civil rights titles for essays

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Civil Rights Movement Essay Titles

• The Civil Rights Movement’s Peaceful Protest Achievements
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Drug War
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Long-Term Impact
• During the Civil Rights Movement: African Americans and Religion
• The American Civil Rights Movement and Its Effect on African Americans
• The Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement Analysis
• Rock’ n’ Roll’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Importance and Impact on Public Policy
• Women Activists in the Civil Rights Movement
• A History of the Feminist and Civil Rights Movements in the United States
• How Far can the 1950s Be Considered a Great Success for the Civil Rights Movement?
• Study of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma: The Historical Accuracy of Ava DuVernay
• A Look at the American Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Role
• The Historiography of Women’s Civil Rights Movement Roles and Visibility
• The Civil Rights Movement and The Southern Jewish-Black Relationship
• The America Civil Rights Movement’s Contradictory Outcome
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott Movement and The Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Role of the Police
• The Supreme Court’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement

Fascinating Civil Rights Movement Topics to Write about

• The Civil Rights Movement’s Progressive Reform Stages
• Democracy in the United States and the Civil Rights Movement
• Theatre During the Civil Rights Movement
• Student’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement
• During the Civil Rights Movement: Relationship between Activism and the Federal Government.
• African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement Adopted Both Violent and Nonviolent Protest Methods
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Role and Importance of Grassroots Organizers
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Fight for Aid
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Success in the 1950s
• The Reconstruction Era Laws and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement and The New York Times
• White Opposition to Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Impact on Black Women
• The Civil Rights Movement in America versus Australia
• Civil Rights Movement Successes and Failures
• The Black Middle Class and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Origins and Impact of the Niagara Movement on the American Civil Rights Movement
• How Significant Was Grassroots Activism in Growing the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s
• The Civil Rights Movement: A History, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• The Importance of Civil Rights Movement Research
• The Civil Rights Movement’s True Face

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111 Civil Rights Movement Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on civil rights movement, ✍️ civil rights movement essay topics for college, 👍 good civil rights movement research topics & essay examples, 🎓 most interesting civil rights movement research titles, 💡 simple civil rights movement essay ideas, ❓ research question about the civil rights movement.

• Women Role in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement: Effects and Consequences
• Social and Personal Responsibility of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Success
• 1960’s Civil Rights Movement
• The Causes and Effects of the Civil Rights Movement
• Rosa Parks: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Impact on Civil Rights Movement Even though the Civil War of 1861-1865 had ended 90 years earlier, racial equality had never been established in America.
• The Civil Rights Movement History The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s considerably changed the nation by defending equality at the legislative and public levels.
• The Civil Rights Movement The movement for equal rights and opportunities for every citizen of the United States has led to positive results and outstanding successes.
• The Civil Rights Movement’s Causes and Effects The civil rights movement had significant consequences for the USA which. Studying the causes of the appearance of this social phenomenon can give a more detailed insight into it.
• Praying for Sheetrock: Civil Rights Movement In the book “Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction” Melissa Fay Greene considers the problem of the Civil Rights Movement in the American South.
• The Influence of the African American Civil Rights Movement on Other Groups The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s began the struggle for freedom and equality, whose ideas remain relevant in today’s America.
• The American Civil Rights Movement in US History The need for the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s was contributed by the desire to end the Jim Crow segregation system in the Southern states.
• African American Civil Rights Movement The growth of the anti-racist and pacifist movements in the United States was reflected in the sentiments of African American fighters for Civil Rights.
• Researching of Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement aimed to eliminate racial discrimination and ensure that everyone has equal rights and opportunities regardless of skin color.
• Affirmative Action in Civil Rights Movement Affirmative action has been in the spotlight of the political, and in particular, liberal agenda, since the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement in American History The Civil Rights Movement is important in discussing American history because it effectively changed the nation with its impacts on minorities.
• The Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1968 In the period from 1955 to 1968, the Civil Rights movement gained considerable momentum, ultimately resulting in the implementation of the Voting Rights Act and Fair Housing Act.
• The Civil Rights Movement: Impact on the African American Citizens By building the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans managed to change not only the legal standards but also the social perspective, gaining the recognition that they deserved.
• The Great Depression vs. The Civil Rights Movement The Great Depression had an impact compared to the Civil Rights Movement because it affected many people, and transformed the American culture more profoundly.
• Civil Rights Movement and Construction of US Racism Racism is associated with slurs, Islamophobia, police brutality, and Donald Trump. This list signals that racism today is a more insidious, politicized form of discrimination.
• Analysis of the Civil Rights Movement By the early 1970s, the fascination with extreme forms of black nationalism was gradually waning, the influence of adventurous slogans and tactics was falling.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King, Jr. is the most well-known defender of black Americans’ civil rights; the movement he led has contributed significantly to the fight against racial segregation.
• The Civil Rights Movement: Minorities vs. Police An opposition between minorities and police appears to be a problem that started during the Civil Rights Movement and continues to modern days.
• Achievement of Civil Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s marked a new beginning in America’s history. Different minority groups came together in order to fight for equality.
• The Civil Rights Movement and Its Biggest Events The Civil Rights Movement was initiated to advance the clamor for social justice by ensuring equal entitlements for the black society under the U.S. statutes.
• Civil Rights Movement, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s-1960s became a struggle for social fairness. During the period of Reconstruction, Black Americans managed to receive political independence.
• The History of Civil Rights Movement One of the differences between the activities of Claudette Colvin and young BLM activists lies in distinctive political situations.
• Civil Rights Movement: Aims, Ideas, Impacts on Society The aim of the civil rights movement in the 1960s was to resist all forms of racial oppression as well as to abolish the legacy of slavery as an institution.
• The Civil Rights Movement Overview This paper focuses on the Civil Rights Movement, especially its origin and influence in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
• Civil Rights Movement and Actual State of Human Rights Ending racial discrimination and equalization of rights between the variety of ethnic groups found on the territory of the United States is a struggle with a long history.
• Civil Rights Movement Analysis This paper describes the Civil Rights Movement that started as a response to racial segregation in the U.S.A. The main ideologists were Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
• Martin Luther King Civil Rights Movement: Impact on Modern Society The Civil Rights movement has had a significant impact on the history of the USA and played a significant role in forming modern society.
• Women’s Demands: Seneca Falls in 1848 and Civil Rights Movement No matter the amount of difference between the demands of women at Seneca Falls in 1848 with the demands of women in the 1960s-70s, at the fundamental demand they were the same.
• US Social Scientists and Civil Rights Movement One of the most important event of 1960s US was the Civil Rights Movement. The movement gave equal rights to African-Americans in the US which included right to vote.
• Civil Rights Movement & Modern Afro-American Life This essay will provide a brief overview of the civil rights movement and discuss its impact on the contemporary life of African Americans.
• Law in the Civil Rights Movement: Articles Review The article by Glennon seeks to prove that the mere act of prolonged protests during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1957 did not prevail on its own volition.
• Early Civil Rights Movement and Its Goals The Civil Rights Movement encompasses the actions and strategies used by different groups in the United States between 1954 and 1968.
• News Media Shaping Civil Rights Movement History African American journalists sacrificed their resources to support the Civil Rights Movement. This paper explains how the news media shaped history throughout this movement.
• The Civil Rights Movement and Reconstruction This paper discusses Morris’ analysis of the Civil Rights Movement development and strategies. It also discusses what did reconstruction entail and why was it eventually abandoned.
• Martin Luther King in Civil Rights Movement One should focus on the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King was able to raise people’s awareness about the destructive impacts of racial discrimination.
• Pauli Murray’s Input to the Civil Rights Movement Pauli Murray’s name is not commonly mentioned alongside many historical figures immortalized in their fight for equality and civil rights for minorities and women.
• Civil Rights Movement: Violence and Community This paper explores the role of violence in the context of the Civil Rights Movement and the way the bottom-up approach offers a different view of the Black struggle.
• The Civil Rights Movement in USA Civil rights can be traced to during the United States of American Reconstruction period which happened between late 1860s and 1870s.
• Civil Rights Movement in America One of the common elements of the history of the United States in the early years was racial discrimination against foreigners.
• Civil Disobedience and the Civil Rights Movement
• Muhammad Ali and the Civil Rights Movement
• Human Trafficking and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement: The Right for Educational Equity
• Barack Obama Reflects on the Deracialized Post-Civil Rights Movement Just
• Hate Crime and the Civil Rights Movement
• Angela Davis and the Civil Rights Movement
• Affirmative Action Programs and the Civil Rights Movement
• The American Civil Rights Movement Between 1955 to 1968
• Philadelphia and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
• The Role of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Abolitionist Movement and the Civil Rights Movement
• Racism and Prejudice During the Civil Rights Movement
• The History of The Civil Rights Movement in The United States of America
• Black Lives Matter in The Civil Rights Movement
• Discrimination and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement and Its Impact on Gender
• Gender Inequality During the Civil Rights Movement
• Montgomery Bus Boycotts: Role of Women in the Civil Rights Movement
• Personalities Behind the Civil Rights Movement
• Non-violence During the Civil Rights Movement Assignment
• Industrial Workers Movements and Civil Rights Movement
• Martin Luther King’s Impact on the Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Rights Movement and African American Women’s Role
• Progressing the Civil Rights Movement With Aristotle’s Artistic Appeals
• The Role of The Media in Ushering The Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement
• Analyzing the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War Assignment
• Photojournalism and the Civil Rights Movement
• African American Civil Rights Movement of 1955-1968
• Native Americans and the Civil Rights Movement
• Black Middle Class and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
• The Contradicting Outcome of The Civil Rights Movement in America
• Civil Rights Movement and The Struggles of African Americans During Those Times
• The Civil Rights Movement and the Biblical Oppression
• Harriet Tubman and the American Civil Rights Movement
• Bernie Sanders and the Civil Rights Movement
• Relationship Between Civil Rights Movement & Feminist Agenda
• The Civil Rights Movement and African American Discriminations
• Reconstruction Era and the Civil Rights Movement
• How Has the Civil Rights Movement Changed the United States?
• What Role Did the Americans Play in the Civil Rights Movement From the 1950s to the 1960s?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement and Anti-Vietnam Campaigns Impact Society and Law Enforcement During the 1960s and 1970s?
• What Changed After the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Has the Meaning of Civil Rights in the United States Changed Over Time?
• Why Did the American Civil Rights Movement End?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Cause Social Change?
• What Was the Most Significant Achievement of the Civil Rights Movement?
• Was the Non-violent Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s Successful?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Develop After 1961?
• What Were the Similarities and Differences Between the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement?
• How Far Was Peaceful Protest Responsible for the Success of the Civil Rights Movement in the Years 1955-1964?
• Why Did the Civil Rights Movement Fall Apart?
• In What Ways and for What Reasons Did the Civil Rights Movement in the United States Make Significant Progress in the Period 1950 to 1964?
• How Important Was Martin Luther King to the Success of the Civil Rights Movement?
• What Made the Civil Rights Movement Successful?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Change American Culture?
• What Events Led to the Civil Rights Movement?
• Did the Civil Right Movement Change the World?
• Who Has the Biggest Impact on the Civil Rights Movement?
• Why Did the Civil Rights Movement in the United States Become Fragmented After 1966?
• Is the Civil Rights Movement Still Going On Today?
• What Were the Causes and Effects of the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Affect the World?
• What Was the Most Important Event During the Civil Rights Movement?

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These essay examples and topics on Civil Rights Movement were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on December 27, 2023 .

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Civil Rights Movement

By: History.com Editors

Updated: January 22, 2024 | Original: October 27, 2009

The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. The Civil War officially abolished slavery , but it didn’t end discrimination against Black people—they continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, especially in the South. By the mid-20th century, Black Americans, along with many other Americans, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades.

Jim Crow Laws

During Reconstruction , Black people took on leadership roles like never before. They held public office and sought legislative changes for equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave Black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment granted Black American men the right to vote. Still, many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy that people they’d once enslaved were now on a more-or-less equal playing field.

To marginalize Black people, keep them separate from white people and erase the progress they’d made during Reconstruction, “ Jim Crow ” laws were established in the South beginning in the late 19th century. Black people couldn’t use the same public facilities as white people, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most Black people couldn’t vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.

Jim Crow laws weren’t adopted in northern states; however, Black people still experienced discrimination at their jobs or when they tried to buy a house or get an education. To make matters worse, laws were passed in some states to limit voting rights for Black Americans.

Moreover, southern segregation gained ground in 1896 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that facilities for Black and white people could be “separate but equal."

World War II and Civil Rights

Prior to World War II , most Black people worked as low-wage farmers, factory workers, domestics or servants. By the early 1940s, war-related work was booming, but most Black Americans weren’t given better-paying jobs. They were also discouraged from joining the military.

After thousands of Black people threatened to march on Washington to demand equal employment rights, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. It opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.

Black men and women served heroically in World War II, despite suffering segregation and discrimination during their deployment. The Tuskegee Airmen broke the racial barrier to become the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. Yet many Black veterans were met with prejudice and scorn upon returning home. This was a stark contrast to why America had entered the war to begin with—to defend freedom and democracy in the world.

As the Cold War began, President Harry Truman initiated a civil rights agenda, and in 1948 issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military. These events helped set the stage for grass-roots initiatives to enact racial equality legislation and incite the civil rights movement.

On December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks found a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after work. Segregation laws at the time stated Black passengers must sit in designated seats at the back of the bus, and Parks complied.

When a white man got on the bus and couldn’t find a seat in the white section at the front of the bus, the bus driver instructed Parks and three other Black passengers to give up their seats. Parks refused and was arrested.

As word of her arrest ignited outrage and support, Parks unwittingly became the “mother of the modern-day civil rights movement.” Black community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr ., a role which would place him front and center in the fight for civil rights.

Parks’ courage incited the MIA to stage a boycott of the Montgomery bus system . The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. On November 14, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating was unconstitutional. 

Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the civil rights movement gained momentum when the United States Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education . In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas asked for volunteers from all-Black high schools to attend the formerly segregated school.

On September 4, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine , arrived at Central High School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard (on order of Governor Orval Faubus) and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks later and made it inside, but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.

Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to and from classes at Central High. Still, the students faced continual harassment and prejudice.

Their efforts, however, brought much-needed attention to the issue of desegregation and fueled protests on both sides of the issue.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Even though all Americans had gained the right to vote, many southern states made it difficult for Black citizens. They often required prospective voters of color to take literacy tests that were confusing, misleading and nearly impossible to pass.

Wanting to show a commitment to the civil rights movement and minimize racial tensions in the South, the Eisenhower administration pressured Congress to consider new civil rights legislation.

On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.

Sit-In at Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Despite making some gains, Black Americans still experienced blatant prejudice in their daily lives. On February 1, 1960, four college students took a stand against segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina when they refused to leave a Woolworth’s lunch counter without being served.

