African Americans involvement both abroad and on the home front gave them a better sense of the world and their place in the world

after WWII, African Americans population dramatically increases within urban settings

leaders of the civil rights movement emerge out of the urban black communities

urban African Americans had better accessibility to education and organize within independent institutions

activities, such as demonstrations, were publicized thru television to a national audience

activism within one community would spark activism within another community

Racial injustice was an embarrassment to the “model” country

Political mobilization of African Americans within the northern, urban settings had a major influence on the voting bloc for Democratic Party

NAACP- formed in 1910Used judicial system to attack Jim Crow lawsThurgood Marshall was the lead attorney Brown vs. Board of Education 1954Overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson in an unanimous

decisionChief Justice Earl Warren, “ We conclude that in

the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Brown II (one year later) issued guidelines for implementing the decision- “with all deliberate speed”

Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the “colored”

section of the bus Civil Rights Act of 1957Eisenhower signed to provide federal

protection of blacks who wished to register to vote ( very weak bill with little enforcement; however, was the first civil rights bill since reconstruction)