Historically, the Civil Rights Movement lasted from 1954–1968. This was a movement created to achieve the liberty of African Americans. Although many individuals understand the Civil Rights Movement to be about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., however, the movement clearly had a prior history. This thesis focuses upon that early history during the period of ca. 1900–ca. 1950 and examines the elements that led to the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. During this period, as African Americans faced racial discrimination and oppression and struggled to exercise their political, social, and economic rights, the Civil Rights Movement was able to coalesce. The foundations of the Civil Rights Movement emerged through the complex interrelationships of several other twentieth-century movements and groups: Jews suffering from anti-Semitic discrimination who supported the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the Black Social Gospel Movement; the Labor Movement; advocates of Socialism and Communism; and the Peace Movement of the 1930s–1940s. Each movement shared the goal of achieving peace and equality for all African Americans. The interaction of Jews and Blacks led to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which served as the cornerstone of the early Civil Rights Movement. The ministers of the Black Social Gospel Movement promoted social and political justice and opposed racial lynching. Socialists and Communists resisted the oppression of the African-American proletariat. The International Labor Movement fought for Labor Unions and focused on eliminating capitalistic exploitation of poor African Americans while the Peace Movement condemned the brutality of Jim Crow. Collectively, these movements coalesced and paved the way for the emergence of prominent figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights legislation of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency.