Returning from WWII, black Americans, just as those three decades prior, expected to find America a land of equality for all people and specifically a land endowed with increased black civil rights. Although the late 1940’s and 1950’s are not generally considered a period of social advancement for blacks, the decade and a half after World War II ultimately proved to be a very significant chapter in the history of black civil rights and a pivotal stepping stone for the drastic social uproar of the next decade. In 1950, America counted fifteen million black citizens, two thirds of whom still lived lives in the segregated south. Bound by rigid Jim Crow laws, the black view of life appeared bleak. Nonetheless, a period of increasing black civil rights was already underway. Paving the way for the entire revolution was Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson, the first black American to play major league baseball. Blacks had crept in America’s national past time; more radical social changes were soon to come.
Disenfranchised blacks finally found a leader dedicated to their cause in Harry S. Truman. After hearing of a lynching of black war veterans, Truman was suddenly tuned in to the heated crisis in the southland. Despite persistent tries to advance the cause of the blacks, Truman was repeatedly shot down by a conservative congress. The boiling discontent felt by the blacks since the days of slavery could not be silenced so easily. The war had generated a new militancy and restlessness in the black community. Blacks increasingly voiced their opinions publicly and found many effective ways to advance their cause.
The Essay on Black Social Movements
The political and social structure of the United States can be difficult to comprehend. How does one rationalize that in 1776, America declared its independence from England by stating, in part that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of ...
The first such case came in 1944 when, after years of prodding by the NAACP, the supreme court ruled all-white primaries unconstitutional. Following the landmark ruling, NAACP chief legal advisor, Thurgood Marshall, later a supreme court justice himself, successfully appealed to the supreme court that separate professional schools for blacks failed to meet tests of equality with their all-white counterparts. Discovering new ways to advance their lives, a revolution had begun. By far the most instrumental and powerful black leader in the entire civil rights movement was a prominent black minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Using the black church as base, King harnessed the most organized and powerful black organization in the country. A powerful orator and a devotee to the non-violent principles professed by India’s Mohandas Ghandi, King enabled blacks to take the civil rights movement into their own hands.
King’s rise to prominence was catapulted by the Montgomery bus boycotts. After refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus, Rosa Parks’ arrest sparked a year-long bus boycott that serveed to notice throughout the Deep South that blacks would no longer meekly admit to the indignities of segregation. Despite an arrest during the Montgomery boycotts, King emerged more dedicated to social equality. In 1957, King established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dedicated to mobilizing the vast power of the black churches, blacks now had an unprecedented, powerful tool to combat the forces of southern democrats in favor of segregation. Less organized was the sit-in movement sparked by four black college freshmen in Greensboro, North Carolina. Nonetheless, the sit-in spread like wild fire throughout the south as many previously segregated businesses wielded under the increasing pressure. At the end of the decade, southern black students formed the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee to give more focus to these efforts. As these bodies of social justice grew in power and prestige, they possessed an undeniable role in the civil rights movement to flourish in the 60’s. Most important of the civil rights advancements of blacks were the landmark supreme court’s rulings enacted to tear down the institutions of segregation in place for nearly three quarters of a century after the fall of slavery.
The Essay on The Importance And Struggles Of The Black Studies Movement
The development of African American Studies or Black Studies provides an interesting and significant aspect to the history of the struggles of black men and women. As a multidisciplinary academic concentration, it serves to analyze the history, politics, and culture of African-based societies and communities. This relatively new study has encountered an assortment of challenges within and outside ...
Clearing the way for the civil rights movement was Chief Justice Earl Warren. Appointed by Eisenhower, a man who believed more in social harmony than social justice, Warren shocked the president and other conservatives with his active intervention in extremely controversial social issues. Warren believed in legislation by the judiciary in default of legislation by Congress, and the 1950’s were definitely an era in default of active social legislation by Congress. The epochal Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruling declared that forced segregation in public schools was “inherently unequal” and thus unconstitutional. The landmark decision overturned the court’s 1896 Plessey v. Ferguson ruling that “separate but equal” educational institutions were allowable under the constitution.
The ruling was quickly tested in September 1957 when Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas called in the national guard to prevent nine black students from entering Little Rock’s Central High School. Eisenhower, despite little inclination towards promoting integration, sent in federal troops to protect the students. That same year Congress passed the first Civil Rights Act since the Reconstruction. The bill, which set up a permanent Civil Rights Commission to investigate violations of civil rights authorized federal injunctions to protect voting right, proved to be extremely mild. Nonetheless, it was a step in the right direction for a Congress seemingly devoted to preserving the establishment of integration forever. As evident by the landmark civil rights ruling of the 50’s, the 1960’s movement will forever be rooted in the epochal decisions of the previous decade. Although the late 1940’s and 1950’s are usually considered fairly insignificant compared to revolutionary 1960’s, the root of the black civil rights movement lies in the effective leadership of men like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the landmark legislation enacted by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The 1950’s provided the spark that started the civil rights fire in the heart of America.
The Essay on Civil War Reconstruction Congress South President
AP American History 1/13/2005 The President versus Congress The President and congress both had different reconstruction plans for the south. These different arguments were based on different beliefs and different self interests. The President firmly believed on a soft-on-south reconstruction plan while congress believed that the south should be economically, socially, and politically ...
