Civil Rights

a procession of African Americans carrying signs for equal rights, integrated schools, decent housing, and an end to bias.
Citizens protesting for equal rights during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Library of Congress

Overview

Civil rights are those rights guaranteed to individuals as citizens of a nation, irrespective of gender, race and ethnicity, physical/mental ability, or sexual preference. This roots the examination of civil rights in the process of people exercising those rights within a societal framework and the resistance to those individuals.

The National Capital Region's Civil Rights program supports cross-disciplinary studies about the history of all Americans and their struggles for civil rights and equity in order to better preserve, restore, and share their stories at national park sites across the region.

The civil rights movement is the enduring fight for human rights. For African-Americans, the civil rights movement began at the start of chattel enslavement in the United States, and includes resistance to slavery, the Reconstruction era, the civil rights movement of the twentieth century and continues to the present day. Throughout American history, countless African Americans, both free and enslaved, and numerous other groups have strived to obtain the full and equal "unalienable Rights" upon which this nation was founded.

Contact

Please contact Carolyn Carter, NCR Civil Rights Historian for more information. If you need assistance from Resource Stewardship and Science (RESS), you may submit a Solution for Technical Assistance Requests (STAR) request online (NPS Only).

Links

Includes reports from the disciplines of History, Anthropology, Cultural Landscapes, etc. related to National Capital Region parks and surrounding communities.

Source: Data Store Saved Search 4855. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

NCR Civil Rights Stories

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    Last updated: February 28, 2024