Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and racism, including racist violence, the Jim Crow era, and enslavement.

The civil rights movement in America was a struggle for social justice and racial equality initiated by African Americans that resulted in monumental changes in socio-political life; it is generally defined as spanning roughly the early 1950s to the late 1960s, though efforts to combat racism would continue in the decades that followed. 

During Reconstruction, the period that followed the American Civil War, enslavement was officially abolished. Emancipated African Americans obtained citizenship, and Black men also acquired voting rights. Several held office and attempted to secure legislative reforms to advance social equality. However, many white Americans resisted change. To ensure Black people’s subordination, Southern states enacted “Jim Crow” laws that legalized segregation in public spaces, ensured Black Americans’ ongoing economic exploitation, and deprived Black Americans of voting rights through various measures. Simultaneously, groups like the Ku Klux Klan used racist terrorism—including, most famously, lynchings—to reinforce white supremacy. While Northern states did not adopt Jim Crow laws, Black people faced discrimination in housing, education, and jobs nationwide. 

Following World War II, many Black veterans, like

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