Fifty years ago in the early 1960's, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining national attention. But unbeknownst to many, African Americans had been working to gain political and economic rights for almost a century. A growing sense of urgency fanned the fire, rooted in the belief that change could wait no longer.
Laws enacted in many southern state legislatures known as Jim Crow laws continued to separate the races in restaurants, schools, theaters, parks and other public facilities. Outrage over poll taxes and the lack of voting rights for blacks brought waves of college students from the north in a massive push to register black voters particularly in Mississippi. Marches, protests, and interventions by the National Guard were becoming commonplace in the South.
