Peoria Journal Star reporter Mimi McLintock probed the progress made by Peoria’s Civil Rights Movement over twenty years, starting with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and ending with the article’s publication in 1974.
She highlighted 1963 as a watershed year for civil rights in Peoria primarily because of the numerous, visible demonstrations by the NAACP against discrimination in employment, education, and housing.
McLintock noted too the strong presence of youth in all protests:
“As the movement built, the NAACP (oftentimes in the person of teenagers of the group’s youth branch) picketed the Peoria Board of Realtors and several area realtors for housing discrimination, Brown’s (then Brown’s Home and Auto), and an impromtu demonstration in front of a barbershop in 1964 resulted in arrests, court cases and marches.”