Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

These Rights, issued the next year, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, that seg-documented African Americans’ regation of African-American and

second-class status in American life white students was constitutional if

and recommended numerous fed- facilities were “separate but equal .”

eral measures to secure the rights That decree had been used for de-

guaranteed to all citizens .

cades to sanction rigid segregation

Truman responded by sending in all aspects of Southern life, where

a 10-point civil rights program to facilities were seldom, if ever, equal .

Congress . Southern Democrats in

African Americans achieved their

Congress were able to block its en- goal of overturning Plessy in 1954

actment . A number of the angriest, when the Supreme Court — pre-

led by Governor Strom Thurmond sided over by an Eisenhower ap-

of South Carolina, formed a States pointee, Chief Justice Earl Warren

Rights Party to oppose the president — handed down its Brown v. Board

in 1948 . Truman thereupon issued of Education ruling . The Court de-

an executive order barring discrim- clared unanimously that “separate

ination in federal employment, or- facilities are inherently unequal,”

dered equal treatment in the armed and decreed that the “separate but

forces, and appointed a committee equal” doctrine could no longer be

to work toward an end to military used in public schools . A year later,

segregation, which was largely ended the Supreme Court demanded that

during the Korean War .

local school boards move “with all

African Americans in the South deliberate speed” to implement the

in the 1950s still enjoyed few, if any, decision .

civil and political rights . In gener-

Eisenhower, although sympathet-

al, they could not vote . Those who ic to the needs of the South as it faced

tried to register faced the likelihood a major transition, nonetheless act-

of beatings, loss of job, loss of credit, ed to see that the law was upheld in or eviction from their land . Occa- the face of massive resistance from

sional lynchings still occurred . Jim much of the South . He faced a ma-

Crow laws enforced segregation of jor crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, in

the races in streetcars, trains, hotels, 1957, when Governor Orval Faubus

restaurants, hospitals, recreational attempted to block a desegregation

facilities, and employment .

plan calling for the admission of nine

black students to the city’s previ-

DESEGREGATION

ously all-white Central High School .

T

After futile efforts at negotiation, the

he National Association for the president sent federal troops to Little

Advancement of Colored People Rock to enforce the plan .

(NAACP) took the lead in efforts to

Governor Faubus responded by

overturn the judicial doctrine, es- ordering the Little Rock high schools

tablished in the Supreme Court case closed down for the 1958-59 school

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

year . However, a federal court

powerful, thoughtful, and eloquent

ordered them reopened the follow- leader in Martin Luther King Jr .

ing year . They did so in a tense at-

African Americans also sought to

mosphere with a tiny number of secure their voting rights . Although

African-American students . Thus, the 15th Amendment to the U .S .

school desegregation proceeded at a Constitution guaranteed the right to

slow and uncertain pace throughout vote, many states had found ways to

much of the South .

circumvent the law . The states would

Another milestone in the civil impose a poll (“head”) tax or a lit-

rights movement occurred in 1955 in eracy test — typically much more

Montgomery, Alabama . Rosa Parks, stringently interpreted for African

a 42-year-old African-American Americans — to prevent poor Afri-

seamstress who was also secretary can Americans with little education

of the state chapter of the NAACP, from voting . Eisenhower, working

sat down in the front of a bus in a with Senate majority leader Lyn-

section reserved by law and custom don B . Johnson, lent his support to

for whites . Ordered to move to the a congressional effort to guarantee

back, she refused . Police came and the vote . The Civil Rights Act of

arrested her for violating the seg- 1957, the first such measure in 82

regation statutes . African-American years, marked a step forward, as it

leaders, who had been waiting for authorized federal intervention in

just such a case, organized a boycott cases where African Americans

of the bus system .

were denied the chance to vote . Yet

Martin Luther King Jr ., a young loopholes remained, and so activ-

minister of the Baptist church ists pushed successfully for the Civil

where the African Americans met, Rights Act of 1960, which provided

became a spokesman for the pro- stiffer penalties for interfering with

test . “There comes a time,” he said, voting, but still stopped short of au-

“when people get tired . . of being thorizing federal officials to register kicked about by the brutal feet of op- African Americans .

pression .” King was arrested, as he

Relying on the efforts of African

would be again and again; a bomb Americans themselves, the civil

damaged the front of his house . But rights movement gained momen-

African Americans in Montgomery tum in the postwar years . Working

sustained the boycott . About a year through the Supreme Court and

later, the Supreme Court affirmed through Congress, civil rights sup-

that bus segregation, like school porters had created the groundwork

segregation, was unconstitutional . for a dramatic yet peaceful “revolu-

The boycott ended . The civil rights tion” in American race relations in

movement had won an important the 1960s .

9

victory — and discovered its most

273

274

C H A P T E R

13

DECADES

OF

CHANGE:

1960-1980

Module Pilot Edwin Aldrin Jr.

on the moon, July 20, 1969.