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[[File:Martin-Luther-king.jpg|thumb|300px|Martin Luther King Jr from the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington DC.]]

[[File:Martin-Luther-king.jpg|thumb|300px|Martin Luther King Jr from the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington DC.]]

The '''civil rights movement''' was a movement towards racial equality and an end to segregation of [[African Americans]] that occurred in the [[United States]] from about 1953 to 1968, as courts and [[Congress]] made segregation illegal and imposed tough laws that allowed backs to vote.  

The '''civil rights movement''' was a movement towards racial equality and an end to segregation of [[African Americans]] that occurred in the [[United States]] from about 1953 to 1968, as courts and [[Congress]] made segregation illegal and imposed strict laws attempting to ensure that blacks could be able to vote.

 

==Reconstruction and Jim Crow==

==Reconstruction and Jim Crow==

During [[Reconstruction]], Radical Republicans tried to guarantee equal rights for emancipated slaves after the [[American Civil War]]. They succeeded in passing the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, which in theory required equal protection of the laws and an equal right to vote. President [[Ulysses Grant]] successfully suppressed the [[Ku Klux Klan]] when it used violence to turn back black gains.  The Republican coalition in the South fell apart in the 1870s, and conservative white [[Redeemers]] took control.  The Redeemers were paternalistic toward blacks but they confronted a [[Populist]] element in the 1890s that demanded strict segregation, called [[Jim Crow]].

During [[Reconstruction]], Radical Republicans tried to guarantee equal rights for emancipated slaves after the [[American Civil War]]. They succeeded in passing the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, which in theory required equal protection of the laws and an equal right to vote. President [[Ulysses Grant]] successfully suppressed the [[Ku Klux Klan]] when it used violence to turn back black gains.  The Republican coalition in the South fell apart in the 1870s, and conservative white [[Redeemers]] took control.  The Redeemers were paternalistic toward blacks but they confronted a [[Populist]] element in the 1890s that demanded strict segregation, called [[Jim Crow]].