Over the next several days, hundreds of people joined their cause in what became known as the Greensboro sit-ins. After some were arrested and charged with trespassing, protesters launched a boycott of all segregated lunch counters until the owners caved and the original four students were finally served at the Woolworth’s lunch counter where they’d first stood their ground.

Their efforts spearheaded peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations in dozens of cities and helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to encourage all students to get involved in the civil rights movement. It also caught the eye of young college graduate Stokely Carmichael , who joined the SNCC during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register Black voters in Mississippi. In 1966, Carmichael became the chair of the SNCC, giving his famous speech in which he originated the phrase "Black power.”

Freedom Riders

On May 4, 1961, 13 “ Freedom Riders ”—seven Black and six white activists–mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C. , embarking on a bus tour of the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were testing the 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that declared the segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional.

Facing violence from both police officers and white protesters, the Freedom Rides drew international attention. On Mother’s Day 1961, the bus reached Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted the bus and threw a bomb into it. The Freedom Riders escaped the burning bus but were badly beaten. Photos of the bus engulfed in flames were widely circulated, and the group could not find a bus driver to take them further. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (brother to President John F. Kennedy ) negotiated with Alabama Governor John Patterson to find a suitable driver, and the Freedom Riders resumed their journey under police escort on May 20. But the officers left the group once they reached Montgomery, where a white mob brutally attacked the bus. Attorney General Kennedy responded to the riders—and a call from Martin Luther King Jr.—by sending federal marshals to Montgomery.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders reached Jackson, Mississippi. Though met with hundreds of supporters, the group was arrested for trespassing in a “whites-only” facility and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) brought the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the convictions. Hundreds of new Freedom Riders were drawn to the cause, and the rides continued.

In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals

March on Washington

Arguably one of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28, 1963: the March on Washington . It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph , Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr.

More than 200,000 people of all races congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was King’s speech in which he continually stated, “I have a dream…”

King’s “ I Have a Dream” speech galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 —legislation initiated by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination —into law on July 2 of that year.

King and other civil rights activists witnessed the signing. The law guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated.

Bloody Sunday

On March 7, 1965, the civil rights movement in Alabama took an especially violent turn as 600 peaceful demonstrators participated in the Selma to Montgomery march to protest the killing of Black civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a white police officer and to encourage legislation to enforce the 15th amendment.

As the protesters neared the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were blocked by Alabama state and local police sent by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a vocal opponent of desegregation. Refusing to stand down, protesters moved forward and were viciously beaten and teargassed by police and dozens of protesters were hospitalized.

The entire incident was televised and became known as “ Bloody Sunday .” Some activists wanted to retaliate with violence, but King pushed for nonviolent protests and eventually gained federal protection for another march.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, he took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 several steps further. The new law banned all voter literacy tests and provided federal examiners in certain voting jurisdictions. 

It also allowed the attorney general to contest state and local poll taxes. As a result, poll taxes were later declared unconstitutional in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections in 1966.

Part of the Act was walked back decades later, in 2013, when a Supreme Court decision ruled that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, holding that the constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated.

Civil Rights Leaders Assassinated

The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders in the late 1960s. On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room's balcony. Emotionally-charged looting and riots followed, putting even more pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act became law on April 11, 1968, just days after King’s assassination. It prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation enacted during the civil rights era.

The civil rights movement was an empowering yet precarious time for Black Americans. The efforts of civil rights activists and countless protesters of all races brought about legislation to end segregation, Black voter suppression and discriminatory employment and housing practices.

A Brief History of Jim Crow. Constitutional Rights Foundation. Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library. Document for June 25th: Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry. National Archives. Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In. African American Odyssey. Little Rock School Desegregation (1957).  The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford . Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford . Rosa Marie Parks Biography. Rosa and Raymond Parks. Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965). BlackPast.org. The Civil Rights Movement (1919-1960s). National Humanities Center. The Little Rock Nine. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. Turning Point: World War II. Virginia Historical Society.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — History of the United States — Civil Rights Movement

Essays on Civil Rights Movement

Hook examples for civil rights movement essays, anecdotal hook.

Imagine standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, listening to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech. This moment in history epitomized the Civil Rights Movement's power and importance.

Question Hook

What does it mean to fight for civil rights? Explore the complex history, key figures, and lasting impact of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Quotation Hook

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. How did civil rights activists like King refuse to stay silent and ignite change?

Statistical or Factual Hook

Did you know that in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin? Dive into the facts and milestones of the Civil Rights Movement.

Definition Hook

What defines a civil rights movement? Explore the principles, goals, and strategies that distinguish civil rights movements from other social justice movements.

Rhetorical Question Hook

Was the Civil Rights Movement solely about racial equality, or did it pave the way for broader social change and justice? Examine the movement's multifaceted impact.

Historical Hook

Travel back in time to the mid-20th century and uncover the roots of the Civil Rights Movement, from the Jim Crow era to the landmark Supreme Court decisions.

Contrast Hook

Contrast the injustices and systemic racism faced by African Americans prior to the Civil Rights Movement with the progress made through protests, legislation, and activism.

Narrative Hook

Meet Rosa Parks, a seamstress who refused to give up her bus seat, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Follow her courageous journey and the ripple effect it had on the Civil Rights Movement.

Controversial Statement Hook

Prepare to explore the controversies within the Civil Rights Movement, such as differing strategies among activists and debates over nonviolence versus militancy.

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Letter from Birmingham Jail - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Civil Rights Movement and The Struggles of African Americans During Those Times

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How The Civil Rights Movement Helped African Americans Achieve Their Rights

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United States

Racism, segregation, disenfranchisement, Jim Crow laws, socioeconomic inequality

W.E.B. Du Bois, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry MacNeal Turner, John Oliver Killens

Civil rights movement was a struggle of African Americans and their like-minded allies for social justice in United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. The purpose was to end legalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States.

“Jim Crow” laws were established in the South beginning in the late 19th century with a purpose to separate Black people from white people. Black people couldn’t use the same public facilities as white people or go to the same schools. Although, Jim Crow laws weren’t adopted in northern states, Black people still experienced discrimination.

Forms of protest and civil disobedience included boycotts, such as the most successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) that lasted for 381 days in Alabama; mass marches, such as the Children's Crusade in Birmingham in 1963 and Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina and Nashville sit-ins (1960) in Tennessee.

The Great March on Washington was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr., who delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

On July 2, 1964, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity. The act "remains one of the most significant legislative achievements in American history".

The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally and Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room’s balcony on April 4, 1968.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. It prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, and national origin.

The 20th-century civil rights movement produced an enduring transformation of the legal status of African Americans and other victims of discrimination.

Relevant topics

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Introductory Essay: Continuing the Heroic Struggle for Equality: The Civil Rights Movement

To what extent did Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans during the civil rights movement?

• I can explain the importance of local and federal actions in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
• I can compare the goals and methods of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLS), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Malcolm X and Black Nationalism, and Black Power.
• I can explain challenges African Americans continued to face despite victories for equality and justice during the civil rights movement.

Essential Vocabulary

Continuing the heroic struggle for equality: the civil rights movement.

The struggle to make the promises of the Declaration of Independence a reality for Black Americans reached a climax after World War II. The activists of the civil rights movement directly confronted segregation and demanded equal civil rights at the local level with physical and moral courage and perseverance. They simultaneously pursued a national strategy of systematically filing lawsuits in federal courts, lobbying Congress, and pressuring presidents to change the laws. The civil rights movement encountered significant resistance, however, and suffered violence in the quest for equality.

During the middle of the twentieth century, several Black writers grappled with the central contradictions between the nation’s ideals and its realities, and the place of Black Americans in their country. Richard Wright explored a raw confrontation with racism in Native Son (1940), while Ralph Ellison led readers through a search for identity beyond a racialized category in his novel Invisible Man (1952), as part of the Black quest for identity. The novel also offered hope in the power of the sacred principles of the Founding documents. Playwright Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun , first performed in 1959, about the dreams deferred for Black Americans and questions about assimilation. Novelist and essayist James Baldwin described Blacks’ estrangement from U.S. society and themselves while caught in a racial nightmare of injustice in The Fire Next Time (1963) and other works.

World War II wrought great changes in U.S. society. Black soldiers fought for a “double V for victory,” hoping to triumph over fascism abroad and racism at home. Many received a hostile reception, such as Medgar Evers who was blocked from voting at gunpoint by five armed whites. Blacks continued the Great Migration to southern and northern cities for wartime industrial work. After the war, in 1947, Jackie Robinson endured racial taunts on the field and segregation off it as he broke the color barrier in professional baseball and began a Hall of Fame career. The following year, President Harry Truman issued executive orders desegregating the military and banning discrimination in the civil service. Meanwhile, Thurgood Marshall and his legal team at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) meticulously prepared legal challenges to discrimination, continuing a decades-long effort.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund brought lawsuits against segregated schools in different states that were consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka , 1954. The Supreme Court unanimously decided that “separate but equal” was “inherently unequal.” Brown II followed a year after, as the court ordered that the integration of schools should be pursued “with all deliberate speed.” Throughout the South, angry whites responded with a campaign of “massive resistance” and refused to comply with the order, while many parents sent their children to all-white private schools. Middle-class whites who opposed integration joined local chapters of citizens’ councils and used propaganda, economic pressure, and even violence to achieve their ends.

A wave of violence and intimidation followed. In 1955, teenager Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was lynched after being falsely accused of whistling at a white woman. Though an all-white jury quickly acquitted the two men accused of killing him, Till’s murder was reported nationally and raised awareness of the injustices taking place in Mississippi.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks (who was a secretary of the Montgomery NAACP) was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus. Her willingness to confront segregation led to a direct-action movement for equality. The local Women’s Political Council organized the city’s Black residents into a boycott of the bus system, which was then led by the Montgomery Improvement Association. Black churches and ministers, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, provided a source of strength. Despite arrests, armed mobs, and church bombings, the boycott lasted until a federal court desegregated the city buses. In the wake of the boycott, the leading ministers formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) , which became a key civil rights organization.

Rosa Parks is shown here in 1955 with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the background. The Montgomery bus boycott was an important victory in the civil rights movement.

In 1957, nine Black families decided to send their children to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to prevent their entry, and one student, Elizabeth Eckford, faced an angry crowd of whites alone and barely escaped. President Eisenhower was compelled to respond and sent in 1,200 paratroops from the 101st Airborne to protect the Black students. They continued to be harassed, but most finished the school year and integrated the school.

That year, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act that created a civil rights division in the Justice Department and provided minimal protections for the right to vote. The bill had been watered down because of an expected filibuster by southern senators, who had recently signed the Southern Manifesto, a document pledging their resistance to Supreme Court decisions such as Brown .

In 1960, four Black college students were refused lunch service at a local Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and they spontaneously staged a “sit-in” the following day. Their resistance to the indignities of segregation was copied by thousands of others of young Blacks across the South, launching another wave of direct, nonviolent confrontation with segregation. Ella Baker invited several participants to a Raleigh conference where they formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and issued a Statement of Purpose. The group represented a more youthful and daring effort that later broke with King and his strategy of nonviolence.

In contrast, Malcolm X became a leading spokesperson for the Nation of Islam (NOI) who represented Black separatism as an alternative to integration, which he deemed an unworthy goal. He advocated revolutionary violence as a means of Black self-defense and rejected nonviolence. He later changed his views, breaking with the NOI and embracing a Black nationalism that had more common ground with King’s nonviolent views. Malcolm X had reached out to establish ties with other Black activists before being gunned down by assassins who were members of the NOI later in 1965.

In 1961, members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) rode segregated buses in order to integrate interstate travel. These Black and white Freedom Riders traveled into the Deep South, where mobs beat them with bats and pipes in bus stations and firebombed their buses. A cautious Kennedy administration reluctantly intervened to protect the Freedom Riders with federal marshals, who were also victimized by violent white mobs.

Malcolm X was a charismatic speaker and gifted organizer. He argued that Black pride, identity, and independence were more important than integration with whites.

King was moved to act. He confronted segregation with the hope of exposing injustice and brutality against nonviolent protestors and arousing the conscience of the nation to achieve a just rule of law. The first planned civil rights campaign was initiated by SNCC and taken over mid-campaign by King and SCLC. It failed because Albany, Georgia’s Police Chief Laurie Pritchett studied King’s tactics and responded to the demonstrations with restraint. In 1963, King shifted the movement to Birmingham, Alabama, where Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor unleashed his officers to attack civil rights protestors with fire hoses and police dogs. Authorities arrested thousands, including many young people who joined the marches. King wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” after his own arrest and provided the moral justification for the movement to break unjust laws. National and international audiences were shocked by the violent images shown in newspapers and on the television news. President Kennedy addressed the nation and asked, “whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities . . . [If a Black person]cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?” The president then submitted a civil rights bill to Congress.

In late August 1963, more than 250,000 people joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in solidarity for equal rights. From the Lincoln Memorial steps, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. He stated, “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

After Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson pushed his agenda through Congress. In the early summer of 1964, a 3-month filibuster by southern senators was finally defeated, and both houses passed the historical civil rights bill. President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, banning segregation in public accommodations.

Activists in the civil rights movement then focused on campaigns for the right to vote. During the summer of 1964, several civil rights organizations combined their efforts during the “ Freedom Summer ” to register Blacks to vote with the help of young white college students. They endured terror and intimidation as dozens of churches and homes were burned and workers were killed, including an incident in which Black advocate James Chaney and two white students, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in Mississippi.

In August 1963, peaceful protesters gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to draw attention to the inequalities and indignities African Americans suffered 100 years after emancipation. Leaders of the march are shown in the image on the bottom, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the center.

That summer, Fannie Lou Hamer helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as civil rights delegates to replace the rival white delegation opposed to civil rights at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. Hamer was a veteran of attempts to register other Blacks to vote and endured severe beatings for her efforts. A proposed compromise of giving two seats to the MFDP satisfied neither those delegates nor the white delegation, which walked out. Cracks were opening up in the Democratic electoral coalition over civil rights, especially in the South.

Fannie Lou Hamer testified about the violence she and others endured when trying to register to vote at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Her televised testimony exposed the realities of continued violence against Blacks trying to exercise their constitutional rights.

In early 1965, the SCLC and SNCC joined forces to register voters in Selma and draw attention to the fight for Black suffrage. On March 7, marchers planned to walk peacefully from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. However, mounted state troopers and police blocked the Edmund Pettus Bridge and then rampaged through the marchers, indiscriminately beating them. SNCC leader John Lewis suffered a fractured skull, and 5 women were clubbed unconscious. Seventy people were hospitalized for injuries during “Bloody Sunday.” The scenes again shocked television viewers and newspaper readers.

