The Civil Rights Movement in the United States had its political, legal, and social struggle to gain full citizenship rights for black Americans and to achieve racial equality. The reconstruction after the civil war provided some economical and political opportunities but equality was not one of them. The civil rights movement was first a challenge to segregation, the system of laws and customs separating blacks and whites that whites used to control blacks after slavery was abolished in the 1860s. During the civil rights movement, individuals and civil rights organizations challenged segregation and discrimination with a variety of activities, including protest marches, boycotts, and refusal to abide by segregation laws. Some believe that the movement began with the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1965; there is a debate among many whether the movement has ended at all. .
A landmark court case in 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously declared that it was unconstitutional to create separate schools for children on the basis of race. Most civil rights leaders would agree that the Brown ruling ranks as one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. At the time of the decision, 17 southern states and the District of Columbia required that all public schools be racially segregated. A few northern and western states, including Kansas, left the issue of segregation up to individual school districts. While most schools in Kansas were integrated in 1954, those in Topeka were not. The Deep South clinging to its roots of slavery and its agreement that states have the right to govern themselves and to have the right to uphold any federal measure has not changed since slavery was bought to this continent.
There were many Southern individuals that accepted the Brown ruling and were in favor of it.