Because of the Black Civil Rights Struggle, These Groups Saw Progress Too

Through nonviolent protests and other forms of civil disobedience, the Civil Rights Movement was a decade’s long effort to make racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and inequality illegal across the country.

But the efforts of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lewis didn’t just work to help African Americans. They served as inspiration to women, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities and others. And their actions provided a blueprint to help them move their causes forward as well.

Here are some examples of how African American’s fight for civil rights influenced a host of other movements.

Women’s Rights

Although the feminist movement didn’t start in the 1960s, it picked up steam after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 moved feminists to push for legislation making sex-based discrimination in the workplace illegal.

Their efforts paid off. On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act was amended to include Title VII, which prohibited workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion or national origin and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Women’s Rights

The EEOC was formed to enforce Title VII and investigate workplace discrimination complaints. But the commissioners met opposition as they tried to do their jobs, leaving some to suggest the need for an organization that would “speak on behalf of women in the way civil rights groups had done for Blacks.” And in 1966, the National Organization for Woman (NOW) was born.

Individuals With Disabilities

With the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the Supreme Court determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional, an act that eventually led to inclusion for people with disabilities.

At the time, public schools didn’t have the resources to support students with disabilities, leaving families with few viable options for educating their children.

Individuals With Disabilities

Activists’ efforts eventually led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Environmental Justice

Along with racial injustice, civil rights activists also wanted to shine a spotlight on environmental racism and the dangers Black people faced in their own communities. With highways being built over their neighborhoods, Black people were subjected to increased air pollution.

Environmental Justice

In 1969, the Young Lords organized a protest in the streets of New York City against poor sanitary conditions in Harlem. Their protest, which would become known as a “Garbage Offensive” is thought to have inspired environmental activists to gather for the very first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

LGBTQ Rights

Inspired by nonviolent protests of racial segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, gay rights activists in the 1960s organized sit-ins and protests at places they were denied service.

LGBTQ Rights

“Every single element of what we know of as Pride and gay rights and, especially, the pre-Stonewall homophile movement, was borrowed from the Black Freedom Movement,” historian Eric Cervini told NBC News.

Immigration Reform

Before the Civil Rights Movement, an overwhelming majority of American immigrants in this country came from Europe and Canada. According to the Pew Research Center, 84 percent of U.S. immigrants in 1960 were born in Europe or Canada. However the Civil Rights Movement inspired an effort to eliminate discrimination in immigration. And in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, which removed quotas based on national origin and significantly changed the demographics of immigrants to this country.

Immigration Reform

U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) credits the Civil Rights Movement with making it possible for his parents, who are Indian immigrants to start a new life in the United States.

“My view is that my parents wouldn’t be in America if it weren’t for the civil rights movement,” he told The Root in an interview. “We as an Indian American community owe a huge debt to the civil rights movement.”