Segregation, the separation of individuals based on race, was something that many African Americans experienced in their lives after liberation from slavery until segregation ended in the mid-1900s. Southerners accepted fewer African Americans than their Northern counterparts. Southerners were often extremely cruel to African Americans, referring to them by demeaning names and physically harming them, sometimes to the point of suffering serious injury or death. During this time, James Meredith, a civil rights leader, was born. James Howard Meredith was born one of ten children on a farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on June 25, 1933. He was not exposed to racism until the train ride from Chicago, where he had to give up his seat to a white man. This train ride was his catalyst in the fight for civil rights. He spent nine years in the Air Force after high school. After his service, he enrolled at the all-black school, Jackson State College in Mississippi. The beginning of his work began in 1961, when he applied to the University of Mississippi, which was then an all-white school that had been segregated and was supposed to be integrated with the Brown v. Board of Education. The 1952 Board of Education case overturned Plessy v. Ferguson legalizing segregation. This case came about after an African-American man from Topeka filed a lawsuit claiming that black and white schools were not legal. This parent was Oliver Brown. Thurgood Marshall and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up this case. The court ruled in Brown's favor and segregation became considered illegal and in violation of... middle of paper... boards, however, when they look at the same class some sixty years ago, they will find it less diverse. Now people can see African American children playing with white children. There are mixed race children, when back then these children were shunned by both sides. Children can play, become friends and be happy. They can have a life where they don't have to worry about going off the street just because a white person walks by. They don't have to worry about moving back just because a white guy showed up. This would not have been the case sixty years ago. This place where children of all races can enjoy each other's company was the result of many years of effort and blood, not just by one person but by many brave individuals who wanted to create a better future for their people..