1. Revision of Presidential policy and Civil Rights;

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This linking theme requires us to revise the social, political and economic theme of Civil Rights from 1945-81.

Guiding questions

1. What were the social, economic and political/legal constraints upon African Americans by 1945? In the South and the North?
2. What was the inheritance, and what were the main legislative achievements (and impact) of each President for African Americans, between 1945-81?
3. Which President should be credited with bringing about the most significant progress? What schools of thought are there?
4. What factors affected their ability to extend civil rights to African Americans?

General Information

Contextual information article - very useful stuff to know
Wiki Notes below
History channel: Interactive Timeline
Proquest study Unit

Detailed Information

Truman article on ProQuest: Moral courage and political risks
Eisenhower social policies: a revisionist view
Kennedy and civil rights article
Nixon civil rights article: Explaining an enigma -this is very long
Historiography

Wiki Notes

People Involved

Martin Luther King
  • Received Nobel Peace Prize
Thurgood Marshall
  • Justice in 67
Mitchell
Huey Newton
Stokey Carmichael
Roy Wilkins
Senator Russell
Earl Warren
  • Chief Justice of the Supreme court, 1953, appointed by Ike
  • Appointed as a Civil Rights action
  • Did Ike's 'dirty work'

Presidents Overview

Truman

  • Forms committee on civil rights
  • Issues To Secure these Rights
  • Desegregated the military

Lyndon Johnson

  • By 1960s, federal government had grown into a massive organisation
  • Took an extremely active approach
  • Led a majority government
  • Maneuvered budgeting so that states were under the federal govt's wing
  • Government had the power to punish the states against CR, thanks to LBJ's maneuvering
  • Government enforced equality: Housing projects, industrialization
John F. Kennedy
  • JFK for human rights
  • Took a cautious approach "with one stroke of the pen"
  • During freedom rides, called for a "cool down" period
Dwight Eisenhower
  • Ike wanted gradual desegregation induced by culture, not government
  • Ike proved that the army and federal government could kill mob violence

Legislation in Detail

Truman

  • desegregated the military

Ike (Dwight Eisenhower)

  • Appointed Earl Warren, the liberal, to do his dirty work
  • CR Act of 57:
  • Created a federal CR commission,
  • Supreme Court CR division
  • CR Act of 60:
  • Ban on interference with federal declarations on school desegregation
  • Judges can hear complaints against officials
  • Ike helped CR through appointing liberal justices to the Supreme Court
  • Both watered down to appease southerners

LBJ

  • Civil rights act of 1964 (LBJ)
    • drastic legislation Prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on sex, race
    • Gov has more power to compel locals to desegregate institutions
    • Established penalties for transgressors
    • But it does not protect voting rights
    • May not be followed in the South
  • Voting Rights act, 65
    • Voting Rights act comes after Selma
    • Federal registrars to go to the deep south
    • No poll tax, educational requirements
    • Redrawing of county lines so as to help minorities
  • Housing Act, 1968 = no discrimination in federal housing projects
    • War on Poverty FDR's New Deal had been designed to help those who had at one time been rich, but who were made poor by the depression LBJ's War on Poverty was targeted at those who had always been poor, or never held a job before The "hard core poor"
    • He wanted a big economy to provide jobs for blacks, help lift up the poor, and amass more federal funds without raising taxes Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO)was an organisation with branches to assist the poor The original plan was toned down to appease conservatives
  • Community Action Program (CAP)
    • Organized the poor, and undermined the mayors of big cities
  • VISTA
    • College students sent out into the slums and back country to help the poor and to raise public awareness of the plight of poverty
  • Kerner Committee Report
    • Report of Advisory Commission on Civil Disobedience, Kerner Commission, 68
    • Riots come from white racism, social polarization, from ghetto created and endorsed by Whites, Need massive federal spending to save the ghetto
    • LBJ was shocked, white backlash from violent riots lowered support for helping
    • MLK and Bobby wanted to attack poverty based on the commission, both were dead by summer 68
  • Brown v. Board of Education
    • Part of Roy Wilkins's campaign against the laws, Thurgood Marshall proved segregation was unlawful, from unequal funding, and bad conditions of black schools showed a union of the black lower and upper classes
    • Lawyers examined the psychological effects of separate but equal
    • Kenneth Clark showed that separation had detrimental effects on black schoolchildren
    • Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson
    • South resisted dramatically: Southern Manifesto
  • Black Power
    • Carmichaelís moniker after Meredith was shot
    • Shortcomings of previous CR movement
    • Over-focus on South, disregard of North
    • Peace in the face of unrestrained violence
    • Movement went to the North after Watts riot
    • New leaders arose, movement lost supportBy late 60s, Malcolm X's philosophy led the movement, not MLK's
    • 1966: SNCC switches to Nationalism, Black Power
    • Integration White Ways
    • Black Power Freedom

President Nixon


  • Nominated southern conservatives (Haynsworth and Carswell) to the Supreme Court ('southern strategy' for re-election). Rejected by Democrat-controlled Senate
  • Proposed amendment to ban school busing for racial balance - Supreme Court rejected his delay
  • Created in the Commerce Department an Office of Minority Business Enterprise
  • Sent budgets to Congress that increased funds for civil rights enforcement from $75 million in 1969 to $2.6 billion by 1972
  • Supported George Shultz (labour secretary and then OMB director) in his efforts to co-ordinate desegregation in the south; proportion of black children attending all-black schools in the south fell from 68% in 1968 to 8% in 1972
  • Voting Rights Amendment 1970 (Democratic Congress)
  • Equal Opportunities Legislation '72 (Democratic Congress)
  • Affirmative Action: '71 (Philadelphia Plan)
  • UC Regents v. Bakke in 74, proposition 209, 96**

A 'racial conservative' and a 'Liberal'/Father of Affirmative Action- an enigma
Motives: Re-election; realign party base to include m/c Black Americans; drive a wedge between two traditionally Democratic constituencies: organized labour and black civil rights groups; Democratic Congress forced his hand; more concerned with foreign affairs