The era after World War II was a tough one for the civil rights movements. As a result, civil rights movements continued to agitate for more political space and social inclusion in all aspects of the nation-building and running. Although the laws were enacted, their implementation did not occur until later in the decade. The march, combined with the bombing of Birmingham Church by the Ku-Klux Klan members, led to the enactment of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Hall 1241). The Martin Luther’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms was critical to the fight for civil rights and freedoms in America. Over time, after numerous protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and peaceful marches, states started desegregating. This became the mother of many more sit-ins in the South and would later spread to other parts of the country. A typical case was when four male black American students from Greensboro California opted for a sit-in in an American hotel to protest against inequality, segregation, and racism. The acquittal of the two suspects in a speedy manner by a jury consisting of all whites in Mississippi encouraged people to get involved in protests, albeit avoiding violence. The case of Emmett Till, who was brutally murdered and dumped into a river for allegedly wolf-whistling a white woman, caused a lot of outrage among the blacks. The civil rights movements gained in numbers in the 1950s thus, they could push for more drastic changes in various laws. However, the more than forty-year-old Act was declared null and void in 1967 by the Supreme Court during the case of Loving v. According to a statute within the Act, it was illegal for people classified as colored and white people to get married. In Virginia, a couple (Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Loving, a black woman) was imprisoned for one year for violating the Racial Integration Act. Various states did not allow interracial marriages. A white man could not marry a black woman and vice versa. The law prohibited women and men of different races from marrying. Board of Education case that the Supreme Court of the United States declared it unconstitutional to have segregation in state-sponsored schools (Klarman 9).
Black people were not allowed to share these places with the whites. The most significant law was the one that called for separation in public schools, public transportation, and in public places (Klarman 3). According to the Jim Crow laws, the black Americans and the white Americans had “separate but equal” status.
The Jim Crow laws were the main laws enforced by the federal, state, and local governments to oppress the non-white Americans since the 1870s to around the middle of 1960s. Although formal slavery was banned, it continued to take other forms, such as low wages for “people of color” years later. The institutions of power, including the judicial system, allowed segregation to continue using the set laws and policies. The blacks, Native Americans, and all other groups considered “people of color” did not have access to the same rights and privileges as their white counterparts had (Bonilla-Silva 6). Racism and social isolation of minority groups such as women and the Lesbian, Gays, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, was a strong factor in the post-colonial era in the USA. By Emely, Brandon, Brianna, Rianna, Sara, Joshuaīackground The Civil Rights Movements and the Minority Groups in the Post World War II US