ed. Signs that read, “whites only, no coloreds” were all too commonplace on the doors of stores and restaurants throughout the southern states. Blacks and whites went to different schools where black children would have classes in shabby classrooms with poor, secondhand supplies. These are just a few examples of some of the many racial discriminations which blacks once had to face in America prior to the 1960s. Change, however, was on the horizon. The urbanization of the South, the impact of television and radio, the desegregated armed forces, and other factors began to blur the distinctions between geographic regions. This all set the stage for the decade of revolution for Blacks in America. Blacks made more gains during the 1960s than they did in all the decades combined since the Civil War. It was kicked off on May 17, l954, which was the day the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. In many ways this triggered an awakening amongst Blacks that they could protest against injustice and achieve results. The legislation passed in the 1960's included the overturn of the hated Plessy v. Ferguson case, and laws outlining the complete integration of blacks with the rest of society with laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Leaders of the civil rights movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's were not as involved, motivated, or as organized as the leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960's. While Booker T. Washington was successful in helping blacks catapult themselves into contention with whites economically, he lacked the desire to lead blacks to social equality. W.E.B. Du Bois did attempt to lead blacks into social equality, but he lacked adequate support from the black majority. Civil rights leaders of the 1960's, such as Martin Luther King Jr., gathered large numbers of supporters during speeches, encouraging active participation in protests fo...
