ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the sociological framework for understanding social movements, followed by an analysis of the social and historical conditions that provided the impetus for the civil rights movement, the Red Power movement, Chicano activism, and Asian American mobilization. It examines the strategies and tactics used by movement activists to generate attention to minority oppression, their demands for change, the success of their activism, and the response to their demands. While white resistance to civil rights activism is well documented, this chapter also highlights the involvement and contributions of white Americans to the movement for black equality. Many whites were actively involved in the struggle for full civil rights for African Americans. Many other whites violently resisted those demands. For many whites, any freedoms blacks gained were perceived to come at the expense of their freedoms. Many civil rights scholars mark the year 1968 as the official end of the civil rights movement.
