Instituto Sucre Wednesday 11, May 2022

Civil rights movement

around the world

 What are civil rights

movements?
Civil rights movements are a worldwide series of political

movements for equality before the law, that peaked in the

1960s. In many situations they have been characterized by

nonviolent protests, or have taken the form of campaigns of

civil resistance aimed at achieving change through nonviolent

forms of resistance.
Northern Ireland civil rights

movement The civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland can be traced to activists in Dungannon, led by Austin

Currie, who were fighting for equal access to public housing for the members of the Catholic

community. This domestic issue would not have led to a fight for civil rights were it not for the fact

that being a registered householder was a qualification for local government franchise in Northern

Ireland.
In January 1964, the Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) was launched in Belfast. This organisation joined

the struggle for better housing and committed itself to ending discrimination in employment. The CSJ

promised the Catholic community that their cries would be heard. They challenged the government

and promised that they would take their case to the Commission for Human Rights in Strasbourg and

to the United Nations.

Having started with basic domestic issues, the civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland escalated to a

full-scale movement that found its embodiment in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. NICRA

campaigned in the late sixties and early seventies, consciously modelling itself on the American civil

rights movement and using similar methods of civil resistance. NICRA organised marches and protests

to demand equal rights and an end to discrimination.

NICRA originally had five main demands:
one man, one vote
an end to discrimination in housing
an end to discrimination in local government
an end to the gerrymandering of district boundaries, which limited the effect of Catholic voting
the disbandment of the B-Specials, an entirely Protestant police reserve, perceived as sectarian.

 Canada's Quiet

Revolution
The 1960s brought intense political and social change to the Canadian province of Quebec, with the

election of Liberal Premier Jean Lesage after the death of Maurice Duplessis, whose government was widely

viewed as corrupt. These changes included secularization of the education and health care systems, which

were both heavily controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, whose support for Duplessis and his perceived

corruption had angered many Québécois. Policies of the Liberal government also sought to give Quebec

more economic autonomy, such as the nationalization of Hydro-Québec and the creation of public

companies for the mining, forestry, iron/steel and petroleum industries of the province. Other changes

included the creation of the Régie des Rentes du Québec (Quebec Pension Plan) and new labour codes that

made unionizing easier and gave workers the right to strike.

 Movements for civil rights in

the United States

Movements for civil rights in the United States include noted legislation and organized efforts to abolish public and private acts

of racial discrimination against African Americans and other disadvantaged groups between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the

southern United States. It is sometimes referred to as the Second Reconstruction era, alluding to the unresolved issues of the

Reconstruction Era (1863–77).After 1890, the system of Jim Crow, disenfranchisement, and second class citizenship degraded

the citizenship rights of African Americans, especially in the South. It was the nadir of American race relations. There were three

main aspects: racial segregation – upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 –, legally

mandated by southern governments—voter suppression or disfranchisement in the southern states, and private acts of

violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans, unhindered or encouraged by government authorities. Although

racial discrimination was present nationwide, the combination of law, public and private acts of discrimination, marginal

economic opportunity, and violence directed toward African Americans in the southern states became known as Jim Crow.