The Civil Rights Movement

Nearly a century after the Civil War, Black Americans in much of the country still faced segregated schools, buses and restaurants, and were blocked from voting. The civil rights movement^Q112 fought to end racial discrimination. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, starting a year-long boycott.

A young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. became the movement's best-known voice. Martin Luther King, Jr. is famous for many things^Q113; above all, he worked for equality for all Americans, insisting on nonviolent protest. In 1963, he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to about 250,000 people at the March on Washington. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 followed. King was assassinated in 1968; a federal holiday honors him each January.