After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

5.1 Analyze the challenges associated with defining how strongly a government should act to help secure civil rights

5.2 Trace the struggles to secure civil rights for people with disabilities, African Americans, and women

5.3 Explain the dangers associated with the NAACP’s decision to use the courts to make social change

5.4 Evaluate the role of all three branches of the federal government in changing policy on the ground to desegregate America’s public schools

5.5 Contrast the tactics employed by individuals working to secure civil rights in the area of racial equality to the tactics of those acting to secure gender and sexual equality

5.6 Evaluate the ways the diversity of Americans’ identities shapes efforts to secure civil rights in the twenty-first century