Civil Rights: Civil Rights Today

Equality remained as a hot topic in the late 1980’s to the 1990’s. In 1995 the Million Man March was lead by Louis Farrakhan to increase the amount of African Americans registered to vote, to promote involvement of African Americans in black communities, and to ensure the presence of the “Safety Net”, which are government plans that aid the poor. “Since the sixties, two significant civil rights trends have emerged.” One trend is to rid discrimination amongst several groups: homosexuals, Latino groups, immigrants, and farm workers. The other trend was to focus on the racial relations. “The beating of a Los Angeles Motorist, Rodney king, in March 1991 led African Americans to riot after the accused police officers were acquitted.” Within that year Thurgood Marshall left the court as the Supreme Court justice. Marshall’s replacement, Clarence Tomas, was closely advised during confirmation hearings. The murder of James Byrd was the aftermath of a hate crime in 1998. The disgusted Americans were evidence of racial tolerance improvement however there still was discrimination amongst races. To develop better racial relations in the new millennium there were thoughts of having a diverse work environment. In 2003 Colleges considered race as an aspect for admitting a student ultimately providing a diverse experience for students. The University of Michigan had efforts to have a diverse environment by specifically looking for people of different cultures who are familiar with diverse environments. The racial spectrum has widened according to the census of 2000. That year people had the chose to refer to themselves as being multiple races.

Civil Rights Today. 1 June 2009http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/26_today.html