African Americans continued to live as second class citizens in the 1950's and
1960's, especially in the South, despite the Fourteenth Amendment and the
Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited states from denying anyone the
right to vote due to race. States passed laws directed at separating the races
and keeping blacks from the polls. During these times, African Americans
and other Americans led an organized and strong movement to fight for
racial equality. The movement often met with strong opposition, such as in
Birmingham, Alabama, where police sprayed protestors with high pressure
fire hoses.
In the early 1900's W.E.B. Du Bois established the NAACP, (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People) which fought to end
segregation, the separation of people on the basis of race. In the case of
Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck down segregation
as unconstitutional.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP......
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