The Civil Rights Movement in America had its origins in the efforts of African slaves to overcome racial oppression. After the Civil War Blacks were granted basic civil rights but racial persecution persisted. During the 1950s and 1960s, a movement took hold in America to outlaw racial discrimination, and civil rights legislation was passed, but not without violence and civil unrest. Change finally did come, and leaders of the movement would be proud to learn that a Black man, Barak Obama, was elected as the 44th President of the United States in 2008.

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.,  August 28 1963
(National Archives)