In general, after you finish reading and studying this chapter, you should understand the following:

• slavery, abolition, and the efforts of abolitionists, African-Americans, and women to gain the vote and expand civil rights
• the push for equality by women and African-Americans from 1885 to 1954
• Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
• the civil rights movement
• its techniques, strategies, and leaders
• the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• the development of a new women's rights movement
• the push for an equal rights amendment
• efforts of other groups to expand the definition of civil rights further such as Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Gays and Lesbians, and Disabled Americans
• the reasons for affirmative action, what the policies entail, and whether it continues to be relevant today

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