Rosa Parks, Civil Rights leader. Credit: Library of Congress

Abolitionism ended after the Civil War freed the slaves. But African-Americans were denied their full rights, which should have come with freedom. Many social and legal constraints, as well as violent intimidation by groups like the Ku Klux Klan, perpetuated the legacy of slavery. Churches remained for the most part racially segregated. During this time, however, African-Americans made significant gains in education. African-American churches were centers for African- American leadership and identity. In World War II the U.S. armed forces were desegregated. In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in the public schools. In the 1950s a series of boycotts, marches, and sit-ins to desegregate public transportation took place in cities across the south. African-Americans and their churches inspired, led, and sustained this movement. To coordinate such efforts, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was created in 1957, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.; many similar organizations were founded at this time. Non-violence, redemptive suffering, and justice were important themes of the movement, which came to be linked with liberation theology. The 1963 march on Washington, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were high points for the movement, but reactions included the murder of Civil Rights activists, and the burning of African-American churches, and other acts of violence. Many White Protestants, Catholics, and Jews worked and marched for Civil Rights, but many of their churches either refused to take a stand or opposed the Civil Rights movement.