The images of state troopers, local police, and local people brutally attacking peaceful protestors on “Bloody Sunday” shocked people across the country and world. Two weeks later, protestors of all ages and races continued the protest. By the time they reached the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, their ranks had swelled to about 25,000 people.

Two days later, King led a symbolic march to the bridge but then turned around. Many younger and more militant activists were alienated and felt that King had sold out to white authorities. The tension revealed the widening division between older civil rights advocates and those younger, more radical supporters who were frustrated at the slow pace of change and the routine violence inflicted upon peaceful protesters. Nevertheless, starting on March 21, with the help of a federal judge who refused Governor George Wallace’s request to ban the march, Blacks triumphantly walked to Montgomery. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act protecting the rights to register and vote after a Senate filibuster ended and the bill passed Congress.

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act did not alter the fact that most Black Americans still suffered racism, were denied equal economic opportunities, and lived in segregated neighborhoods. While King and other leaders did seek to raise their issues among northerners, frustrations often boiled over into urban riots during the mid-1960s. Police brutality and other racial incidents often triggered days of violence in which hundreds were injured or killed. There were mass arrests and widespread property damage from arson and looting in Los Angeles, Detroit, Newark, Cleveland, Chicago, and dozens of other cities. A presidential National Advisory Commission of Civil Disorders issued the Kerner Report, which analyzed the causes of urban unrest, noting the impact of racism on the inequalities and injustices suffered by Black Americans.

Frustration among young Black Americans led to the rise of a more militant strain of advocacy. In 1966, activist James Meredith was on a solo march in Mississippi to raise awareness about Black voter registration when he was shot and wounded. Though Meredith recovered, this event typified the violence that led some young Black Americans to espouse a more military strain of advocacy. On June 16, SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael and members of the Black Panther Party continued Meredith’s march while he recovered from his wounds, chanting, “We want Black Power .” Black Power leaders and members of the Black Panther Party offered a different vision for equality and justice. They advocated self-reliance and self-empowerment, a celebration of Black culture, and armed self-defense. They used aggressive rhetoric to project a more radical strategy for racial progress, including sympathy for revolutionary socialism and rejection of capitalism. While its legacy is debated, the Black Power movement raised many important questions about the place of Black Americans in the United States, beyond the civil rights movement.

After World War II, Black Americans confronted the iniquities and indignities of segregation to end almost a century of Jim Crow. Undeterred, they turned the public’s eyes to the injustice they faced and called on the country to live up to the promises of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and to continue the fight against inequality and discrimination.

Reading Comprehension Questions

• What factors helped to create the modern civil rights movement?
• How was the quest for civil rights a combination of federal and local actions?
• What were the goals and methods of different activists and groups of the civil rights movement? Complete the table below to reference throughout your analysis of the primary source documents.

240 Human Rights Essay Topics & Examples

Whether you’re interested in exploring enduring issues, social justice, or democracy, see the ideas below. Along with human rights topics for essays and other papers, our experts have prepared writing tips for you.

• ✅ Tips for Writing Essays on Human Rights

🏆 Best Human Rights Topic Ideas & Essay Examples

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✅ 9 Tips for Writing Essays on Human Rights

The recognition of people’s rights through proper laws preserves human dignity. This broadness means that human rights essay topics range in scope drastically, requiring you to bring together different kinds of ideas in a single paper.

Thus, you may need to keep in mind particular tips, from structural advice to correct terminology, to write an excellent human rights essay.

Do your research before you start working on your outline. Searching for book and journal titles beforehand will not only help you understand your topic better but also help you structure your thoughts, affecting your structure for the better.

Compiling a bibliography early will also save you from the mess, which comes from ordering and standardizing your sources as you go.

After you have your reference page ready, draft a human rights essay outline.

Make it as detailed or as simple as you need, because what is essential is that you divide your topics evenly between your paragraphs or subheadings.

Doing so will ensure that you have a comprehensive essay that helps advance academic knowledge on a particular subject, rather than an overpowered paper aimed at a single problem.

Write your thesis statement as your final prewriting step. Excellent thesis examples should state the theme explicitly and leave your reader with an accurate understanding of what you are trying to achieve in your paper.

Skipping or ignoring this phase may leave your work disoriented and without a definite purpose.

Keep in mind your chosen human rights essay questions when writing. Going off theme will never get you good marks with your instructor.

If you are writing from a cultural relativism point of view, then do you have the word-count to argue about moral relativism? Do not forget that everything you write should advance your central thesis and never undermine it!

Get a good grasp on the relevant terminology. Confusing human nature with the human condition is never a good start to a paper that aspires to shed light on one subject or the other.

You can start writing down the terms that you find useful or intriguing during your research phase to help you gain a better understanding of their meaning.

Understand the correct time and place to qualify or refute certain statements. Arguing against the children’s right to basic needs may never be appropriate in an academic setting. Acknowledge the arguable cases, and subvert these to your benefit, as an essayist.

Interest your audience with essay hooks and exciting facts. Academia is not a dull place, and your readers may find themselves more willing to engage with your work if they find it enjoyable, rather than dry and formalistic. Doing so will also demonstrate your good grasp on the subject!

Remain respectful of your chosen case, and remember that you are writing about a subject that experiences hundreds of daily violations.

Recognizing the dangerous nature of your paper will not only help you separate beneficial facts from superficial ones but may also allow you to hone your academic integrity.

Read sample essays online to gain a better understanding of what essay mechanics will work and which you can leave unused. This extra reading may also give you good human rights essay ideas to begin writing your paper!

However, remember that plagiarism is a punishable offense, unlike the simple act of becoming inspired by others’ work. Want to see some samples? Head over to IvyPanda and jump-start your paper!

