BDC CH. 10 Flashcards

1
Q

What event happened on Oct. 8, 1946?

A

400 black kids in Lumberton, NC walked out of dilapidated schools

  • instigated by NAACP Youth Council
  • strike lasted 9 days w/ support from parents
    (IS)
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2
Q

What were state officials response to the Lumberton School Protests?

A

surprisingly sympathetic

  • officials knew conditions of the schools were terrible
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3
Q

What serious steps did Southern states take in the 1940s to help black education?

A
  • governors began appointing commissions to study situation + make recommendations
  • used postwar tax revenues to help build new black schools + improve old ones + expand black colleges
  • LA per capita sum allocated to black kids inc. to $16 to $116 from 1940-55
    (GUL)
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4
Q

How could one say that the years post WWII produced steady advancement for blacks?

A
  • enjoyed improved education opportunities
  • made substantial political gains (inc. voter registration in rural areas)
  • were finding success in the courts from federal judge decisions
    (EMW)
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5
Q

What political advancements had blacks made since the end of WWII?

A
  • electorate had grown from few thousand to over a million
  • blacks getting elected for first time since disenfranchisement
  • Reverend Kennedy Williams won city alderman board seat in Winston Salem over white candidate
  • # of black elected officials still never exceeded single digits(EBRN)
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6
Q

What did whites begin to recognize after WWII?

A

the importance of the black electorate

  • black votes could make the decisive difference in close races
  • white politicians began to inc. court black voters
  • inc. political influence allowed blacks to gain inc. in public spending (parks/playgrounds/hospitals etc.)
  • many Southern cities began appointing black policemen
    (BWIM)
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7
Q

What did the rise in black voting seem to indicate about white Southerners?

A

no longer committed to all out defense of white supremacy

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8
Q

What was the most outward change in Southern society regarding black relations after WWII?

A

transformation of the South’s economy

  • inc. urbanization meant dec. agriculture
  • dec. in cotton production + introduction of mechanical cotton picker hastened dec. in black farmers
  • sharecropping became insignificant
  • black pop. turning into an urban proletariat
    (IDSB)
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9
Q

What was life like in the big Southern cities once blacks began to migrate there in the 40s?

A

still relegated to low pay + segregation but escaped sharecropping trap

  • freer/safer than rural areas
  • sheer #s + segregated black areas + anonymity of urban life provided sense of security
  • black institutions (church/social clubs) were stronger in the city
  • many cities had black owned newspaper + NAACP branch
    (FSBM)
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10
Q

How did overall thought change about blacks following WWII?

A

ideology of white supremacy had become somewhat outdated

  • scientists had disproven the old racial hierarchy myths
  • Nazi death camps made racism + genocide go hand in hand
  • rise of anti-colonial movements overseas made racism an international issue
  • Soviet ridicule for US racism made federal gov. no longer supportive of blatant discrimination
    (SNRS)
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11
Q

Why did many blacks anticipate another Red Summer in 1945?

A

thought restoration of peace would prompt whites to forcefully reassert domination

  • thought they’d crack down on any blacks who challenged status-quo (especially veterans)
  • string of racial violence seemed to prove this theory
    (TS)
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12
Q

What racial violent incident occurred in Columbia,TN on February 25-26, 1946?

A

began w/ fight in radio repair shop between black (James Stephenson)/white veteran (Billy Flemming)

  • Stephenson + family arrested
  • whites gathered in town square for lynching
  • sheriff planned to extradite Stephenson to Chicago
  • blacks began to arm themselves to defend neighborhood against growing crowd of whites
  • blacks opened fire when four police came to neighborhood
    (SWSBB)
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13
Q

What happened after blacks opened fire on the policemen in Columbia?

A

TN governor called it an armed insurrection so he called in National Guard

  • National Guard + armed whites began firing on black neighborhood
  • after whites regained control 28 blacks indicted for attempted murder
    (NA)
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14
Q

What were the NAACP most fearful of in the defense of the blacks involved in the Columbia incident?

