Miles
^^^^^ CB; Yes, but the key _was_ winning and changing the minds of "moderately" prejudiced or unconsciously prejudiced people . MLK was perhaps the leading person to win the hearts and minds of white people who were not prejudiced or only "passively and very mildly prejudiced" to becoming upset and active , especially in protesting to their Senators and Congressman about , for example , the segregationists' televised attacks on Civil Rights demonstrators. The success of the Civil Rights movement was largely in the swaying and the swing of the sentiments of millions of _white_ people especially in non-Southern states against the grossest dimensions of Jim Crow defending itself, dogs attacking high school students, etc. This was largely moral suasion. The changes in laws and to limited changes social structure were due to especially non-Southerners changing their minds and level of political activity , citizen lobbying against the grossest forms of white supremacy. ( This is not a philosophical idealist proposition for those who might be thinking so. Marx said "when an idea seizes masses it becomes a material (social) force" ; also see Engels letter on reciprocal causation between base and superstructure (ideas).)
The Civil Rights Act _followed_ MLK and Civil Rights demonstrators ,Emmet Till getting lynched, etc. changing the hearts and minds of millions of white people, who put pressure on white politicians.
Victories in the history of the struggle against white supremacy are when there are major changes in the way millions of white people think about racism, not changes in the way Black or Red people think about it.