The Civil Rights Movement gained attention in the 1950s and the 1960s. African-American were tired of being treated differently than whites. Since the end of the Civil War, they had endured discrimination, harassment, and lynching. Opportunities presented themselves in the 1950s to bring about changes.
When the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Board of Education that separate but equal schools were illegal, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People began to file lawsuits to desegregate schools. When Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was established. The black people of Montgomery refused to ride the buses for 381 days until segregation on buses was ruled to be illegal. The success of these actions led to more actions of nonviolent protests. When white people responded with violent actions toward the nonviolent protesters, as with attempts to protest restaurant segregation and to protest the lack of voting rights, the whole country was able to see what African-Americans were facing. This led to calls for action at the federal level to end segregation and to end the restricting of voting rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 accomplished these goals.
Thus, African-Americans being willing to protest and the violent response by some whites were some factors that led to actions that brought about significant changes in the area of Civil Rights in the 1950s and the 1960s.
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