ABSTRACT
T he civil rights campaign of the 1950s and 1960s stands as one of the most remarkable liberation movements of modern times. Reflecting a new assertiveness among racial and other marginalized minorities in the post-World War II United States, the civil rights crusade brought the quasi-feudal American South into the liberal-capitalist American mainstream. It did so through the combination of court litigation, federal lobbying, nonviolent direct action in communities throughout the South, brilliant leadership, courageous grass-roots activism, and an American populace finally awakened to the grotesque nature of Jim Crow.
