2009 Reports

African Americans and First Amendment Rights (Free Speech and Religion)

McGregor, Michael; Smith, Raymond Arthur

This issue brief sets out to outline the African American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and 1960's and how it utilized the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion allowed the movement to garner national attention and serve as a catalyst for progressive policy implementation. This brief also examines how the aspect of religion in the form of participation and alignment with the "Black Church" not only created powerful leaders that were necessary for such a movement but also served as a vehicle through which and a network upon which a social movement as the Civil Rights Movement could occur.