US Civil Rights — Protests and Action, 1954-1965

The American civil rights movement between 1954 and 1965 combined legal challenges, mass nonviolent protest, and pressure on the federal government. Each phase built on the last, and each produced sources — photographs, speeches, government memos, newspaper reports — that you will be asked to analyze.

The legal breakthrough: Brown v. Board of Education

The movement's first great victory came through the courts. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. The decision was a moral and legal landmark, but enforcement was slow. In 1955 the Court ordered desegregation to proceed "with all deliberate speed," a vague phrase that many Sout