ABSTRACT
Patterns of discrimination and segregation that lasted, in the United States, for three-quarters of a century after the abolition of slavery were as severe as anywhere in the world: yet they began to break up in the 1940s. This change is useful, therefore, for an analysis of the causes of change in prejudice and discrimination. These patterns of discrimination and segregation have become the target of a powerful movement, involving a larger share of Negroes than were ever before participants in active protests, a substantial number of whites, and more recently Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, American Indians, and others. The movement has evolved through several stages, with different strategies, different participants, and different kinds of conflict. Although there has been overlap and accumulation of strategies, rather than sharply divided periods, we might call 1944-54 the 'constitutional stage', marked at the beginning by the Supreme Court ruling against white primaries and at the end by the Court ruling against de jure school segregation. 1
