o many of the early conflicts and prejudices.5 Into the 1920s and 1930s many whites, particularly Southerners, were fearful of losing their hegemony to the expanding Black population. Ever mindful of the liberal climate of the North, southern whites continued their policies of racial prejudice and mistrust.6
Similar problems existed in the ghetto areas of large metropolitan areas like New York City. Malcolm X describes the life of Blacks in the 30s and 40s as a never ending series of "racial put downs." For the urban Black, unemployment and despair gave way to gambling what little money they had and drinking the rest in order to find some semblance of peace in a hostile world.7 This despair set the stage for leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These men believed in the goodness of men, and thought that racism and bigotry were
worldly that could be eradicated by the increasing use of non violent resistance, religion, and media attention. Hope and dreams were keywords for King who said that in 1955 the Negro was "unarmed, unorganized, untrained, disunited and, most important, psychologically and morally unprepared for the deliberate spilling of blood."8
Because of King, and others, and their endless pursuit toward the goal of racial equality, however, the mid 1960s showed a significant improvement over racial visibility. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson lobbied for civil rights legislation, more and more whites were joining the crusade for racial equality, and southern separatists like George Wallace were coming under polit
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