A

thought prosecutions had greater potential for injustice than the riot itself

  • Walter White feared judges may invoke legal lynching
  • NAACP lawyers feared for their lives
    (WN)
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15
Q

How did the Columbia riot trial actually so subtle changes/progress in race relations?

A
  • Sheriff Underwood avoided lynching of Stephenson by arranging his release
  • blacks able to keep white mob at bay by defending their streets
  • all white jury would end up acquitting all but two of the first 25 blacks tried
    (SBA)
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16
Q

What had changed about white attitudes at the time of the Columbia riot?

A

many white Southerners no longer had stomach for harshly repressing black pop.

  • feared/ashamed of mob violence
  • many National Guardsmen were disgusted by the unlawful actions of local police in Columbia
    (FM)
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17
Q

What prevented 1946 from becoming another Red Summer of 1919?

A

preventitive actions by governors/sheriffs had dec. lynch #s to single digits

  • officials took action mostly to avoid federal legislation
  • dec. especially noticeable post 1935 (peak of NAACP antilynching campaign + FDR Civil Rights Section)
  • even w/o federal lynching law FBI probes + federal prosecutions had their effect
    (ODE)
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18
Q

What were some landmark cases of the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department?

A
  • 1940 = CRS brought federal gov.’s first police brutality prosecution
  • 1942 = instituted first federal investigation of a lynching
  • both seriously aided by Thurgood Marshall
    (NNB)
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19
Q

What significant event happened on September 19, 1946?

A

Walter White met w/ Harry Truman

  • Dec 5 = Truman appoints President’s Committee on Civil Rights (PCCR)
  • asks it to recommend more effective measures for protecting civil rights
  • persuaded to create by White talking to Truman about issues
    (DAP)
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20
Q

What was the PCCR’s “Secure These Rights” demands?

A
  • federal laws against lynching + police brutality
  • abolition of poll taxes
  • federal protection of voting rights
  • federal fair employment laws
  • establishment of permanent Civil Rights Commission
  • better action in FBI civil rights cases
    (FAFFEB)
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21
Q

How did the Truman administration defer from the Roosevelt administration when it came to civil rights?

A
  • Truman administration withdrew support from segregation
  • Truman admin. created comprehensive plan to incorporate blacks into everyday life
  • would later become Civil Rights Act of the 60s
    (TTW)
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22
Q

How did Truman’s support for civil rights also coincide w/ his political ambitions?

A
  • started political career in Missouri (where blacks freely voted)
  • accustomed to cultivating black support
  • became president at time when black vote inc. in influence due to influx of Southern migrants
    (SAB)
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23
Q

What did Truman do to appeal to blacks during the 1948 elections?

A
  • addressed joint session of Congress on civil rights
  • called special session of Congress to consider civil rights legislation (ban poll tax)
  • issued Executive Order 9981 (led to abolition of segregation w/in armed forces)
    (ACI)
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24
Q

How did the ten years between WWII + start of the Civil Rights Movement resemble the pattern of one step forward two steps back for blacks?

A

got favorable court decisions/encouraging presidential statements but still treated as second class citizens

  • whites still defended segregation in the South
  • white legislatures in rural black belt opposed black voting
  • whites imposed ceilings on black voter registration even in big cities
  • the North still had pervasive job/housing discrimination
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25
Q

What was the main issue as to why blacks were still being treated like second class citizens in the years leading up to the civil rights movement?

A

lack of strong action by the federal gov. to end segregation/discrimination

  • Southern Democrat + Northern Republican coalitions in Congress stymied all racial equality efforts
  • campaign to abolish poll taxes failed
  • FEPC was abolished
  • Truman couldn’t get proposals onto actual legislation
    (SCFT)
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26
Q

What do many historians think the effect postwar years had on blacks?

A

destroyed tentative gains made by blacks between 1941-45

  • black veterans came back to same poor status
  • Cold War split New Deal coalition + crippled Southern liberalism + ended many civil rights orgs.
  • communism had become national obsession by 1950
    (BCC)
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27
Q

What early actions did Truman take against Communists in the 1940s?