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• International Human Rights Opinion and Removing a Constitutionally Elected Government in Fiji It is believed that the gross overreaction of the military in the internal affairs of the Methodist church in Fiji has paved the way for international focus to be centered in this island, especially in […]
• Human Rights Act 1998 in British Legal System The safeguard of British liberty is in the good sense of the people and in the system of representative and responsible government which has been evolved”.[The Business of Judging] Such an approach isolated British constitutional […]
• Human Rights in Russia: A 2020 Report Concentrating on the Last Changes Overall, expert opinion on the outcomes of human rights in Russia in the future shows a lack of certainty the country’s record of infringements is going to improve. It is imperative to support the promotion […]
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Daily Briefs UN experts and ambassadors of foreign countries, including the US and the EU, responded to this violation, calling not to use weapons and allow the people to express their will.
• Will the Development of Artificial Intelligence Endanger Global Human Rights? The contradiction between the advantages of AI and the limitation of human rights manifests in the field of personal privacy to a larger extent.
• St. Johns Agency and Human Rights: Universal Policies to Support Human Rights The right to health as an inclusive right is one of the elements which states that the right is not only associated with access to health care facilities and services. The company incorporates various aspects […]
• Universal Human Rights on The Case of MV Tampa On the other hand, the country was enforcing its own right to protect the citizens from the perceived danger a justified precaution in light of numerous cases of illegal immigration and terrorist attacks.
• Human Rights Violations by Police: Accountable in Discharging Their Duties Corey in his study and reflection on two mass exonerations, that is, the Rampart and Tulia exonerations, identified police misconduct, and in particular perjury as the primary cause for wrongful convictions.
• Human Rights Obligations of Multinational Corporations The argument of whether it is valid to impose obligations on violation of human rights on MNCs calls to reason the minimum caliber MNCs should maintain in their obligations towards human rights.
• Human Rights Issues in Australia: Bullying Among School-Going Age and Young People The focus of the topic of the day is on bullying. It is used to prevent or avoid the occurrence of a bullying experience.
• Tortures as the Form of Human Rights Abuse The law of the country must allow persons tortured in any form to be permitted to make an official complaint and investigation to be started on the credibility of the person.
• Human Rights and Global Democracy by Michael Goodhart Considering that the current human rights bodies focus mostly on rights of individuals, there is needs for translating the rights in a global context.
• Is FGM a Human Rights Issue in the Development of Humanism and Equality? Among the problems faced by developed states that receive migrants from third-world countries, the protection of women’s and girls’ rights in the field of reproductive health stands out.
• Cultural Values vs. the UN Declaration of Human Rights With the rise in diversity and the focus on the cross-cultural dialogue, the importance of acknowledging cultural values has risen.
• United States Role in Support of Universal Human Rights The first thing is to put an end to extrajudicial killings and detentions which will be in a bid to end intrusion to the freedom and the right to truth and justice.
• Universal Jurisdiction for Human Rights One of the most prominent roles in this process was played by the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN, by the development of the national and intercultural awareness of various […]
• Human Rights: Humanitarian Intervention Some of these are the right to liberty, the right to life, the right of the freedom to think and express oneself, and finally the right to receive equal handling as regards issues relating to […]
• A “Human Rights” Approach to Imprisonment In Europe human rights in prisons are overseen by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
• Social Factors in the US History: Respect for Human Rights, Racial Equality, and Religious Freedom The very first years of the existence of the country were marked by the initiatives of people to provide as much freedom in all aspects of social life as possible.
• South Africa: Human Rights in the Constitution The Bill of Rights serves as the foundation upon which the democratic character of the Republic of South Africa is built.
• Human Rights in the Disaster Capitalism Context By the word human rights, it is generally meant to be the protection of individual rights against the encroachment by the state and it also means the basic rights and freedom of individuals.
• Human Rights: Development, Commission, Listening, Monitoring The final draft of the Declaration was handed to the Commission being held in Geneva, therefore, the draft declaration that was sent to all UN member states for commentary is known as the Geneva draft.
• Human Rights in China, Tibet and Dafur In spite of the progress, achieved in the process of regulating the situation, and the ongoing process of peaceful settlement, the atmosphere of intensity is preserved in the country, and scale military attacks on innocent […]
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be analyzed within the context of the political, cultural, and religious situation, emerging in the middle of the twentieth century.
• Vehicle Impoundment “HOON” Laws Are an Infringement of People’s Human Rights The other dimension presents the argument that the laws are meant for the well being of the pepole articulating that the legislation is in fact designed for the protection of the civil rights of the […]
• Global Human Rights: The European Court of Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights, or officially called Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms became one of the most significant documents accepted by the Council of Europe.
• Human Rights and International Business The article deals with the crisis in Burma and the role of India and China in this crisis. Even though it might appear that the major theme of discussion is international politics, from the first […]
• Human Rights Violation in Kosovo The paper has discussed the massive violation of Human Rights in Kosovo, The International Community’s reaction and actions to the Kosovo crisis, and i have given my suggestions to the community on regard to Kosovo […]
• How Has Globalization Impacted on Issues of Human Rights? William Adler closely examines the disrupted lives of the three women who occupy an assembly-line job as the job and its company moves from New Jersey to rural Mississippi and to Matamoros, Mexico, across the […]
• Protecting America: Security and Human Rights 2007) After the 9/11 bombings of the World Trade Center, the US government under President Bush executed and implemented a series of actions that catapulted the country to a period of war.
• Basic Technology and Human Rights If some people are able to enjoy the facilities being introduced as a result of technological improvisations, and it reaches to a chosen few, with no chance in sight of reaching out to large number […]
• Refugee Women and Their Human Rights According to the researches have been made by UNHCR, 1998, found that 80% of the refugees immigrating to the United States and other countries of second asylum are women or children.
• Human Systems. Technology as a Human Right Since most of the world bodies continue to use the basic technology to communicate with the world e.g.about health and safety, access to these amodern’ basic technology should be regarded as a human right and […]
• Human Rights: Fredin v. Sweden Legal Case In this situation, the court considered a case that affected the protection of nature and the human right to own property and sentenced in favor of the state.
• Human Rights and Security in Post-Soviet Russia The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Cold War and the polarization of the world. On the one hand, the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the rapid acceleration of […]
• Global and Regional Human Rights Institutions Overall, the topic of human rights and their protection through economic sanctions and other strategies requires additional attention from the states and international institutions.
• Prisoners’ Basic Human Rights and Their Violation In the report, McKelvie et al.highlight the important contradictions behind the blanket ban, namely the lack of understanding behind the purpose of the prison, the influence of the media and the public press, as well […]
• Human Rights of Migrants by Francois Crepeau The report by Francois Crepeau addresses the deaths of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea and evaluates the European Union border control analysis, migration policy, and the application of values and human rights in the […]
• The U.S. and the UAE Human Rights Comparison A detailed analysis of the two nations can reveal significant and noteworthy differences between the overall attitudes of the U.S.and UAE.
• Monsanto: Profits, Laws, and Human Rights Although the majority of multinational giants have affirmed their conviction in upholding the letter of the law and professional ethics, in practice, a good portion of them has issues with either the ethical or the […]
• Malala Yousafzai – Pakistani Human Rights Activist The world learned about the girl after a gunman burst into a school bus and shot the girl in the head, thereby avenging her criticism of the Taliban and neglecting the prohibition to attend school.
• Human Rights and Laws on the International Level Zewei provides a characterization of the Tributary System and the concept of the Celestial Order of China, the impact of international law on China’s Confucianism worldview, and the process of integration of international law into […]
• Human Rights Issues During the Holiday Season Should we stick to the habitual “Merry Christmas” and stay loyal to the traditions of the majority or embrace a more neutral “Happy Holidays” and show respect to the cultural diversity?
• R. Lemkin and E. Roosevelt as Human Rights Activists He devoted all his time and energy to trying to persuade the new delegates of the United Nations of the importance of the fight against genocide.
• Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice It is essential to highlight the contributions of Ghonim because he was one of the first to leverage the use of social media.
• Human Rights Poster Design and Analysis First, I realised that placing the title or theme of the poster at a strategic point goes a long way to draw the attention of the target audience.
• Human Rights of Poor in Developing Countries Their interactions with those in authority and the decision makers in the society have been marred with many obstacles and denied the rights to freedom of speech and expression that is being enjoyed by the […]
• Communication as a Human Right and Its Violations According to the international laws, every person has a range of rights which should be met in the society completely, and the right to communicate is one of the most significant ways for a person […]
• Human Rights and Relations in Education and Career The information is located on the left and above and is easy to navigate. This is useful to the employees as it makes them aware of the key needs to the job and the benefits.
• China’s Land Grabs and Human Rights Violation What interested you about the article and how is the content of the article related to aspects of global citizenship? Upon reading the news article from Amnesty International’s website about Chinese officials’ land grabbing […]
• The Human Rights and Its Basic Principles There is a perspective that the initiation of the given process can be justified by the need to protect citizens and the state.
• Human Rights in Naturalistic and Political Conceptions Conferring to one venerable explanation, the Naturalistic Conception of Human rights, human rights are the privileges and rights that we enjoy by the mere fact that we are humans.
• Chile’s Human Rights Violations in 1973-90 After the death of the president, the military took office and a state of civil unrest engulfed the country. Human rights violations experienced in Chile have been highlighted and the actions are taken to address […]
• Islamic Culture, Its History and Human Rights The Christian and Jewish cultures gradually reshaped the Arabian Peninsula; people of Arabia became more accustomed to the concept of Abrahamic religion, while paganism was on the decline. Various forms of arts flourished in the […]
• Theocratic Government’s Census and Human Rights The primary idea of the paper is to disclose moral opacities of the issue, conduct stakeholder impact analysis, and speculate on the collision of values of the theocratic governments and people.
• History of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Things did not look too bright at the time: the condition of Japan after Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings; the divided Koreas; the beginning of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the U.
• Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for Human Rights Established in 1919 as the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the organization has been very instrumental in championing the improvement of human rights and the reduction of human suffering.
• Equality, Diversity and Human Rights in Healthcare Equity can be achieved in a health system that acknowledges the diversity of the population respecting the expectations and needs of the patients, the staff and the services as a whole.
• Syrian Crisis and Human Rights Instruments However, the increase in the number of migrants triggers a range of concerns for the states that they choose as the target location.
• Culture and Religion in Human Rights Universality Fagan asserts that a commitment to the universal legitimacy of human rights is not consistent with the dedication to the principle of respecting cultural diversity.
• Consequentialism and Human Rights Ethics is a moral code that governs the behavior or conduct of an activity.”Ethics is thus said to be the science of conduct”.
• The Evolution of Human Rights: France vs. America The Age of Enlightenment made human rights one of the major concerns of the world community, which led to the American and French Revolutions the turning points in the struggle for justice.
• Ethical Reasoning Theories and Human Rights Utilitarianism involves the assessment of the consequences of any action taken by the business since it involves a common good for the majority.
• Human Rights and Resistance of South Asia To get an in-depth understanding of the question and discuss it appropriately, we will refer to the status of women in South Asia where women’s rights are still discriminated in the light of social and […]
• Domestic Legal Traditions and State’ Human Rights It is the obligation of every state to adhere to the human rights standard. One of the greatest similarities is that most of the countries have almost the same laws.
• The Issues of Human Rights The scope of this review starts from the history of Labour Human Rights and examines how various authors have presented their case studies regarding the effectiveness or lack of it of the policies that govern […]
• International Justice for Human Rights Violation In order to understand the status of these amendments, it is important to appreciate the relevance of the definition given in reference to acts and the crime of aggression.
• Human Rights and Climate Change Policy-Making Advocates of the inclusion of human rights feel that there is an important link between climate impacts and human rights and as such, integrating the two would promote the formulation of the best policies. Specifically, […]
• Just War in Human Rights Perspective When a war is about to begin, people, who start the war, have to understand the role of human rights in the process of making decisions and clearly identify the peculiarities of the just war.
• The Human Right to Privacy: Microsoft and the NSA Microsoft had started to collaborate with the NSA to help it to offer services to its customers, but as they progressed, the NSA began to access all the programs of the Microsoft that made private […]
• Child Labor Issue According to the Human Rights The International Labor Organization defines child labor as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development”1 Being a United Nations agency, ILO […]
• Economics and Human Rights: Areas of Overlap Theories allied to the two disciplines play a critical role in explaining development because human rights theories give economists an opportunity to employ legal and political concepts in the process of drafting policies aimed at […]
• Human Rights Abuses and Death Penalty in the UAE There are many explanations of why a number of Arab people remain to be vulnerable to abuses and violations of human rights. Besides, many people are still challenged by the inability to participate in the […]
• Human Rights and Legal Framework in Poor Countries In this article, Benton traces the origin of international order to the 17th century. Moreover, Benton claims that the two approaches have been utilized to explain effect of imperial administration on trends in international law.
• Women’s Fight for Equal Human Rights According to the readings assigned, the term feminist could be used to refer to people who fought for the rights of women.
• Immigrants’ Human Rights in America: The Issue of Immigration as Old as the Country In order to make the constitution a living document, America should introduce effective measures in ensuring that the rights of all immigrants are fully recognized, secured and protected.
• The Human Right to Water: History, Meaning and Controversy The utilitarianism theory of ethics relates to the welfare rights and the libertarianism theory of ethics relates to the liberty rights.
• The Evolution of Human Rights in Canada In addition, the movements aided the treaties to champion for the acquisition of rights of associations and political developments among the indigenous communities living in Canada.
• Human Rights and Their Role in Public Opinion Making The quest for human rights create a mental picture that draws the audience’s assumed knowledge of the need to end the restrictions of human beings in their endeavor to reach out to greatness in life.
• Human Rights and Intervention in Public Opinion Making According to Bloomer, human rights demonstrate the public ideas that are used in the media and politics to ensure that they reflect the true meaning of the intended actions.
• Gender Studies: Queer Politics and Human Rights As earlier stated, the idea of queer politics came about to confront injustice and to ensure that the rights of the minority groups in the society are respected.
• Human Rights Issues in the Bahrain Members of the Sunni minority are the rulers of the monarchy; the present king is Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and he has held the office since 1999.
• Conflict Over Human Rights The following discussion is a description concerning the conflicts between Iran and the United States in the promotion of human rights some violations of human rights by Iran, such as abuse of the captives.
• Human Rights in Relation to Catholic Theology The church declared the acts of slavery as infamy and conjured to discourage slavery since it was dishonored God and destroyed the lived of many people.
• The Ontario Human Rights Commission Application forms for job seekers and the process of interviewing applicants are usually subjected to all the mentioned elements of prejudice and discrimination.
• Torture and Human Rights However, the full state of affairs in Abu Ghraib prison came to the knowledge of the public when a report by the military into the first pictures leaked to an online magazine.
• Why Migration Cannot Be a Basic Human Right but Always Been a Part of Human Culture The United Nations has acknowledged the individual right of movement with Article 13-2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return […]
• Human Rights Violations in Chile In order to confront past abuses and human rights violations, both civilian collaborators and the past military officers who took part in the violations have been taken through the prosecution process owing to the torture […]
• Human Rights in 21st Century: China Although there have been cases of human rights violations in China, recent events and efforts depict the country as working towards promoting individual rights.
• Faith, Justice, War – and Human Rights in the Realm of the Present-Day World Quran: The Most Ancient and Sacred Islamic Book as the Basis for the Laws on Human Rights Considering the Issue from a Different Perspective: The Fifteen Postulates Security of life and property: bi-al haqq and […]
• Ethical Relativism in Human Rights To support this point of view, the nature of human society, the standardization of human rights and the progress of human rights will be analyzed.
• Human Rights Issues in Guantanamo Bay It is expressed in the article that although the detainees are international criminals, the move by the US to detain them at the Guantanamo Bay is an abuse of international laws on the human rights.
• The Human Rights Violation in the Republic of Korea The human rights situation under President Kim Jong-Un in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has remained dire due to the government’s unwillingness to yield to the recommendations by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s […]
• Gender and Human Rights The concept of a Human of Rights introduced by Foucault in 1950s, and also referred to as humanity is traditionally defined as a “floating signifier” and is related directly to the idea of human rights.
• The Politics of International Human Rights Law To uphold the reliability of the country’s immigration programs, the policy requires three categories of immigrants to be subjected to compulsory incarceration.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights UDHR is quite relevant to human service professionals in the field of domestic disputes. The assertions of UDHR’s article 25 are important to domestic dispute professionals.
• Turkey, Media and Human Rights According the report, “press freedom, freedom of opinion and expression and presumption of innocence should be exercised within the articles of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish Supreme Court decisions and judgments of […]
• Paul Farmer about the Human Rights
• “Feminism, Peace, Human Rights and Human Security” by Charlotte Bunch
• Impacts of the ‘War on Terror’ on Human Rights
• The Objectives of Women in the International Community
• McDonald’s: Human Rights and Environmental Sustainability
• Human Rights Violations in Turkey
• Human Rights of People With Intellectual Disabilities
• The Effect of Terrorism on Human Rights: The Clash Between the Human Rights Advocates and Victims of Terrorism
• The European Human Rights System
• Human Rights Interventions
• Fighting for Human Rights: Somalia Humanitarian Crisis
• Human Rights and Social Transformation
• The Role of Non-state Actors in the Implementation and Monitoring of Human Rights
• The UN Human Rights System
• The European System of Human Rights
• What Are Human Rights?
• Human Rights: Universalism, Marxism, Communitarianism
• Environmental Groups’ and Human Rights Organization Strategies
• Immigrants and Human Rights
• Human Rights in History Teaching
• Is Universal Healthcare a Human Right?
• Confucianism and its Effects on Human Rights Development
• Debate Between John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant Theories on the Sources of Human Rights
• United Nations Human Rights Council
• Critique of the U.S & the U.N Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Impact of Human Rights on Society
• Definition of Human Rights and Trafficking
• Human Rights in Asia
• Human rights and freedoms
• The human rights in the USA and around the world
• International Law & Protection of Human Rights: Syria and Libya
• On What Grounds is the Idea of Universal Human Rights Challenged?
• Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations and the United Nations
• Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right and the UN Declaration of Human Rights
• Advancement of Human Rights from 1865 to Present
• Disabled Babies Have Human Rights Which We Must Let Them Enjoy
• The Impact of Human Right on Globalization
• Concerning the Human Rights of Immigrants: Policies, Approaches and Stereotypes
• Protection of Human Rights of Immigrants
• What is the UN Human Rights Council?
• The Taliban and Human Rights
• New “Act on Democracy and Human Rights in Belarus” Passed by the US Congress
• Through the Prism of Culture: Human Rights as They Are
• Compare Two Movies Related With Human Rights
• Human Rights: Analysis of Ludlow Massacre and the “Valour and the Horror”
• Ang Lee’s Attempts to Develop an Idea of Human Rights in Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, and Sense and Sensibility
• Saddam Hussein Human Rights Abuse
• The Cold War: Global Prosperity and Human Rights
• Human Rights in Catholic Teachings
• Abusing Human Rights: Violence Against Women
• What if Environmental Rights Are More Important Than Human Rights?
• How Did the Development of Human Rights Affect the Caste System in India?
• Should Men and Women Have Equal Human Rights?
• How Are Human Rights Observed During Early Childhood?
• What Are the Barriers to Human Rights Being Recognized as Truly Universal in Application?
• How Does Criminal Justice in the United Kingdom Respect Human Rights?
• What Is the Role of the National Human Rights Commission?
• How Are Human Rights Abused in India?
• What Is the Relationship Between Human Rights and State Sovereignty?
• How Are Human Rights Observed in Islamic Countries?
• What Are Human Rights and From Where Do They Originate?
• How Were Human Rights Violated During the French Revolution?
• How Human Rights Affect Administrative Law?
• What Human Rights Dilemmas Do Social Workers Face?
• How Does Political Corruption Violate Human Rights?
• Who Practices Rights-based Development?
• When Religious Beliefs Overpower Human Rights?
• Why Does China Have Such a Poor Record of Human Rights?
• How Does Human Rights Affect Multi-national Companies on Their Marketing Strategies?
• What Is the History of the Spread of Human Rights in the World and the Obstacles in Its Way?
• What Are the Human Rights for Persons With Mental Disorders?
• How Are Human Rights Abused in the Absence of Oversight?
• What Is the Economic Impact on Human Rights in China?
• Why Have Many Human Rights Issues Remained Unaddressed?
• What Are the Concepts and Meaning of Human Rights in Society?
• What Effect Has the Human Rights Act 1998 Had on UK Law?
• How Do Self-determination Issues Affect Human Rights?
• Impact of Economic Liberalization on Human Rights?
• How Does Global Politics Affect Human Rights?
• Should Nature Have Constitutionally Protected Rights Equal to Human Rights?
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Diversity in Aviation Industry

Ison, D. C., Herron, R., & Weiland, L. (2016). Two decades of progress for minorities in aviation. Journal of Aviati...

The Use of Ethos in Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King (MLKJ) wrote a letter during his stay in a Birmingham jail when he was arrested for civil rights camp...

Lizardo v. Denny Inc.

Torts are the wrongful civil acts that infringe the rights and are recognised by the law to be the grounds for filing a ...

Blair L. Kelly's The Right to Ride

The right to ride is a book by American renowned writer Blair L Kelly. It was a response and highlight into the growing ...

The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King: Apostle of Militant Nonviolence by James A. Colaiaco was written in 1988. The book provides details ...

The Impact of National Association for Advancement of Colored People

NAACP; the acronym of “National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People”, is ultimately one of the foremost, ...

The Niagara Movement

Source: Long, S. (2016). The Niagara Movement. Niagara Falls Museums. [Online]. Retrieved from: https://niagarafallsmuse...

NAACP History

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The Democrat Party and the Civil Rights Movement

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The Role of Federal Government in Civil Rights Movement

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132 Civil Rights Research Topics & Essay Examples

📝 civil rights research paper examples, 🏆 best civil rights essay titles, 🎓 simple research topics about civil rights, ❓ civil rights research questions.

