Essay: What Led to Policy Shifts Within the U.S. Government during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s?
I have to write an essay discussing major policy shifts in American history over the long twentieth century Reconstruction and its end, Progressivism, the New Deal, Labor Reforms and their reversals, Civil Rights, New Conservatism, etc.
I am needing help with some of the kinds of things U.S. leaders responded to and the things that they did not respond to and why. What were their decisions based on (voting constituencies, special interests, protest movements, American self-image, international pressure)?