Civil Rights (Eisenhower) Flashcards
Brown v Board of education - 1954
Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled in favour of Brown who proved that segregated schools were inherently unequal. It created problems for Eisenhower who said appointing Warren was “the biggest damned fool mistake i ever made”
“With all deliberate speed” was used leaving many school to delay desegregation and prevented quick change.
Emmet Till 1955
African American boy who was lynched by a white mob. The murder received widespread media recognition and was a catalyst for the next phase of the CR movement, however the two main culprits were found not guilty of murder and Eisenhower did not involve himself.
Montgomery bus boycott - 1955
Boycott began with the arrest of Rosa Parks and lasted for 381 days. Whilst the boycott continued the NAACP brought the Bowder v Gayle case to the supreme court which ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. The non-violent approach elevated MLK and resulted in the alienation of the KKK and the white citizens council. Eisenhower was uninterested and took no action to help with the implementation of reforms.
The southern manifesto - 1956
A document signed by 101 dixiecrats who threatened to use “all lawful means” to oppose desegregation. Eisenhower was faced with a potentially explosive situation with the potential of southern politicians splitting from the democratic party. As such he did not want to use federal power to enforce the supreme courts decisions.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.
Greensboro Sit-ins (1960)
Young African American students (dubbed the Greensboro Four) staged a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service, to try and force change of the segregationist policies of establishments. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South. Its use of nonviolence inspired the Freedom Riders and others to take up the cause of integration in the South.
SNCC
To capitalize on the momentum of the sit-in movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, in April 1960. It was one of the leading forces in the civil rights movement, organizing Freedom Rides through the South in 1961 and the historic March on Washington in 1963, at which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech.
