Civil Rights Flashcards
situation in the North
Defacto segregation was the norm despite Truman’s efforts. The problems of inner city areas remained the same as under Truman. White flight to the surburbs left the inner cities ethically homogenous and segregated.
situation in the South
The war had heightened black awareness of injustice but it was not until the Eisenhower administration that the CRM in the south began to gather momentum to tackle these injustices. A combination of victories for the NAACP against Jim Crow laws, new figureheads like King was vital as well as the role of the media as television became popular. Over half of US households owned a TV by 1955 and could therefore see firsthand the realities of segregation.
Montgomery bus boycott
seen as a start of the modern CRM. The underlying cause was Montgomery’s segregated buses and the behaviour of white bus drivers. Rosa parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to stand to give her seat to a white man on the bus. The NAACP organised a boycott of the buses and MLK was chosen to lead the boycott. It lasted for a year
date of Montgomery bus boycott
December 1955-Dec 1956
results and significance of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery white citizens council organised opposition to the boycott which attracted favourable nationwide attention to the black community’s efforts
The boycott demonstrated the potential power of a new mode of activism - mass direct action but it was the NAACP’s litigation that ensured the deseg of Montgomery buses through the Browder v Gayle ruling in Nov 1956
It was only montgomery buses that were desegregated
A major new black leader had emerged - King who had established the SCLC in 1957 to continue to fight against segregation
After the bus boycott, civil rights protestors gained little national attention - but sit ins triggered a sustained CRM
date of sit ins
1960
sit ins
In Feb 1960, four black college students in Greensboro North Carolina refused to leave the all white Woolworths cafe when asked and it had to close
how many students participated in sit ins
70,000 students participated in sit-ins across the south
reasons why sit ins were significant
- They helped to erode Jim Crow - loss of business made Woolworths deseg all its lunch counters by the end of 1961 and 150 followed suit
- Black students had been mobilised, they set up SNCC but inter-organisational strife increased. NAACP’s lawyer - Thurgood Marshall refused to represent ‘a bunch of crazy coloured students’ while SNCC opposed King’s top-down leadership, preferring to empower ordinary black citizens at grassroots level
- The sit ins shifted the focus of black activism from litigation to mass direct action
what were the race policies of the political parties shaped by
electoral considerations
democrats
dixiecrats opposed civil rights while others were increasing liberal
republicans
disliked large scale federal interventionism on any great issue as they respected state rights. They contained some who were liberal race like Judge Earl Warren. However, most republicans remained conservative - Ike had one AA on his staff ex NAACP worker E Frederic Morrow who considered the Republican administration ignorant on civil rights
responses of the state and federal authorities
Each branch of government responded in varying degrees of enthusiasm and effectiveness to the growing CRM but the white-dominated deep South state government remained opposed to racial equality
the response of the SC
the branch of government most responsive to the CRM
important SC rulings
Browder v Gayle 1956
Cooper v Aaron 1958
Brown v Board of Education 1954
date of brown v board
1954
brown v board ruling
Even if facilities were equal separate education was psychologically harmful to black children
significance of the brown ruling
- Inspired AA to further activism
- It removed all constitutional sanctions for segregation, but it was not a total victory for the NAACP because the SC gave no date by which deseg should be achieved and said nothing about defacto segeg outside the south
- The Brown II 1955 - SC lacked enforcement powers, meant the implementation of that ruling varied
- Brown led to white backlash from 1956 to 59, Virginia whites staged a massive resistance campaign closing some schools rather than desegregation.
- White Citizens Council were formed to defend segregation by 1956 they had 250,000 members. KKK was revitalised
ike’s reaction to Brown
On 17th May 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren announced that the court had voted in favour
of Brown
Even if facilities were equal, separate education was psychologically harmful to black children
Eisenhower said that putting Warren on the job was, “The biggest damned fool mistake I ever made.”
