In 1896, Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court defined separate but equal standards. Rarely was anything equal though. Segregation went on until the landmark case, Brown vs. Board of Education, declared that separate schools based on race was unconstitutional (Microsoft). This case "_became the cornerstone of sweeping changes (Chalmers 17)" because the decade following the Brown decision "_witnessed a complex interplay of forces between black citizens striving to exercise their constitutional rights, the increasing resistance of southern whites, and the equivocal response of the federal government (Robinson 2).".
From 1955 to 1965, boycotts, sit-ins, demonstrations, marches, and community organizing raised black people's spirits and expectations, and greatly hurt legal segregation. The weeks that followed the Greensboro sit-in more sit-ins occurred throughout the country. Thousands had taken place by the end of 1960 and many people had often gone to jail for it (Chalmers 21). The Kennedy Era, 1960 - 1963, saw many important events. In 1961, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African-Americans admitted into Wayne State University (Adams 6). The March on Washington, August 28, 1963, was a huge gathering of two hundred thousand people who gathered at the nations capital to show their support for civil rights for blacks and hear Martin Luther King, Jr., speak. It was here that King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It was the March on Washington that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964(Microsoft). The Kennedy Era came to an abrupt halt with the result of his assassination on November 22, 1963 (Chalmers 25).
With the death of Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson took over the presidency and then was reelected in the next election of 1964(Chalmers 25). Johnson won the '64 election by a landslide. His plan was to extend black suffrage and pass the Civil Rights Act in memory of Kennedy (Chalmers 43).
