The civil rights movement is a long history of struggle and empowerment, beginning with the push for abolition of slavery in the mid 19th century and culminating in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, African-Americans and other minority groups such as Asian Americans, Native Americans, and LGBTQ+ individuals fought for the right to equal protection under the law, freedom from discrimination, and protection of civil rights. From the Civil War to the Montgomery bus boycott to the March on Washington to the Voting Rights Act, activist leaders, legislators, and everyday citizens pushed for progress for all citizens, regardless of race or gender. The civil rights movement grew out of the long tradition of resistance to forms of oppression, including Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era, and continues to this day with efforts to combat systemic racism, police brutality, and other forms of discrimination.