On September 24, 1957, in response to the use of the Arkansas National Guard by Governor Orval Faubus to prohibit the entry of nine African-American students from physically entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne (an elite military force that gained fame for taking down Hitler's forces in Europe during World War II) into Arkansas while simultaneously federalizing all 10,000 National Guardsmen in the state to make sure that these nine students could safely enter the school, attend classes, and then leave school unmolested by protesters. This was a singular event in American History, seen by some as the fulfillment of the words of Thomas Jefferson nearly two hundred years earlier that "all men are created equal," while to others it was seen as the embodiment of an over-reaching and perhaps tyrannical Federal government now taking charge of public education which had long been a states' rights concern historically.
In class, we investigated the story of this event through several documents. Your task, now, is to use those documents and any and all relevant and concise outside information (historical from lectures, from the history book, from documentaries, from works of literature, etc.) you can muster to answer the following prompt from an FRQ on the 1999 APUSH Exam:
How did the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s address the failures of Reconstruction?
Make use of all of the documents and the information from Chapters 37 & 38 as well as looking back at your notes and other materials relating to Reconstruction (Chapter 22). Although this is an FRQ prompt, I am requiring that you treat it as a DBQ exercise, so be thorough in your synthesis of the information, but also be concise. It will be important to address the role and growing power of the Federal Government and the example of the Little Rock Nine in your response.
DUE DATE: Monday, April 15, 2013 by midnight
Word Count: 1,000 words minimum
Key Ideas & Terms to help focus your response:
Dred Scot Case
Plessy v. Ferguson
Brown v. Board of Education
Emancipation Proclamation
13th Amendment
14th Amendment
15th Amendment
Freedman's Bureau
Radical Republicans
Southern Democrats
Jim Crow
KKK
NAACP
SNCC
Freedom Riders
Rosa Parks
March on Washington
Black Panthers
Martin Luther King, Jr. v. Malcolm X
36 comments:
Olivia Brophy
Periods 3 & 4
The American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s worked to address many issues faced by African Americans. Specifically, these issues were ones that had lingered over this minority for more than half a century since the end of Reconstruction in 1877. First, the most notable failure of Reconstruction that was rehashed during the Civil Rights Movement was that social issues that plagued the South were not met with full force; Second, the failure of Reconstruction to ensure the political rights of African Americans was additionally addressed during the Civil Rights Movement. Neither one of these things could have been successful without the increase in federal government power that came about during this time period. Thus, for social and political reasons, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s worked to address the major failures of Reconstruction.
The South was wrought with social issues both before and after the Civil War, yet Reconstruction, which took place from 1865 to 1877, failed to deal with many of them. As a result, one of the main goals of the American Civil Rights Movement was to remedy social problems. Document 1 states that “all men are created equal” and have the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. However, social groups such as the Ku Klux Klan infringed upon these rights of not only African Americans but also certain groups of white Americans throughout the ninety odd years from the end of Reconstruction and throughout the Civil Rights Movement. As a result of this, the Black Panthers, which was originally established to protect African Americans from police brutality, eventually evolved into a militant revolutionary group in order to protect these rights, and others, that African Americans had. The SNCC was another Civil Rights Movement group that grew disillusioned with the campaign for nonviolent change in the face of terrorism from the KKK and other similar groups, which encouraged it’s conversion to more militant tactics. In addition, the Jim Crow Laws implemented in the South and Border States following the end of Reconstruction created two societies in the South - one black and one white. The white society was able to control the black society and, for the most part, denied it the right to the pursuit of Happiness by keeping it in virtual submission for nearly a century, as evidenced by the sharecropping and tenant farming systems, which allowed wealthy whites to control their African American “employees”. Document 5, a poster supporting segregation in schools by the Mother’s League, is evidence of the presence of other, less militant groups who denied African Americans the rights they had previously been guaranteed. In this case, the Mother’s League was attempting to stop the groundbreaking Little Rock Nine from being the first black students in a desegregated school, therefore denying them the chance for equal opportunity to the education that their children had. It is probable that these types of groups were the some of the targets of the more peaceful campaigns for change during this time, such as the Freedom Rides and others led by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Document 3, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, again recognizes the equality of men, and states their right to equal opportunity. This Act, in conjunction with the Freedman’s Bureau, had attempted to establish a place for blacks in “white” society, and ultimately were unsuccessful due to lack of enforcement. The NAACP, formed in the early 1900s, grew in power and recognition during the Civil Rights Movement; it built upon the short-lived Freedman’s Bureau, working for the social, political, economic and educational rights of African Americans.
