Affirmative action includes policies and laws meant to give equal footing to minorities after historic discrimination and oppression. Learn about the history of affirmative action from just after the Civil War through important milestones of the civil rights movement and on to today. Enhanced with accessible text and historical photographs, this guide explains affirmative action through its background, key players, and Supreme Court decisions. The...

The Brown v. Board of Education decision comes to mind whenever the topic of landmarks of the American civil rights movement is discussed. The 1954 Supreme Court decision declared it unconstitutional to segregate public school students, opening the door for many other civil rights advances after that. This thoughtful and informative book details the history of the case as well as its impact on the quickly changing America of the 1950s and 1960s. The...

Few national figures have been as divisive as Malcolm X. Many revered the famous civil rights leader as a voice for equality and justice, many others saw him as a violent firebrand. This page-turning biography reveals how a man born Malcolm Little, harassed by white supremacists as a boy, fell into a life of crime. He emerged from prison as a convert of the Nation of Islam with the adopted name of Malcolm X. In stark contrast to the nonviolent teachings...

In fall of 1957, nine black students approached the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, were testing a 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation illegal. Their actions led to a standoff, with the state National Guard ordered to bar the students' entry. Weeks later, federal troops sent by President Eisenhower arrived to escort them inside. Readers will find themselves...

Of all the events of the civil rights movement, the March on Washington is the most iconic. Millions of Americans can remember where they were when the television news announced that two hundred thousand people had converged on the nation's capital. Most of those Americans can still experience the thrill of hearing Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech. Even today, photographs of the event have the capacity to stir the...

In 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus to a white passenger, her decision sparked the beginning of a new era in the civil rights movement. Her arrest inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and other African American leaders to organize a bus boycott that ended only when a U.S. Supreme Court decision ended segregation on public buses. Readers will learn how events in her life brought Parks to the point where...