A LOOK AT:

CIVIL RIGHTS IN
THE USA
(1945 – 1968)

WILLIAM LUU
Essay—Civil Rights in the USA (1945 – 1968)
Question
Assess whether the Civil Rights Movement was opposed throughout the entirety of the United
States of America or just in the Southern states.
Sub-Questions

• Assess whether resistance in Congress had an impact on the Civil Rights Movement.
• Determine whether there were any instances of racial discrimination in the rest of the
United States comparable to discrimination in the Southern states.

• List the groups which opposed the Civil Rights Movement as it was led by Martin
Luther King Jr.
Essay
The Civil Rights Movement was not universally supported within the United State of

America. Resistance in the Southern United States was plentiful as the Civil Rights

Movement opposed segregation and racial discrimination, which were not as present in the

rest of the United States. Civil rights legislation faced constant delays from filibusters to

prevent it from becoming law, however, they were not able to block it indefinitely. While the

Civil Rights Movement mostly targeted those states where segregation and racism were

prevalent, segregated schools in Boston, Massachusetts caught the attention of civil rights

activists. The Civil Rights Movement was opposed by many pro-segregationist, conservative

groups, including the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the White Citizens’ Council (WCC) in the

South. Martin Luther King Jr. also faced criticism from Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam,

a more radical voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, this shows that the Civil

Rights Movement was not opposed through the entire USA, however, the most significant

resistance came from the Southern states.

The Civil Rights Movement’s lasting effects can be seen in the resulting legislation:

The Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These laws were passed long

2
after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) case where the segregation

of public schools was deemed incantational. U.S. Democratic President John F. Kennedy

wanted “every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race

or his colour,” and therefore supported civil rights legislation; Kennedy even proposed a bill

to Congress. After Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, what eventually became the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson despite the stiff

resistance from both houses of Congress, even though the Democratic Party held a majority

of seats in both houses. Leader of the conservative coalition (made up predominantly of

Republican Senators and Southern Senators in the Senate), Senator Richard Russell

(Democratic Senator from Georgia) actively opposed the Civil Rights Movement; his group

would commonly use filibusters to halt or slow down the passage of a bill through Congress.

This included a “filibuster that lasted eighty days and stands as the longest in the Senate’s

history.” (Chambers Jr., 2008)1 Ultimately, this resistance was so fierce as there was little

chance of the Supreme Court of the USA striking the act down as unconstitutional. This

occurred even under the presidency of Johnson who was a Southern Democrat. Ultimately,

the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was eventually passed, therefore the resistance in the legislature

mostly amounted to delays and therefore had little impact on the lasting effects of the Civil

Rights Movement. This resistance in Washington D.C. prevented Civil Rights from becoming

1
This figure was likely made based off the total time the bill spent in Congress, including in both houses and
respective committees. The filibuster took up 60 working days according the U.S. Senate.
3
law sooner, however, as the US is a federal state, the laws enacted by state governments were

also significant in achieving civil rights within the South.

The Civil Rights Movement, while tackling segregationist policies in the Southern

states, also encountered issues regarding public education in Boston, Massachusetts—a city

in the North. While it was illegal for the schools to not accept black students in 1974, there

were some high schools, including the South Boston High School, which had no African

American student. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

(NAACP) attributed this to how local communities were mostly made up by single race.

Since these students from these community attended their nearest school, this led to schools

effectively becoming segregated. There was no legislation or de jure segregation in Boston

which barred African American students from attending any high school but due to factors

outside of the law, high schools were nevertheless racially segregated ‘as a matter of fact’ or

de facto. What sets this case apart from that of the segregation of schools in the Southern

states was that there was no use of state law to enforce segregation or other forms of racial

discrimination.

While the issue of segregation of high schools in Massachusetts was handled mostly

occurred through litigation, the process of desegregation in Alabama was more tumultuous.

George Wallace, a Democratic Governor for Alabama, stated in his inaugural speech that: “I

say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” The Alabaman state

constitution, adopted in 1901, provided for segregated public school, showing de jure

segregation. Even after Brown v Board of Education, delaying tactics by the state government

in desegregating public schools and increased support for segregated private schools allowed

segregation to remain in Alabama. The effects of this stiff resistance to the Civil Rights

4
Movement can be seen in the 21st Century with nearly 99% of all public-school students in

Sumter County, Alabama being black whereas the county’s population is 76% black. This

shows another view of the Civil Rights Movement’s lasting impact: schools have been de

facto segregated.

