The civil rights movement began as early as 1909 with the founding of the NAACP and was decades in the making, not an accident. In the 1950s and 1960s, the movement gained momentum through pivotal events like Brown v. Board of Education and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Images of police brutality against civil rights protesters in Birmingham in 1963 circulated globally and increased pressure on the federal government to take action to address racism in the United States and protect civil rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed after years of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. However, racism and segregation persisted in northern cities and limitations remained regarding economic inequality facing many African Americans.