(pt. 2)
Reconstruction was able to give political rights to African Americans, but did not provide for the protection of these rights once Reconstruction ended. As a result, one of the major goals of the American Civil Rights Movement was to ensure and protect the political rights granted to African Americans. The biggest issue that African Americans faced in dealing with the infringement of their rights was that different forms of government were allowing for such violations to occur. Taking inspiration from the Declaration of Independence (DOC1), the various parties of the Civil Rights Movement used their right to alter the governments that were allowing for their rights to (essentially) be taken away through political actions such as the March on Washington and the Freedom Rides. On a large scale, the Supreme Court had ruled in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities were legal, further revealing the failure of Reconstruction to protect the rights that it had given to the emancipated blacks. On a smaller scale, some school boards, such as those involved with the Mother’s League (DOC5) or in Topeka, Kansas (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas), used their governing power to keep African American children out of white schools. However, as evidenced by DOC2, not all governing bodies supported the segregation of schools and did in fact provide for the protection of the “pursuit of Happiness” through equal opportunity. Drawing both political and moral support from organizations such as the one mentioned in DOC2, the NAACP worked to give African American children an education equal to that of white children during the Civil Rights Movement. One of the goals of both DOC2 and the NAACP in securing this right was to protect current and future students from the abusive power that can come from government systems. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the NAACP won a tremendous victory for equal opportunity when the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities, including schools, were unconstitutional. The tremendous pushback that this ruling received from a portion of the American public was not met with sympathy from the President, as evidenced in DOC7. The support of President Eisenhower for the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was important, because it coupled with the Court case to reveal a major shift in the power of the federal government and how it was wielded. Another important facet through which the Federal government helped to protect the right to the “pursuit of Happiness”, which is a right that was given after Reconstruction but not safeguarded, through equal opportunity is evidenced by Document 4. In this 1941 Executive Order, President Franklin Roosevelt declared that the defense industry of the United States could not discriminate based on race, nationality or color, which allowed for the employment of African Americans, and which in turn allowed them to move up the American economic ladder. By empowering African Americans in this way, it is believable that this legislation helped to set the Civil Rights Movement on its feet.
(pt. 3)
As described in the previous paragraph, the federal government had an important role in and grew in power during the American Civil Rights Movement. This is evidenced very clearly by documents 4, 6 and 7. Document 4 reveals that FDR’s administration supported the presence of African Americans in the defense industry and military by banning discrimination based on color or race, and by giving the federal government the right to enforce this legislation. This document, which clearly shows an increase in the power that the federal government had over smaller forms of government, contrasts the lack of power that the federal government had in the past. For example, in the Dred Scot case of 1857, it was decided that slavery was a state issue, not a federal one, clearly revealing the dominance of state power over federal power at that time. Similarly, DOC 6 describes the ability and willingness of the federal government to employ the military to enforce the desegregation of schools as ordered by the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. This is another clear example of an increase in federal power over state power. Lastly, DOC7 states “…the State would lose…” in regards to the issue of school desegregation. Once again, this document blatantly contrasts the lack of federal power that had been demonstrated over the last century. It is probable that without the increase of federal power that was demonstrated in the decades before by these three documents, the progress of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s would have been significantly hindered. Without such support it is probable that groups such as the KKK or the Mothers’ League might have wielded their weapons of terrorism and political persuasion, respectively, to try and intimidate leaders such as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X.
The American Civil Rights Movement worked to address many of the failures of the Reconstruction era from 1865 to 1877. Among these failures were the lack of attention paid to social problems in the South and the absence of protection for the political rights given to African Americans during Reconstruction. The rise in government power that occurred before and during this era was necessary for both the attack on social wrongs and addressing of political issues. Had this support not existed, the Civil Rights Movement would not have been able to work so successfully towards combating the failures of Reconstruction during the 1950s and 1960s.
