The civil rights movement started decades before the 60 's. It had been nearly 100 years after the emancipation proclamation and African Americans living southern states were still inhibited in a world of segregation and oppression under Jim Crow laws.
It wasn 't until 1954 in the case of brown v the board of education that the Supreme Court unanimously decided to end federal tolerance of racial segregation, declaring that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" stopping state sponsored segregation. This win for brown is a pivotal point not only for the civil rights movement but also in African American history.
Because of the effect of the brown v board of education court ruling many civil rights activists began to
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The Birmingham campaign in 1963 was of mass importance to the civil rights movement. It was lead by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the campaign itself was lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverends James Bevel and Fred Shuttlesworth, among others. They protested with sit ins, marches and boycotts at what was known as the most racist state in America to try and change the segregation laws. During the Birmingham campaign Martin Luther king disobeyed protesting laws and was arrested along with hundreds of other civil rights activists. The next day the head of the Birmingham police force gave orders that it was okay to use force against the protesters and the images of children being sprayed with firehouses and beaten appeared on televisions and in newspapers all over the world and gained national attention and after successfully negotiating a compromise with the attorney general the protests were called off on the 8th May 1961 making it one of he most important and successful campaigns of the civil rights era. This wasn 't completely successful though as a number of bombings took place against African Americans by the kkk including one at a motel where Martin Luther king was staying and one on a church that killed 4 African