For centuries, African Americans have faced discrimination; a blatant imbalance of equality drastic enough to catapult our country into the Civil War. One way African Americans were denied equality was the degrading segregation at lunch counters and in restaurants. For example, blacks and whites sat separate from each other in restaurants. There was a section for blacks and a different section for whites. When there were no more tables left for whites to eat at, blacks would have to give up their table to the white person. Also only whites were allowed to eat at the lunch counters. .
One method used to deal with this inequality was sit-ins, a form of protest where African American citizens sit and refuse to leave. For example, from the Greensboro area, there were many people who wanted to help through peaceful protest and civil disobedience by participating in the sit-ins. It got to the point where they had shifts, and where all the restaurant seats were taken which then excluded whites. This all relates to what Martin Luther King Jr. said in his "I Have A Dream" speech. When he says "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character", he means that he wants his children to not be judged by their race but by how they really are inside and how they can contribute to society productively. This is important because the African Americans wanted the restaurant owners to see that even though they are of a different race, they are still valuable, paying customers. [Document 3].
Another way African Americans have been denied equality is segregation in public schools. African Americans and whites were forced to attend separate schools regardless of their location. For example, the Brown Family requested that their daughter attend a white school that was closer to their home and safer to get to.