Separate But Equal Segregation And The Civil Rights Movement

Following the end of slavery and reconstruction, African Americans struggled to obtain civil rights. “Separate but equal” segregation was legalized with the court case Plessy v. Ferguson, and everything from schools to bathrooms was segregated. The difference in discrimination between the United States and Europe was noticed by Black soldiers serving abroad in World War II, leading to the Double V campaign for Civil Rights and the desegregation of the military. Segregation was eventually ended in schools as well, with the case Brown v. Board of Education, but African Americans still had to fight to end other types of segregation. From 1955 to 1960, the Civil Rights movement changed due to different perspectives and the goals of fighting different forms of segregation. Activists
This led to Martin Luther King’s idea that civil disobedience was the best tactic for fighting de Jure segregation. African Americans continued practicing civil disobedience all over the country, from the sit-ins of black students at white restaurants in Greensboro to the “freedom riders,” Civil Rights activists that traveled across the South to protest segregation in public transportation. Protesting continued with Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights demonstrations in Birmingham and the marching of Civil Rights activists in Washington, D.C. All of these protests succeeded in causing President Kennedy to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, effectively ending de Jure segregation in the United States. The Freedom Summer program that was created to help African Americans register to vote was also a success, leading to the passage of The Voting Rights Act of 1965. These acts put an end to legal segregation and voting restrictions. However, as African Americans still faced racism in society, the goals of the movement