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Civil Rights Achievements

Decent Essays

The impact of the Civil Rights Movement led to numerous changes in American society; today its achievements, as well as its faults, is still present. The Civil Rights Movement not only changed the lives of African Americans, but also affected the thoughts and beliefs of mainstream white America. The Civil Rights Movement (also referred to as the African-American Civil Rights Movement) was a “freedom struggle” by African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s to gain equality. The main goals of the movement were ending legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. This would give African Americans the right to equal opportunity in employment, education, and housing, the right to vote, equal access to public facilities, and …show more content…

Ferguson case, the U.S. Supreme Court issued another ruling supporting racial discrimination. This 1896 decision supported a Louisiana law that mandated separate railway cars for black and white passengers. The court ruled that the law was not discriminatory. The judges stated that the law allowed all passengers access to the railway cars, but in separate facilities. The Plessy v. Ferguson case gave rise to the expression "separate but equal." It became the basis for widespread legal discrimination throughout the South for many decades to come. The separate but equal ruling offered a way out for governments wishing to adhere to the Constitution but wanting to continue segregation. In reality, facilities for blacks, whether in railway cars, schools, or hospitals, were far from equal to those for whites. Decisions like that of Plessy v. Ferguson allowed state and local governments in the South to make numerous laws that restricted or denied blacks access to places like beaches and …show more content…

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