The period from 1865 to 1877 was a time in which the young American nation struggled to cope with the unresolved issues left in the aftermath of the Civil War. With the country deeply split over anti-black and pro-black sentiments, along the years, the newly freed African-Americans continuously found themselves denied their full rights, but on September 24, 1957, a crucial racial milestone was reached that would forever change America’s history. First, southern whites’ adamant position on traditional southern culture revealed the government’s limited motivation to intervene on the behalf of the blacks; second, opposing views over proper internal structure as well as the drive of personal desires led to conflicts between state governments and the federal government; third, in many ways, the economic “necessities” of the South held the blacks from achieving maximum degree of their fundamental rights. Therefore, in response to lingering social, political, and economic failures of the Reconstruction, the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s took on an active role in demonstrations, both peaceful and violent, to compel equal rights and equal treatment, thus bringing about the redefining of the federal government’s role in the affairs of its people as well as the extent of federal power.
In spite of the Civil War, blacks were kept in a state of virtual enslavement by the majority of white southerners, whose bitter opposition only intensified in both physical and verbal means. Emancipation varied throughout the Confederacy, actually resulting in many blacks’ return to enslavement, but for the freedmen, intimidation and violence were frequent threats aimed at suppressing their advancement of in society. A good example of fright-or-force intimidation can be seen in the Ku Klux Klan, whose tactics steered many eligible black voters from the polls. Thus, white southerner’s unwillingness to accept blacks’ liberated status proved to be a powerful trend that would last well into the 1900s. During the Reconstruction, the federal government took little action in promoting blacks’ rights – one of the few instances of congressional acts pertaining to blacks during this time was the passage of the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 that authorized federal troops to curb the KKK. (These legislations were virtually ineffective, however, in comparison to the KKK’s penetrating influence). Black and white tensions remained taut all the way up to the 1900s, by which time Jim Crow laws had taken hold in the South, strengthened by the Supreme Court’s 1847 “Plessy v. Ferguson” ruling on the constitutionality of “separate but equal” facilities. However, in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of the bus, spurring a yearlong black boycott of city buses. This peaceful protest signified African-Americans’ determination to no longer comply with the unjust laws of segregation, and is one of the many demonstrations within the blacks’ struggle. The shifting role of the government throughout the years can be contextualized with the TRANSCRIPT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 10730 calling for the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. Issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this order commanded the military to protect the black students going to and from the
(cont.)
previously all-white school. This document clearly signifies how far and how powerful the government had gotten, as it had enough authority to surpass state governments (the governor had earlier ordered the National Guard to prevent the black children from entering), intervene in the situation, and directly utilize the military for the welfare of “minority” citizens. This executive ability to take such an overreaching course of action would not have been permissible under the American government of early history, as exemplified by the EXCERPT FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. This document, written in 1776, displayed the American people’s idea of a proper government back then, which was based on the principle that the government’s role was simply to provide the structure of the country, while the real power was vested in the people. This is because in 1776, government was seen as destructive to the Americans, and therefore they intended there to be a balance between the people and the government. From a dangerous federal government to one that utilizes resources of the states themselves in order to secure rights for its citizens, by the 1950s the U.S. government had developed into a powerful instrument for civil rights.
Political empowerment was a necessary privilege for blacks if they wished to advance themselves further into American society. However, as a result of southern attempts to curtail blacks’ standing ever since the days of Reconstruction when the African-Americans were emancipated in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, by the 1900s only twenty percent of blacks could vote, and by 1960, black sentiments among white southerners had only grown more stressed, as it got to the point where black speakers had to be blotted out on national television. Voting restrictions such as the poll tax and literacy test were purposefully used to cut down black voting numbers. The African-Americans, however, continued with their demonstrations, teaming up with white civil rights workers on a voter-registration drive throughout the state of Mississippi. Again, the vast development of the federal government throughout U.S. history was shown when President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to more fully and effectively enfranchise black voters in the states (The 24th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1964, had rid federal elections of the poll tax). In doing so, LBJ displayed the executive authority to directly respond to and shelter American citizens who were being unjustly and unfairly wronged. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also marked the end of peaceable black protests, which up until now had essentially been the only kind of demonstrating the African-Americans had been doing. Enduring attack dogs, fire hoses, and vigilante attacks, the blacks have advocated their rights through
(cont.)
the formation of clubs or organizations (such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that helped give more concentrated focus to social and racial reform efforts), “sit-in” movements (such as the sit-in movement in 1960 when four black college freshmen kept their seats at a “whites only” lunch counter only to return each day with more friends than before), boycotts (as the bus boycott that ensued after Rosa Park’s arrest), “freedom rides” to stir up awareness of the blacks’ plight, and marches. Following the passage of the Voting Rights Acts, blacks began a new path of addressing the injustices left behind from Reconstruction – this path took on the likeness of violent riots. Thus, after putting in effect nonviolent protest policies for so long, the more prominent blacks’ rights movement that gave rise after 1965 shifted gears into more forceful and fierce tactics (now known as “Black Power”). The DIARY DICTATED BY DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER reveals the political weight wielded by the chief executive as Eisenhower utilizes political means rather than just raw government power in order to more effectively secure aid for the black people in their civil rights movement.
