The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1870 to protect the suffrage of freedom after the Civil War. It prevented any state from denying the right to vote to any citizen on account of his race. From 1890 to 1908, Southern Democratic legislators created new constitutions with provisions for voter registration that completed disfranchisement of most African Americans and many poor whites. They created a variety of barriers, including requirements for poll taxes, residency requirements, rule variations, literacy and understanding tests.

Brown vs. Board of education was a decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case in 1896 was something that Warren Court unanimously stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Cause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. These were many things that pushed forth integration and the civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King, Jr.  was an American leader in the African American civil rights movement. . His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States. He was a Baptist minister,  and became a civil rights activist early in his career. Many people inspired him, such as Booker T Washington, and Gandhi.  He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. His efforts led to the March on Washington in 1963, where he delivered his "I have a dream" speech. He raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest leaders in U.S. history. In 1964, he became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through non-violent  means.

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, a 40 year old black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. "...the only tired I was, was tired of giving in," she said. She was also part of an organization, called the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.) The NAACP played a huge role in trying to stop segregation. The NAACP was looking for someone that would stand up to the court system in a test case. Before Rosa Parks was chosen for the test case, there were two women before her that were arrested for not giving up their seats, and the NAACP tried to use them for a test case as well. Neither of these women proved to be suitable candidates for the test case that would end segregation. The day Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, the NAACP knew that she was the perfect test case. The Montgomery bus boycott ended on December 20, 1956, the day the city of Montgomery received a court order mandating integration of the buses.