The hardships of the Great Depression that began in 1929 disproportionately affected African Americans. In response, groups picketed white-owned stores in African American communities, using the slogan "Don't buy where you can't work"-a mantra that was also widely used in the movement of the 1960s. Education and voter registration became important elements of early civil rights efforts. In 1930 the NAACP began planning an attack on segregation in public schools.

World War II changed the outlook of many African Americans. At home, the war created tremendous employment opportunities for African Americans in defense industries partly in response to Randolph's challenge to the President, although most were still low-paid, unskilled positions. Abroad, African American service men encountered a racial toleration and openness in European countries, France in particular, that was far different from the discrimination they experienced in the U.S. Military service at the time was segregated, with blacks serving in all-black units. African American soldiers had little chance of promotion, were often assigned manual labor, and were denied admission to the Air Force and the Marines, branches of the military considered to be elite. The threat led President Franklin Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 calling for fair employment practices in the defense industry and the federal government. Still, African American veterans continued to be mistreated; a series of incidents in which black vets were assaulted while in uniform incensed the African American community and the nation at large. In 1948 President Truman desegregated the military through Executive Order 9981.

In the postwar period the organizations and strategies of the civil rights movement began to take shape in earnest. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was established in 1942 to apply nonviolent direct action to the nation's racial problems. Over the next years, James Farmer and Bayard Rustin pioneered sit-ins, freedom rides, and the marches that became hallmarks of the 1960s protest.

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Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
James Farmer
Bayard Rustin
Congress on Racial Equality
Mary McLeod Bethune