Civil Rights Movement (1954-68)

(Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, MLK)

Background
After WWII, Blacks started supported any party which gave them concrete
assistance.
In 1875, Congress passed a legislation guaranteeing Blacks equal access to public
accommodations; however, in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, SC ruled that segregation did
not violate the Constitution.
As a result, several states enacted what came to be known as ‘Jim Crow’ legislation
where, public facilities were segregated, Blacks were denied voting rights, poor
employment.
Blacks surrendered to despair; whites showed arrogance.
Many leaders – Frazier and Gunnar Myrdal found this disturbing and against
American ideals of justice, liberty and equality.

Civil Rights Movement was a grassroot movement to end racial discrimination as

Afro-Americans decided to protest, speak up, walk out or engage in civil
disobedience.

1909 – National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was
formed.
Major aims included – access to voting rights & trade unions, and abolition of
segregation, equal pay, etc.

Introduction
Wali Fard founded the Nation of Islam, which condemned all whites as evils and
enemies of the Blacks.
Stokely Carmichael and Rap Brown introduced the slogan black power.
1943 – Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was organized. It demanded
desegregation of hotels, transport and other public places, and relied on non-violent
struggle.

1955 – the modern Civil Rights Movement was ignited by the Montgomery incident –
when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
After 13 months, SC held that laws segregating buses were unconstitutional.
Made MLK a hero, as he led the boycott.
1956 – Southern Christian Leadership Council was created to coordinate and support
non-violent protests against segregation and discrimination.

The Movement was marked by court battles –

1944 – SC in Smith v. Allwright banned segregation on dining cars, trains in the
South, and segregated education at the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas.
1954 – SC in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education declared racial segregation in all
public schools as unconstitutional.
Hence, NAACP even ended up suing 5 school boards, and secured an order from SC
that segregation in public schools was inherently unequal.
Whites, through Ku Klux Klan and White Citizens Council resorted to violence to
keep Blacks away from white schools.
This enraged Blacks which led to militancy, sit-in demonstrations, freedom rides in
bus terminals and boycott.

Some Presidents that helped the cause:

1. 1941 – Roosie signed an order to end discrimination in employment, as he
needed Blacks for the War.
2. Truman issued an order ending segregation in military.
3. Eisenhower enacted the first Civil Rights Acts in American history of
 1957 – the first one created a Civil Rights commission to look into the
denial of the right to vote on racial grounds.
 1960 – provided for the punishment of people who violated the ruling
of the Commission.

1960 – North Carolina students began a sit-in movement wherein they refused to
leave a segregated lunch counter.
This inspired other sit-ins and protests against segregation.
1961 – students founded Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for young, protesting
Afro-Americans
The same year, Freedom Riders risked their lives trying to desegregate interstate
travel.
The deeper they ventured in the South, they were arrested and beaten.
Eisenhower (1953-61)
He didn’t like racial issues, but couldn’t avoid em much longer after a landmark
judgment - Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, declared segregation
unconstitutional. He never spoke about the ruling.
This may have encouraged resistance to desegregation – whites organized councils to
prevent compliance with the court’s order, others relied on political groups and
governments.
However, he did uphold his constitutional duty of upholding the Court’s decision
when mobs organized protests to prevent desegregation in a public school in
Arkansas in 1957. He even dispatched federal troops to the south to uphold a federal
law. This became a landmark move as it was the first time since Reconstruction that
a President sent federal troops to the South to enforce a federal law.
However, he didn’t treat it as a racial issue, but made it a communist issue.
In a similar situation, wherein another public school refused to follow desegregation,
Eisenhower expressed his “regret” over the Blacks’ access to public education, but
didn’t take any action. Further, since there was no violence, Eisenhower believed that
his constitutional obligation was to preserve public order and not speed up school
desegregation. When Eisenhower left, only 6% Afro-Americans had attended
integrated schools

However, he still did remarkable in the civil rights area

1957 – he signed the first civil rights legislation since reconstruction. The law
provided for the federal protection for voting rights.
Despite their constitutional rights, Blacks couldn’t vote because of literacy rates, poll
taxes, etc. The legislation he had signed was weaker than the bill he had sent to
Capitol Hill.
In South, a jury trial determined whether or not a citizen’s voting right had been
infringed. Where Blacks could not serve on juries, they were not gonna get to vote.
1960 – singed another civil rights law, but didn’t make much difference.
In his constitutional capacity, he made significant efforts towards desegregation – for
instance in federal offices in Washington and military.
Further, he appointed judges in federal courts, whose judgements he knew would
help civil rights.
However, he wasn’t an ardent supporter of civil rights. His effort towards
desegregation was extremely slow. He was sympathetic to the white southerners who
had their ways of life “disrupted’’.
1958 – Only once when he met Blacks’ civil rights leaders. He became irritated when
they demanded stiffer actions.
He also failed to heed MLK’s advice he uses the bully pulpit of the presidency to build
popular support for racial integration.
He failed to use his moral authority as a President in the advancement of civil rights.

Kennedy (1961-63)
Civil rights, in the US, was the most brutal and volatile issue of Kennedy’s domestic
policy. As Afro-Americans were trying to undo generational hardships, activism
against legalized racism was growing, which infuriated the whites in the South.
Kennedy’s lack of action here is highly criticised – he focused more on enforcing civil
rights than on passing new ones.

