<Li> Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1965) </Li> <Li> Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity within US Department of Housing and Urban Development (1968) </Li> <P> The civil rights movement (also known as the African - American civil rights movement, American civil rights movement and other terms) was a decades - long movement with the goal of securing legal rights for African Americans that other Americans already held . With roots starting in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, the movement resulted in the largest legislative impacts after the direct actions and grassroots protests organized from the mid-1950s until 1968 . Encompassing strategies, various groups, and organized social movements to accomplish the goals of ending legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, the movement, using major nonviolent campaigns, eventually secured new recognition in federal law and federal protection of all Americans . </P> <P> After the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery in the 1860s, the Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution, sought to secure the rights of African Americans . While for a short time, African Americans voted and held political office, they were soon deprived of civil rights, often under Jim Crow laws, and subjected to discrimination and sustained violence . Over the following century, various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their legal rights . Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations and productive dialogues between activists and government authorities . Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations, which highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans . The lynching of Emmett Till and the visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open - casket funeral mobilized the African - American community nationwide . Forms of protest and / or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955--56) in Alabama; "sit - ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit - ins (1960) in North Carolina and successful Nashville sit - ins in Tennessee; marches, such as the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade and 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities . </P>

When did the civil rights movement gain momentum