Civil Rights Movement Foundations (1945-1960)

  • Civil Rights Movement (1945-1960)

    • Overview of civil rights development during the 1940s and 1950s.
    • Focus on how and why the movement expanded during this period.

  • Historical Context

    • Promises were made to black Americans post-Civil War and during the Reconstruction era, including:
    • Constitutional amendments (e.g., voting rights, equal protection).
    • Reality of these promises was undermined by:
    • Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation.
    • Voter suppression tactics such as poll taxes and literacy tests.
    • Supreme Court decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that established segregation as legal.

  • Civil Rights Activism

    • From the 1940s onward, activists pressured the federal government to fulfill civil rights promises.
    • Achievements across all three branches of government:
    • Executive Branch:
      • President Harry Truman (1948) issued Executive Order 9981, which banned segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces.
      • Initially, Truman delayed enforcement until 1950 due to political concerns and the Korean War.
    • Truman's Committee on Civil Rights (1946):
      • Recommended desegregation of the armed forces, abolishing poll taxes, and federal protection against lynching.
      • Led to the 24th Amendment (1962) abolishing the poll tax.

  • Judicial Impact

    • Brown v. Board of Education (1954):
    • Consolidation of cases concerning school segregation, with Oliver Brown challenging the segregation policies affecting his daughter.
    • Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.
    • Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, declaring that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
    • Ordered integration of schools with the vague phrase "with all deliberate speed," which allowed Southern states to delay integration.

  • Resistance and Opposition

    • Southern states resisted the Brown decision:
    • Produced the Southern Manifesto arguing against the Supreme Court's ruling.
    • Some states closed schools instead of integrating.
    • Notable events:
    • 1956: Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus ordered the National Guard to prevent black students (the Little Rock Nine) from entering Little Rock High School.
    • President Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce integration and protect the students.

  • Conclusion

    • Significant progress was made in civil rights during the 1940s and 1950s, despite substantial opposition.
    • The journey toward full integration and civil rights continued to face challenges, leading into the civil rights movement of the 1960s.