What is one similarity among the ways minority groups, such as hispanics, american indians, gays, lesbians, the elderly, and asian-americans gained their civil rights? they used the tactics of the civil rights movement to seek their own rights and protection in the 1960s and '70s. they gained equal rights and opportunities in the decades before the civil rights movement. the united states supreme court declared them ineligible to sue the federal government. they were active with african americans in the civil rights movement of the 1950s.