Page 63 - Reading Success B8

Civil rights are guaranteed by the law for all citizens of a nation. This means that
regardless of one’s race, gender, or religion they have the right to be treated equally.
However, for African Americans in the United States of America, gaining civil rights took many
years. After the end of the Civil War, which supposedly guaranteed freedom for African
Americans, blacks in the U.S. were still treated poorly. They were given the worst jobs and
were paid poorly for doing them. Black people and white people were also segregated. This
means they were separated in public places such as theaters, schools, on transportation, and
even in restrooms. The Civil Rights Movement refers to a set of events and reform
movements in the U.S. that were aimed at ending both public and private acts of racism and
racial discrimination, especially against African Americans. The Civil Rights Movement
occurred from 1954 to 1968.

One hundred years after the Civil War, and African Americans and their white allies were
still pursuing equal rights in every area of American life. Resistance to racial segregation and
discrimination was carried out with strategies such as civil disobedience, nonviolent
resistance, marches, protests, boycotts, "freedom rides," and rallies. These efforts received
national attention as newspaper, radio, and television reporters and cameramen documented
the struggle for equality.
The 1960s were the most significant decade for this movement. This period saw not only
the passing of the Civil Rights Bill of 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act
of 1965, the Open Housing Act of 1968, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972,
but also the rise of a federal government willing to enforce the laws it passed. All three
branches of government began to listen after Rosa Parks' defiance became that of a hundred
million or more people. Virtually , all these people joined her in order to destroy the laws that
said that a black woman could not sit where a white man wanted to sit. Rosa Parks was
arrested in December 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man
in Montgomery, Alabama. This set off a train of events that generated a momentum the civil
rights movement had yet to experience. Civil rights leaders were waiting for an opportunity to
test segregation laws. Rosa Parks provided them with this opportunity. The African American
community decided to boycott the buses and formed a new organization to supervise this
boycott. This organization was called the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). They
chose Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as their first leader, who was at the time only the
young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The boycott was more successful than
anyone had hoped. It led to the 1956 decision by the Supreme Court to ban segregated
buses, which eventually led to equal rights for African Americans.

Main Idea

What is the main idea of this story?

a. racism in America
b. the Civil Rights Movement in America

c. Rosa Parks
d. Martin Luther King Jr.

66_Reading Success B 8