8.6 - Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement (1945–1960)

Jackie Robinson and the Civil Rights Movement

• Jackie Robinson: In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African American in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, making a significant impact on American society.

Presidential Leadership

• Harry S. Truman: Truman was the first modern president to challenge racial discrimination using his executive powers. In 1946, he established the Committee on Civil Rights and strengthened the Justice Department's civil rights division.

  • Desegregation of the Armed Forces: In 1948, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which banned racial discrimination in the U.S. military, leading to the desegregation of the armed forces.

• Legislative Efforts: Despite recognizing the challenges, Truman urged Congress to create a Fair Employment Practices Commission to prevent hiring discrimination, but Southern Democrats blocked the legislation.

Changing Attitudes in the Cold War

• Cold War Influence: The Cold War indirectly pushed for changes in U.S. government policies and social attitudes. The U.S. aimed to showcase its values of freedom and democracy against Communist ideology, making racial segregation and discrimination glaring issues that needed to be addressed.

Desegregating Schools and Public Places

• NAACP Efforts: The NAACP had been working through the courts for decades to overturn the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which allowed "separate but equal" segregation. The late 1940s saw significant progress in cases involving higher education.

• Brown v. Board of Education Decision: In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), argued by NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court ruled that segregating Black children in public schools was unconstitutional. The unanimous decision, written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, declared that "separate facilities are inherently unequal" and called for the end of school segregation "with all deliberate speed."

Resistance in the South

• Widespread opposition to the Brown decision, with 101 members of Congress signing the "Southern Manifesto" condemning the Supreme Court.

• Southern states resisted by closing public schools and setting up private ones, while violence against African Americans increased, including a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

• In 1956, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine African American students from entering Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower intervened, sending federal troops to protect the students.

• Despite these efforts, by 1964, only 2% of Black students in the South attended integrated schools.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Sparked by Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a White passenger, leading to a widespread boycott of Montgomery buses.

• The protest was led by Martin Luther King Jr., resulting in a Supreme Court ruling that segregation laws were unconstitutional.

• The boycott inspired further civil rights protests across the nation.

Nonviolent Protests

• In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to mobilize churches in the civil rights struggle.

• The sit-in movement began in 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, when college students protested segregated lunch counters, leading to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

• African Americans used sit-ins to integrate public facilities, marking a significant turning point in the civil rights movement, though progress was slow and led to growing impatience and eventual violent confrontations in the 1960s.

Federal Laws

• President Eisenhower signed the first civil rights laws since Reconstruction in 1957 and 1960, establishing a permanent Civil Rights Commission and allowing the Justice Department to protect African American voting rights.

• Despite these laws, Southern officials continued using tactics to prevent African Americans from voting.

• These early efforts in the 1950s laid the groundwork for the continued struggle for racial justice in the following decades.