How did the civil rights movement decline after 1968 and why?

Question: How did the civil rights movement decline after 1968 and why!?
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I am not certain that declined is precisely the right word here!. It certainly changed, but your choice of a date would suggest that you consider Martin Luther King's death, and perhaps Richard Nixon's assumption of power as watersheds greater than they perhaps were!.

Certainly there was a leadership void created by Martin Luther King's assassination!. He had a charisma that was not subsequently replicated by any of his successors!. And, coincidentally, Lyndon Johnson's fall from power took some of the momentum out of the "Great Society" programs that held considerable promise to further a civil rights agenda by placing federal resources behind it!.

Still, I think Johnson's elevation of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court had a very lasting effect beyond Johnson's tenure!. It was unfortunate, at least for the civil rights movement, that Johnson felt obliged to ask Justice Goldberg to step down in favor of his failed nomination of Abe Fortas as Chief Justice--Johnson having reasoned, and I think incorrectly, that the Court did not need two Jewish Justices at the time!. Still, I don't think many would say that Chief Justice Burger who succeeded to office when Fortas resigned was an enemy of civil rights!. By Republican standards he was quite the moderate, middle of the roader sort really!.

Still, I think really your date for a high point in the civil rights movement should be more accurately fixed in 1964 or 1965 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act!. That, among other things, put teeth in the Court's Brown v!. Board of Education ruling a decade earlier!. Although the Court's historic ruling in that case has been much heralded over the years, the Court's lack of enforcement power meant that it really did not accomplish much!. However, when the Executive and Legislative Branches came on board with the Civil Rights Act, a great deal changed!. Schools actually began to desegregate in earnest!. Housing discrimination began to be challenged, and so on!.

Of course, as was the case with the women's suffrage movement, so very powerful earlier in the century, once some of the movement's major goals were realized it quite understandably took some of the wind out of the movement's sails!. After all, where is the Women's Suffrage Party today!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

One of the most influential black leaders of the movement, Dr!. King, was murdered in Mephis, Tenn!. in 1968

One of the most influential white leaders, Robert F!. (Bobby) Kennedy was murdered in Los Angeles, Calif!. in 1968!.

The loss of these two leaders, and the riots and arson that followed their deaths set the movement back, as the ignorant haters all said, "See!? You can't trust them blacks b@st@rds!"Www@QuestionHome@Com