During the early 1900’s, the burgeoning African American middle class began pushing a new political agenda that advocated racial equality. The epicenter of this movement was in New York, where three of the largest civil Rights groups established their headquarters. W.E.B DuBois was at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement at this time. DuBois along with a group of African American political activists and White Civil Rights workers met in New York and talked about challenges racing the black community. In 1909, the group founded NAACP to promote civil rights and to fight African American disenfranchisement. Marcus Garvey promoted the book “Back to Africa Movement”. He also founded UNIA and ACL reuniting all people of African ancestry into one community and with one absolute government. The National Urban League founded by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmond Haynes, Which counseled black migrants from the south, trained black social workers, and worked to give education and employment opportunities to blacks. African American Civil Rights activist’s employed the artist and writers of their culture to work for goal of civil rights and equality. The blossoming of African-American culture in European-American society particularly in the worlds of art and music, became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1896, racial equality was delived when Plessy V. Ferguson Supreme Court case declared racial segeration to be constitutionally acceptable. The south became gradually more and more economically depressed as bull weevils began to infest cotton crops and this reduced the amount of labor needed. In the south blacks began to head to Northern United States by millions. The north granted all adult men the rights to vote, provided better educational advancement for African- Americans and their children, and offered greater job opportunities. This phenomenon, known as Great Migration, brought more than seven million African-Americans to the north.