Civil Rights 1964

8 Pages 1958 Words

). Civil rights in America began with the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, which ended slavery and freed blacks in theory. The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 were passed, guaranteeing the rights of blacks in the courts and access to public accommodation. These were, however, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, who decided that the fourteenth did not protect blacks from violation of civil rights, by individuals. This decision allowed white Southern conservative leadership to make laws and policies regarding blacks that eluded constitutional guarantees. In the face of this blatant discrimination black Americans started to gather and form new organizations to further, and in many cases create civil rights for themselves. Civil rights leadership was assumed by organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people (NAACP), and the National Urban League (NUL). The NAACP was formally organized in 1910, and for half a century was the foremost civil rights agency, bringing mass amounts of litigation to the courts. In its commitment to the ideals of democracy the NAACP pursued equality for all in the eyes of the government. Around the middle of the century gains were being made in small places, with a few minor changes in state laws. Yet blacks were still for all conventional purposes second class citizens (Mooney 776). World War II and its homecoming black veterans brought back even more unrest than before. After fighting the Germans and witnessing Hitler's racial holocaust blacks realized t...