The United States has moved toward greater liberty and equality since the end of the Civil War. After that war, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, ending slavery, granting citizenship to everyone born in the United States, and allowing all men to vote, respectively. The right to vote and the right to full citizenship was abridged for many Americans, however. In the South, Jim Crow laws created a segregated society and denied African Americans the right to vote. Asians, Latinos, and others were often treated as second-class citizens, and during World War II, Japanese-Americans on the west coast were forcibly removed to relocation centers—an unconstitutional abridgment of their rights as citizens. After these setbacks, the Civil Rights movement after World War II resulted in greater freedoms for African Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Women, initially given the right to vote with the 19th Amendment in 1920, saw their roles expand during the Women's Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Gay Rights Movement of the 1960s and beyond resulted in eventual gains for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and other people, including the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. Many argue, however, that we are still not a completely free and equal society, as straight white men hold the majority of positions of power in government, business, and other realms. However, the general movement has been towards a freer and more equal society.
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