He had tried to make Warren rule against the Brown case
outcome of the brown case
The Ku Klux Klan began to increase in membership and brutality
Between 1956 and 1959 schools were closed in some states instead of desegregated
Eisenhower was reluctant to use federal power to enforce ruling
The Brown II case (1955) stated that it had to be done ‘with all deliberate speed’
The Supreme Court had a lack of enforcement power
By 1956 four southern states passed interposition resolutions that said that the Brown ruling had no effect in their states
southern manifesto
The Southern Manifesto 1956 was drawn up which was signed by 101 Democrat Congressmen (Dixiecrats)
It threatened to use ‘all lawful means’ to oppose the Supreme Court’s decision on the grounds of it infringing state’s rights
outcome of brown - deseg in action
In Washington DC, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia all schools were desegregated quickly after that
In the deep south such as Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana remained segregated
responses of the executive
In his first state of the union address in February 1953, Ike called for help to end racial discrimination. He worked against discrimination in the federal facilities in Washington and federal hiring but his presidents committee on government contracts lacked teeth
why did some people defend Ike’s civil rights record
He appointed Liberal Judge Earl Warren who was important in the Brown Ruling
why was Ike less inclined than Truman to propel AA towards racial equality
- Born in the south
- Uneasy in the presence of AA - didnt want ‘a negro to could his daughter’
- He was opposed to large scale federal intervention in the state and was sympathetic to states rights.
- Felt it was difficult to change a man’s heart by legislation or by force
ike and inaction
Emmett till - said nothing
Emmett till
14 year old Emmett Till from Chicago visited Southern relatives in 1955 -heard to say ‘bye,baby’ to a white woman
His mutilated body was dragged out of a Mississippi- killed by woman’s husband
His mother demanded an open casket so that everyone could see what had happened to Emmett - media
His murders boosted of what they had done but it were found ‘not guilty’ by an all white jury
Eisenhower did nothing about this
response of state authorities
The impact of the Brown ruling illustrates the tensions between the authorities in a federal system of government. State authorities did all they could to resist the desegregation of schools. In Feb 1956, four states passed interposition resolutions that said the brown ruling had no effect in their states and sent law enforcement to defy a court order on desegregation. Although Ike said that the SC decisions had to be accepted and that US marshals would enforce a federal court order if a federal court cited anyone for contempt, he failed to use federal power in response to law enforcement in southern states until Little Rock
date of Little Rock
1957
Little Rock
9 AA attempted to enter it in 1957. Keen to exploit racism to gain re-election, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to keep the students out. An abusive white mob surrounded the students as they tried to enter the school. The riots made Ike fear the breakdown of law and order. He sent federal troops to protect the Little Rock Nine
reasons why little rock was significant
- Although the SC ruled that any law that sought to keep public schools segregated was unconstitutional. Cooper v Aaron. Little Rock demonstrated how SC rulings met tremendous resistance in practice. The little rock nice suffered violent attacks when they attended central high - they were pushed down the stairs and had stuff thrown at them. Faubus closed all Little Rock’s high schools rather than integrate. It was finally in 1960 and other schools in the area by 1972
- Faubus’s use of the National Guard demonstrated how white-dominated law enforcement in the South gave no protection to AA
- Ike demonstrated no clear moral leadership on civil rights. He had been forced into action, but said on TV that he had intervened because of the breakdown of law and order and therefore by implication not in support of deseg. A word of approval from the president would have stopped mob violence.
- In a TV statement Ike pointed at that ‘our enemies are gloating’ over Little Rock - a reminder that Cold War imperatives sometimes made America take a more liberal stance on race to substantiate national claims about equality of opportunity in the pursuit of the American Dream
- The power of television was demonstrated at Little Rock where on-the-spot reporting was pioneered. Images of black children being spat at by aggressive white adults shocked many Americans
- Many black activists decided that SC rulings were insufficient and that other forms of activism were required.
civil rights act
1957 CRA
1960 CRA
1957 CRA
Eisenhower was appalled to discover that only 7000 of Mississippi’s 900,000 African-Americans were able to vote
He felt that votes could be won in the run up to the 1956 presidential election
Nixon was the leader behind the bill, who met with King to discuss it- allowed all African Americans to vote without poll tax or tests
Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond tried to stop the bill from passing and Ike did not fit to keep it intact
It only added 3% more black voters in the South by 1960
Historians have said that the bill was symbolic and the first legislation since the Civil War but many considered it a sham. King said ‘the present bill is far better than no bill at all’
1960 CRA
1960-Eisenhower was concerned about the bombings of black schools and churches in the South
It made the obstruction of court-ordered school desegregation a federal crime
Established penalties for obstructing black voting
The bill was watered down and little was done to enforce its elevation of obstructing desegregation into a federal crime
Eisenhower had created a precedent which would be taken on by Kennedy and Johnson
It encouraged civil rights activists to work for more legislation
