NBC Looks Back at Evolution of Civil Rights Movement

In honor of Black History Month, NBC News Archives is taking a look at the evolution of civil rights in America. From the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 to the Black Lives Matter movement of today, NBC News has followed history as it has unfolded. Our new collection, Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, highlights interviews with crusaders from the 1950s and 1960s and emphasizes the ongoing nature of the struggle.

In 2013, Jesse Jackson reflected on the ongoing relevance of the Civil Rights Movement. “There is an unfinished task of searching for equality,” he said. “We’ll go back to work. That’s all. I mean, it’s the struggle that’s come full circle.” This interview with Jackson is one of over a hundred firsthand accounts collected for Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, a multimedia project of Comcast NBCUniversal and the Equal Justice Initiative. Voices captures their unique perspective as eyewitnesses to both the Civil Rights Movement and its ongoing legacy, who see today’s fight for civil rights within the context of a much longer battle.