On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of a bus to a white man. It was this simple act of defiance that, without a doubt, began the civil rights movement that lasted from 1955 through the 1960s and forever altered the face of our nation. After Rosa Parks was arrested for her simple refusal, African Americans in Montgomery began boycotting the bus system, one of the first major stands against racism in the 1950s. In the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education segregation case that ruled in favor of school integration, this boycott, which proved successful after the removal of segregated seats, effectively began the civil rights movement that now we know so well. The civil rights movement in America aimed to gain civil liberties and rights that were guaranteed by law but denied to them in society. Although the movement lasted from about 1954 to 1968, it was not until the 1960s that other minorities such as American Indians and women began to join the fight. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was perhaps the most important domestic social movement of the twentieth century. At the very least, it was the most important social conflict to grip America since the Civil War. At the end of World War II, African American soldiers returned home from the war to find themselves disillusioned with how they were treated in their country. In Europe they came face to face with how blacks were treated outside the United States and found that they enjoyed greater equality abroad than in their home country. Realizing that other countries were so much more advanced in their civil rights movements he gave these African American countries… half a paper… the law and discrimination based on race were deemed unconstitutional. Works Cited"Civil Rights Movement - Ohio History Central - A product of the Ohio Historical Society." Ohio History Central - An online encyclopedia of Ohio history - Ohio Historical Society. Ohio History Central. March 11, 2009 "The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s - FamilyEducation.com." School resources and educational help by grade and subject for parents - FamilyEducation.com. FamilyEducation.Com. March 12, 2009 "Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement - Timeline." Veterans of the civil rights movement - CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC. Veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement. March 11. 2009 .