Yale historian Jonathan Holloway traces the civil rights movement's roots in the decade before Brown v. Board of Education, part of his course American History: From Emancipation to the Present. He opens with a tally of segregation's legal and social reach in 1951, then works backward through the 1940s to show how much groundwork preceded the famous 1954 ruling. Topics include the desegregation of the armed forces, the Fair Employment Practices Committee, the March on Washington Movement, and the founding of the Congress on Racial Equality. Holloway reads from Melba Beals' memoir Warriors Don't Cry to bring the human stakes into the legal history, and closes by walking through the legal strategies that built toward Brown. The lecture argues for re-periodizing the civil rights movement earlier than the standard 1950s starting point, treating wartime politics and courtroom strategy as inseparable forces.