In 1961, as civil rights was gaining steam in the United States as a movement and had been recognized and endorsed by the US legal system and President Kennedy, the year of African independence also took place. 17 separate African nations threw off their colonial masters in a single year. This contributed to African-Americans sense of identity and equality - the idea that their continent of origin was not merely belonging to some other country as a subservient colony, but that Africa itself was independent, with a culture and then a nationhood that had acquired the right to stand equally with the other nations on Earth.
The gains made by civil rights activists in the United States started us down the path towards other equalities, not the least of which was the election of an African-American President. Without the civil rights movement being successful in the United States, it is highly unlikely that either our population or our government would have been so active in pressuring South Africa to end Apartheid in the 1980s and early 90s. It was the generation in America after civil rights, both black and white, that was part of the anti-apartheid cause in the US at that point.
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