Rethinking the 1950s

Postwar Context

division in labor movement (white violence), will economic boom continue?, larger role of federal government, labor movement expected to maintain power

National Association of Manufacturers

pushes idea that business should be in control again

CIO shifts from corporatism to fear of superstate

CIO

unable to extend price controls and FEPC

starts mass organizing in south to stop companies from going there for low wages

scared to mix labor and civil rights, so they organize white textile workers (largely unsuccessful)

Taft Hartley Act 1947

union restrictions

Truman vetoes but Congress overturns

banned sympathy strikes, restricts pickets, non-communist affidavits

Red Baiting

causes CIO to kick out some unions

1947 Federal Employee Loyalty Program

had to sign non-communist affidavits

McCarthy

holds publicized hearings before House of Un-American Affairs Committee in 1950s

real target was Democrats

Liberal Consensus

both parties agree to contain communism and expand national security state

spending on defense to bolster economy

Labor and Business “Accord”

racial agenda off the table

Consensus?

actually a moment of domination; told to wait for progress (gradualism); black and Latino workers forced out of best jobs; return of gender roles

Brown v. Board of Education

beginning of classical phase

started with five NAACP cases

illegal under 14th amendment

Brown II

gave the south opportunity to resist

Effects of Brown

felt law was on their side

focused movement on integration

1956 Southern Manifesto

southern states would resist Brown

white elites had the power

Moderates and Liberals

actually gradualists and paternalists

White Citizens’ Council

formed in MS as NAACP swung to implement Brown

Emmett Till

staying in MS (from Chicago) in summer 1955

Jet Magazine had a big spread

trial covered internationally and uncle as witness

men acquitted and admitted later but could not be retried

key force that activated young activists

Montgomery Bus Boycott

December 1955-56

Rosa Parks (NAACP field secretary) was arrested and called E.D. Nixon, who organized a mass meeting at MLK’s church

Jo Ann Robinson spent all night printing leaflets to announce the boycott

loss of domestic worker fares cripples bus system

people charged for “illegal” taxies

SCLC

formed in 1957 after boycott

King

became spokesperson for boycott led by black women

pamphlet shows Parks as tired woman and turning point as King having an epiphany; passive resistance and Christian redemption; does not mention working class element or women leaders

Integration Delayed

privatization, gradual stair-step, pairing plans (token integration)

Civil Rights Act of 1957

lobbied by MLK; gets a lot of support but doesn’t have the votes to overcome filibuster

Eisenhower guts it to get it past filibuster

NAACP

banned in several states and driven underground

litigation aspect still able to function

Lessons of the Late 1950s

gradualism is not progress, northern allies did not support enforcement, southern moderates accepted tokenism, opponents fought for control of resources, southern politicians championed resistance, Jim Crow entrenched south, president didn’t see civil rights as a moral cause, inability for direct communication about race

Septima Clark

built citizenship schools

started at Highlander

1959 Florida A&M

student was sexually assaulted and offenders were brought to trial

Biloxi Wade-In

claimed right to swim in 1959

Birmingham ACMHR

fought for employment and integration

against police brutality

working class movement

Robert F. Williams of Monrow, NC

meeting violence with violence

facedown with Klan; shootout drove KKK away

ousted from NAACP

Nation of Islam

self-help and community organizations

Audley Moore in Harlem

calls for reparations for slavery

Mexican Civil Rights

“respectable” liberal organizations replace left unionizing

court cases to address mistreatment

hand in hand with black freedom struggle