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How Far Did the Position of Black Americans Improve in the Years 1945-1955?

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Progression of black rights during 1945-1955 can be clearly seen but was a long and slow process, although the awareness of racial equality dramatically increased. Various factors were involved. Factors such as: presidential involvement and the use of media post WW2.We also see improvements in education and NAACP. More importantly how the NAACP and southern states responded to these factors, later shaping the result to black civil rights. During this time America saw two presidents come to power: Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961). Both of which affected the civil rights movements in different ways.
Truman who was vice president to Roosevelt was elected officially in 1948, Born in Missouri in the late 19th century he had been brought up in an area that saw racism towards coloured people as a natural occurrence, and this was also the case for Truman. Truman had first encountered blacks as family servants with his ancestors previously owning slaves. Truman had told his sweet heart Bess that: “One man is as good as another, “So long as he is honest, decent and not a Nigger or a Chinaman”. (Sanders, 2003, p60) So he is an unlikely candidate to eventually be bringing the lack of rights of the blacks to light and standing behind the civil rights movement later in his career. With the number of racial murders on the rise in the south, Truman set up and implemented a civil rights committee to produce a report “Secure These Rights” brought attention to the on-going plight of the blacks. On the 2nd of February the president presented this report to congress with the aim of enacting new legislation to set up a Civil Rights Commission and Employment Practices Act. He aimed to end poll tax, abolish literacy tests for workers and make lynching a federal crime so that Southerners would no longer have the power to investigate and issue punishment to

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