We can trace what we term the "modern" civil rights movement to World War II. Learning the lessons of World War I, African-American leaders determined to use black Americans' economic clout to achieve political rights. Thus they embarked upon their "Double V" campaign: "V" for Victory Abroad and "V" for Victory at Home. Thanks to their pressure, President Roosevelt also signed an executive order forbidding racial discrimintion in war contracts, and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to oversee enforcement. Blacks fought with distinction in combat, and through their service laid the foundation for eventual desegregation of the military. Finally, the NAACP won a significant victory in their legal campaign to overturn the basis for de jure segregation in the South with the Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Allwright (1944). The Court reversed its earlier ruling in Williams v. Mississippi (1898), saying that although the Democratic Party was a private organization, it served a public function and could therefore be regulated by the government. In essence, the ruling made the all-white Democratic primary--the basis for whites-only rule in the South--illegal. Blacks could now (in theory) vote in the Democratic primaries that essentually determined the outcomes of Southern contests.
Separate But Equal
The same year as the Allwright decision, a Swedish sociologist named Gunnar Myrdal published a groundbreaking work, The American Dilemma . In this book, Myrdal "tore apart" the "separate but equal" doctrine endorsed by the Supreme Court in its 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson . Then, in 1946, President Harry Truman established a Commission on Civil Rights to investigate race relations in America and recommend solutions. In 1947, the President's Commission on Civil Rights published its findings in To Secure These Rights. The report called upon the federal government to intervene within the states to help African-Americans secure the rights to which they were entitled under the Constitution. In 1948, President Truman issued an executive order desgregating the military, but Congress did little to follow up on the Commission's findings.
In 1954, the NAACP achieved another victory in its legal campaign when the Supreme Court delievred a favorable ruling in Brown v. Bd. of Education of Topeka Kansas, which overturned Plessy. In Brown, the Court stated that separate was inherintly unequal, and ordered the South to end segregation "with all deliberate speed."
George E. C. Hayes, Thurgood
Marshall, and
James Nabrit celebrate the Brown ruling.
James Nabrit celebrate the Brown ruling.
The Problem of Federalism
The Tenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution--also known as the "States Rights" amendment--reserved all matters not specifically awarded to the federal government should be reserved to the states. This check on the powers of the federal government established a system of "federalism" wherein state governments maintained jurisdiction over many areas of government, such as law enforcement, education, and election management. Thus, although the Supreme Cout delivered its rulings striking down the basis for segregation in voting and in education, it left the burden of implementation up to the states and to individuals. As the South had amply demonstrated in its campaign of massive resistance, the affected states had no intention of complying. Southern congressmen succeeded in blocking numerous efforts to extend federal protections to blacks, such as making lynching a federal crime, while state and local officials evaded federal rulings concerning schools and elections. (For example: if a black citizen of Louisiana attempted to register to vote, he would have to go down to the local courthouse to the Registrar's office to fill out an application to vote. Oftentimes, he found the Registrar was (in)convneinetly "out to lunch" or "Gone Fishin'." If he managed to find the Registrar at his job and secured an application, if he forgot to dot and "i" of cross a "t," his entire application would be thrown out. Even if he managed to get as far as filing an application, many states had instituted an "understanding clause" as a qualification for voting, to wit: the applicant had to read and interpret a section of the state constitution to the satisfaction of the Registrar. Even if the applicant was a Harvard-educated lawyer, the Registrar, who might have a sixth grade education, could still reject the application.)
Grassroots Challenge to Segregation: The Montgomery Bus Boycott
In spite of the obstacles, many black Southerners determined to take action to end segregation. One of the first and best-known challenges to de jure segregation occured in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to yield her bus seat to a white person, and in so doing violated the city's segregation ordinances. She was arrested and convicted of
"disorderly conduct." In
response, black leaders of Montgomery--including a young minister
recently arrived from Atlanta, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--decided
upon a course of action: they would boycott the city's buses.
