We began by reviewing some civil liberties and rights that have at times in U.S. history been denied to certain groups of people. We discussed the definition of civil rights and race and civil rights. Although there have been improvements in civil rights in the U.S. since 1963, there are huge disparities that remain between blacks and whites in America. For example: black-white, unemployment and housing ratios remain quite unbalanced in contemporary American society. The political position in which African Americans found themselves until the 1960s made it difficult for them to advance their interests through legislative strategy. We discussed the Civil Rights Amendments - the 13th ammendment abolished slavery, the 14th recognized African Americans as full citizens with equal protection under the laws and the 15th gave African American men the right to vote. In the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, racial segregation was legalized in the U.S. This law stayed in effect until 1954 with the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. the Board of Education. With this decision, the Supreme ruled that racial segregation was finally illegal.