To what extent was the Federal Government responsible for improving the status of black people in the United States in the years 1945-1964?

In the years 1945 to 1964, the Federal Government was becoming more involved in helping the Civil Rights Movement. The Presidents in these years were the first to help the status of African Americans since Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery. Truman deesegregated the armed forces, Eisenhower created 2 civil rights bills, Kennedy put a civil rights bill on his agenda, and this was completed by Johnson. The courts were also heavily involved, making de jure change in many court cases, such as: Brown v. Board of Education, Brown II, Sweatt v. Painter etc. Also, bills that were proposed by the Presidents were passed through Congress, which showed that the traditional views of Congress were changing and were looking to help improve the status of African Americans. However, the Federal government was not solely responsible for improving the status of African Americans. Civil Rights groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Non-Violence Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) were starting to take action to improve the status of African Americans, through courts and direct action. As well as this, media played a significant role in the improvement of status of African Americans, as they showed the protests and how bad the white backlash was, which gained more white sympathisers and forced the government to put Civil Rights on the forefront of its agenda.

The Presidents of the Federal Government played a huge role in time, as it was these men who were starting to make Civil Rights a more pressing issue. It all started with Truman, who wanted to give African Americans equal status. This started in 1948, when he desegregated the armed forces and illegalised discrimination on African Americans. He also wrote up the To Secure These Rights report in 1947, which showed the discrimination that African Americans faced, from lower wages to poor levels of education and housing. However, he was not able to get much legislation passed through Congress, because at this time, Congress was still very traditional and the southern members of Congress voted against Civil Rights legislation. Eisenhower succeeded Truman, but unlike Truman, he didn’t have Civil Rights on the forefront of his agenda. He thought that civil rights would gradually evolve and that it was not the job of the government or any president to accelerate it. However, he did create two civil rights bills, in 1957 and 1960. These were to prevent white Americans from stopping African Americans from registering to vote. Despite these bills, these didn’t have a lot of power, as the percentage of African American voters increased by 3%. Kennedy became President in 1961, and he campaigned that he was going to create social equality, and that he would create a civil rights bill. Before 1963, he didn’t do much to help Civil rights, but in 1963, he started to draft the Civil Rights Bill. Due to his assassination, this was continued on by Lyndon B Johnson, who created the Civil Rights Bill of 1964.

The courts also played a huge role in improving the status of African Americans. There were many court cases during this period such as: Brown v. Board of Education, Brown II, Sweatt v. Painter, Morgan v. Virignia etc. These court cases gained huge de jure change for African Americans. It desegregated interstate transport as well as local transport, it desegregated schools to give equal education and it stopped discrimination in occupation. These court cases were made to disprove the doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson 1897 which stated that African Americans and white Americans would be ‘separate but equal’. Some of these court cases did lead to de facto change, such as Brown II, which caused the desegregation of schools at all deiberate speed.

However, the Federal Government were not fully responsible for improving the status of African Americans in the USA during the years 1945-1964. For example, despite giving de facto change, the Supreme Court was very vague with its judgements on cases concerning civil rights. For example, states found loopholes in cases as the Supreme Court never gave specfic dates in which to desegregate transport, schools etc. After the ruling of Brown II, which ruled that schools had to desegregate with all deliberate speed, schools were still not segregating as there was still no specfic date and that they were not able to desegregate at that point in time.

Also the Federal Government needed pushes to address civil rights of African Americans. Pressure groups like the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and CORE started to try and gain change themselves. The NAACP went through courts and the other groups used direct action to try and gain white sympathisers. Campaigns such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, Birmingham, attracted a lot of attention. The Montgomery Bus Boycott ran for a year and gained de facto change with the desegregation of public transport, and this sparked boycotts in different towns to try and gain the same chabge. The Freedom Rides disproved the court case of Morgan v. Virginia and that interstate transport was not desegregated. Despite gaining media attention, it did gain de facto change. The March on Washington was where over 250,000 people marched to Washington and where Martin Luther King gave his renowned ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. This prompted the creation of the Civil Rights Bill. Despite having criticism for the methods used, Birmingham gained a lot of media attention and sympathisers. These campaigns led by pressure groups was showing that African Americans were starting to try and improve the status of themselves on their own. These pressure groups would do grassroot protests, which would spread throughout the country. For example, the SNCC started sit-ins in the white-only sections of diners. They also did kneel-ins in churches, read-ins in libraries, watch-ins in cinemas, wade-ins in swimming pools etc. Campaigns like these caused the desegregation of places such as Woolworths, because these stores were losing money due to people not using the stores.

As well as direct action, the NAACP were one of the only groups to be using courts to try and instigate change. The carried out multiple court cases such as: Brown v. Board of Education, Brown II, and Sweatt v. Painter etc. These court cases won huge de jurechanges for Americans Americans as it desegregated public places, public and interstate transport, education and outlawed disrimination in work places. They showed that the court ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal) was untrue and that it was unconstitutional that social, economic and political standards for African Americans were less that those of white Americans.

Another factor that was responsible for the improvement in status of black Americans was the white backlash that African Americans faced during their campaigns. Organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan the White Citizens Council were heavily against civil rights. Members in Congress even showed opposition to Civil Rights movement, and a result of this was the Southern Manifesto, which was created by Strom Thurmond. This was in opposition to the racial intergration of public places. The Ku Klux Klan were also still active, lynching and bombing African Americans houses. An example was in December 1951, when they attacked the home of two NAACP activists, who died during the attack. Another act of violence was the murder of Emmett Till, when KKK members assaulted and murder a 14-year-old boy. This gave people a lot of sympathy for African Americans as they saw the struggle that African Americans faced from southern white Americans.

To a certain extent, the Federal Government was responsible for improving the status of black people in the United States during the years 1945-1964. This is because they created 3 Civil Rights Acts in that time, desegregated the army and created de jure change in many court cases. Despite the creation of these Civil Rights Bills, they were made to benefit the country as a whole and helped the African Americans in the process. However, Civil Rights groups such as the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and CORE were trying to initiate change for black Americans and trying to gain de facto change that was not gained after the court cases. Also, white backlash was creating a large amount of white sympathisers, so the government had to listen to the growing voice of people who wanted equality.