civil rights: Meaning and Definition of

civ'il rights'

Pronunciation: [key]
— (often caps.)
  1. rights to personal liberty established by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and certain Congressional acts, esp. as applied to an individual or a minority group.
  2. the rights to full legal, social, and economic equality extended to blacks.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.