Civil+Rightsstephb

Civil Rights

Martin Luther King fought for civil rights his entire career. In the 1960's, it became a nationwide headline. It was the fight that African Americans fought to gain the same rights as white people had. It was a long hard fight. Blacks who tried to stand up and mix with the whites were beaten, arrested or even killed. Laws such as the Jim Crow laws kept black and white facilities separate. The Civil Rights Movement tried to make it so that discrimination against blacks was outlawed. It also wanted to restore suffrage in the South. On July 2, 1674 president Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This prohibited discrimination of any kind based on race, color, religion, or nationality. It also gave the government the power to desegregate.