The Civil Rights Movement was a mass movement that formed for African Americans fighting for their equal rights. “In federal courts and in Southern cities, African Americans fought to eradicate the system of racial segregation that denied them dignity, opportunity, and equal protection under the law” (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund, p.740). The segregation laws being passed were recognized as Jim Crow. Jim Crow, which affects the lives of masses of people, is named after a stereotypical 19th century song. Across America, states enforced segregation with laws, such as, in North Carolina, where books were not interchangeable between white and colored schools, but they could very well continue to be used by the race that used them first; all marriages between whites and blacks are prohibited and declared completely illegal in states such as Missouri, Florida and Maryland; and no nurse should be placed in a room in which a black man is placed, in Alabama. “Local and state 'Jim Crow' laws barred them from classrooms and bathrooms, theaters and train cars, juries and legislatures” (Civil Rights Movement). During the civil rights movement, various important events occurred; the Montgomery bus boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. and voting rights were three main ones. Rosa Parks was an African American woman who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. She was released from prison by President Edgar Nixon of the NAACP. After hearing about what happened to Rosa Parks, the black community boycotted the Montgomery bus system. “Calling themselves the Montgomery Improvement Association, they chose a young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead the fight in the middle of a paper... and much more, in addition to risking their lives. to bring change to segregation. “What began with so much hope and promise quickly gave way to deep suspicion and despair, as Americans lurched from one crisis to the next” (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund, p. 793). African Americans fought hard to end segregation and discrimination. As people and events lost and won, the civil rights movement made history. “Montgomery's African American communities helped raise America's awareness of the long-standing injustice of racial segregation, and new leaders emerged with innovative strategies to continue the fight” (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, Soderlund , p.759). Martin Luther King Jr. had spoken out and protested expressively and brought change. The Voting Rights Act helped end Jim Crow. Without these people and events, America might still have been a racially segregated country...