ABSTRACT
Throughout American history people denied their constitutional rights and deprived of the rights and opportunities provided to others have taken part in social protest movements. Those involved in social protest have adopted strategies to pressure those in power to end the discriminatory and repressive measures denying them political and economic justice. The civil rights movement was the most important social protest movement of the twentieth century. The movement helped produce some important national leaders, such as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, U.S. Congressman John Lewis and U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Homes Norton. Countless numbers of people participated in civil rights campaigns across the nation helping to abolish legal segregation. The civil rights movement was the most significant social protest movement of the twentieth century because other social protest movements modeled themselves after it, including the Chicano movement, the women’s liberation movement and the gay and lesbian movement.
