Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight Eisenhower

What was his contribution to the civil rights movement?

Starter What was Truman’s contribution to the Civil Rights Movement? Sum this up in 5 Key words.

Learning Objectives: To understand the role of Dwight Eisenhower in the Civil Rights movement. Success Criteria: To analyse Eisenhower’s stance on Civil Rights The importance of : The Brown case The Montgomery Bus Boycott Little Rock

Dwight D Eisenhower succeeded to the Presidency of the USA in 1953. He was a Republican and a former soldier. During World War Two Eisenhower had been in charge of all Allied soldiers in Europe. In the 1950s Eisenhower took a strong position in the development of the Cold War. During his presidency the Arms and Space Races took off.

Essentially, although not actively a racist, Eisenhower did little to respond to the calls for greater equality between blacks and whites. Eisenhower was scared to act and held prejudiced views against blacks. Like many whites, Eisenhower was afraid of miscegenation (co-habitation or inter-racial marriage), so although he called for more equality, that didn’t mean that blacks and whites had … ‘to mingle socially- or that a Negro could court my daughter’

Eisenhower had only one black member of staff, E. Frederick Morrow, and he was there only to help Eisenhower get reelected. Morrow was given low-ranking tasks like arranging the staff car-parking and answering letters from blacks. Even the other White House staff refused to file or type for him! Morrow was shocked at Eisenhower’s ignorance. Eisenhower only met the Civil Rights leaders once! Eisenhower tried to avoid talking to his Republican colleague Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, because he was black.

Eisehower’s attitude to Civil Rights Eisenhower hoped that either the civil rights movement would just go away, or that things would gradually improve on their own. He failed to grasp that his role as President offered leadership opportunities to change matters for the better.

Emmett Till In 1955 Emmett Till’s mutilated body was dragged from a Mississippi river. He had been killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Those responsible were put on trial. The defendants lawyers were leading Democrats in the county. They claimed that Till was still alive at one point and when summing up they asked the (white) jury to make ‘sure that every last Anglo-Saxon one of us has the courage to free’ the white defendants. The verdict was ‘not guilty’. Eisenhower made no comment.

Autherine Lucy Another opportunity for Eisenhower to show support was missed at the trial of Autherine Lucy. Lucy had successfully took the University of Alabama to court to gain admission, but she was later expelled. The University said she had lied when she said that they had excluded her for racial reasons. Eisenhower, again, made no comment.

Eisenhower the Passive Eisenhower summed up his stance on Civil Rights with this statement….. ‘If we attempt merely by passing a lot of laws to force someone to like someone else, we are just going to get into trouble’

BROWN v Board of Education, Topeka In 1954, the BROWN v Board of Education, Topeka case brought some improvement for blacks in education. Eisenhower was opposed to this progress, as he told the Supreme Court Judge Earl Warren who decided in favour of desegregation in schools…. White Southerners aren’t bad people…. ‘all they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes’

The BROWN decision was supposed to enforce desegregation in schools, but it was difficult to implement with a lot of resistance in the South. Eisenhower did not want to interfere with the judiciary and disliked federal intrusion into private lives. He feared that some schools would close rather than admit blacks. ‘It is all very well to talk about school integration, but you may also be talking about social disintegration. We cannot demand perfection in these moral questions. All we can do is keep working toward a goal.’

Use the notes provided and answer the following question BROWN v The Board of Education, Topeka 1954 (& BROWN II v The Board of Education, Topeka 1955) How significant was this case in the civil rights movement?

Summing up the role of Eisenhower Eisenhower’s speech writer Arthur Larsen summed it all up very well. ‘From all this there emerges the inescapable conclusion that President Eisenhower was neither emotionally nor intellectually in favour of combating segregation’. Stephen Ambrose: Eisenhower’s biographer, 1990 Eisenhower provided ‘almost no leadership at all’ on civil rights.

Eisenhower deluded himself into believing that a gradualist approach was appropriate. He believed that many blacks held the same view. One of Eisenhower’s favourite stories heard on the golf course at Augusta, Georgia highlighted this attitude.. A black agricultural worker apparently said: ‘If someone does not shut up around here, particularly those Negroes from the North, they are going to get a lot of us niggers killed!’

