1950s: There are a series of legal decisions regarding equal access to educational opportunities for blacks, including the landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, which lay the groundwork for the civil rights struggles for integration that shake the nation in the 1960s. However, these legal decisions are often resisted by localities, and the process of desegregation still lags at the decade's close.

1980s: In keeping with the socially conservative tenor of the Reagan era, civil rights policies are attacked and, in some cases, reversed. The National Urban League calls the president's record on racial equality "deplorable."

Today: African Americans make up President Clinton's strongest supporters. However, affirmative action and programs of busing for school integration are under fire in state courts across the country. Many districts are phasing out busing as a method of integrating schools. Legal challenges are being brought to universities that...