The Civil Rights Movement

In 1875, the U.S. Congress passed a Civil Rights Act, prohibiting racial segregation at "inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement." The Supreme Court struck it down, ruling that private businesses could do as they please. In fact, in 1896, the Court said that states could segregate, too, so long as their separate facilities were "equal."

It wasn't until May 1954 that the Court finally ate crow--Jim Crow. In the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision, all nine justices declared that segregated schools are "inherently unequal." Here's a look back at the civil rights fight that changed America, from the drive to desegregate the armed forces in 1948 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., 20 years later.

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