The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Law and Policy

There has never been a time in this nation's history when African Americans or others denied fundamental rights and equal opportunity have not struggled to be included in the nation's mainstream. The vision of the United States held by most Americans as a democratic and egalitarian nation sets the framework for the civil rights struggle.

In the second half of the 20th century, the nation's third branch of government - the Supreme Court - has been the site of the pivotal battles to advance the cause of equal rights and opportunities. In the face of an often hostile legislature and passive executive branch, the civil rights movement turned increasingly to the courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court, to make good on the American promise. Indeed, the modern civil rights movement could well be dated from the Supreme Court's 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, declaring school segregation to be unconstitutional and therefore illegal. That unanimous ruling sparked a host of efforts, both in the courts and other arenas, to dismantle segregation.

Over the last 50 years, the civil rights movement, often looking to the courts for support and guidelines, has broadly focused on several key issues:

• An end to school segregation and the creation of truly equal educational opportunity;
• An end to housing discrimination and the creation of a housing market with all neighborhoods open to all people;
• An end to employment discrimination and the creation of an equal opportunity economy;
• An end to discriminatory politics by making voting rights open to all Americans;
• An end to discrimination in the administration of criminal justice.

These issues provide a barometer of the nation's progress in ending discrimination and achieving its professed ideal of a society where each person has an equal opportunity for a full and productive life.