Decades since the passage of landmark civil rights legislation and the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation, many believe that civil rights remains the great unfinished business of the nation. While the early civil rights movement benefitted from a moral consensus uniting its proponents around the goal of extending liberty to segments of American society oppressed over an extended period of time, there is no consensus today regarding either the goals or the means of a civil rights movement for the 21st century. Practically, as well as politically, then, the civil rights landscape has arguably become more complicated today than it was at its inception.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights invites you to join in a national conversation on these pressing issues by participating in its one-day national conference entitled, A New Era: Defining Civil Rights in the 21st Century. The event will be a convening of prominent scholars, academics, public intellectuals, civil rights practitioners, and members of the general public with the hope of spurring a fresh dialogue regarding how we characterize and address the plight of disadvantaged Americans, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color.