• 📣 Civil Rights Research Questions
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to the blacks being granted equal rights in the society with the whites. The passing of the Decree was faced with opposition.
• Same-Sex Civil Rights and Domestic Partnerships Although the Constitution does not support discrimination, LGBT persons are denied most of the basic rights that other members of society enjoy.
• Police Brutality Towards Protesters in USA Since independence, the country has witnessed a number of cases where civil rights groups take off to the streets to protest against some of the issues considered oppressive.
• Civil Rights: Freedom of Speech Federalism’s beneficial impact on a citizen’s freedom of speech created a chain-reaction of positive outcomes that resulted in the enhancement of people’s civil rights and civil liberties.
• The Process of the U.S. Presidential Elections People from all states take part in caucuses to elect delegates supporting their presidential candidate. Civil rights granted by the government are people’s rights to have freedom.
• Civil Rights in the United States For years, certain social groups were excluded in the United States and did not possess equal civil rights with others.
• Opinion on Articles About Political Violence and Civil Rights in the United States The source uses evidence to support the following argument: people have the right to peaceful assembly, while the authorities have the right to react accordingly to maintain order.
• Civil Rights: The Right to a Fair Trial When dealing with criminality, the governments should be able to guarantee each citizen an equal chance to be judged without prejudice, represented, and protected.
• Bill of Rights and Challenges for Law Enforcement Agencies This paper will look at the roles, and challenges of the federal, state, and local laws, and give some recommendations to the challenges faced by law enforcement agencies.
• The Issue of Police Violence and Use of Excessive Force The use of physical violence is a rather controversial aspect of policing and, thus, requires an in-depth understanding of possible power abuse by authorities.
• Policing in the US: Tactics and Philosophies This paper provides a discussion of the history and evolution of police structures, their philosophy, and their significance in the civil rights era.
• What Joe Biden has Done in His First One-Hundred Days as the President This article describes the first 100 days of Joe Biden's presidency, the level of campaign promise fulfillment, and the influence of the Biden administration on US domestic politics.
• Evaluating Data of Feeling Safe in Their Community To determine whether residents feel safe in their community, it is appropriate to employ a qualitative method of collecting and evaluating data.
• Earl Warren vs. William Rehnquist: Differences in Approaches Chief Justices Earl Warren and William Rehnquist had different approaches to balancing public order maintenance and individual liberties with regard to criminal procedure.
• The Analysis of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 of the United States This essay examines the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a policy document used in the integration of Americans of all races into the aspects of the United States' development.
• Analysis of Civil Rights Discussion The 14th amendment to the United States Constitution granted equal citizenship to all the people born or naturalized in the US, including formerly enslaved individuals.
• Conservative Politics and the Shift of the South A strategy implemented by Republican candidates like Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater led to a shift that transformed the South into a Republican stronghold.
• Civil Liberties and Civil Rights With Examples This paper discusses civil liberties and civil rights with examples, and whether a person's civil liberties should ever be intruded on to protect another’s civil rights.
• White Identity Politics and New Civil Rights Movement Racial inequality and biased population-police relationships remain burning questions in the US. The relationships between the representatives of different groups are complex.
• Democratic Regime and Liberation Movements A democratic regime ensures that the citizens of a country are treated equally in terms of legislation and can elect their government through voting.
• Achieving Civil Rights Using Non-Violence
• Affirmative Action and Civil Rights Policies
• Black Culture and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Importance of the Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement allowed the diversity of modern America to flourish, as people gained access not only to education but also to medicine.
• Black Churches and the Struggle for Civil Rights
• Civil Rights and Social Integration of African Americans
• Affirmative Action Programs and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement by Martin Luther King This paper highlights how Dr. King championed the watershed events leading to landmark legislation such as voting and civil rights while becoming an example of perseverance.
• Analyzing the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War Assignment
• Black Resistance During the Civil Rights Movement
• African American and Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas
• History. Women in the Civil Rights Movement The inspiring example of the women, who made a great contribution to the Civil Rights movement, needs to be remembered and used to promote ideas of equal rights in the future.
• Equality and Civil Rights for All
• Civil Disobedience and Civil Rights Leaders
• American Civil Rights Through the Ages
• Jim Crow and Civil Rights Movement in America This essay examines the injustices experienced by African Americans following the rise of Jim Crow and demonstrates how Civil Rights Movement challenged these injustices.
• Activist and Government Action During the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
• Freedom Rides: The Civil Rights Movements
• Assess the Impact Malcolm X Had on the Civil Rights Movement
• American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1960s During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States experienced several movements, which included the civil rights movement.
• Alice Walker and the Civil Rights Movement
• Affirmative Action and Civil Rights Policies Assignment
• American Civil Rights Movement: A Mass Protest Against Racial Segregation and Discrimination
• African American Civil Rights Timeline
• Civil Rights and Political Action
• Bob Dylan’s Influence During the Civil Rights Movements
• Affirmative Action and Civil Rights Violation
• American Black Civil Rights
• The Delivery of Health Care Services to People With Mental Health Disabilities The delivery of health care services to people with mental health disabilities should be in line with legislation related to civil rights.
• Discrimination and Civil Rights in America
• Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs: A Double Murder in Mississippi
• All Men Are Equal: The Civil Rights Movement
• The US Patriot Act and Civil Rights Objections The US Patriot Act was enacted for the country’s greater interest to safeguard citizens from terrorist acts. Some claim that the Patriot Act infringes on people’s civil rights.
• Civil Rights and the Government of the United States
• Angela Davis and the Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Rights and Legislation in Mississippi
• Employment Law. Civil Rights Act and Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment is a mode of sexual discrimination. It is a violation of the Title VII of the civil rights act that was amended in the year 1964.
• Black Americans and the Civil Rights Movement
• Addressing Civil Rights for African Americans
• Affirmative Action and the Civil Rights Act
• Violations of Civil Liberties with Government Surveillance If government faces threats to national security, it is valuable to balance the need to preserve security with civil liberties.
• Foreign Direct Investment and Civil Rights: Testing Decreasing Returns to Civil Rights
• Attaining Equality and Civil Rights
• Affirmative Action During the Civil Rights Movement
• Freedom Riders and the Civil Rights Movement
• Is Healthcare a Civil or Human Right? This paper seeks to argue out that like any other fundamental human right like food and shelter, health care is a human right and should not be considered a legal right.
• Act for the Preservation of Our Civil Rights
• Adolf Hitler and Civil Rights Movement
• Black America Civil Rights History
• Transforming America With the Civil Rights Movement
• How Was Civil Disobedience Used in the Civil Rights Movement?
• Has America Really Changed Since the Civil Rights Movement?
• How and Why the NAACP and the National Urban League Were More Than Civil Rights Organizations up to 1930?
• Did Black Power Groups Harm the Struggle for Civil Rights?
• Did the Black Power Movement Help or Hinder the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Change America?
• How Are Organizations Influenced Today by the Civil Rights Era Then and Now?
• How Did Minority Groups Struggle for Civil Rights?
• Does the Civil Rights Movement Have an Effect on the Way Minorities Are Treated by Authorities?
• How Black Nationalism Helped Civil Rights?
• How Did Leaders Impact the Civil Rights?
• How Did Martin Luther King Death Affect the Civil Rights Movement?
• Did Minority Rights Campaigners Copy the Tactics of the Black American Civil Rights Movement?
• Was the Civil Rights Movement a Success or Failure?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Develop After 1961?
• Was Martin Luther King Vital to the Gaining of Civil Rights for African Americans?
• How Far Was Martin Luther King Responsible for the Civil Rights Movement?
• Why Had the Civil Rights Movement Become So Fragmented?
• How Cesar Chavez, the Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist, Left a Lasting Legacy?
• How Did Kennedy and His Administration Effect the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Did the African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s?
• Was Martin Luther King the Greatest Civil Rights Leader of All Time?
• Did Black Power Groups Cause Harm to the Civil Rights Movement in America?
• How Far Did Martin Luther King Further the Cause of Civil Rights?
• Did the Civil Rights Deal Achieve a Great Deal in the 1950-1960s?
• How Did Gandhi Influence the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Far Has the Importance of Martin Luther King’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement Been Exaggerated?
• How Did Martin Luther King Affect the Civil Rights Movement?
• Was the Civil Rights Movement Successful?
• Who Was More Successful in the Fight for Civil Rights?
• Howell Raines and the Civil Rights Movement?
• Why Did Black Civil Rights Movement Develop in the 1950s?

📣 Civil Rights Discussion Questions

• How Have Civil Rights Evolved Throughout History?
• Why Did Lyndon Johnson Support Civil Rights?
• In What Ways Do Civil Rights Intersect with Human Rights?
• How Was the Civil Rights Movement Influenced by the Cold War?
• Who Are Some Influential Figures in the History of Civil Rights Movements?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Contribute to the Abolition of Slavery in the United States?
• What Are Some Significant Civil Rights Laws, and How Have They Shaped Society?
• How Does Police Brutality Violate Civil Rights?
• What Were the Dangers of Being a Civil Rights Leader?
• How Has Technology Influenced Civil Rights in the Digital Age?
• What Contemporary Civil Rights Issues Relate to Voting Access and Voter Suppression?
• How Do Civil Rights Relate to Gender Equality and Women’s Rights?
• What Is the Difference Between Civil Rights and Civil Liberties?
• How Has the #Blacklivesmatter Movement Raised Awareness About Civil Rights Issues?
• Why Did the Republican Party Vehemently Oppose the Civil Rights Struggle?
• Did Europe Have a Civil Rights Movement?
• How Do Civil Rights Address Systemic Racism?
• What Was the Most Successful Civil Rights Movement?
• How Have Indigenous Peoples’ Civil Rights Been Historically and Currently Addressed?
• What Are the Challenges in Balancing Civil Rights with National Security Concerns?
• How Do Civil Rights Protect Individuals from Workplace Discrimination?
• What Were the Negative Effects of the Civil Rights Movement?
• How Do Courts Interpret and Enforce Civil Rights Laws?
• What Turned Lyndon B. Johnson from a Racist to a Supporter of Civil Rights?
• Are There Limitations to Freedom of Speech Concerning Civil Rights?
• What Made the Civil Rights Protests of the 60s So Effective?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Change Society?
• Is the Civil Rights Movement Still Relevant Today?
• Why Was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Necessary?
• How Did the Civil Rights Movement Affect Other Countries?

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The ‘Colorblindness’ Trap

How a civil rights ideal got hijacked.

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The ‘Colorblindness’ Trap: How a Civil Rights Ideal Got Hijacked

The fall of affirmative action is part of a 50-year campaign to roll back racial progress.

By Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a staff writer at the magazine and is the creator of The 1619 Project. She also teaches race and journalism at Howard University.

Anthony K. Wutoh, the provost of Howard University, was sitting at his desk last July when his phone rang. It was the new dean of the College of Medicine, and she was worried. She had received a letter from a conservative law group called the Liberty Justice Center. The letter warned that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions, the school “must cease” any practices or policies that included a “racial component” and said it was notifying medical schools across the country that they must eliminate “racial discrimination” in their admissions. If Howard refused to comply, the letter threatened, the organization would sue.

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Wutoh told the dean to send him the letter and not to respond until she heard back from him. Hanging up, he sat there for a moment, still. Then he picked up the phone and called the university’s counsel: This could be a problem.

Like most university officials, Wutoh was not shocked in June when the most conservative Supreme Court in nearly a century cut affirmative action’s final thin thread. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the court invalidated race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Universities across the nation had been preparing for the ruling, trying both to assess potential liabilities and determine the best response.

But Howard is no ordinary university. Chartered by the federal government two years after the Civil War, Howard is one of about 100 historically Black colleges and universities, known as H.B.C.U.s. H.B.C.U. is an official government designation for institutions of higher learning founded from the time of slavery through the end of legal apartheid in the 1960s, mostly in the South. H.B.C.U.s were charged with educating the formerly enslaved and their descendants, who for most of this nation’s history were excluded from nearly all of its public and private colleges.

Though Howard has been open to students of all races since its founding in 1867, nearly all of its students have been Black. And so after the affirmative-action ruling, while elite, predominantly white universities fretted about how to keep their Black enrollments from shrinking, Howard (where I am a professor) and other H.B.C.U.s were planning for a potential influx of students who either could no longer get into these mostly white colleges or no longer wanted to try.

Wutoh thought it astounding that Howard — a university whose official government designation and mandate, whose entire reason for existing, is to serve a people who had been systematically excluded from higher education — could be threatened with a lawsuit if it did not ignore race when admitting students. “The fact that we have to even think about and consider what does this mean and how do we continue to fulfill our mission and fulfill the reason why we were founded as an institution and still be consistent with the ruling — I have to acknowledge that we have struggled with this,” he told me. “My broader concern is this is a concerted effort, part of an orchestrated plan to roll back many of the advances of the ’50s and ’60s. I am alarmed. It is absolutely regressive.”

Wutoh has reason to be alarmed. Conservative groups have spent the nine months since the affirmative-action ruling launching an assault on programs designed to explicitly address racial inequality across American life. They have filed a flurry of legal challenges and threatened lawsuits against race-conscious programs outside the realm of education, including diversity fellowships at law firms, a federal program to aid disadvantaged small businesses and a program to keep Black women from dying in childbirth. These conservative groups — whose names often evoke fairness and freedom and rights — are using civil rights law to claim that the Constitution requires “colorblindness” and that efforts targeted at ameliorating the suffering of descendants of slavery illegally discriminate against white people. They have co-opted both the rhetoric of colorblindness and the legal legacy of Black activism not to advance racial progress, but to stall it. Or worse, reverse it.

During the civil rights era, this country passed a series of hard-fought laws to dismantle the system of racial apartheid and to create policies and programs aimed at repairing its harms. Today this is often celebrated as the period when the nation finally triumphed over its original sin of slavery. But what this narrative obscures is that the gains of the civil rights movement were immediately met with a backlash that sought to subvert first the language and then the aims of the movement. Over the last 50 years, we have experienced a slow-moving, near-complete unwinding of the idea that this country owes anything to Black Americans for 350 years of legalized slavery and racism. But we have also undergone something far more dangerous: the dismantling of the constitutional tools for undoing racial caste in the United States.

Beginning in the 1970s, the Supreme Court began to vacillate on remedies for descendants of slavery. And for the last 30 years, the court has almost exclusively ruled in favor of white people in so-called reverse-discrimination cases while severely narrowing the possibility for racial redress for Black Americans. Often, in these decisions, the court has used colorblindness as a rationale that dismisses both the particular history of racial disadvantage and its continuing disparities.

This thinking has reached its legal apotheosis on the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Starting with the 2007 case Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, the court found that it wasn’t the segregation of Black and Latino children that was constitutionally repugnant, but the voluntary integration plans that used race to try to remedy it. Six years later, Roberts wrote the majority opinion in Shelby v. Holder, gutting the Voting Rights Act, which had ensured that jurisdictions could no longer prevent Black Americans from voting because of their race. The act was considered one of the most successful civil rights laws in American history, but Roberts declared that its key provision was no longer needed, saying that “things have changed dramatically.” But a new study by the Brennan Center for Justice found that since the ruling, jurisdictions that were once covered by the Voting Rights Act because of their history of discrimination saw the gap in turnout between Black and white voters grow nearly twice as quickly as in other jurisdictions with similar socioeconomic profiles.

These decisions of the Roberts court laid the legal and philosophical groundwork for the recent affirmative-action case. Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard involved two of the country’s oldest public and private universities, both of which were financed to a significant degree with the labor of the enslaved and excluded slavery’s descendants for most of their histories. In finding that affirmative action was unconstitutional, Roberts used the reasoning of Brown v. Board of Education to make the case that because “the Constitution is colorblind” and “should not permit any distinctions of law based on race or color,” race cannot be used even to help a marginalized group. Quoting the Brown ruling, Roberts argued that “the mere act of ‘separating children’” because of their race generated “ ‘a feeling of inferiority’” among students.

But in citing Brown, Roberts spoke generically of race, rarely mentioning Black people and ignoring the fact that this earlier ruling struck down segregation because race had been used to subordinate them. When Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote those words in 1954, he was not arguing that the use of race harmed Black and white children equally. The use of race in assigning students to schools, Warren wrote, referring to an earlier lower-court decision, had “a detrimental effect upon colored children” specifically, because it was “interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group.”

Roberts quickly recited in just a few paragraphs the centuries-long legacy of legal discrimination against Black Americans. Then, as if flicking so many crumbs from the table, he used the circular logic of conservative colorblindness to dispatch that past with a pithy line: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”

By erasing the context, Roberts turned colorblindness on its head, reinterpreting a concept meant to eradicate racial caste to one that works against racial justice.

