Throughout the 1950s African Americans in northern cities grew increasingly active in opposing discrimination and in protesting white resistance to black progress in housing, education, and employment. Martin Luther King and others embarked on a campaign of nonviolent resistance and demonstrations, which spread to the south. Some of the leadership in the Deep South responded with brutal force, taking a militant stand against change, and in defiance of federal legislation to grant African Americans their civil rights.

Responses Coming from the Civil Rights Movement | American Experience | Official Site | PBS

QUESTION:  Identify and list some of the factors that contributed to the success of the Civil Rights movement. Choose one, and discuss its significance to the movement, and explain why you made this particular choice. (respond in two paragraphs)