What you’ll learn to do: discuss key events from the civil rights movement during the 1950s

Figure 1. Monroe Elementary School,, the main focus of Brown v. Board of Education.

African Americans had been fighting against a variety of racist policies, cultures, and beliefs in all aspects of American life. While the struggle for Black inclusion had faced many setbacks in the prewar period, the Double V campaign for victory, waged against “fascism abroad and racism at home,” as well as the national postwar economic boom, led to rising expectations for many African Americans. When persistent racism and racial segregation undercut the promise of economic and social mobility, African Americans began mobilizing on an unprecedented scale against the various discriminatory social and legal structures.

While many of the civil rights movement’s most memorable and important moments, such as the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and especially the March on Washington, occurred in the 1960s, the 1950s were also a significant decade in the sometimes tragic, sometimes triumphant march of civil rights in the United States.