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:
“I’ve never been afraid to step out and to reach out and to move out in order to make things happen.”
—Victoria Gray, African American civil rights activist. As quoted in This Little Light of Mine, ch. 3, by Hay Mills (1993)
“He was one whose glory was an inner glory, one who placed culture above prosperity, fairness above profit, generosity above possessions, hospitality above comfort, courtesy above triumph, courage above safety, kindness above personal welfare, honor above success.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)
“A hundred things are done today in the divine name of Youth, that if they showed their true colours would be seen by rights to belong rather to old age.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
“What new thoughts are suggested by seeing a face of country quite familiar, in the rapid movement of the rail-road car!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)