Then and now

Social revolts to end racial injustice and inequality in America were waged in bus stations, department stores and schools. Most protests began peacefully. Some ended in bloodshed. But many of those local fights and gatherings earned historic victories, changing the consciousness of a nation that today includes 42 million African Americans – 13.6 percent of the country’s population.

Three leaders of that epic struggle were assassinated — one in a Manhattan ballroom, one on his driveway in Jackson, Miss., and one on a motel balcony in Memphis.

What became of those 1950s and 1960s civil rights battlefields? Here’s what exists today in those famous places.

Photo: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., giving his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963.