A
  • instituted federal loyalty program in 1947
  • prosecuted/jailed leaders of Communist Party in 1948
  • denied Communists same constitutional protections as American citizens
  • Communist Party no longer recognized as legitimate political group
  • intervention in Korea made communism tantamount to treason
    (IPDCI)
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28
Q

What effect did the Cold War have on civil rights efforts?

A
  • sidelined the issue of racial discrimination
  • inflicted direct damage on civil rights by silencing most vocal supporters of racial equality
  • Communists had been active in nearly every liberal/labor civil rights org.
    (SIC)
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29
Q

What did the Cold War force many organizations to do?

A

rid themselves of Communist members or face FBI investigation

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30
Q

What happened to the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) during the Communist purge?

A

would be labeled as a Communist front org. by House Un-American Activist Committee (HUAC)

  • never recovered from report
  • had served as a beacon of hope for Southern blacks who wanted to combat poverty/racism/one party rule
  • demise was a grievous loss
    (NHD)
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31
Q

How did the communism issue weaken the labor movement during the Cold War?

A

Taft-Harley Act = required unions to send affidavits stating there no Communists held office

  • if they refused they couldn’t participate in representation elections by the NLRB
  • CIO leaders used Act to isolate/destroy Communist led unions who refused to file affidavits
  • would end up expelling 11 unions from CIO ranks (most would wither away)
  • had many black members + been an important support system for the NAACP + other civil rights orgs.
    (ICWH)
32
Q

Why were blacks suspicious of anti-communism during the Cold War?

A

blacks did not see Communists as enemies

  • respected Communists record in helping in the racial equality fight
  • distrusted motives of anti-Communists who were more racist
  • feared it could lead to their own rights being more violated
    (RDF)
33
Q

What was Walter White’s position on the communists?

A

very anti-communist

  • succeeded in persuading NAACP’s 1950 convention to adopt an anti-Communist resolution
  • empowered nation officials to expel individuals + dissolve branches w/ Communist involvement
    (SE)
34
Q

How did the NAACP’s purging of communists exact a great toll on the organization?

A

impossibility of identifying Communists turned the purge into a witch hunt

  • NAACP smaller/weaker/more conservative by 1950
  • labor movement also growing weaker
  • internal fights in the UAW + other unions paralyzed progress
  • expulsion of Communist officials weakened internal democracy
    (NLIE)
35
Q

What did the anti-Communist purges weaken in the black community?

A

efforts of blacks to link struggle for equal rights w/ anti-colonial movements abroad

  • Cold War discouraged any opposition to the basic tenets of US foreign policy
36
Q

What did the government do to WEB DuBois during the Cold War?

A

arrested in 1951 as Justice Department accused him of being an agent of foreign power

  • federal court ended up dismissing the charges
  • gov. confiscated his passport not permitting him to travel abroad until 1958
  • would end up moving to Ghana + join Communist Party
  • never returned to the US
    (FGWN)
37
Q

Who was Paul Robeson + what did the US government do to him during the Cold War?

A

famous black singer/actor in the 40s

  • not popular w/ Truman administration b/c he praised USSR + criticized US when overseas performing
  • State Department confiscated his passport + not even allowed to go to Canada
  • singing career ended after being labeled Communist sympathizer
  • gov. said they would back off hate if he gave up fight for equality/stand against colonialism
  • Robeson refused + basically exiled from society
    (NSSGR)
38
Q

How did white defenders of segregation exploit anti-communism to their advantage?

A

conservatives/racists attacked anyone supporting racial equality as communist

  • Cold War made attacks much more damaging
  • was even encouraged by the federal gov.
  • very unlikely people became targeted as potential communists (mostly entertainers)
    (CWV)
39
Q

How did the government measure what should be considered a Communist threat?

