Civil Rights USA Help

[mustafa.manzoor]

Could someone please explain how this statement is true:
- Where the civil rights may have been successful in challenging racist laws and customs, it appears to have had less success in challenging racist elements of American culture.

Thank you in advance

[Tierney_P]

Could someone please explain how this statement is true:
- Where the civil rights may have been successful in challenging racist laws and customs, it appears to have had less success in challenging racist elements of American culture.

Thank you in advance

Hey
I'm not really the ultimate authority on this as you can probably guess! I would say that the civil rights movement was very successful politically, because so much legislature arose out of it - Civil Rights Act 1957, Civil Rights Act 1964, Fair Housing Act 1968, etc. etc.
As for racist elements of American culture, I would simply reference social change. While living standards for African-Americans have improved, certain things still stand out - e.g. higher infant mortality rates, disproportionate prison population. This is where the movement was less successful, because as Eisenhower said (I think) "Law cannot change the heart of man". These show that there is still some stigma attached to African-Americans in today's US society; evident particularly in the murder of George Floyd earlier this year.

Hope that helps!!