U.S. History Collection
You Decide: Were the 1920s the “Roaring ’20s”?

The Rise of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Organizations

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Did the 1920s hinder or expand Americans’ civil rights and civil liberties?

An annual meeting of the NAACP in Cleveland, Ohio.

A black and white photo shows a large group of mostly Black and some white men and women posing in front of a city building. A sign over them reads "Welcome NAACP Headquarters June 26 July 2."

For many Americans, the 1920s were a time of increased civil rights and civil liberties. In 1920, after a decades-long struggle, women won the right to vote through the passage of the 19th Amendment. In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

New organizations worked diligently in the 1920s to promote and protect civil liberties. Building on the response to anti-war dissent during World War I, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) formed in 1920 with the mission “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” The Anti-Defamation League and the National Catholic Welfare Council fought against laws that discriminated against Jews and Catholics in colleges and places of work, citing the importance of “personal liberty.” And finally, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) continued to fight against racialized violence and housing discrimination and to secure voting rights, desegregation of public spaces, and an integrated society.

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