Usually when people refer to the Civil Rights Movement, we think of the years from 1954 - 1965, but "the Movement" has almost been around for as long as America itself. In 1688, and sixty-nine years after the first black slaves arrived in America, The German Mennonite Resolution against slavery became the first formal protest of its kind. The "Resolution" opened the door for other anti-slavery groups but more importantly it made America and future Americans more conscious of the cause and its connection to freedom.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness...." These words from the Declaration of Independence are supposed to mean freedom for those who live in America and pay tribute to its flag, but, ironically, when it was ratified it did not include blacks. Although there were many who were against slavery, they were unable to rid blacks of their slave status. This was due to the fact that most of the southern states, in particularly South Carolina and Georgia, were pro-slavery and most of the northern states, and their delegates, worried about the economic consequences, since most of their ports profited from slave ships.

However, in an effort to bring attention to the slavery issue, Thomas Jefferson drafted a clause against the use of the slave trade that he hoped would become part of the Declaration of Independence. It did not. Although Jefferson's clause was omitted, it again helped to heighten the awareness of slavery, and even affected other notable personalities of the time, such as George Washington who, in his last will and testament, freed the slaves that were under his charge, and Benjamin Franklin who, in 1789 and while president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, addressed the public in an attempt to discourage slavery and support the emancipation of black people.

By the turn of the century, anti-slavery societies and abolitionists were a regular part of the American culture. More whites were becoming sympathetic to the plights of blacks and were willing to actively participate on their behalf but, because of this, America was becoming a nation divided. In 1820, John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary:

It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle.... The bargain between freedom and slavery contained in then Constitution of the United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent with the principals upon which alone our revolution can be justified; cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of slavery, by pledging the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the master; and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that slaves are at once the enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured or restored to their owners, and persons not to be represented themselves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly a double share of representation. The consequence has been that the slave representation has governed the Union.... If the Union must be dissolved, slavery is precisely the question upon which it ought to break.