Montgomery Bus Boycott Who was Rosa Parks? Trigger Event

Results and Significance of the Boycott: Demonstrated power of black community Importance of black economic power (loss of $1m) White extremism + black unity Showed importance of churches Brought MLK to the forefront Inspired other future black activists

Mobilisation of the black community: Previous incident; Support from college MLK involvement & church to increase involvement of black community

Leadership: MLK chosen as the NAACP did not want to get involved and college employees faced dismissal

Black Unanimity: Was only be successful because of the full support of the black community

Little Rock Causes of the Crisis: Orval Faubus re-election Exploited white racism Failed to follow Brow & allow segregation in Central High

Results and Significance: SC rulings met massive resistance Faubus got re-elected 4 times Desegregation was still not universally in operation The image of black children being harassed did nothing to help white public opinion in the North Blacks realised they needed to do more than rely on court rulings

Melba Pattillo: Activist inspired by Montgomery Although under protest from her family and friends agreed to be a part of the LR 9 when asked by NAACP

Eisenhower’s intervention: Only did so when was informed the mob was out of hand Sent in Federal troops which he swore he would never do Failed to negotiate a settlement with Faubus and his appeals to the rioters had been ignored Constitution & Federal Law were threatened Was concerned about the US’s international prestige and influence

Civil Rights Acts (1957 & 1960) 1957 – In order to win the black vote in the 1956 election year he aimed to draw up a civil rights bill to ensure all citizens could exercise the right to vote. In his State of Union address he said he was shocked that only 7000 of Mississippi’s 900,000 blacks could vote and such questions to prove eligibility were ridiculous such as ‘how many bubbles are in a bar of soap. Democrats tried to weaken the bill and claimed it was forcing a co-mingling of white and negro children. Unfortunately, the act was passed, but it was much weakened and did very little to help blacks exercise the vote as any person who tried to obstruct a black person from voting would be tried by a white jury. The act did establish a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department and a federal Civil Rights Commission to monitor race relations which pleased some black leaders as it was the first of its kind since Reconstruction. Others felt it was a sham. 1960 – In late 1958, Eisenhower introduced another bill because he was concerned about bombings of black schools and churches. While Eisenhower considered the Bill to be moderate, Southern Democrats again diluted its provisions. It finally became law because both parties sought the black vote in the presidential election year. The act made it a federal crime to obstruct court ordered school desegregation and established penalties for obstructing black voting. These 2 acts only added 3% of black voters to the electoral roles during 1960. Contemporaries were unimpressed, but at least the acts acknowledged federal responsibilities, which encouraged civil rights activists to work for more legislation.

Cold War & Decolonisation Cold War The need for unity during the Cold War helps to explain Eisenhower’s frequent inactivity on civil rights. He did not want to antagonise the white majority. Black civil rights activists with Communist sympathies became very unpopular. The Cold War helped as well as hindered the civil rights movement. It was difficult for both Truman & Eisenhower to try to rally the free world against Communism when blacks in the American South were clearly un-free. Decolonisation (Independence of former colonies after WWII) African Americans were fascinated by the emergence of independent African nations. There were frequent contacts between black Americans and Africans. The newly emerging African nations, the embarrassment caused by the number of non-white foreign dignitaries exposed to segregation in Washington, and the Cold War combined to persuade the Eisenhower administration to act. It is probably no coincidence that the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet oppression and Britain granting independence to Ghana were followed by the Civil Rights Act in the USA.

Eisenhower - Conclusions Eisenhower did not seem keen to help the movement for black equality. His biographer, Stephen Ambrose, said that ‘until his hand was forced a Little Rock he had provided almost no leadership at all on the most fundamental social and moral problem of his time’. Supporters say his ‘evolutionary’ approach to civil rights was best for national unity. Eisenhower’s favourite story he heard on a golf course in Augusta, an agricultural worker supposedly said “If someone does not shut up around here, particularly those Negroes from the North, they are going to get a lot of us niggers killed”. Historian Robert Cook said that ‘relative federal inactivity’ and ‘limited organisational goals’ were the main reason for a standstill in the civil rights movement in the 1950’s. Black people were the major forces in bringing change. NAACP were the force behind Supreme Court decisions (Brown), Montgomery & Little Rock. This pressure forced Eisenhower to propose Civil Rights legislation. Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Acts were seen as either irrelevant as they were so weak or another breach in the dam. While there were signs that mass action could bring success, there was still no single, mass organisation.

Question To what extent was Eisenhower committed to racial equality?