 Over the following century, various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their legal rights.In 1954, the separate but equal policy which aided the enforcement of Jim Crow laws was weakened with the United States Supreme Court's "Brown v. Board of Education" ruling and other subsequent rulings which followed.Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations and productive dialogues between activists and government authorities.