The economic standing of the South during Reconstruction did much to impede blacks’ rights after emancipation. The more prominent example of this would be the Black Codes, which were issued partially as a result of President Andrew Johnson’s own Reconstruction plan that included the disenfranchisement of rich southerners as well as Confederate leaders. Johnson, granting abundant pardons to those who begged his favor, ended up politically resurrecting the South’s planter elite, and thus bolstered the southern structure while stimulating the new southern regimes to fashion new governments. An offspring of the new southern governments, the Black Codes were designed to regulate the affairs of emancipated blacks in order to ensure a stable and subservient labor force, for the southern states had taken great physical devastation by the end of the Civil War. Many blacks, with little money and nothing to offer besides their labor, got trapped into labor contracts or sharecropping, under which their debts soared. By the 1900s, blacks were beginning to see more and more employment in offices, and equal economic opportunity was beginning to make its way around to them. The EXECUTIVE ORDER REAFFIRMING POLICY OF FULL PARTICIPATION IN THE DEFENSE PROGRAM issued in 1941 shows the progression of black employment into national and government jobs. Stating that discrimination is prohibited in defense programs specifically, this document reflects the government’s more intimate involvement in “workers’ morale and or national unity” as well as responds to the African-American movement’s continuous and relentless calls for equal opportunity and rights.
Beckett Lee
Periods 3 & 4
The history of America is paved on the backs of gallant men and women who fought and bled and died for the freedoms and liberties they envisioned for the future. The path of civil liberties and rights is long, especially when faced with corruption, tyranny, and oppression. The African-American civil rights movement has been one of the most contested battles in American history. Only with the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s was the final nail hammered into the coffin of legislative racism, a coffin which has first been constructed in the rubble of a war-torn America almost one hundred years before. The Civil Rights movement addressed the failures of Reconstruction by allowing equality to become an acceptable social trend, finalizing the political precedent that the law shall not be used to discriminate, and granting legal equality to the economic potential of African-Americans in the free market system. Only with these three objectives completed could the failings of Reconstruction be redressed and equality before the law be ensured.
One of the major efforts that remained comatose after the Reconstruction until the Civil Rights movement was the social acceptance of the notion of equality. The nation after Reconstruction was terribly bigoted. People in the South resented blacks and their proponents because they had been one of the causes of the war and the Confederate defeat. People in the North resented blacks because many people blamed them for the war and for stealing white workers’ jobs. The strong abolitionist movement that had fought so hard to abolish slavery largely subsided without the pressing threat of slavery. The Federal Government was left to decide how to ensure equality. During the years of Reconstruction, several attempts were made to equalize the races with force. Military Reconstruction and the Reconstruction supported by the Radical Republicans created incredible resentment towards the blacks who had these new oppressions imposed, “on their behalf.” When the Federal Government weakened during the Gilded Age and Reconstruction ended, the social trend created by this resentment supported racism and anti-black organizations like the KKK. While the tempers flared by this vengeance and the former Confederates died off, it became clear that “separate but equal” would have to do until enough support could be rallied to create the Civil Rights movement. The end of WWII and the discovery of a new enemy, the Communists, would be the final straw necessary to allow the Civil Rights movement to conclude successfully. Thanks to the Progressive movement and the unifying effects of war and foreign enemies, the Federal Government had already become well entrenched in the everyday affairs of Americans and could afford to break the “separate but equal” borders without the threat of a massive domestic disturbance. After all, the 101st Airborne could be sent to any part of America within a matter of hours to quell unrest, just as it did in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Federal Government was finally strong enough to enforce equality upon the people. The acceptance of that fact made it socially acceptable to support equality, because any opposition to equality could be dealt with by men with guns dropping from the sky.