He had to go by senatorial courtesy and appoint federal judges in the South, who
were acceptable to the Southern Democrats. These judges opposed the civil rights
and their record was worse than the judges appointed by Eisenhower, who was under
no such party constraints.
Kennedy also got troops sent to the South as schools there were refusing
desegregation.
September, 1962 – when a Black veteran, James Meredith wanted to enrol in a
traditionally white University of Mississippi, the federal court ruled against the
enrolment.
When the Mississippi Governor defied the court, allowing Meredith to enrol,
Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard and ordered the escort of federal
marshals to accompany Meredith to the campus.
Meredith’s enrolment caused violent protests that took military fifteen hours to quell.

Activists proclaimed their impatience with “tokenism and gradualism”

Freedom Riders Act, 1961 – aimed to desegregate buses in the South.
August - March on Washington, where King delivered his I have a Dream speech.
When four children were killed in a racial bombing at a church, Kennedy was once
again forced to intervene.

1963 – Alabama’s black community decided to protest by mass marches and filling
up the city’s jails.
Birmingham’s Police Commissioner, Eugene Connor responded with police brutality
towards peaceful protests. The protests became brutal, and graphic excerpts from the
protests were televised – Kennedy was forced to intervene.
Kennedy sent an official from the Justice Department to negotiate a short-term
agreement between business leaders and civil rights’ activists.
This very protest made it very clear that the Movement was here to stay.

1963 – federal courts ordered the University of Alabama to admit two Afro-
Americans.
Alabama Governor, Wallace blocked the University entrance to prevent
desegregation. Wallace engaged in a standoff with the US Attorney General, while
Kennedy mobilized Alabama National Guard to protect the students and resolve the
situation.

Kennedy delayed sending a civil rights bill to the Congress until his second term,
when he could afford to split his party, and moderate Republicans as a backup.
He thought pursuing such a legislation in his first term would affect his program.
Black activists remained frustrated with his program.
However, after the Wallace situation and the assassination of NAACP director,
Medgar Evers, he was forced to send the bill to the Congress.
The bill became the law post his death.

Johnson (1963-69)
He was tasked with the passing of Kennedy’s Civil Rights Act, 1964 to end racial
segregation in all public facilities.
He was able to forge a bipartisan coalition of key senators from Northern and border-
state Democrats and moderate Republicans that offset the coalition of the Southern
Democrats and Right-wing Republicans.
The bill was passed.
1965 – this was about denial of voting rights in the South.
State laws governing voting rights were racist, administered by the racists:
1. Literacy tests, which would be manipulated so the literate blacks would fail.
2. “Good character” tests which required existing voters to vouch for new
registrars. Hence, no black could ever become a registrar.
3. Poll tax – this was however later amended.
Black activists for voting rights were beaten bloody – Johnson used the incident to
propose Voting Rights Act, 1965.
The Act provided for:
1. the suspension of literacy tests in countries where voting rates were below a
certain point; it ended up covering most of the South.
2. Allowed for the enrolment of Afro-American voters.
The law was passed, and was immediately successful – Black voter turnout tripled in
four years, coming very close to the whites.
Blacks ended up forging a biracial coalition with the white moderates; White
conservatives began leaving Democratic Party, and ended up joining the Republican
Party.
Hence, two-party system developed in the South.]

Still, the racial tensions increased. The civil rights measures proved insufficient to
the minorities; posed a threat to the majority.
1964-68 witnessed massive racial riots; federal troops deployed in LA, Detroit and
Washington.
1968 – MLK assassinated in Memphis.
Caused massive civil disturbances, but some good that came out of this:
1. A bill outlawing racial discrimination in housing had been languishing in the
Congress, which got a new momentum.
2. Congress acceded to Johnson, and passed the bill; suburbs opened up to the
minorities, but highly segregated.

According to the Kerner Commission appointed by Johnson to know about the cause
of the domestic unrest, US had rapidly divided into:
 Separate
 Unequal
The Commission blamed inequality and racism for the riots. Johnson rejected the
findings, and thought them “to radical.”

Martin Luther King

He can be equated with Gandhi in following the non-violent path to end
discrimination. He even looked up to Gandhi’s teachings as a kid.

1955-56 – organized a 381 boycott of the transportation of Montgomery over the

Rosa Parks incident.
It was highly successful in the Movement, and forced the city administration to end
desegregation in local buses.

1962 – He issued an executive order banning racial discrimination in the federal

housing system.
Under Kennedy administration, he launched a legislation aimed at ended segregation
and material poverty.

1963 – led The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for job creation and civil
rights legislation and to maintain the momentum.
The idea came from a 1941 march to Washington organized to protest against racial
discrimination in war industries. The March never happened as Roosie passed an
order to prevent discrimination in defence industries.
Following the March came his I have a Dream speech and meeting Kennedy at White
House to discuss civil rights bill.

Under him, Blacks achieved a wave of civil rights through non-violent tactics.
The mass rally created far-reaching changes in the rank and file of demonstrators
and their administrators.
He’s acclaimed as hero for:
 Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Voting Rights of 1965
 Civil Rights of 1968
These acts ended discrimination in voting, employment and public accommodation
on the grounds of sex or race.
He was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in ’64 and posthumously Nehru Peace Prize.
Conclusion
By achieving all this, by 1967, the civil rights movement declined. There were internal
conflicts among the black organizations, the black criticism of the American foreign
policy and white reaction.
Those who opposed the civil rights for the coloured rallied under Republican Party.
Nixon and Ford opposed the federal support the civil rights and curbed the Black
militancy.
Many leaders were content with the progress made in the Movement, though the
racial prejudice could not be eradicated completely.