Roberts did not invent this subversion of colorblindness, but his court is constitutionalizing it. While we seem to understand now how the long game of the anti-abortion movement resulted in a historically conservative Supreme Court that last year struck down Roe v. Wade, taking away what had been a constitutional right, Americans have largely failed to see that a parallel, decades-long antidemocratic racial strategy was occurring at the same time. The ramifications of the recent affirmative-action decision are clear — and they are not something so inconsequential as the complexion of elite colleges and the number of students of color who attend them: We are in the midst of a radical abandonment of a compact that the civil rights movement forged, a shared understanding that racial inequality is harmful to democracy.

The End of Slavery, and the Instant Backlash

When this country finally eliminated first slavery and then racial apartheid, it was left with a fundamental question: How does a white-majority nation, which for nearly its entire history wielded race-conscious policies and laws that oppressed and excluded Black Americans, create a society in which race no longer matters? Do we ignore race in order to eliminate its power, or do we consciously use race to undo its harms?

Our nation has never been able to resolve this tension. Race, we now believe, should not be used to harm or to advantage people, whether they are Black or white. But the belief in colorblindness in a society constructed on the codification of racial difference has always been aspirational. And so achieving it requires what can seem like a paradoxical approach: a demand that our nation pay attention to race in order, at some future point, to attain a just society. As Justice Thurgood Marshall said in a 1987 speech, “The ultimate goal is the creation of a colorblind society,” but “given the position from which America began, we still have a very long way to go.”

Racial progress in the United States has resulted from rare moments of national clarity, often following violent upheavals like the Civil War and the civil rights movement. At those times, enough white people in power embraced the idea that racial subordination is antidemocratic and so the United States must counter its legacy of racial caste not with a mandated racial neutrality or colorblindness but with sweeping race-specific laws and policies to help bring about Black equality. Yet any attempt to manufacture equality by the same means that this society manufactured inequality has faced fierce and powerful resistance.

This resistance began as soon as slavery ended. After generations of chattel slavery, four million human beings were suddenly being emancipated into a society in which they had no recognized rights or citizenship, and no land, money, education, shelter or jobs. To address this crisis, some in Congress saw in the aftermath of this nation’s deadliest war the opportunity — but also the necessity — for a second founding that would eliminate the system of racial slavery that had been its cause. These men, known as Radical Republicans, believed that making Black Americans full citizens required color-consciousness in policy — an intentional reversal of the way race had been used against Black Americans. They wanted to create a new agency called the Freedmen’s Bureau to serve “persons of African descent” or “such persons as once had been slaves” by providing educational, food and legal assistance, as well as allotments of land taken from the white-owned properties where formerly enslaved people were forced to work.

Understanding that “race” was created to force people of African descent into slavery, their arguments in Congress in favor of the Freedmen’s Bureau were not based on Black Americans’ “skin color” but rather on their condition. Standing on the Senate floor in June 1864, Senator Charles Sumner quoted from a congressional commission’s report on the conditions of freed people, saying, “We need a Freedmen’s Bureau not because these people are Negroes but because they are men who have been for generations despoiled of their rights.” Senator Lyman Trumbull, an author of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, declared: “The policy of the states where slavery has existed has been to legislate in its interest. … Now, when slavery no longer exists, the policy of the government must be to legislate in the interest of freedom.” In a speech to Congress, Trumbull compelled “the people of the rebellious states” to be “as zealous and active in the passage of laws and the inauguration of measures to elevate, develop and improve the Negro as they have hitherto been to enslave and degrade him.”

But there were also the first stirrings of an argument we still hear today: that specifically aiding those who, because they were of African descent, had been treated as property for 250 years was giving them preferential treatment. Two Northern congressmen, Martin Kalbfleish, a Dutch immigrant and former Brooklyn mayor, and Anthony L. Knapp, a representative from Illinois, declared that no one would give “serious consideration” to a “bureau of Irishmen’s affairs, a bureau of Dutchmen’s affairs or one for the affairs of those of Caucasian descent generally.” So they questioned why the freedmen should “become these marked objects of special legislation, to the detriment of the unfortunate whites.” Representative Nelson Taylor bemoaned the Freedmen’s Bureau Act of 1866, which he accused of making a “distinction on account of color between two races.” He argued, “This, sir, is what I call class legislation — legislation for a particular class of the Blacks to the exclusion of all whites.”

Ultimately, the Freedmen’s Bureau bills passed, but only after language was added to provide assistance for poor white people as well. Already, at the very moment of racial slavery’s demise, we see the poison pill, the early formulation of the now-familiar arguments that helping a people who had been enslaved was somehow unfair to those who had not, that the same Constitution that permitted and protected bondage based on race now required colorblindness to undo its harms.

This logic helped preserve the status quo and infused the responses to other Reconstruction-era efforts that tried to ensure justice and equality for newly freed people. President Andrew Johnson, in vetoing the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which sought to grant automatic citizenship to four million Black people whose families for generations had been born in the United States, argued that it “proposes a discrimination against large numbers of intelligent, worthy and patriotic foreigners,” who would still be subjected to a naturalization process “in favor of the Negro.” Congress overrode Johnson’s veto, but this idea that unique efforts to address the extraordinary conditions of people who were enslaved or descended from slavery were unfair to another group who had chosen to immigrate to this country foreshadowed the arguments about Asian immigrants and their children that would be echoed 150 years later in Students for Fair Admissions.

As would become the pattern, the collective determination to redress the wrongs of slavery evaporated under opposition. Congress abolished the Freedmen’s Bureau in 1872. And just 12 years after the Civil War, white supremacists and their accommodationists brought Reconstruction to a violent end. The nation’s first experiment with race-based redress and multiracial democracy was over. In its place, the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 ushered in the period of official racial apartheid when it determined that “the enforced separation of the races … neither abridges the privileges or immunities of the colored man … nor denies him the equal protection of the laws.” Over the next six decades, the court condoned an entire code of race law and policies designed to segregate, marginalize, exclude and subjugate descendants of slavery across every realm of American life. The last of these laws would stand until 1968, less than a decade before I was born.

Thurgood Marshall’s Path to Desegregation

In 1930, a young man named Thurgood Marshall, a native son of Baltimore, could not attend the University of Maryland’s law school, located in the city and state where his parents were taxpaying citizens. The 22-year-old should have been a shoo-in for admission. An academically gifted student, Marshall had become enamored with the Constitution after his high school principal punished him for a prank by making him read the founding document. Marshall memorized key parts of the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. After enrolling at Lincoln University, a prestigious Black institution, he joined the debate team and graduated with honors.

But none of that mattered. Only one thing did: Marshall was a descendant of slavery, and Black people, no matter their intellect, ambition or academic record, were barred by law from attending the University of Maryland. Marshall enrolled instead at Howard University Law School, where he studied under the brilliant Charles Hamilton Houston, whose belief that “a lawyer is either a social engineer or he’s a parasite on society” had turned the law school into the “West Point of civil rights.”

It was there that Marshall began to see the Constitution as a living document that must adapt to and address the times. He joined with Houston in crafting the strategy that would dismantle legal apartheid. After graduating as valedictorian, in one of his first cases, Marshall sued the University of Maryland. He argued that the school was violating the 14th Amendment, which granted the formerly enslaved citizenship and ensured Black Americans “equal protection under the law,” by denying Black students admission solely because of their race without providing an alternative law school for Black students. Miraculously, he won.

Nearly two decades later, Marshall stood before the Supreme Court on behalf of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Brown v. Board of Education, arguing that the equal-protection clause enshrined in the 14th Amendment did not abide the use of racial classifications to segregate Black students. Marshall was not merely advancing a generic argument that the Constitution commands blindness to color or race. The essential issue, the reason the 14th Amendment existed, he argued, was not just because race had served as a means of classifying people, but because race had been used to create a system to oppress descendants of slavery — people who had been categorized as Black. Marshall explained that racial classification was being used to enforce an “inherent determination that the people who were formerly in slavery, regardless of anything else, shall be kept as near that stage as is possible.” The court, he said, “should make it clear that that is not what our Constitution stands for.” He sought the elimination of laws requiring segregation, but also the segregation those laws had created.

The Supreme Court, in unanimously striking down school segregation in its Brown decision, did not specifically mention the word “colorblind,” but its ruling echoed the thinking about the 14th Amendment in John Marshall Harlan’s lone dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson. “There is no caste here,” Harlan declared. “Our constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” But he also made it clear that colorblindness was intended to eliminate the subordination of those who had been enslaved, writing, “In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.” He continued, “The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race … is a badge of servitude.”

The court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was not merely a moral statement but a political one. Racial segregation and the violent suppression of democracy among its Black citizens had become a liability for the United States during the Cold War, as the nation sought to stymie Communism’s attraction in non-European nations. Attorney General James P. McGranery submitted a brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Truman administration supporting a ruling against school segregation, writing: “It is in the context of the present world struggle between freedom and tyranny that the problem of racial discrimination must be viewed. The United States is trying to prove to the people of the world of every nationality, race and color that a free democracy is the most civilized and most secure form of government yet devised by man. … Racial discrimination furnishes grist for the Communist propaganda mills.”

Civil rights activists were finally seeing their decades-long struggle paying off. But the architects and maintenance crew of racial caste understood a fundamental truth about the society they had built: Systems constructed and enforced over centuries to subjugate enslaved people and their descendants based on race no longer needed race-based laws to sustain them. Racial caste was so entrenched, so intertwined with American institutions, that without race-based counteraction , it would inevitably self-replicate.

One can see this in the effort to desegregate schools after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Across the country, North and South, white officials eliminated laws and policies mandating segregation but also did nothing to integrate schools. They maintained unofficial policies of assigning students to schools based on race, adopting so-called race-neutral admissions requirements designed to eliminate most Black applicants from white schools, and they drew school attendance zones snugly around racially segregated neighborhoods. Nearly a decade after Brown v. Board, educational colorblindness stood as the law of the land, and yet no substantial school integration had occurred. In fact, at the start of 1963, in Alabama and Mississippi, two of the nation’s most heavily Black states, not a single Black child attended school with white children.

By the mid-1960s, the Supreme Court grew weary of the ploys. It began issuing rulings trying to enforce actual desegregation of schools. And in 1968, in Green v. New Kent County, the court unanimously decided against a Virginia school district’s “freedom-of-choice plan” that on its face adhered to the colorblind mandate of Brown but in reality led to almost no integration in the district. “The fact that in 1965 the Board opened the doors of the former ‘white’ school to Negro children and of the ‘Negro’ school to white children merely begins, not ends, our inquiry whether the Board has taken steps adequate to abolish its dual, segregated system,” the court determined.

The court ordered schools to use race to assign students, faculty and staff members to schools to achieve integration. Complying with Brown, the court determined, meant the color-conscious conversion of an apartheid system into one without a “ ‘white’ school and a ‘Negro’ school, but just schools.” In other words, the reality of racial caste could not be constitutionally subordinated to the ideal of colorblindness. Colorblindness was the goal, color-consciousness the remedy.

Using Race to End Racial Inequality

Hobart Taylor Jr., a successful lawyer who lived in Detroit, was mingling at a party in the nation’s capital in January 1961 to celebrate the inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson as vice president of the United States. Taylor had not had any intention of going to the inauguration, but like Johnson, Taylor was a native son of Texas, and his politically active family were early supporters of Johnson. And so at a personal request from the vice president, Taylor reluctantly found himself amid the din of clinking cocktail glasses when Johnson stopped and asked him to come see him in a few days.

Taylor did not immediately go see Johnson. After a second request came in, in February, Taylor found himself in Johnson’s office. The vice president slid into Taylor’s hands a draft of a new executive order to establish the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which Johnson would lead. This was to be one of President John F. Kennedy’s first steps toward establishing civil rights for Black people.

Taylor’s grandfather had been born into slavery, and yet he and Taylor’s father became highly successful and influential entrepreneurs and landowners despite Texas’ strict color line.

The apartheid society Taylor grew up in was changing, and the vice president of the United States had tapped him to help draft its new rules. How could he say no? Taylor had planned on traveling back to Detroit that night, but instead he checked into the Willard Hotel, where he worked so intently on the draft of the executive order that not only did he forget to eat dinner but also he forgot to tell his wife that he wasn’t coming home. The next day, Taylor worked and reworked the draft for what would become Executive Order 10925, enacted in March 1961.

A few years later, in an interview for the John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Program, Taylor would recall what he considered his most significant contribution. The draft he received said employers had to “take action” to ensure that job applicants and employees would not be discriminated against because of their race, creed, color or national origin. Taylor thought the wording needed a propellant, and so inserted the word “affirmative” in front of action. “I was torn between ‘positive’ and ‘affirmative,’ and I decided ‘affirmative’ on the basis of alliteration,” he said. “And that has, apparently, meant a great deal historically in the way in which people have approached this whole thing.”

Taylor added the word to the order, but it would be the other Texan — a man with a fondness for using the N-word in private — who would most forcefully describe the moral rationale, the societal mandate, for affirmative action. Johnson would push through Congress the 1964, 1965 and 1968 civil rights laws — the greatest civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.

But a deeply divided Congress did not pass this legislation simply because it realized a century after the Civil War that descendants of slavery deserved equal rights. Black Americans had been engaged in a struggle to obtain those rights and had endured political assassinations, racist murders, bombings and other violence. Segregated and impoverished Black communities across the nation took part in dozens of rebellions, and tanks rolled through American streets. The violent suppression of the democratic rights of its Black citizens threatened to destabilize the country and had once again become an international liability as the United States waged war in Vietnam.

But as this nation’s racist laws began to fall, conservatives started to realize that the language of colorblindness could be used to their advantage. In the fall of 1964, Barry Goldwater, a Republican who was running against President Johnson, gave his first major national speech on civil rights. Civil rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Roy Wilkins had lambasted Goldwater’s presidential nomination, with King saying his philosophy gave “aid and comfort to racists.” But at a carefully chosen venue — the Conrad Hilton in Chicago — in front of a well-heeled white audience unlikely to spout racist rhetoric, Goldwater savvily evoked the rhetoric of the civil rights movement to undermine civil rights. “It has been well said that the Constitution is colorblind,” he said. “And so it is just as wrong to compel children to attend certain schools for the sake of so-called integration as for the sake of segregation. … Our aim, as I understand it, is not to establish a segregated society or an integrated society. It is to preserve a free society.”

The argument laid out in this speech was written with the help of William H. Rehnquist. As a clerk for Justice Robert Jackson during the Brown v. Board of Education case, Rehnquist pushed for the court to uphold segregation. But in the decade that passed, it became less socially acceptable to publicly denounce equal rights for Black Americans, and Rehnquist began to deploy the language of colorblindness in a way that cemented racial disadvantage.

