After the Civil War ended slavery, the Civil Rights Act of 1868 recognized and established the full citizenship of all African Americans, giving them the same civil rights as white Americans. In 1870 this act was made a part of the Constitution under the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted the right to vote to all males over 21, including minorities, and forbid states from withholding these equal rights to their citizens.

Though legally equal, over the next century African Americans had to fight to fully attain their legal rights, particularly the right to vote. The biggest obstacle was overcoming racial segregation, which took form after the Civil War and became legally binding in 1896 under the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson. The second-class status of African Americans was particularly reinforced in the South, where states passed numerous "Jim Crow" laws to divide the races and keep minorities from voting.

The African-American response to this legalized discrimination would eventually become the Civil Rights Movement, through which African Americans personally, morally, and legally fought for freedom and equality. In the 1950's, the movement began in the South, where voter registration drives, boycotts, sit-ins, and other civil rights demonstrations were met with fierce resistance from whites and local governments. By the 1960's, the movement became a national mobilization.