Civil Rights Movement

Historical Background

The birth of the modern Civil Rights Movement can be traced to a gathering of Black intellectuals at Niagara Falls, Canada, in June 1905. Led by W. E. B. Du Bois, they endorsed a platform calling for full manhood suffrage and the abolition of all distinctions based on race. In 1909, the young radicals of the Niagara Movement joined with like-minded Whites to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). With Du Bois at its helm, the new organization initiated a crusade to win constitutional rights for African Americans, advocating equal treatment and lobbying Congress to enact anti-lynching legislation. Its lawyers challenged racist practices such as peonage, restrictive covenants, and the exclusion of Black citizens from juries.

In 1940, Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened a March on Washington to protest the lack of jobs for African American workers. President Franklin Roosevelt responded by issuing Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in defense industries. Around the same time, NAACP lawyers directed by Charles Hamilton Houston launched a legal assault on segregated education. A series of favorable court decisions culminated in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education opinion, which declared separate educational facilities “inherently unequal.” Southern politicians reacted to Brown with defiance, vowing never to permit Black children to attend school with Whites. The 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi showed that change would not come easily.

Key Initiatives