A movement to end decades of mistreatment of African Americans took hold during this era.

The Supreme Court found that segregated classrooms denied children like Linda Brown an equal education.The decision said:"In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity... must be made available to all on equal terms.

Segregation was widespread in the United States.

Elizabeth Eckford tries to enter Central High School on her first day of classes, but all white persons still looking her.

In 1999 Eckford received the nation's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist as early as the 1940s. It was her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, however, that began an era of real change for African Americans.

In the 1950s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., became a leader of the civil rights movement.

The police use a high-pressure cannon in civil rights marchers.

The NAACP had worked since its founding in 1909 to improve African Americans' rights.

Public education was only one front in the growing civil rights movement. African Americans were also working to gain fair treatment outside of the schools.