The modern civil rights movement had its origins in the years immediately following World War II. After 1945 the movement gained considerable momentum as a result of the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. It
reached a high point in the mid-1960s with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After those victories the movement changed considerably. It became focused on the Northern urban ghettoes, it became steeped in black nationalism, and it was much more violent. By the mid-1970s a severe white backlash had set in that caused the movement a series of setbacks. Today, the movement is weak, fragmented and leaderless, but it does exist. |
