The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and armed rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and many of these movements did not fully achieve their goals although, the efforts of these movements did lead to improvements in the legal rights of previously oppressed groups of people.
Read more about Civil Rights Movement: Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland, Independence Movements in Africa, Canada's Quiet Revolution, Civil Rights Movement in The United States, LGBT Rights and Gay Liberation, German Student Movement, France 1968, Tlatelolco Massacre, Mexico, Prague Spring, 1967 Australian Referendum
Famous quotes containing the words civil rights, civil, rights and/or movement:
“... as a result of generations of betrayal, it’s nearly impossible for Southern Negroes to trust a Southern white. No matter what he does or what he suffers, a white liberal is never established beyond suspicion in the hearts of the minority.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 10 (1962)
“The utter helplessness of a conquered people is perhaps the most tragic feature of a civil war or any other sort of war.”
—Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930)
“I argued that the chastity of women was of much more consequence than that of men, as the property and rights of families depend upon it.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)