Civil Rights Movement Foundations (1945-1960)

Overview

• Focus on the development and expansion of the civil rights movement from 1945 to 1960.
• Examines the promises made post-Civil War and how they were suppressed by Jim Crow laws.

Key Historical Context

• Many promises post-Civil War: Voting rights, equal protection under the law.
• Suppression through Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests.
• Plessy vs. Ferguson: Supreme Court decision that upheld racial segregation.

Federal Government's Role

• Civil rights activists pressured the government to uphold earlier promises.
• All three federal branches made gains in civil rights.

Executive Branch

• President Truman supported civil rights, issued Executive Order 9981 (1948) banning segregation in armed forces.
  • Enforcement delayed until the Korean War.
• Truman's actions influenced by the Committee on Civil Rights (1946):
  • Recommended desegregation, abolishment of poll taxes, federal protection from lynching.

Legislative Branch

• Truman urged Congress to enact civil rights laws.
• 24th Amendment (1962): Abolished poll taxes.

Judicial Branch

• Brown vs. Board of Education (1954):
  • Challenged racial segregation in schools based on the 14th Amendment.
  • Supreme Court overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson; declared that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.
  • Ordered integration of schools "with all deliberate speed," causing resistance in the South.

Southern Resistance

• Southern states resisted school integration.
• Southern Manifesto: Document claiming Supreme Court overstepped in Brown decision.
• Some states closed schools rather than integrate.

Little Rock Nine (1956)

• Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus used National Guard to block black students from Little Rock High School.
• President Eisenhower deployed federal troops to enforce integration and protect students.

Summary

• Significant strides made during 1940s and 1950s, but faced strong opposition.
• School integration efforts met with resistance, making incremental progress over the decade.

These notes summarize the key ideas and events from the lecture on the developments in the civil rights movement from 1945 to 1960, focusing on federal actions and Southern resistance.