Hardship Faced
Martin luther king faced many obstacles during his journey to success. The biggest obstacle was prejudice. Many white people thought of blacks as generally inferiour. They certainly did not want blacks to be seen much. Blacks were told, in no uncertain terms, to get to the back of the bus and only use rest rooms, drinking fountains, etc., marked for "colored" people. Even many of the less-prejudiced white people thought that blacks were fine as long as they kept in their place
The first big step in overcoming this system was when Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball. Until then, blacks were only allowed to play in "***** leagues", on teams with other blacks and generally against other blacks. A few teams from time to time tried to get a black player past the barrier, saying that he was American Indian or the such, but it typically didn't work well. Having a black player playing along side whites was at the least a giant symbol. The next thing was the de-segregation of the military. During World War II, blacks were drafted, but were sent to black-only units, such as the Tuskeegee Air Men. Harry Truman ended the practice of black-only units, and demanded that the U.S. armed forces accept blacks as full members (provided that they met the physical requirements for admission). Given that men were still drafted into the armed forces until 1974, this meant that a generation of young white men had a more intimate contact with blacks than had been the case previously. (Granted, many young white men managed to escape the draft somehow, so the experience wasn't universal, but it did expand contact between blacks and whites well beyond what it had been.) In 1954, the United States Supreme Court upheld a decision in the case of Brown v. Board Of Education, which supported desegregation of schools. The previous standard had come from a case called Plessy v. Furgeson, which held that separate but equal schools (and other public facilities) for blacks was acceptable. Brown v. Board Of Education said that separate schools were inherantly unequal. There were many fights in the 1950s and 1960s concerning school desegregation, but the courts kept demanding that school systems abandon segregation and start integrating black students alongside white students. Thus, the courts became a big ally of civil rights. Legislation was also passed on the federal level which supported civil rights. Previously, the pattern had been to hold that states had the right to determine such things, and that the federal government could only demand such rights when people crossed state lines. Congress disagreed, and the courts upheld Congress's interpretation that the federal government had some right to proclaim certain minimum rights to be granted to all U.S. citizens, rights which the states must uphold.
The first big step in overcoming this system was when Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball. Until then, blacks were only allowed to play in "***** leagues", on teams with other blacks and generally against other blacks. A few teams from time to time tried to get a black player past the barrier, saying that he was American Indian or the such, but it typically didn't work well. Having a black player playing along side whites was at the least a giant symbol. The next thing was the de-segregation of the military. During World War II, blacks were drafted, but were sent to black-only units, such as the Tuskeegee Air Men. Harry Truman ended the practice of black-only units, and demanded that the U.S. armed forces accept blacks as full members (provided that they met the physical requirements for admission). Given that men were still drafted into the armed forces until 1974, this meant that a generation of young white men had a more intimate contact with blacks than had been the case previously. (Granted, many young white men managed to escape the draft somehow, so the experience wasn't universal, but it did expand contact between blacks and whites well beyond what it had been.) In 1954, the United States Supreme Court upheld a decision in the case of Brown v. Board Of Education, which supported desegregation of schools. The previous standard had come from a case called Plessy v. Furgeson, which held that separate but equal schools (and other public facilities) for blacks was acceptable. Brown v. Board Of Education said that separate schools were inherantly unequal. There were many fights in the 1950s and 1960s concerning school desegregation, but the courts kept demanding that school systems abandon segregation and start integrating black students alongside white students. Thus, the courts became a big ally of civil rights. Legislation was also passed on the federal level which supported civil rights. Previously, the pattern had been to hold that states had the right to determine such things, and that the federal government could only demand such rights when people crossed state lines. Congress disagreed, and the courts upheld Congress's interpretation that the federal government had some right to proclaim certain minimum rights to be granted to all U.S. citizens, rights which the states must uphold.