The civil rights movement made major progress in the 1950s and 1960s in correcting racial segregation through nonviolent protests and legal victories. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision allowing segregation. Events like the Montgomery bus boycott and attempts to desegregate schools like Little Rock Central High School helped launch the modern civil rights movement. Major legislation like the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act were passed after protests like sit-ins and Freedom Rides challenged segregation, though racial inequalities remained.