It put it onto the policy agenda. Thanks to the media, the civil rights fight started getting supporters from all around america and form all classes and ethnicities. Without the media, we can't know when the civil rights would be won because the people wouldn't have known what was going on and to what degree.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866, 14 Stat. 27–30, enacted April 9, 1866, was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law.
