Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights movements first began during the time of the formation of our country. However, during the era of the 1960’s a huge Civil Rights movement began to take place. During this time, several issues began to come up and many people began a movement to gain their rights. Several issues such as racial discrimination and gender discrimination were brought up and given a solution during the Civil Rights movements of the 1960’s, however, these forms of discrimination still occur to this day, thus the Civil Rights movement has yet to come to can end, with such issues such as one’s sexual orientation being a more current Civil Rights issue.

Racial discrimination has been an issue dating back to the time of slavery. For many years, most of the African-American population in the United States was either forced or born into slavery, with the exception of a few who were of the high class in society. It took a significantly long time for people to finally stand up for their rights. Once the topic of racial discrimination began to pop up many activists began to speak out to abolish slavery. There was even a war, Civil War, that had to take place in order for this particular issue to get resolved. The aftermath of the Civil War resulted in the creation of the Thirteenth Amendment, which stated that slavery and involuntary servitude was now forbidden. However, getting rid of slavery did not change the way that many people thought about African Americans. Many people were still degrading them and treated them miserably, they even had established Jim crow laws, that segregated people of color from the whites. It wasn’t until 1964 that the Civil Rights Act was established to make these discriminatory acts illegal in hotels, motels, and restaurants. It also made discrimination in jobs illegal due to race. Even though there are many laws to protect against racial discrimination, it is still a battle we face today.

For hundreds of years, women have been constantly fighting for equal rights. These feminists want to have the same opportunities that men have. They had already gotten the right to vote several years before in the 1920’s, due to the establishment of the Nineteenth Amendment. There was even another amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, that would create equality amongst all genders, brought up during the same time as they gained the right to vote, however, it failed to get all the votes necessary for it to become established into law. During the 1920’s - 1960’s, there were laws designed to protect women and protect men from competition with women, these were called, The “Doldrums.” The fight for women’s rights still went on strong and there even came to be a second feminist wave, which brought up a court case in 1971, Reed vs. Reed, this case ruled that can Idaho law preferring men over women was unconstitutional and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. To this day, there are still constant issues being brought up by women, such as wage discrimination, amount of worth, sexual harassment, and women in the military.

A more current Civil Rights issue, being discrimination against one’s sexual orientation has recently had some great successes. Gay and lesbian rights have been recently gaining many laws made in place to protect their rights. In the early 2000’s the court case, Lawrence v. Texas resulted in the protection of private homosexual acts by the constitution. Just last year, as of June 26, gay marriage was made legal nationwide. This legalization overjoyed many homosexual couples and supporters of the LGBT community, who have been longing to have the same rights as heterosexual couples. This has been a huge step for the discrimination against homosexuals simply based upon their sexual orientation, however, they still continue to be discriminated against, since many people do not approve of homosexuals due to their sexual orientation, because of religious reasons or other reasons they may have.

The Civil Rights movements of the 1960’s brought about great change for racial and gender discrimination. Although there have been several laws made to protect against these discriminations, the Civil Rights movements have yet to come to an end, there are still many issues being faced about racial and gender discrimination to this day, as well as discrimination based upon one’s sexual orientation.