The period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of WWI was marked by conflicting sentiments and actions. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments had freed African American slaves, granted them citizenship, and extended the right to vote, but Jim Crow laws and the number of lynchings exemplified the resentment, hostility, and racism that yet existed toward blacks. Despite their service in WWI, blacks found racism entrenched in the U.S. African Americans sought new avenues to express their views and showed an increasing sense of unity. Black nationalism took several forms, ranging from Washington's self-help approach to the cultural and political unity touted by W.E.B. DuBois and Pan Africanists to Marcus Garvey's back to Africa movement.

Labor organizer and social reformer, Asa Philip Randolph, founder of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in the 1930s, dedicated his life to social reform believing this the best method to obtaining racial equality. But protest in the South did not disappear, even within the confines of segregated society. Many brave men and women refused to accept second-class citizenship. These people dedicated their lives to fighting segregation and ushered in a new era of protest efforts across the country laying the architecture for the modern civil rights movement.

As African Americans began to organize, several controversial scandals drew whites' attention. The trial of the Scottsboro Nine, African American boys between the ages of 12 and 19 falsely accused of raping two white girls, lasted many years and was featured in the national press. The murder of Emmitt Till, a Chicago youth visiting relatives in Mississippi, also prompted national outrage at racially motivated violence. Prominent white figures joined the fight against racism. Eleanor Roosevelt openly supported civil rights reform, serving as a board member of the NAACP and integrating White House functions.

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