The American Civil Rights Movement ultimately began in 1896 after the unfair ruling of the Plessy v. Ferguson case where Louisiana's segregation laws were deemed "separate but equal." The Plessy decision "gave approval to a system of segregation" (Bond p. 6). But the real spark for the Civil Rights Movement was in 1955 when Emmett Till's body was mutilated beyond recognition after he flirted with a white shop keeper while on holiday in the South. His grandmother prepared an open coffin for him so the world could see what had happened to him through television coverage and radio.

While there is no doubt that the African American population did eventually achieve equality, I don't believe that they showed a united front in their struggle for civil rights. For example, both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were prominent leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, but neither fully supported the other's...