Civil rights movement

1954-05-17 - 1968-08-01

US social movement from 1954 to 1968 aimed at abolishing legalized racial segregation, discrimination and disenfranchisement, principally affecting African Americans. Nonviolent campaigns including the Montgomery bus boycott, the sit-ins, the Birmingham campaign, the 1963 March on Washington and the Selma marches built pressure for three landmark laws: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The new laws ended most legal discrimination against African Americans, though informal racism persisted.