Changes

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]], a liberal Republican, issued [[Brown vs. Board of education]] in 1954, declaring legal segregation to be unconstitutional. It marked the culmination of a judicial movement that had been underway for a decade. It had the short-term effect of ending segregated schools in border states, and the long-term effect of ending legalized segregation in schools.   

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]], a liberal Republican, issued [[Brown vs. Board of education]] in 1954, declaring legal segregation to be unconstitutional. It marked the culmination of a judicial movement that had been underway for a decade. It had the short-term effect of ending segregated schools in border states, and the long-term effect of ending legalized segregation in schools.   

Presidents [[Dwight Eisenhower]] and [[John F. Kennedy]] to a small degree, and and [[Lyndon Johnson]] to a major degree became proactive in the Civil Rights movement. Johnson in particular built a coalition that included white churches, Jews, and labor unions, as well as many Republicans such as [[Everett Dirksen]], to build a majority of the northern leadership in favor of action.  The white South filibustered but failed stop passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended Jim Crow, and the [[Voting Rights Act]] of  1965, which guaranteed federal oversight of voting rights.

Presidents [[Dwight Eisenhower]] and [[John F. Kennedy]] to a lesser degree, and [[Lyndon Johnson]] to a major degree became proactive in the Civil Rights movement. Johnson in particular built a coalition that included white churches, Jews, and labor unions, as well as many Republicans such as [[Everett Dirksen]], to build a majority of the northern leadership in favor of action.  The white South filibustered but failed stop passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended Jim Crow, and the [[Voting Rights Act]] of  1965, which guaranteed federal oversight of voting rights.

 

In 1957, Governor [[Orville Faubus]] of Arkansas mobilized the state National Guard to prevent a court ordered desegregation of Little Rock public schools. When the federal court issued an injunction Eisenhower intervened decisively, taking control of the National Guard and send in Army combat troops. He enforced the desegregation of schools. In the late 1960s several southern states expressed forceful opposition to what was considered Federal tyranny; some redesigned their state flags to include the old Confederate banner. In 1962, the prospect of a black student being admitted to the [[University of Mississippi]] resulted in campus riots suppressed by Federal troops and a national guard now brought under Federal control.

==Black leaders==

==Black leaders==

Black leaders claimed that their own efforts were more important in causing change, emphasizing activities like bus boycotts, lunch-counter sit-ins. A black Baptist minister from Atlanta [[Martin Luther King]] led the new movement. Painstaking work by labor unions, civil rights groups, and mainstream churches, aided by popular outrage at the violent techniques used by police in some southern cities fueled a national consensus that segregated and second class status had to end. Some of the organizations that spearheaded the movement were the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC), the [[Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC, or 'Snick'), the [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE), and the older [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP). All were committed to non-violence and Gandhian [[Civil Disobedience]] in the early years, a tactic that was politically essential in order to win public support and to avoid alienating northern voters.  

Black leaders claimed that their own efforts were more important in causing change, emphasizing activities like bus boycotts, lunch-counter sit-ins. A black Baptist minister from Atlanta [[Martin Luther King]] led the new movement. Painstaking work by labor unions, civil rights groups, and mainstream churches, aided by popular outrage at the violent techniques used by police in some southern cities fueled a national consensus that segregated and second class status had to end. Some of the organizations that spearheaded the movement were the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC), the [[Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC, or 'Snick'), the [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE), and the older [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP). All were committed to non-violence and Gandhian [[Civil Disobedience]] in the early years, a tactic that was politically essential in order to win public support and to avoid alienating northern voters.