The Civil Rights Movement faced significant resistance in the Southern states from

many groups. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) vehemently opposed the Civil Rights Movement and

would resort to violence such as on 4 May 1961, members of the KKK attacked civil rights

activists, known as Freedom Riders, with firebombs in Alabama which were “home to the

largest KKK organisation in America.” (Smithsonian Channel, n.d.) The KKK was a white

supremacist group which was pro-segregationist—notions which the Civil Rights Movement

fought against—as were the White Citizens’ Council (WCC). Mainly composed of people

from the middle and upper class, the WCC had members in positions of power, such as W. A.

Gayle, mayor of Montgomery, who said: “We must make certain that Negroes are not

allowed to force their demands on us.” Martin Luther King Jr., President of the Southern

Christian Leadership, called the WCC the “modern Ku Klux Klan” as they also utilised

violence; a local NAACP chairman, Medgar Evans, was murdered by a member of the WCC.

However, King would note that the main obstacle in achieving civil rights was “not the White

Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to

‘order’ than to justice[.]” (King, 1963) While ‘white moderates’, who were the majority, did

not oppose the Civil Rights Movement as vehemently as the two violent groups, their support

was needed to enact civil rights, hence King’s dissatisfaction with the group.

Opposition to King also came from the National of Islam and civil rights activist,

Malcolm X, who opposed King’s methods of non-violence while promoting ideas of black

5
nationalism. Malcolm X actively viewed violence as a solution: “I am for violence if non-

violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just

to avoid violence.” The Civil Rights Movement not only faced resistance in the South from

those who disagreed with its goals of desegregation and racial equality, but also from other

black activists such as Malcolm X.

Ultimately, the Civil Rights Movement faced resistance mostly from the Southern

states. Southern members of Congress would prevent effective civil rights legislation from

passing mostly through delaying tactics such as filibusters; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was

eventually passed, outlawing discrimination. While there were examples of segregation in the

other states, these cases did not relate to legislation and were less severe than segregation in

the South. The Civil Rights Movement faced many opposition groups such as the Dixiecrats

alongside the KKK and White Citizens’ Council. Opposition included black activists such as

Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Therefore, the Civil Rights Movement was not opposed

throughout the entirety of the United States as segregation was mostly contained in the South.

Bibliography
Brown, D. L., 2018. Martin Luther King Jr.’s scorn for ‘white moderates’ in his Birmingham
jail letter. [Online]
Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/15/martin-luther-
king-jr-s-scathing-critique-of-white-moderates-from-the-birmingham-
jail/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5405b6c4beab
[Accessed 7 June 2019].
Chambers Jr., H. L., 2008. Civil Rights Act of 196. [Online]
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&http
sredir=1&article=1929&context=law-faculty-publications
[Accessed 10 June 2019].

6
Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2019. The Civil Rights Act of 1964. [Online]
Available at: https://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/the-civil-rights-act-of-1964
[Accessed 6 June 2019].
Digital History, 2007. Chapter 3 Segregation in the North; Case Study: Boston. [Online]
Available at: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/lesson_plans/pdfs/unit11_3.pdf
[Accessed 28 May 2019].
Frederickson, K., 2008. Dixiecrats. [Online]
Available at: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1477
[Accessed 7 June 2019].
History.com Editors, 2019. Civil Rights Act of 1964. [Online]
Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act
[Accessed 9 June 2019].
Kreisler, H., 2002. Nelson Polsby Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of
International Studies, UC Berkeley. [Online]
Available at: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Polsby/polsby-con4.html
[Accessed 10 June 2019].
Library of Congress, 2014. The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom.
[Online]
Available at: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/legal-events-timeline.html
[Accessed 6 June 2019].
Smithsonian Channel, 2017. The Heinous 1961 KKK Attack on the Freedom Riders. [Online]
Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/smithsonian-channel/the-
heinous-1961-kkk-attack-on-the-freedom-r/
[Accessed 9 June 2019].
Stanford Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute, 2017. Malcolm X. [Online]
Available at: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/malcolm-x
[Accessed 7 June 2019].
Stanford Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute, 2017. White Citizens'
Councils (WCC). [Online]
Available at: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/white-citizens-councils-wcc
[Accessed 7 June 2019].
United States Senate, 2017. Civil Rights Filibuster Ended. [Online]
Available at:
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm
[Accessed 9 June 2019].