported the campaign. However, to solve the movement matters, the
Congress passed several civil rights laws that the movement proposed. Hewitt, and Lawson,
(2012) state that the passing of the new act by the Congress, whereby the law made the Congress
be an equal associate with the Supreme Court in the process of establishing and designing human
rights was one of the ways that were used to solve the movements’ issues, especially
discrimination, access to the public facilities, and voting. This included accessing the public
areas such restaurants, motels, counters, gas stations, and theaters. The right to vote, which was
also a subject for the movement was altered by the ruling as the Supreme Court, and Congress
changed the voting qualification whereby the African-American were given a chance to conduct
their democratic right. The new laws that were passed included the law of voting together with
the law of equality. The passing of the two law was an indication of African American
movement being powerful and receiving their support from the White people activist.
The Issues That Continued To Face African-American beyond the Mid-1960s
Despite the campaign being successful in the 1950s and 1960s, the movement suffered
from many disadvantages in the beyond the mid-1960s (Hewitt, and Lawson, 2012). By late
1960s, many Blacks people called for the African-American separation or nationalism, whereby
they wanted to separate from the Whites rather than working and incorporating with them. The

4. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF THE 1950S AND 1960S 4
other issues that affected the African-American in the late 1960s were poverty rates and physical
health problems, which were becoming much worse than before. Lastly, there was the issue of
racially motivated violence’s, especially when King was assassinated in 1968.

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Reference
Hewitt, N. A., & Lawson, S. F. (2012). Exploring American Histories, Volume 2: A Brief Survey
with Sources. Bedford: St. Martin's.