Eisenhower and the Early Civil

Rights Movement

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

Role of Truman: Most of his civil rights

efforts were blocked by Conservative Democrats in Congress

1948 – Executive Order 9981 desegregates the military

1951 – Appoints the first black federal judge William Hastie

Above: Truman with Wm Hastie in the US Virgin Islands where Hastie was the Governor from 1946-49. Hastie received a recess appointment to the US 3rd Court of Appeals in Oct. 1949. He was confirmed by the Senate in July 1950. He will serve on the Appellate Court for 22 years.

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

Black Migration: WWI “Great Migration” WWII migration to both

North & West After WWII, migration

from rural South to southern cities

By 1960, 30% of blacks had left the South.

Significance?

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

Role of Capitalism: Post-WWII industrialization in the South = economic

opportunities Emergence of a black middle class Jim Crow released social tensions that were bad for business

& image of the South

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

The Democratic Party: Starting in 1936, blacks

became an important bloc of the New Deal Coalition

As blacks make the move to the Democrats, southern conservative Democrats begin to leave the party

1948 Democratic Party platform embraces the cause of Civil Rights

From right: Hubert H. Humphrey, Coretta Scott King, and Dr. Martin Luther King

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

The Cold War: Global competition with the USSR

– especially in the third world – made racism and segregation at home more difficult to export the American version of freedom and democracy abroad

Many Americans believed that the Civil Rights movement was influenced and funded by Labor Unions and communists

Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement:

The Role of TV: Influence blacks? Influence whites? Used by Civil Rights

organizations & leaders?

Desegregating Schools: NAACP had been working for

decades trying to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson

1954 SCOTUS ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate but equal facilities are inherently unequal”

1955 SCOTUS followed up with Brown II ordering communities to desegregate their schools “with all deliberate speed”.

“Southern Manifesto” signed by southern members of congress urged defiance to court order

By 1957, only 684 of 3,000 affected school districts in the South had begun to desegregate

NAACP Legal Team that won the Brown case. Thurgood Marshall in center.

Eisenhower & Civil Rights: While Eisenhower was not

an outspoken advocate of civil rights, he did understand the executive’s constitutional role in enforcing the law

Appointed California Governor Earl Warren as Chief Justice of SCOTUS

Some southerners might have taken his silence on civil rights as tacit agreement with their resistance

Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955 Civil Rights activist, Rosa Parks,

refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, AL. She was arrested.

The black community in Montgomery organized a boycott of the city’s busses and down town shops that discriminated against blacks.

The Montgomery Improvement Association was led by the young Martin Luther King, Jr.

On 5 June 1956, the federal district court ruled in Browder v. Gale that bus segregation was unconstitutional, and in November 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Browder v. Gayle and struck down laws requiring segregated seating on public buses.

The boycott lasted 13 months and demonstrated King’s trademark non-violent protest techniques.

Showdown in Little Rock In 1957, white mobs prevented

the desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

Gov. Orval Faubus used National Guard to block entry of the first black students to Central High

After a meeting with Eisenhower, Faubus withdrew the troops and the white mobs returned

In response, Eisenhower deployed troops from the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students to classes for the entire school year

In protest, Faubus closed the public schools the following year to prevent their integration

Civil Rights Act of 1957• The Act marked the first occasion since

Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights

• It established the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, and empowered federal officials to prosecute individuals that conspired to deny or abridge another citizen’s right to vote.

• Moreover, it also created a six-member U.S. Civil Rights Commission charged with investigating allegations of voter infringement.

• But, perhaps most importantly, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 signaled a growing federal commitment to the cause of civil rights.