<P> Two United States Supreme Court decisions -- Plessy v. Ferguson , 163 U.S. 537 ( 1896 ) , which upheld `` separate but equal '' racial segregation as constitutional doctrine , and Brown v. Board of Education , 347 U.S. 483 ( 1954 ) which overturned Plessy -- serve as milestones . This was an era of new beginnings , in which some movements , such as Marcus Garvey 's Universal Negro Improvement Association , were very successful but left little lasting legacy , while others , such as the NAACP 's painstaking legal assault on state - sponsored segregation , achieved modest results in its early years but made steady progress on voter rights and gradually built to a key victory in Brown v. Board of Education ( 1954 ) . </P>
<P> Two United States Supreme Court decisions -- Plessy v. Ferguson , 163 U.S. 537 ( 1896 ) , which upheld `` separate but equal '' racial segregation as constitutional doctrine , and Brown v. Board of Education , 347 U.S. 483 ( 1954 ) which overturned Plessy -- serve as milestones . This was an era of new beginnings , in which some movements , such as Marcus Garvey 's Universal Negro Improvement Association , were very successful but left little lasting legacy , while others , such as the NAACP 's painstaking legal assault on state - sponsored segregation , achieved modest results in its early years but made steady progress on voter rights and gradually built to a key victory in Brown v. Board of Education ( 1954 ) . </P>
when did the civil rights movement reach its peak
when did the civil rights movement reach its peak
1954
1954