A

FBI were to judge (under J Edgar Hoover every radical/liberal cause labeled communist)

  • even the NAACP was tainted (despite virulent anti-Communist stance)
  • FBI harbored suspicions about every black org/leader whatever their political stances
  • FBI less interested in deterring subversion than discrediting blacks deemed too independent/influential
    (FEFF)
40
Q

What actions did the FBI take against ordinary black workers during the Cold War?

A
  • dozens of black postal workers suspended/fired in late 1940s for unknown reasons
  • ironically these workers had gone through loyalty boards during the height of Jim Crow before hiring
  • those most prone to FBI involvement were workers most involved w/ NAACP/NAPE
  • FBI equated civil rights militancy w/ Communism
    (ITF)
41
Q

How did anti-communism ruin black progress?

A

alliance of civil rights orgs + Southern white radicals + Communist Party on the horizon

  • coalition attempting to unionize Southern industry + enfranchise southern blacks + dislodge segregation
  • anti-communism would fracture this coalition + abort nascent civil rights movement
  • Cold War gave white supremacy new lease on life (delayed civil rights movement at least 10 years)
    (CAC)
42
Q

How is it that communists shot themselves in the foot somewhat even before gov. repression?

A

party secrecy + tactical inconsistency + ideological rigidity alienated most supporters

  • CPUSA still supporting Moscow during height of Stalin regime made party a moral leper
  • many liberals turned off from supporting
  • anti-communism not just plot to discredit Left but genuine defense of democratic ideals
    (CMA)
43
Q

Why is it up for debate that the black/labor/liberal coalition in the absence of the Cold War would’ve pushed a civil rights program?

A

anti-communism useful but not necessary weapon of Southern ruling elite

  • white employers/officials already had the power to defeat the CIO’s plan to unionize the South
  • easily limited the growth of black electorate (ensuring black voters remained powerless)
  • Unions in South too small + white liberals too few + black voters too scarce to threaten white supremacy
  • conservative front against New Deal was already growing back in 1938
  • power of conservative coalition in 1946 Congress made civil rights legislation very unlikely anyway
    (WEUCP)
44
Q

How did the Cold War in some ways assist the cause for racial equality?

A

many black leaders believed that the Cold War would compel US to repudiate white supremacy/discrimination

  • with developing countries taking sides blacks thought racial equality would help bring others to US side
  • race problem had become an international issue
    (WR)
45
Q

How did many black leaders see a great opportunity to further their cause w/ the Cold War?

A

saw as golden opportunity to influence federal gov.

  • by supporting US foreign policy they could argue against discrimination
  • say action against discrimination would enable US to wage Cold War more effectively
  • American racism accounted for half of USSR anti-US propaganda
    (BSA)
46
Q

How was soviet propaganda a godsend to the civil rights cause?

A

racist actions were making USSR look good + US look bad

  • Truman administration worried how Soviet propaganda would affect black loyalty to US
  • cultivated anti-Communist black leaders to try to show world it was taking discrimination seriously
  • knew discrimination was a handicap to their relationship w/ other countries
    (TCK)
47
Q

How did the executive + judicial branches begin to chip away at legalized segregation during the Cold War?

A
  • Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) = JD filed amicus curiae brief in support of NAACP challenge to restrictive covenants
  • 1950 = solicitor general told Supreme Court separate dining for blacks on railway cars was wrong
  • also said that “separate but equal” doctrine was unconstitutional
  • 1951 = gov. supported legal challenge to segregation in DC (was effecting foreign diplomats)
  • 1952 = Eisenhower pledges to get rid of segregation in DC (would fulfill promise)
    (SNANN)
48
Q

Why was the NAACP heading forward w/ Brown v. Board of Education seen as risky?

A

if they failed the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson could last another 50 years

49
Q

What 3 cases in 1950 knocked big holes in the Plessy decision?

A
  • Sweatt v. Painter = court ordered UT to admit black applicant to its law school
  • said hastily created black law school in Houston couldn’t provide “equal opportunity”
  • McLaurin v. Oklahoma State = George McLaurin required admission as student to OSU
  • Henderson v. US = court ruled that segregated railway dining cars were unconstitutional
    (SSMH)
50
Q

What was Thurgood Marshall + the NAACP reaction to the 1950 case victories?

