OVERVIEW: The rights of a country’s citizens are called civil rights. The mass movement for racial equality in the United States known as the civil rights movement started in the late 1950s. Through nonviolent protest actions, it broke through the pattern of racial segregation, the practice in the South through which Black Americans were not allowed to use the same schools, churches, restaurants, buses, and other facilities as white Americans. The movement also achieved the passage of landmark equal-rights laws in the mid-1960s intended to end discrimination against people because of their race. To learn more about this important movement, explore the resources below.

"Civil rights movement." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 6 Nov. 2020. school.eb.com/levels/elementary/article/civil-rights-movement/403522. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.