After years of political inactivity because of the climate of fear during the McCarthy period, Hollywood figures by the late 1950s began to participate in the civil rights movement. A 1963 NAACP campaign to secure equal employment opportunities for African Americans in the film and television industries, and productions that included non-caricatured black characters, prompted some celebrities to action. Involvement crystallized during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as performers delivered speeches and sat together in a “celebrity delegation.”