The Hundred Year Struggle for Black Americans would begin during Reconstruction, long before the Civil Rights Movement made headlines in the 1950s and 1960s. The fight would not only be about freedom, but also in terms of education and employment against police brutality and daily discrimination in general. This abuse would force individuals, such as the most famous black civil rights leaders, to launch efforts to assert their constitutional rights and improve their position in society; through the use of media, which over time would be broadcast directly to Americans through television. Pressure members of Congress to support their cause, from marches to sit-ins. Reconstruction would begin after the Civil War. President Lincoln had launched the crusade to help black Americans for civil rights with the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in present-day rebel states in 1863. This would then lead to the 13th Amendment (1865), the 14th Amendment (1868 ) and the 15th Amendment which would attempt to give voting rights and citizenship to freed slaves. At first, the federal government worked to protect black Americans, showing that it was not just up to black leaders to defend civil rights. Despite Congress' best efforts, President Andrew Johnson would not resemble his predecessor. This made it increasingly difficult without the president's cooperation to ensure that Southern states followed the Reconstruction Amendments, instead of the Jim Crow laws that would spread throughout the South. The need to help African Americans through law would die because of the Compromise of 1877, making Ruther B Hayes president. With the North now turning its back on African Americans and the South having...... middle of paper ...... said integration required a change in the hearts and minds of the people . Eisenhower sympathized with white Southerners who complained about changes in what they saw as their way of life. He considers extremists both those who attempt to obstruct the decisions of the federal courts and those who demand that they immediately benefit from the rights conferred on them by the Constitution and the courts. Eisenhower refused to use his moral authority as president to advance the cause of civil rights. This issue, which divided the country in the 1950s, became even more difficult in the 1960s. Works cited UNITED STATES 1776 -1992, Derrick Murphy, Kathryn Cooper, Mark Waldron, ISBN: 0 00 711621 7, P323 The movement of civil rights, Bruce J. Dierenfield ISBN: 978 1 4058 7435 9 p15Civil rights in the United States, 1863 - 1980, David Paterson Doug and Suan Willouby, ISBN: 978 0 435 327224, P65