During this period, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights was responsible in the successful drive for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. They followed up and continued to press for a stronger legislation.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)Youth Council chapters organized sit-ins at whites-only lunch counters thereby sparking a movement against segregation in public accommodations throughout the South in 1960. Nonviolent direct action also increased beginning with the 1961 Freedom Rides.
This led President Kennedy to send a comprehensive civil rights bill to the Congress shortly before his assassination. The bill was later signed by his successor President Johnson in 1964.
