On August 28, 1963, about 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, to listen as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his now famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Even though most of the activities around the civil rights movement took place in the South, for many Americans this event made the civil rights movement and its goals a very real possibility.

The civil rights movement spanned more than a decade during the fifties and sixties, with President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act in 1968. During this period, African American families saw how important the movement was in bringing positive change for them and their children, and many became involved in the fight for civil rights and equality.

Here are a few examples of how African American families joined together to make a difference in America's history:

• At the end of a long working day in December 1955, a seamstress in Montgomery, AL, named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat near the front of a bus to a white man. This event caused a series of bus boycotts which lasted a year. Dr. King was one of the leaders of the boycotts, and although he was threatened with a fine or a jail term, the boycott continued and people refused to ride the buses, costing the bus company 65 percent of its income that year. Finally, the Supreme Court decided that bus segregation violated the Constitution and was illegal.

• Equal education was not always available to all Americans. When Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas was to begin school desegregation in September 1957, students were prevented from entering the school. On September 23, a group of nine students returned to Central High School and were kept out again by local white residents. Finally, President Eisenhower ordered 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 national guardsmen to Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High School was desegregated.

• To gain the same freedom as other Americans to go wherever they wanted, African American men and women organized peaceful "sit-ins" at lunch counters and "kneel-ins" on church steps where they were not allowed to enter. Eventually, laws were passed to desegregate all public places.

Although many people-including white Americans who wanted to help Dr. King and the movement-were mistreated, imprisoned, and even killed, Dr. King's principle of solving problems by nonviolence continued. People honored these nonviolent principles during their fight for civil rights even after Dr. King was shot and killed. Their efforts finally began to pay off with the passing of important laws that gave African Americans access to a better quality of life:

• On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination in employment, public education, and public accommodations.

• Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for southern African Americans to register to vote. Literacy tests and other such requirements that often kept African Americans from voting also became illegal.

• President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, banning discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

• In 1986, the Supreme Court, in Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upheld busing as a valid means for achieving integration of public schools.

These were challenging times in America's history. But African Americans and others remained focused on the goal of equal rights for all Americans. Because of Dr. King and the civil rights movement, the Nation is a better place today for all people.

• Girlpower: Spotlight on Mrs. Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement