In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, struck down state laws that established separate schools for black and white students. They ruled unanimously that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Ten years later, on July 16, 1964, and just days after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law, off-duty New York Police Lt. Thomas Gilligan shot to death James Powell, a black summer-school student in Harlem. The killing sparked days of looting, beatings, fires and violent clashes between the police and rioters. All this set the stage for my first close-up encounter with one of the most significant social issue of the 1960s.

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