Who led the Civil Rights movement in the United States?

The Civil Rights movement was led by Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Andrew Goodman, among others. These leaders came from the African-American community, and their efforts paved the way for the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Martin Luther King Jr. rose to prominence from the boycott of city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, after Rosa Parks was sent to jail for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Malcolm X was at the forefront of the black nationalism movement and inspired militant groups such as the Black Panthers. Andrew Goodman was a white civil rights worker who was killed in 1964 by the Ku Klux Klan.