ABSTRACT
The history of United States is a history of the American people’s constant battle for the sacred rights of life and liberty. “All men are created equal” signified the ideal status of all humans. Yet, for almost 90 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, slavery remained legal; it ended with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Over the next 100 years, U.S. society expanded, with sustained economic growth, along with deepening discrimination toward blacks, especially in the South. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 guaranteed the individual right of every U.S. citizen to vote, and it banned discrimination in public facilities, in government, in education, and in employment based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. The passage of this federal law was a result of the 1960s nonviolent protests led by Martin Luther King, Jr., which were originally conceived to protect the rights of black men; the Civil Rights Act was broader, protecting the civil rights of everyone, including women (for the first time). Later, the protection was extended to disabled persons (via the Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990) and to a more limited degree to people with a different sexual orientation.1
