What are Civil Rights?

Many people even in 2020 think of Civil Rights as a movement from the 60’s, one that was “won” by Dr. King and is a non-issue. With the BLM protests and uprising, it has been more common to see just how many people, especially white, think racism does not exist and that the civil rights movement is over.

Well, we at Dallas Justice Now know more than ever, we need to understand the history of racism and civil rights in order to more fully understand the past and how to move forwrad in the future.

Here are some definitions and explorations of Civil Rights:

“Protecting civil rights is an essential part of the democratic values of the United States; and despite the country's legacy of slavery and continued racial inequities, people's individual rights and freedoms are considered sacred. Additionally, most people realize that interfering with another individual's civil rights is a violation that can trigger a lawsuit. The term "civil rights" stimulates intense emotions that get to the roots of morality -- but what are civil rights? It's a broad term with many connotations, but has a specific meaning in U.S. law.

Before you can protect your civil rights, you must recognize and know what they are.

Civil rights are an expansive and significant set of rights that are designed to protect individuals from unfair treatment; they are the rights of individuals to receive equal treatment (and to be free from unfair treatment or discrimination) in a number of settings -- including education, employment, housing, public accommodations, and more -- and based on certain legally-protected characteristics.

Historically, the "Civil Rights Movement" referred to efforts toward achieving true equality for African Americans in all facets of society, but today the term "civil rights" is also used to describe the advancement of equality for all people regardless of race, sex, age, disability, national origin, religion, or certain other characteristics. In the United States this has included not only the African American civil rights movement, but also movements that were inspired by the civil rights movement such as the American Indian Movement and the Chicano Movement which occurred during the same time.

Civil rights are different from civil liberties. Traditionally, the concept of civil rights has revolved around the basic right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristics (race, gender, disability, etc.), while civil liberties are more broad-based rights and freedoms that are guaranteed at the federal level by the Constitution and other federal law such as fundamental rights including the right to vote, free speech, or the right to privacy.”

(thank you https://civilrights.findlaw.com/civil-rights-overview/what-are-civil-rights.html)