Over 80 percent of those who used the Montgomery buses were
black,
and if all blacks stopped riding the buses, the company would either
comply
and treat blacks fairly and equally, or go out of business. For
months,
Montgomery's black citizens either walked to work or carpooled.
Their participation in the Boycott did not come without a price.
Many lost their jobs when employers found out their black
employee was boycotting the city buses. Often, blacks were jailed
on trumped-up charges of "loitering" or "disturbing the peace."
After 382 days, the Boycott ended after the
Supreme Court ruled Montgomery's segregation laws illegal. Little Rock
Southern states had been slow to comply with the Supreme Court's directions in Brown to desegregate public schools "with all deliberate speed." When they finally did comply--often under threat of losing federal funds--they adopted a policy of "tokenism." A school district would integrate a handful of black students into a single school, and with that say they had "complied" with the Supreme Court's integration decision.
The city of Little Rock, Arkansas, did not comply with Brown until the summer of 1957--three years after the Supreme Court delivered its decision. The reason for the delay spoke owed to the changing demographics of Southern cities (indeed, most U. S. cities). Middle-class whites were moving to the suburbs, leaving working-class whites and minorities in the inner city neighborhoods. This same phenomenon was occuring in Little Rock. The members of the Little Rock School Board delayed their decision to integrate because they wanted to complete the construction of a new high school in the all-white suburbs. Once that high school was ready, they then delivered their decision to integrate the old high school, Central High, near downtown Little Rock. In Little Rock, as in most other cities, the middle class members of the School Board could thus say they had complied with integration by integrating inner-city schools and not their own.
Once the Board announced its decision, they picked nine black students to attend Central High that fall. This token integration was not unusual in the South at that time, and might have proceeded relatively peacefully had it not been for the actions of Gov. Orval Faubus. Faubus saw the opportunity to gain points with white voters by opposing the integration of Central High. He announced he would use all the means at his disposal, including the National Guard, to prevent the "Little Rock Nine" from attending school that fall.
On the first day of school, one of the Little Rock Nine, Elizabeth Eckford, had not received word of the scene down at Central High, were angry whites had gathered with the Guardsmen to prevent the black students from attending. Elizabeth arrived all alone. When she saw that she would not be allowed to enter the school, she had to face the long walk back to the bus stop, hounded by screaming whites. The photo of the scene depicted Eckford's quiet dignity against this seething, irrational mob, as well as the presence of National Guardsmen--symbolizing the power of the state--as barriers to constitutional rights.
After weeks of wrangling, Prsident Eisenhower acted on behalf of the students. Stating that he could no longe ignore the "gravity of the situation" in Little Rock, on September 24, Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and ordered 1000 troops, including members of the 101st Airborne into the city to protect the Nine. On September 25, the Nine attended their first day of classes. Eight of the Nine finished the year and received their diplomas. (One of the students, Ernest Green, was expelled for his involvement in a "racial incident," but later he was awarded his diploma.)
In spite of their bravery and sacrifice, the efforfs of the Little Rock Nine did not bring an end to segregation in Little Rock schools. The next year, Gov. Faubus refused to comply with federal court orders and shut down all four Little Rock high schools for most of the 1958-59 academic year. Finally, in 1959, the schools reopened on an integrated basis.
Conclusions
The Fifties ended with mixed results in the area of civil rights. On the one hand, the NAACP had achieved tremendous advances in overturning the de jure (legal) basis for segregation, but the South had managed to manipulate the shield of federalism to prevent or forestall effective enforcement of the courts' decisions. The burden for forcing change thus fell to black citizens themselves. Grassroots activism, such as that which emerged in Montgomery, did achieve some gains in the fight to overturn segregation, but these local battles produced only limited change in the overall condition of blacks in the South. As the new decade got underway, new leaders, organizations, and tactics would lead the civil rights movement into new areas, and in so doing, radicalize a nation and a generation.
Sources:
African-American Odyssey: The Civil Rights Era
Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Brown v. Bd. of Education
New York Times Learning Network. Little Rock: Forty Years Later
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