White Americans who liked the idea of equality but did not want descendants of slavery moving next door to them, competing for their jobs or sitting near their children in school were exceptionally primed for this repositioning. As Rick Perlstein wrote in his book “Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of American Consensus,” when it came to race, Goldwater believed that white Americans “didn’t have the words to say the truth they knew in their hearts to be right, in a manner proper to the kind of men they wanted to see when they looked in the mirror. Goldwater was determined to give them the words.”

In the end, Johnson beat Goldwater in a landslide. Then, in June 1965, a few months after Black civil rights marchers were barbarically beaten on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge and two months before he would sign the historic Voting Rights Act into law, Johnson, now president of a deeply and violently polarized nation, gave the commencement address at Howard University. At that moment, Johnson stood at the pinnacle of white American power, and he used his platform to make the case that the country owed descendants of slavery more than just their rights and freedom.

“You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘You are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair,” Johnson said. “This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”

For a brief moment, it seemed as if a grander, more just vision of America had taken hold. But while Goldwater did not win the election, 14 years later a case went before the Supreme Court that would signal the ultimate victory of Goldwater’s strategy.

Claiming Reverse Discrimination

Allan Bakke was enjoying a successful career at NASA when he decided he wanted to become a physician. Bakke grew up in a white middle-class family — his father worked for the Post Office, and his mother taught school. Bakke went to the University of Minnesota, where he studied engineering and joined the R.O.T.C. to help pay for college, and then served four years as a Marine, including seven months in Vietnam. It was there that Bakke became enamored with the medical profession. While still working at NASA, he enrolled in night courses to obtain a pre-med degree. In 1972, while he was in his 30s, Bakke applied to 11 medical schools, including at his alma mater, and was rejected by all 11.

One of the schools that Bakke, who was living in California at the time, applied to was the University of California at Davis. The school received 2,664 applications for 100 spots, and by the time he completed his application, most of the seats had already been filled. Some students with lower scores were admitted before he applied, and Bakke protested to the school, claiming that “quotas, open or covert, for racial minorities” had kept him out. His admission file, however, would show that it was his age that was probably a significant strike against him and not his race.

Bakke applied again the next year, and U.C. Davis rejected him again. A friend described Bakke as developing an “almost religious zeal” to fight what he felt was a system that discriminated against white people in favor of so-called minorities. Bakke decided to sue, claiming he had been a victim of “reverse” discrimination.

The year was 1974, less than a decade after Johnson’s speech on affirmative action and a few years after the policy had begun to make its way onto college campuses. The U.C. Davis medical school put its affirmative-action plan in place in 1970. At the time, its first-year medical-school class of 100 students did not include a single Black, Latino or Native student. In response, the faculty designed a special program to boost enrollment of “disadvantaged” students by reserving 16 of the 100 seats for students who would go through a separate admissions process that admitted applicants with lower academic ratings than the general admissions program.

From 1971 to 1974, 21 Black students, 30 Mexican American students and 12 Asian American students enrolled through the special program, while one Black student, six Mexican Americans and 37 Asian American students were admitted through the regular program. Bakke claimed that his right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment and the 1964 Civil Rights Act had been violated. Though these laws were adopted to protect descendants of slavery from racial discrimination and subordination, Bakke was deploying them to claim that he had been illegally discriminated against because he was white. The case became the first affirmative-action challenge decided by the Supreme Court and revealed just how successful the rhetorical exploitation of colorblindness could be.

Justice Lewis Powell, writing for a fractured court in 1978, determined that although the 14th Amendment was written primarily to bridge “the vast distance between members of the Negro race and the white ‘majority,’” the passage of time and the changing demographics of the nation meant the amendment must now be applied universally. In an argument echoing the debates over the Freedmen’s Bureau, Powell said that the United States had grown more diverse, becoming a “nation of minorities,” where “the white ‘majority’ itself is composed of various minority groups, most of which can lay claim to a history of prior discrimination at the hands of the State and private individuals.”

“The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color,” Powell wrote. “If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.” Powell declared that the medical school could not justify helping certain “perceived” victims if it disadvantaged white people who “bear no responsibility for whatever harm the beneficiaries of the special admissions program are thought to have suffered.”

But who or what, then, did bear the responsibility?

Bakke was raised in Coral Gables, a wealthy, white suburb of Miami whose segregationist founder proposed a plan to remove all Black people from Miami while serving on the Dade County Planning Board, and where the white elementary school did not desegregate until after it was ordered by a federal court to do so in 1970, the same year U.C. Davis began its affirmative-action program. The court did not contemplate how this racially exclusive access to top neighborhoods and top schools probably helped Bakke to achieve the test scores that most Black students, largely relegated because of their racial designation to resource-deprived segregated neighborhoods and educational facilities, did not. It did not mean Bakke didn’t work hard, but it did mean that he had systemic advantages over equally hard-working and talented Black people.

For centuries, men like Powell and Bakke had benefited from a near-100 percent quota system, one that reserved nearly all the seats at this nation’s best-funded public and private schools and most-exclusive public and private colleges, all the homes in the best neighborhoods and all the top, well-paying jobs in private companies and public agencies for white Americans. Men like Bakke did not acknowledge the systemic advantages they had accrued because of their racial category, nor all the ways their race had unfairly benefited them. More critical, neither did the Supreme Court. As members of the majority atop the caste system, racial advantage transmitted invisibly to them. They took notice of their race only when confronted with a new system that sought to redistribute some of that advantage to people who had never had it.

Thus, the first time the court took up the issue of affirmative action, it took away the policy’s power. The court determined that affirmative action could not be used to redress the legacy of racial discrimination that Black Americans experienced, or the current systemic inequality that they were still experiencing. Instead, it allowed that some consideration of a student’s racial background could stand for one reason only: to achieve desired “diversity” of the student body. Powell referred to Harvard’s affirmative-action program, which he said had expanded to include students from other disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those from low-income families. He quoted an example from the plan, which said: “The race of an applicant may tip the balance in his favor, just as geographic origin or a life spent on a farm may tip the balance in other candidates’ cases. A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer. Similarly, a Black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer.”

But, of course, a (white) farm boy from Idaho did not descend from people who were enslaved, because they were farmers from Idaho. There were not two centuries of case law arguing over the inherent humanity and rights of farm boys from Idaho. There was no sector of the law, no constitutional provision, that enshrined farm boys from Idaho as property who could be bought and sold. Farm boys from Idaho had no need to engage in a decades-long movement to gain basic rights of citizenship, including the fundamental right to vote. Farm boys from Idaho had not, until just a decade earlier, been denied housing, jobs, the ability to sit on juries and access to the ballot. Farm boys from Idaho had not been forced to sue for the right to attend public schools and universities.

In Bakke, the court was legally — and ideologically — severing the link between race and condition. Race became nothing more than ancestry and a collection of superficial physical traits. The 14th Amendment was no longer about alleviating the extraordinary repercussions of slavery but about treating everyone the same regardless of their “skin color,” history or present condition. With a few strokes of his pen, Powell wiped this context away, and just like that, the experience of 350 years of slavery and Jim Crow was relegated to one thing: another box to check.

Yet at the same time Powell was drafting this ruling, cases of recalcitrant school districts still refusing to integrate Black children were making their way to the Supreme Court. Just 15 years earlier, the federal government called up National Guardsmen to ensure that handfuls of Black students could enroll in white schools.

Indeed, Powell wrote this opinion while sitting on the same court as Thurgood Marshall, who in 1967 became the first Black justice in the Supreme Court’s 178-year history. In Brown, Marshall helped break the back of legalized segregation. Now, as the court deliberated the Bakke case, a frustrated Marshall sent around a two-and-a-half-page typed memo to the other justices. “I repeat, for next to the last time: The decision in this case depends on whether you consider the action of the regents as admitting certain students or as excluding certain other students,” he wrote. “If you view the program as admitting qualified students who, because of this Nation’s sorry history of racial discrimination, have academic records that prevent them from effectively competing for medical school, then this is affirmative action to remove the vestiges of slavery and state imposed segregation by ‘root and branch.’ If you view the program as excluding students, it is a program of ‘quotas’ which violates the principle that the ‘Constitution is color-blind.’”

When Marshall’s arguments did not persuade enough justices, he joined with three others in a dissent from a decision that he saw as actively reversing, and indeed perverting, his legacy. They issued a scathing rebuke to the all-white majority, accusing them of letting “colorblindness become myopia, which masks the reality that many ‘created equal’ have been treated within our lifetimes as inferior both by the law and by their fellow citizens.”

Marshall also wrote his own dissent, where he ticked off statistic after statistic that revealed the glaring disparities between descendants of slavery and white Americans in areas like infant and maternal mortality, unemployment, income and life expectancy. He argued that while collegiate diversity was indeed a compelling state interest, bringing Black Americans into the mainstream of American life was much more urgent, and that failing to do so would ensure that “America will forever remain a divided society.”

Marshall called out the court’s hypocrisy. “For it must be remembered that, during most of the past 200 years, the Constitution, as interpreted by this court, did not prohibit the most ingenious and pervasive forms of discrimination against the Negro,” he wrote. “Now, when a state acts to remedy the effects of that legacy of discrimination, I cannot believe that this same Constitution stands as a barrier.”

At the end of his lengthy dissent, Marshall pointed out what had become the court’s historic pattern. “After the Civil War, our government started ‘affirmative action’ programs. This court … destroyed the movement toward complete equality,” he wrote. As he said, “I fear that we have come full circle.”

The Reagan Rollback

In 1980, having just secured the Republican nomination for the presidency, Ronald Reagan traveled to Mississippi’s Neshoba County Fair to give an address. It was there in that county, a mere 16 years earlier, that three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered by Klansmen, among the most notorious killings of the civil rights era.

Standing in front of a roaring crowd of about 10,000 white Mississippians, Reagan began his general-election campaign. He did not mention race. He did not need to. Instead he spoke of states’ rights, replicating the language of Confederates and segregationists, to signal his vision for America.

Despite the Bakke ruling, affirmative action continued to gain ground in the 1970s, with a deeply divided Supreme Court upholding limited affirmative action in hiring and other areas, and the Jimmy Carter administration embracing race-conscious policies. But Reagan understood the political power of white resistance to these policies, which if allowed to continue and succeed would redistribute opportunity in America.

Once in office, Reagan aggressively advanced the idea that racial-justice efforts had run amok, that Black Americans were getting undeserved racial advantages across society and that white Americans constituted the primary victims of discrimination.

A 1985 New York Times article noted that the Reagan administration was “intensifying its legal attack on affirmative action” across American life, saying the administration “has altered the government’s definition of racial discrimination.” As early as the 1970s, Reagan began using the phrase “reverse discrimination” — what the political scientist Philip L. Fetzer called a “covert political term” that undermined racial redress programs by redefining them as anti-white. Reagan’s administration claimed that race-conscious remedies were illegal and that hiring goals for Black Americans were “a form of racism” and as abhorrent as the “separate but equal” doctrine struck down by Brown v. Board.

Reagan, who had secretly called Black people monkeys and opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, opposed the establishment of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. Yet in the first commemoration of that holiday in 1986, he trotted out King’s words to condemn racial-justice policy. “We’re committed to a society in which all men and women have equal opportunities to succeed, and so we oppose the use of quotas,” he said. “We want a colorblind society, a society that, in the words of Dr. King, judges people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

This passage from King’s famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech has become a go-to for conservatives seeking to discredit efforts to address the pervasive disadvantages that Black Americans face. And it works so effectively because few Americans have read the entire speech, and even fewer have read any of the other speeches or writings in which King explicitly makes clear that colorblindness was a goal that could be reached only through race-conscious policy. Four years after giving his “Dream” speech, King wrote, “A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him.” And during a 1968 sermon given less than a week before his assassination, King said that those who opposed programs to specifically help Black Americans overcome their disadvantage “never stop to realize that no other ethnic group has been a slave on American soil. The people who say this never stop to realize that the nation made the Black man’s color a stigma; but beyond this they never stop to realize that they owe a people who were kept in slavery 244 years.”

But as the sociologist Stuart Hall once wrote, “Those who produce the discourse also have the power to make it true.” Reagan deftly provided the road map to the nation’s racial future. Tapping into white aversion to acknowledging and addressing the singular crimes committed against Black Americans, conservatives, who had not long before championed and defended racial segregation, now commandeered the language of colorblindness, which had been used to dismantle the impacts of legal apartheid. They wrapped themselves in the banner of rhetorical equality while condemning racial-justice activists as the primary perpetrators of racism.

“There’s this really concerted, strategic effort to communicate to white people that racial justice makes white people victims, and that when people demand racial justice, they don’t actually mean justice; they mean revenge,” Ian Haney López, a race and constitutional law scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, told me. “Black people are treated as if they are just any other Americans. There is no history of racial subordination associated with Black people. There is no structural or systemic racism against African Americans. By 1989, it’s over. Reactionary colorblindness has won.”

Diversity vs. Redress

Perhaps no single person has more successfully wielded Reagan’s strategy than Edward Blum. In 1992, Blum, who made his living as a stockbroker, decided to run for Congress as a Republican in a Texas district carved out to ensure Black representation. Blum was trounced by the Black Democratic candidate. He and several others sued, arguing that a consideration of racial makeup when creating legislative districts violated the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause. Despite the fact that until a 1944 Supreme Court ruling, Texas had selected candidates through all-white primaries, and the fact that the district had been created in part in response to the state’s history of Black-voter suppression, Blum’s side won the case, forcing a redrawing of legislative districts in a manner that diluted Black and Latino voting power. Since that victory, Blum has mounted a decades-long campaign that has undermined the use of race to achieve racial justice across American life.

Blum is not a lawyer, but his organizations, funded by a mostly anonymous cadre of deep-pocketed conservatives, have been wildly effective. It is Blum, for instance, who was the strategist behind the case against the Voting Rights Act. When the Supreme Court again narrowly upheld affirmative action in college admissions in the early 2000s, Blum set his sights on killing it altogether. In that 2003 case, Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the majority opinion preserving limited affirmative action but putting universities on notice by setting an arbitrary timeline for when the court should determine that enough racial justice will have been achieved. “It has been 25 years since Justice Powell first approved the use of race to further an interest in student-body diversity in the context of public higher education,” O’Connor wrote. “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary.” The use of the term “racial preferences” is key here. Instead of a policy created to even the playing field for a people who had been systematically held back and still faced pervasive discrimination, affirmative action was cast as a program that punished white Americans by giving unfair preferential treatment to Black Americans.

Blum didn’t wait 25 years to challenge affirmative action. His case brought on behalf of Abigail Fisher, a soft-spoken white woman who sued the University of Texas at Austin, after she was denied admission, went all the way to the Supreme Court. The court ultimately upheld the university’s admissions program. In his second attempt, Blum changed tactics. As he told a gathering of the Houston Chinese Alliance in 2015: “I needed Asian plaintiffs.” In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Blum’s group argued, and the court agreed, that affirmative-action programs discriminated against Asian Americans and, at the University of North Carolina, also white students. But many saw Blum’s use of another historically marginalized group in the lawsuit as an attempt to neutralize any argument that those targeting affirmative action opposed racial equality.

