21.2 The Triumphs of a Crusade

James Meredith won a case that enabled him to enroll into the University of Mississippi. However, when he arrived at the school he was denied the right to register as a student on the campus by Governor Ross Barnett.

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King arrived in Birmingham, Alabama to hold a meeting in which the African-American community participated. He planned the Birmingham campaign to gain attention to the cruelty that African- Americans were enduring.

President Kennedy delivered a speech demanding Congress for a civil rights bill to be passed. He also had Governor George Wallace honor a court order of desegregating the University of Alabama.

Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the march. He wanted to put an end to all the racism in the nation.

President Lydon B. Johnson continued on with Kennedy's work. He signed the Civil Rights Act which didn't allow discrimination against any person no matter their ethnicity, religion, origin, or gender.

Congress passed the Voting Rights act on May 26, 1965. This act got rid of the literacy test and allowed the federal examiners to enroll voters that were denied suffrage by the local officials.