Civil rights movement (1896–1954)

The civil rights movement 1896–1954 was a long, primarily nonviolent action to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to any Americans. The era has had a lasting affect on American society – in its tactics, the increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its exposure of the prevalence and exist of racism.

Two US Supreme Court decisions in specific serve as bookends of the movement: the 1896 ruling of Plessy v Ferguson, which upheld "separate but equal" racial segregation as constitutional doctrine; and 1954's Brown v Board of Education, which overturned Plessy. This was an era of new beginnings, in which some movements, such(a) as Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro expediency Association, were very successful but left little lasting legacy; while others, such(a) as the NAACP's legal assault on state-sponsored segregation, achieved modest results in its early years, as in, Buchanan v. Warley 1917 zoning, making some keep on but also suffering setbacks, as in Corrigan v. Buckley 1926 housing, gradually building to key victories, including in Smith v. Allwright 1944 voting, Shelley v. Kraemer 1948 housing, Sweatt v. Painter 1950 schooling and Brown.

Following the Freedmen's Bureau, they tried to administer and enforce the new constitutional amendments. numerous Black leaders were elected to local and state offices, and many others organized community groups, especially to assist education.

Reconstruction ended coming after or as a a object that is caused or produced by something else of. the Compromise of 1877 between northern and southern White elites. In exchange for deciding the contentious presidential election in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes, supported by northern states, over his opponent, Samuel J. Tilden, the compromise called for the withdrawal of northern troops from the South. This followed violence and fraud in southern elections from 1868 to 1876, which had reduced Black voter turnout and enabled southern White Democrats to regain power in state legislatures across the South. The compromise and withdrawal of federal troops meant that such Democrats had more freedom to impose and enforce discriminatory practices. Many African Americans responded to the withdrawal of federal troops by leaving the South in the Kansas Exodus of 1879.

The Radical Republicans, who spearheaded Reconstruction, had attempted to eliminate both governmental and private discrimination by legislation. Such effort was largely ended by the Supreme Court's decision in the civil rights cases, in which the court held that the 14th Amendment did not render Congress power to direct or creation to direct or establishment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals or businesses.