Blum’s success relied on defining affirmative action as a program about “visual diversity,” treating race as a mere collection of physical traits and not a social construct used to subordinate and stigmatize. When colleges seek diversity, he said, they are “really talking about skin-color diversity. How somebody looks. What’s your skin color? What’s the shape of your eyes? What’s the texture of your hair? Most Americans don’t think that the shape of your eyes tells us much about who you are as an individual. What does your skin color tell the world about who you are as an individual?” This reasoning resounds for many Americans who have also come to think about race simply as what you see.

Blum has described racial injustice against Black Americans as a thing of the past — a “terrible scar” on our history. As he awaited the court’s ruling last April, Blum told The Christian Science Monitor that today’s efforts to address that past were discriminatory and in direct conflict with the colorblind goals of Black activism. He said that “an individual’s race or ethnicity should not be used to help that individual or harm that individual in their life’s endeavors” and that affirmative action was “in grave tension with the founding principles of our civil rights movement.” But the civil rights movement has never been about merely eliminating race or racism; it’s also about curing its harms, and civil rights groups oppose Blum’s efforts.

Yet progressives, too, have unwittingly helped to maintain the corrupt colorblind argument that Blum has employed so powerfully, in part because the meaning of affirmative action was warped nearly from its beginning by the Supreme Court’s legal reasoning in Bakke. When the court determined that affirmative-action programs could stand only for “diversity” and not for redress, many advocates and institutions, in order to preserve these programs, embraced the idea that the goal of affirmative action was diversity and inclusiveness and not racial justice. Progressive organizations adopted the lexicon of “people of color” when discussing affirmative-action programs and also flattened all African-descended people into a single category, regardless of their particular lineage or experience in the United States.

Campuses certainly became more “diverse” as admissions offices focused broadly on recruiting students who were not white. But the descendants of slavery, for whom affirmative action originated, remain underrepresented among college students, especially at selective colleges and universities. At elite universities, research shows, the Black population consists disproportionately of immigrants and children of immigrants rather than students whose ancestors were enslaved here.

So, at least on this one thing, Blum is right. Many institutions have treated affirmative-action programs as a means of achieving visual diversity. Doing so has weakened the most forceful arguments for affirmative action, which in turn has weakened public support for such policies. Institutions must find ways, in the wake of the affirmative-action ruling, to address the racism that Black people face no matter their lineage. But using affirmative action as a diversity program — or a program to alleviate disadvantage that any nonwhite person faces — has in actuality played a part in excluding the very people for whom affirmative action and other racial redress programs were created to help.

Taking Back the Intent of Affirmative Action

Just as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund used the Brown v. Board of Education ruling as a legal catalyst for eliminating apartheid in all American life, Blum and those of like mind intend to use the affirmative-action ruling to push a sweeping regression in the opposite direction: bringing down this nation’s racial-justice programs and initiatives.

Right after the June ruling, 13 Republican state attorneys general sent letters to 100 of the nation’s biggest companies warning that the affirmative-action ruling prohibits what they call “discriminating on the basis of race, whether under the label of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ or otherwise. Treating people differently because of the color of their skin, even for benign purposes, is unlawful and wrong.” Companies that engage in such racial discrimination, the letter threatened, would “face serious legal consequences.”

The letter points to racial-justice and diversity-and-inclusion programs created or announced by companies, particularly after the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer. In response to the killing, a multigenerational protest movement arose and faced violent suppression by law enforcement as it sought to force this nation to see that the descendants of slavery were still suffering and deserved repair. Corporations took a public stance on racial justice, vowing to integrate everything from their boardrooms to their suppliers. Monuments to white supremacists and Confederates that had stood for 100 years were finally vanquished from the public square. And many colleges and other institutions vocally committed to racial justice as an ethos.

But that fragile multiracial coalition — which for a period understood racial redress as a national good needed to secure and preserve our democracy — has been crushed by the same forces that have used racial polarization to crush these alliances in the past. Conservatives have spent the four years since George Floyd’s murder waging a so-called war against “woke” — banning books and curriculums about racism, writing laws that eliminate diversity-and-inclusion programs and prohibiting the teaching of courses even at the college level that are deemed racially “divisive.”

In other words, conservatives have used state power to prepare a citizenry to accept this new American legal order by restricting our ability to understand why so much racial inequality exists, particularly among the descendants of slavery, and why programs like affirmative action were ever needed in the first place.

“Something really stunning and dangerous that has happened during the Trump era is that the right uses the language of colorblindness or anti-wokeness to condemn any references to racial justice,” Haney López told me. “This rhetoric is a massive fraud, because it claims colorblindness toward race but is actually designed to stimulate hyper-race-consciousness among white people. That strategy has worked.”

Today we have a society where constitutional colorblindness dictates that school segregation is unconstitutional, yet most Black students have never attended a majority-white school or had access to the same educational resources as white children. A society with a law prohibiting discrimination in housing and lending, and yet descendants of slavery remain the most residentially, educationally and economically segregated people in the country. A society where employment discrimination is illegal, and yet Black Americans are twice as likely to be unemployed as white Americans, even when they hold college degrees.

Despite these realities, conservative groups are initiating a wave of attacks on racial-equality programs. About 5 percent of practicing attorneys are Black, and yet one of Blum’s groups, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, sued law firms to stop their diversity fellowships. In August, it also sued the Fearless Fund, a venture-capital firm founded by two Black women, which through its charitable arm helps other Black women gain access to funding by giving small grants to businesses that are at least 51 percent owned by Black women. Even though according to the World Economic Forum, Black women receive just 0.34 percent of venture-capital funds in the United States, Blum declared the fund to be racially discriminatory. Another Blum group, Students for Fair Admissions, has now sued the U.S. Military Academy, even though the Supreme Court allowed race-conscious admissions to stand in the military. Another organization, the Center for Individual Rights, has successfully overturned a decades-long Small Business Administration policy that automatically treated so-called minority-owned businesses as eligible for federal contracts for disadvantaged businesses.

Last year, a group called the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation sued the City and County of San Francisco over their funding of several programs aimed at eliminating disparities Black Americans face, including the Abundant Birth Project, which gives stipends for prenatal care, among other supports, to Black women and Pacific Islanders to help prevent them from dying during childbirth. Even though maternal mortality for Black women in the United States is up to four times as high as it is for white women, conservatives argue that programs specifically helping the women most likely to die violate the 14th Amendment. Even as this lawsuit makes its way through the courts, there are signs of why these sorts of programs remain necessary: It was announced last year that the Department of Health and Human Services opened a civil rights investigation into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for allegations of racism against Black mothers following the death of a Black woman who went there to give birth.

It is impossible to look at the realities of Black life that these programs seek to address and come to the conclusion that the lawsuits are trying to make society more fair or just or free. Instead they are foreclosing the very initiatives that could actually make it so.

And nothing illuminates that more than the conservative law group’s letter warning Howard — an institution so vaunted among Black Americans that it’s known as the Mecca — that its medical school must stop any admissions practices that have a “racial component.” Howard’s medical school, founded in 1868, remains one of just four historically Black medical schools in the United States. Howard received nearly 9,000 medical-school applicants for 130 open seats in 2023. And while almost all of the students who apply to be Howard undergraduates are Black, because there are so few medical-school slots available, most applicants to Howard’s medical school are not. Since the school was founded to serve descendants of slavery with a mission to educate “disadvantaged students for careers in medicine,” however, most of the students admitted each year are Black.

That has now made it a target, even though Black Americans account for only 5 percent of all U.S. doctors, an increase of just three percentage points in the 46 years since Thurgood Marshall’s dissent in Bakke. Despite affirmative action at predominantly white schools, at least 70 percent of the Black doctors and dentists in America attended an H.B.C.U. H.B.C.U.s also have produced half of the Black lawyers, 40 percent of Black engineers and a quarter of Black graduates in STEM fields.

Even Plessy v. Ferguson, considered perhaps the worst Supreme Court ruling in U.S. history, sanctioned the existence of H.B.C.U.s and other Black-serving organizations. If institutions like Howard or the Fearless Fund cannot work to explicitly assist the descendants of slavery, who still today remain at the bottom of nearly every indicator of success and well-being, then we have decided as a nation that there is nothing we should do to help Black Americans achieve equality and that we will remain a caste society.

What we are witnessing, once again, is the alignment of white power against racial justice and redress. As history has shown, maintaining racial inequality requires constant repression and is therefore antithetical to democracy. And so we must be clear about the stakes: Our nation teeters at the brink of a particularly dangerous moment, not just for Black Americans but for democracy itself.

To meet the moment, our society must forcefully recommit to racial justice by taking lessons from the past. We must reclaim the original intent of affirmative-action programs stretching all the way back to the end of slavery, when the Freedmen’s Bureau focused not on race but on status, on alleviating the conditions of those who had endured slavery. Diversity matters in a diverse society, and American democracy by definition must push for the inclusion of all marginalized people. But remedies for injustice also need to be specific to the harm.

So we, too, must shift our language and, in light of the latest affirmative-action ruling, focus on the specific redress for descendants of slavery . If Yale, for instance, can apologize for its participation in slavery, as it did last month, then why can’t it create special admissions programs for slavery’s descendants — a program based on lineage and not race — just as it does for its legacy students? Corporations, government programs and other organizations could try the same.

Those who believe in American democracy, who want equality, must no longer allow those who have undermined the idea of colorblindness to define the terms. Working toward racial justice is not just the moral thing to do, but it may also be the only means of preserving our democracy.

Race-based affirmative action has died. The fight for racial justice need not. It cannot.

Top photo illustration by Mark Harris. Photograph by Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos

A picture with an earlier version of this article was published in error. The image caption, relying on erroneous information from a photo agency, misidentified the man shown as Hobart Taylor Jr. The image has been replaced with a photo of Taylor.

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Nikole Hannah-Jones is a domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine focusing on racial injustice. Her extensive reporting in both print and radio has earned a Pulitzer Prize, National Magazine Award, Peabody and a Polk Award. More about Nikole Hannah-Jones

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Paul McCartney calls Beyoncé's cover of 'Blackbird' a 'fab version'

by JESSICA A. BOTELHO | The National Desk

LOS ANGELES (TND) — Paul McCartney has kind words for Beyoncé's new version of "Blackbird", which McCartney wrote and recorded with The Beatles in 1968.

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McCartney went on to note he spoke to Beyoncé about the song during a conversation via FaceTime. He said she thanked him for writing it and allowing her to cover it.

"I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song," McCartney wrote. "When I saw the footage on the television in the early 60s of the black (sic) girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud."

Beyoncé covered the song with the slightly revised title “Blackbiird” for her latest album "Act II: Cowboy Carter." It features a brief duet from singer Tiera Kennedy on vocals -- with Kennedy also singing harmony on "Tyrant."

The album, which dropped on March 29, is Beyoncé's eighth studio album. It comes after 2022's "Renaissance" and marks the second installment of her trilogy project.

The album features country music legends Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson.

Beyoncé arrived at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February wearing full cowboy regalia -- making a statement without saying a word. Then, during the Super Bowl a week later, she dropped two hybrid country songs: "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages."

As a Black woman reclaiming country music, she stands in opposition to stereotypical associations of the genre with whiteness. She is also known for supporting social justice movements, including Black Lives Matter, feminism, LGBTQ rights, and equality.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement sought equality and freedom for people of color. The Anti-Defamation League notes that "there was widespread segregation, discrimination, disenfranchisement and racially motivated violence that permeated all personal and structural aspects of life" for Black people and people of color.

EDITOR'S NOTE : The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Civil Rights Training Specialist and Liaison

How to apply.

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

The Civil Rights Training Specialist and Liaison will be the main point of contact for offices and departments at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus and within Michigan Medicine to facilitate and provide education on the University's policies and procedures on civil rights related topics.  The position will provide support to units including consultations, general trainings, and tailored workshops.

The University's Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Office (ECRT) provides support, resources, and education to promote safe and non-discriminatory learning, living, and working environments for all members of the university community.  ECRT oversees, facilitates, and supports the University's efforts to ensure equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs, and activities and admissions.

Responsibilities*

The Civil Rights Training Specialist and Liaison will serve as a liaison for offices and departments to coordinate civil rights related trainings.  The Civil Rights Training Specialist and Liaison will consult with offices and departments to determine the most appropriate training offerings to meet their needs, and how ECRT can most effectively provide the training.  The Civil Rights Training Specialist and Liaison will report to the Director for Civil Rights and will work closely with the Assistant Director for Civil Rights Investigations to create programs, training content, and resources for faculty and staff at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Michigan Medicine.

Policy and Prevention Trainings          

•         The Specialist will work with ECRT leadership and colleagues to prepare and offer trainings on applicable civil rights laws and the prevention of discrimination and harassment as outlined in university policy.
•         Provide and assist in creating research-based, effective, and engaging training on civil rights related topics.
•         Produce professional presentations and materials related to civil rights training topics.
•         Work collaboratively with ECRT's Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Specialist to provide training and support on the university's EEO/AA obligations.
•         Ensure that ECRT trainings support compliance with university policies, as well as federal, state, and local requirements pertaining to civil rights laws and obligations.
•         Conduct periodic assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of training efforts and offerings.

Consultations and Tailored Workshops

•        Consult and collaborate with school and college leadership, departmental leaders, and administrators, and others to assist units with creating specific training plans.
•         Provide holistic support in the form of consultation, training, and interventions designed to assist communities and groups who are responding to incidents of harm based on protected identities in their communities.
•        In collaboration with campus partners, develop specific training programs to help communities respond to and/or prevent incidents of discrimination or harassment in the workplace.
•        Provide ongoing support, training, and individual consultation with staff and faculty to address questions related to creating safe and supportive spaces free from discrimination and harassment.

Planning & Resource Development

•        Create and recommend content for ECRT's website, brochures, and other materials.
•        Assist with creating and updating content for online training resources.
•        Assist with planning special events.

Required Qualifications*

•         Bachelor's degree required.
•         Minimum of four years of professional experience.
•         Experience designing and implementing effective training, workshops, and resources.
•         Experience and demonstrated ability to build collaborative working relationships.
•         Specialized knowledge in civil rights laws.
•         Effective administrative, conflict resolution, and team building skills.
•         Skill and knowledge of technology, including but not limited to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, with the ability to produce effective presentations and resource materials.
•         Strong oral and written communication skills.

Desired Qualifications*

•         Experience with and training in Restorative Practices.
•         Experience working in a university environment.
•         Knowledge of assessment, evaluation, and research methodologies, especially related to learning outcomes, learning environments, campus climate assessment, and program evaluation.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.