Background: Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement lasted from the 1950s to the 1960s. The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are often considered the starting and ending points.

Major elements of the Civil Rights Movement included fighting for integration and voting rights, which was done through boycotts, protests, sit ins, and Supreme Court cases. African American religious leaders became very prominent, such as Malcolm X (Nation of Islam) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Baptist) and several other Protestant clergymen.

For the writers and artists, the Civil Rights Movement could mean either a struggle for equality along the lines of what King advocated, or a struggle for black nationalism and supremacy along the lines of what Malcolm X advocated.