The U.S. Civil Rights Movement: Law, Policy, and Equality

Introduction

Whole books have been written on the subject of the civil rights struggle of African-Americans in the United States, a struggle that undoubtedly began when the first African slaves were brought to North America against their will. However, in recent history, the 1950s and 1960s were pivotal because of the significant gains made during that period. This era of change was driven by shifts in government policy, as reflected by civil rights laws passed and amendments made to the United States Constitution.

Civil Rights and the Founding of the United States

Even though people in both the North and the South owned slaves at the time America won its independence from England, the nation's earliest documents suggested that the country would eventually reject slavery. The Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal" and are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" (Canady, 1998). No distinction was drawn based on skin color, and the document emphasized the dignity of the individual — a principle that would later unite Black Americans in their struggle for equality. Less than a century later, President Abraham Lincoln embraced the idea that "all should have an equal chance" (Canady, 1998). While Thomas Jefferson did not intend to include Black Americans in the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln did mean people of color in his speeches. The time had come to end slavery.

One of the first major actions of the newly reunified country in 1865 was to formally abolish slavery through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" (U.S. Constitution). Significantly, this amendment also established that "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation" (U.S. Constitution), laying the foundation for later civil rights law.

The rights of formerly enslaved people were further bolstered by the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, which stated that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Had this amendment been followed rigorously, it would have prevented the rise of the Jim Crow laws that so severely restricted where African-Americans might go and what they might do. However, Southern states were not willing to accept a new set of standards regarding formerly enslaved people, and passed harsh laws that solidly established Black Americans as second-class citizens.

In spite of Jim Crow laws, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (U.S. Constitution). The country made no further amendments directly related to the civil rights of people of color until 1964, when the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was passed. This amendment banned poll taxes, ensuring that economic status would not determine who could vote in federal elections (U.S. Constitution).

The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s

In spite of multiple Constitutional amendments and widely accepted statements about the rights of all people to dignity and equality, by the mid-1950s African-Americans were still openly and systematically oppressed in much of the United States. These attitudes had become deeply embedded in social culture and were embraced by people who considered themselves law-abiding Americans and patriots. However, little by little, social consciousness began to shift, and the Supreme Court played an important role in forcing acceptance of change.

One very important Supreme Court decision was Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which endorsed the idea that separation of the races did not automatically mean inequality between them (Canady, 1998). Justice John Harlan wrote a dissenting opinion stating, in part, "Our Constitution is color blind… The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the Supreme law of the land are involved" (Canady, 1998). Such statements from influential Americans helped infuse the growing civil rights movement with the belief that the rightness of their cause would eventually be recognized. The Plessy v. Ferguson ruling was overturned in 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that separate was inherently unequal and declared segregated schools unconstitutional. This was a crucial change, as the earlier ruling had been used to keep Black students out of accredited high schools and to bar them from attending many state universities.

Encouraged by this ruling, the civil rights movement gained new energy in the mid-1950s. Black leaders began to organize to fight not only school segregation but racist laws and policies more broadly. A grassroots movement formed to help Black Americans register to vote (Canady, 1998). Political support for equal rights first came from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who in 1957 signed the first civil rights law to be passed in 82 years (Graham, 1997). This law supported the voting rights of Black Americans across all states and established a Commission on Civil Rights to study civil rights issues (Graham, 1997).

However, despite the new law and the weight of the Constitution, little real change occurred regarding voting rights in practice. The Civil Rights Commission gathered information and made policy recommendations but had no enforcement authority, and individuals had to press for their voting rights through the courts — a slow and cumbersome process. The 1957 civil rights law had little practical impact on the status of Black Americans (Graham, 1997). For the most part, Jim Crow discrimination laws remained in place and continued to be enforced.

The difficulty of these times can be illustrated by the roles two individuals played: Rosa Parks and George Wallace. Rosa Parks embodied the civil rights movement through her actions one day on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Following Jim Crow law, she sat in the first row of the Black section. As the bus filled up, both sections became crowded. When a white man boarded and found no seats available in the white section, the bus driver ordered Parks to give up her seat. She refused and was arrested. This incident resulted in an extended bus boycott that eventually brought an end to Jim Crow laws in that city (Morris, 1999).

Some white Americans were unwilling to grant anything resembling equality to Black people. On June 11, 1963, George Wallace stood in front of the University of Alabama to physically bar the door against what would have been the university's first Black student. President John F. Kennedy had to send in federal troops to end the standoff. This pivotal event helped build momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which eliminated segregation and made a new commitment "to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law" (Canady, 1998). The law clearly stated that no American would be discriminated against on the basis of sex, race, or disability. It was followed in 1965 by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which extended voting rights fully to all Americans.

Conclusion

Black historians note that racial justice has not yet been fully achieved, so the civil rights struggle cannot be considered complete (Eagles, 2000). This view is reinforced by the fact that words spoken by politicians forty years ago could still be spoken today — for example, Kennedy's statement: "We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and it is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated" (Canady, 1998).

In spite of the fact that work remains to be done, the Civil Rights movement in the United States managed to virtually end Jim Crow laws in only ten short years. While isolated issues remained, by the end of that decade a fundamental shift had taken place in the mindset of most Americans — the recognition that discrimination was wrong and that it was time to try to put things right.

The Civil Rights movement also had another significant impact on the American landscape. By accomplishing so much in ten years, it demonstrated that grassroots movements composed of ordinary people doing what they believed was right could bring about monumental changes in society (Morris, 1999). Those who opposed the Vietnam War learned from the Civil Rights movement, adopting civil disobedience, protests, marches, and other bottom-up approaches to pressure the United States government to end the war. Americans rediscovered what they had learned in the eighteenth century when they rebelled against Great Britain: that if people truly commit to fighting for what they believe in, they can make major changes in their country.

Of all the people involved in the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. may have had the most profound effect on the views of white Americans who were being asked to share power in ways they never had before. He said:

"The image of God… is universally shared in equal portions by all men. There is no graded scale of essential worth. Every human being has etched in his personality the indelible stamp of the Creator…. The worth of an individual does not lie in the measure of his intellect, his racial origin, or his social position. Human worth lies in relatedness to God. Whenever this is recognized, 'whiteness' and 'blackness' pass away as determinants in a relationship and 'son' and 'brother' are substituted." (Canady, 1998)

Through such words, King gave a face and a voice to the Civil Rights movement that many people could relate to. The movement was effective because many different types of people came to agree with its goals — but this only happened because African-Americans decided that the time for change had come and found ways to force others to look injustice in the eye and see it for what it truly was.