A

took even greater action (challenged segregation head on)

  • filed lawsuits for black parents across the South seeking black kid admittance to white schools
  • 1952 = five of the cases reach the Supreme Court + consolidate under name Brown v. Board of Education
    (FN)
51
Q

Why did observers feel that even if the Supreme Court reversed Plessy that the NAACP’s strategy might not work?

A

Supreme Court decisions typically disregarded in the South

  • abolition of restrictive covenants had little effect on housing segregation
  • rulings against Jim Crow on buses failed to end segregation
    (AR)
52
Q

What were the doubts of black parents/teachers about Brown v. Board of Education?

A

integration = unchartered territory

  • many parents didn’t want to put their children in danger as guinea pigs
  • evidence suggested black kids in Northern white schools still lagged behind white students
  • NAACP had hard time convincing them integration would be more effective than equal opportunity
  • integration posed threat to black teacher jobs (fewer schools to teach if black/white schools fused)
  • feared over 75,000 jobs could be at jeopardy
    (MENIF)
53
Q

Why were the NAACP willing to go forward w/ Brown v. Board of Education despite the risks?

A
  • equalization suits had reached point of diminishing returns
  • direct attack on segregation would affect the entire South + promised to be more effective
    (ED)
54
Q

How did the NAACP react to the fears of parents/teachers?

A

made light of them

  • if the first integrated black kids drop out b/c its too hard so be it (their are casualties in all social change)
  • doubted many black teachers would lose their jobs (even if they did it was a price worth paying)
    (ID)
55
Q

What was the effect of the Brown decision?

A

destroyed the legal basis for Jim Crow

  • NAACP’s greatest victory
  • Thurgood Marshall knew decision only set a precedent
  • knew implementation would require many more lawsuits
    (NTK)
56
Q

Why were some officials of the NAACP optimistic about Southern schools upholding the Brown decision?

A
  • some public schools in AR had already admitted black students
  • predicted that the border states would quickly comply
  • integration would quickly follow in other southern states after
  • believed white resistance would be limited to Mississippi + black belt counties in other states
  • advised branches in many areas that legal action may not be necessary
    (SPIBA)
57
Q

What were the initial white reactions to the Brown decision?

A

no a lot of hostility

  • many Southern newspapers urged calm compliance
58
Q

What did the Court order the South to do following the Brown decision?

A

gave them until May 31, 1955 to implement school integration (one year of grace) (Brown II)

  • Court declined to impose a deadline
  • Court failed to define what a racially nondiscriminatory school system would look like
  • charged federal district courts w/ fashioning integration remedy
    (CCC)
59
Q

What were the other complicated factors listed by the Supreme Court that muddled the Brown decision from moving forward?

A

administering problems

  • district judges may allow school boards additional integration time to understand complicated procedures
  • ruling disappointed NAACP + delighted segregationists
    (DR)
60
Q

How did Brown II prove disastrous to the cause of integration?

A

Southern leaders used year of grace to do nothing to prepare whites for school integration

  • even liberal politicians not willing to campaign openly for integration
  • inaction of liberals played into hands of diehard segregationists who seized initiative
  • Southern conservatives mounted crusade to convince whites not to tolerate racial change no matter what
  • used fear to promote how they were outnumbered in Black Belt which could one day mean black takeover
    (EISU)
61
Q

What were the Citizens Councils?

A

meetings by segregationists organized to prevent the implementation of the Brown decision

  • movement spread across the South
  • inspired by Judge Tom P. Brady’s condemnation of the Brown decision
  • boasted over 250,000 members at their peak in 1956
  • made up of mostly middle-upper class whites
- did not associate w/ lower class KKK
(MIBMD)
62
Q

What actions did the Citizens Council take to stop civil rights action from taking place?

A
  • flooded South w/ racist propaganda
  • subjected civil rights activists to threats/economic pressure
  • erected new barriers to black voting
  • tried to suppress the NAACP
  • condemned white liberals as traitors
  • made defense of segregation central issue in Southern politics
    (FSETCM)
63
Q

How did the Citizens Council affect the NAACP?

