Are We Still Living in a Civil Rights Era?

U.S. HistoryBlack American HistoryAsian American HistoryIndigenous HistoryLatinx Hispanic History

Jun 16

Photo illustration of a long winding timeline shape with photos of Hiram Revels, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, The 1963 March on Washington, and Dolores Huerta. — Photo Illustration: Humanizing History Visuals. Photos: El Malcriado; Mamie Till Bradley; Gene Herrick for the Associated Press, restored by Adam Cuerden; Trikosko, Marion S., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress

Welcome to Humanizing History™! Every month, we feature a central theme. Each week, we dive into different areas of focus.

This month’s theme: Are We Still Living in a Civil Rights Era?

This week’s focus: Historical Literacy, or helpful frameworks to expand how we approach identity.

Today’s edition of Humanizing History™ is about 1,200 words, an estimated 4½-minute read.

The Why for This Week’s Topic

The Civil Rights Movement is a vital pillar of U.S. history — and a powerful lens through which to examine human rights, both in the United States and around the world.

Studying the Civil Rights Movement offers a crucial opportunity to connect the past to the present, and to reflect on how we define and pursue civil and human rights today.
What we’ve been taught — and just as importantly, what’s often not taught — shapes how we understand this history. This nation. Our world.
Who was involved in the Civil Right Movement? When did it begin? When did it end — or did it end? And why do these questions matter?

This month, we’ll explore the Civil Rights Movement — specifically asking: Are We Still in a Civil Rights Era?

Our goal isn’t just to revisit familiar names and events, but to expand our understanding of the movement’s timeline, its legacy, and how engaging with this history can deepen our civic awareness and maybe even reshape what it means to be patriotic.

Remember, what we are offering are some ways — not the only way — to discuss this topic.

It's important that we take action in ways that feel authentic to us. So choose what works for you — your community, your context, your needs, your goals and values.

How the Civil Rights Movement Is Typically Taught & Discussed

History books, and public discourse, often frame the Civil Rights Movement as a brief period, largely confined to the 1950s and 1960s.

The narrative typically includes a range of key events, often beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine by declaring that state-sponsored racial segregation in public school was unconstitutional.
The horrific killing of Emmett Till — a 14-year-old boy from Chicago who was visiting family in Mississippi in August 1955 — is often cited as a shocking event that galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.
Rosa Parks’ famous bus ride and refusal to give up her seat on a racially segregated bus is also regularly highlighted as a pivotal moment, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December of 1955.
The “Little Rock Nine” — a group of nine Black American high school students who became the first to integrate a public high school in Arkansas in 1957 — are often included in history texts. Hostile white segregationists, along with the Arkansas National Guard (initially deployed by the governor to block integration), tried to prevent the students from entering. In response, President Eisenhower sent the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort and protect them.
Non-violent resistance is frequently emphasized as a defining strategy of the movement. Sit-in protests, launched by Black college students who deliberately occupied “whites-only” lunch counters and other segregated public spaces, are a key example. So are the Free d om Rides, in which multiracial groups of people traveled on interstate buses across state lines to challenge and test Supreme Court rulings that declared segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.
The 1963 March on Washington is often taught or discussed, though the contributions of its organizer, Bayard Rustin, and the diverse crowd of approximately 250,000 participants are often overshadowed by the focus of Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. (Read our newsletter “How to Talk to Kids About Dr. King” to learn more about key events and figures).
Finally, two landmark pieces of legislation — the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — are often cited as culminating achievements, sometimes presented as closing chapters that mark a formal end of the Civil Rights Era.

And while these events are indeed remarkable — revolutionary, even — they represent only 11 years of a much larger story. What other important names, events, chapters, decades — even centuries — might be missing from the conversation of Civil Rights?

The Long Civil Rights Movement

Adjusting the Timeline

Some historians, such as Jacqueline Dowd Hall, have expanded the timeline of the Civil Rights Movement.

In her influential 2005 essay, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” Hall traces the roots of the movement back to the 1930s, broadening its scope beyond the traditional focus on the1950s and 1960s.
Expanding the timeline even further, the Zinn Education Project has developed resources that highlight the critical historical chapter of Reconstruction — the period after the Civil War, when many Black Americans, in the face of violence and intimidation, sought and gained political power. Zinn resources emphasize this era as an integral part of the ongoing legacy of the “Black freedom struggle.”
This raises a meaningful question: Does the Reconstruction era belong in the narrative of “Civil Rights”?
And more broadly: Why might we reconsider the framing, content, and timeline of the “Civil Rights Era” — and why does it matter?

Why It Matters

Reframing the Civil Rights Movement as part of a longer, ongoing commitment of generations of U.S. Americans has meaningful implications. It reveals a throughline — a continuity — of people, organizations, and movements advocating for basic human rights. Rather than viewing the movement as a brief moment or historical anomaly, we begin to see it as part of our national DNA.

The longer view helps us understand that Civil Rights are not static, nor simply offered or granted. They are created, challenged, and redefined over time — requiring action, organizing, and legislation across generations.
A broader timeline also illuminates how the past and present are deeply connected — for example, how the 14th and 15th Amendments (from the Reconstruction era) laid the groundwork for landmark 20th-century events like Brown v. Board of Education and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as for today’s movements centered on racial, gender, and identity justice.
Expanding who we study is just as important. Including the multiracial coalitions that challenged racial segregation, and the parallel movements for justice, such as the California farmworker organizations — led by Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez — indicates that “Civil Rights” was never a single-issue or single-community event. It was, and continues to be, a collection of inclusive, community-based movements with national impact.
This broader framing also invites those historically excluded from mainstream narratives to see themselves in history. Such inclusion not only has the potential to deepen civic awareness — it can spark a powerful sense of belonging and even patriotism. When we present a fuller, more nuanced history, we offer people permission to believe they, too, can contribute meaningfully to their country.

It also brings us back to “The Why.” Why were Civil Rights movements necessary in the first place?

Because when human rights are denied — when laws dehumanize — people organize to rehumanize themselves.
That rehumanization is at the core of the democratic project. In this light, Civil Rights movements are essential to the continual expansion of what democracy means in the United States, and perhaps, to other communities around the world.

Finally, reframing the Civil Rights timeline prompts a few more questions:

Is the Civil Rights Era over? Are we still living in it?
And if so, what does that mean for you, for us, for the present — and for the future?

Later this month, we’ll explore these questions more deeply — covering topics from Reconstruction, to the “era of firsts,” to how to engage young people in meaningful discussions about Civil Rights.