The Role Of The Federal Government In The Civil Rights Movement

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1945 through 1968 was a prominent period of time in United States history as it saw the rise of civil rights movements and an era of more progressive presidents. The federal government was partly in sync with the ideals of civil rights activists as both sides wanted the discriminated, which mostly included African Americans and women, to be officially recognized as equal and eliminate any segregation acts. While the government acted with a plan to gradually do so, activists wanted immediate change and took it upon themselves to do so through boycotts which some may or may not have been nonviolent protests. Documents 1, 5, and 7 relate to the roles the federal government has taken in the civil rights movement. Since President Harry S. Truman, …show more content…
Both sides wanted equality for all minority groups, however each side had different methods and efforts hampered by respective causes. Presidents of this period of civil rights movements, namely Kennedy and Johnson, pressed for civil rights in the form of a national law, however their efforts were made difficult as Kennedy was assassinated before his act was put into fruition and dissenting opinions from Congress made it hard for Johnson to sign the act into law immediately. Civil rights activists were full of unrest from being discriminated against and formed organizations to stage boycotts in attempt to spread and enforce the idea of social justice and equality, but their endeavor was made difficult with the fact that there was nothing to ground their efforts as well protect them from opposing white citizens. It would be useful to have an additional document in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson to reflect the efforts of both John F. Kennedy and Johnson to firmly outlaw discrimination based on race, gender, or religious preference as well as to show the significant impact of the federal government’s on the outcome of the civil rights movement by assuring its

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