A

NAACP strategy of having local branches petition school boards for integration backfired

  • Citizens Council retaliated by pressuring board signatories to remove name from petition
  • those who kept name on lost their jobs/business
    (CT)
64
Q

What were the volley of anti-integration laws implemented by Southern legislatures that hurt the NAACP’s cause?

A
  • one set of laws sought to get around integration by banning public education all together
  • forbade the expenditure of public $$$ on integrated schools
  • authorized school closing as a local option
  • allowed governors to close integrated schools
  • encouraged whites to attend private schools + provided tuition grants to whites students
    (OFAAE)
65
Q

What did Prince Edward, VA do to stop integration of schools?

A

closed public schools down for eight years

66
Q

How was the threat of school closure not as bad as suspected?

A

abolishing public schools deeply unpopular among whites

  • could not be sustained for any length of time at the local let alone regional level
  • threat proved ineffective
  • Supreme Court ruled state had to close all schools or have none at all in 1959
  • led to governors reneging on school closing
    (CTSL)
67
Q

What were pupil placement acts?

A
  • allowed kids to transfer to school other than one school board assigned them
  • whites could transfer to black schools + vice versa
  • transfer applications ensured kids had to satisfy so many criteria that hardly any kids ever transferred
  • pioneered by AL
    (AWTP)
68
Q

What was the result of pupil placement acts?

A

schools remained segregated

  • no whites applied for reassignment + blacks routinely rejected
  • 1958 = Supreme Court upholds AL’s pupil placement laws (did not discriminate on its face)
  • Brown did not require integration only abolition of “forced” integration
  • blacks best chance for integration now was eventual “tokenism” of a couple black kids in white schools
    (NNBB)
69
Q

What was the most shocking attack on the Brown decision?

A

the attack on the NAACP itself

  • 1956 = Southern states launched coordinated legal offensive to cripple NAACP
  • prohibited state employees from advocating for integration
  • forced black teachers to resign from NAACP rather than face firing
    (NPF)
70
Q

Besides the teacher attack what was another part of the 1956 attack on the NAACP?

A

used long unenforced laws like the NAACP neglecting to file membership lists w/ state authorities

  • if they provided the list most members dropped out of org. not wanting to face white retribution
  • not handing list over resulted in org. banned from state
    (IN)
71
Q

How were the local NAACP lawyers affected by the 1956 campaign against them?

A

charged w/ violating professional ethics by soliciting clients + inciting litigation

  • few lawyers disbarred
  • most of their practices died from the costs of having to defend themselves in court
    (FM)
72
Q

What was the state of the NAACP by 1958?

A

stymied throughout the South

  • even Little Rock 9 victory muddied by governor action to prevent integration
  • forced Eisenhower to send federal troops to Little Rock to force integration (did not settle the issue)
  • Little Rock closed public schools in 1958-59
  • Governor Faubus coasted to reelection in 1958
    (EFLG)
73
Q

Why do some historians feel that the Brown decision was more style than substance?

A

w/o federal support the decision meant little

  • placed entire burden of securing implementation on shoulders of vulnerable black plaintiffs
74
Q

Why did some members of the Supreme Court feel the need to provide a one year grace period instead of going forward w/ immediate implementation?

A

felt violence would’ve occurred in the Deep South anyway

75
Q

How did the federal government prove to be the most unreliable ally of the Brown decision?

A
  • Eisenhower privately disapproved of Brown decision
  • Congress did absolutely nothing to defend it
  • litigation bound to fail w/o mass movement behind it
    (ECL)
76
Q

How did for all its faults the Brown decision still prove to be a turning point in the struggle for black equality?

A
  • destroyed legal basis for racial segregation
  • inspired blacks that Supreme Court was on their side
  • compelled Eisenhower to use federal power to overrule state power
  • showed civil rights movement needed better tactics besides just NAACP campaign
    (DICS)