The Civil Rights movement has been a debate that has plagued America since the its conception with slaves first appearing to the New World in 1619. The debate over the rights of slaves became even more explosive in the 1850s with the Civil War when America fought over the freedom of these slaves, and the eventually the slaves gained their constitutional guarantee to be free through the Thirteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment gave the Federal Government the right to protect the individual against the state which was supposed to help pave way for Civil Rights. Despite these massive changes in their lives, the slaves were not truly free. They now had to free themselves from the chains of segregation and oppression. Everywhere they would travel, they would be discriminated purely on the color of their skin. The Civil Rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s as blacks thirsted for equal rights and became more violent in the 1960s with such leaders as Malcolm X.

In 1964, King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Soon after, he along with the SNCC and SCLC went out to test whether the South was complying with the new Civil Rights Act. The SNCC and the SCLC organized a massive voter registration in Selma, Alabama. Again, this demonstration resulted in massive retaliation from the white supremacists as the Selma sheriff Jim Clark beat a black woman waiting in line to register to vote. Demonstrators began a fifty-mile march from Selma to Montgomery. On that march, state troopers attacked the protesters giving it the name of "Bloody Sunday." This action in Selma led Johnson to introduce the Voting Rights Bill. This bill allowed the federal observers to ensure that all who were eligible to vote would be allowed to vote. The bill was signed into an Act in 1965.

The Civil Rights Movement faced a monumental loss as James Earl Jones killed Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. King was about to start his non-violent campaign against poverty when King went down to Memphis to support black sanitation workers. Stokely Carmichael asked that the shops and businesses be shut down for the day to mourn over the loss over King. Just shortly after, political fanatic Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Robert Kennedy, a Civil Rights activist and Presidential candidate. The death of King proved to be one of the largest contributing factors that led to increase in the Black Power movement. The black community grew even more angry over the death of the lost leader. The resistance which these Black Power groups had toward Vietnam War gained much sympathy. However, with the end of the Vietnam War, the protests died, and eventually the Black Power movement died. Because of their extreme violence, the government made many programs such as Cointelpro to monitor the Black Power groups such as the Black Panthers. Despite the tremendous revolutions that occurred in the areas of Civil Rights during the fifties and sixties, racism still exists in one for or another.

CORE, meanwhile, went out to help desegregate the nation's interstate highway system. A group of both white and black members went out on buses throughout the South. They were deemed "freedom riders" as their travels resulted in much public opposition. The riders were often severely injured and attacked by Southern residents. The ride ended up in the arrest of three hundred riders. However, the protest showed that despite the Supreme Court ruling, the interstate travel was still segregated. The Interstate Commerce Commission followed up in November 1961 by banning segregation on interstate travel.

Also in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. set on a crusade to stop the segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. After being invited by Fred Shuttlesworth, King set out a campaign in Birmingham that would help to dismantle the segregation. Demonstrations began on April 3, 1963 and continued for several months. During this time, King was imprisoned where he wrote "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Eventually, the protesters included children in their protest marches, calling it the Children's Campaign. The police chief of Birmingham Eugene "Bull" Connor ordered the police to stop the protests. Kennedy initially advocated that both sides reach a solution. The businessmen who were losing significant profits agreed to desegregate lunch counters and hire black workers. This action elicited hatred from the Ku Klux Klan which led to an increase in violence. Kennedy eventually sent federal troops in to enforce the desegregation. This event leads Kennedy to propose the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The campaign in Birmingham was similar to the one in Albany, Georgia in which the SCLC, SNCC, and CORE organized massive sit-ins to end discrimination in 1961-1962.

The next battle waged on the issue of Civil Rights Movement began in Montgomery, Alabama, with a black seamstress named Rosa Parks. On December 11, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a w

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