Civics question 112 of 128
What did the civil rights movement do?
Official answer
- Fought to end racial discrimination
Source: official USCIS question list for the 2025 version of the civics test. This site is independent and not affiliated with USCIS.
Background
The civil rights movement fought to end racial discrimination. Its central years ran from the 1950s into the 1960s, and its method was largely nonviolent pressure: the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956, lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides testing desegregation on interstate buses, and mass marches. Courts and Congress supplied the results. Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 held segregated public schools unconstitutional, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination in employment and public accommodations, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally enforced the Fifteenth Amendment. What was being dismantled was formal law and not merely custom, with statutes requiring separate schools, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains, upheld by the Supreme Court from 1896 until Brown.
This background section is written by US Citizenship Test Practice to explain the civics fact. It is not part of the USCIS question list, and the official answer above is the one to give at the interview.
Where this question sits
It is part of Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information, inside the American History section of the test.
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