The increasing power of the Federal Government, cemented by influential Presidents and the Progressive Movement, was a key to enforcing equality. After the Civil War, efforts to equalize blacks and whites became dependent on the Federal Government, which was all too happy to take over the lives of millions of “new” Americans. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments gave the former slaves equality under the Constitution. Establishments like the Freedmen’s Bureau and later the NAACP tried to promote black rights, under the watchful eye of the Federal Government. The African-Americans were so grateful to be free from slavery, that they threw their newfound political weight behind the Federal Government and freely gave their support to anything that would oppose the Southern Democrats and their “states’ rights.” This heralded the death of the states’ rights movement and any hope for the Jeffersonian ideals of yesteryear. Millions upon millions of votes were cast for the GOP and their promises of more equality, until their complacency and lack of action lost them the African-American vote, a vote they have yet to reclaim. The New Deal Democratic Party, with its promises of social equality and programs, also tried to equalize the people, especially in the economic sector. Once again the black vote pushed the Federal Government to new heights of power in an attempt to completely resolve the legacy of Jim Crow and “separate but equal” that had been left behind during Reconstruction. Only the final push of Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers finally persuaded the government that the time was right for action. The Federal Government, wielding the Big Stick of Theodore Roosevelt, established in the Brown vs. Board of Education case that the states had lost the right to govern their schools and that equality was mandatory. They also established that the 101st Airborne could and would be dropped onto any dissenters. This cemented the black vote behind the Federal Government and the symbiotic relationship between black voters and federal legislation became the status quo. The power of the Federal Government, which it was not able to give during Reconstruction, was the second fundamental aspect that allowed the African-Americans to put down their opponents and complete the Civil Rights movement.
The final tool that was necessary to address the shortcomings of Reconstruction was the conclusive, federally-ensured economic equality of African-Americans under the law. Capital has been a driving force behind the American way of life since its establishment. The power to govern one’s finances has motivated some of the greatest equality movements. The Civil Rights movement continued the monetary trend. The “separate but equal” lifestyle in America did not grant the same economic opportunity to blacks as it did to whites. White employers tended to favor white workers. Black employers tended to not exist. The military was segregated. Many social organizations and labor unions favored white members or banned blacks entirely. Black workers were not paid as much as white workers and many did not receive the same benefits. In acquiring their social and political equality, the African-Americans also solidified a dramatic increase in economic equality. The economic failure of Reconstruction to address the poverty of the freed slaves forced many slaves to return to their former masters for meager wages. Black poverty continued to be dramatically higher than white poverty until the Civil Rights movement which used its political power to address many economic inequalities. Despite this, the black poverty level continues to be significantly higher to this day. Attempts to solve this problem, as established by the Civil Rights movement and its supporters include affirmative action movements and black-only scholarships. Some of these efforts border or infringe upon reverse-racism in an attempt to counterbalance the failures of Reconstruction. In this way, the Civil Rights movement opened the door for pro-black economic movements that are still attempting to reduce the wealth gap between African-Americans and white Americans in an attempt to somehow repay the years of servitude and the failed years of transition.
The history of the Civil Rights movements and its efforts to fix the broken attempts at reconciliation between the races during Reconstruction is a labyrinthine rabbit hole of social influence, political workmanship, and economic readjustment. In an attempt to balance the scales that were thrown out of balance with the failure of Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement dropped a heavy brick of political legislation, social campaigning, economic maneuvering, and military intervention upon the plate of black rights. It would seem that the American people are still waiting for the results of the Civil Rights movement to be definitively determined. Where do the scales now point? That remains to be seen.
While the Civil War proved successful in preserving the Union, the efforts of Reconstruction succeeded only in preserving the deep-rooted racism of the Southern States. This legacy would continue to cripple America for nearly a century until the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s effected the change that Reconstruction failed at so miserably. First, the issue of segregation was finally addressed; Second, both peaceful and violent protests made politicians’ complacency no longer an option; and Third, the exponential increase in federal power enabled the president to fully protect the rights of the people. By delivering obvious results, the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century clearly righted many of the wrongs inflicted by the failure of Reconstruction.
The end of the Civil War did not see the glorious overturn of the status quo as many northern abolitionists had been hoping for, but rather a revolution in name only. Jim Crow laws were quickly put in place, clearly demarcating the country between black and white. The efforts of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Freedmen’s Bureau were far overshadowed by the devastating decision of Chief Justice Fuller in Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896, which established the legality of the idea of separate but equal. With this decision, there was no chance for the harmony that many had hoped for following the Civil War. This backwards and stagnating law was finally overturned in 1954 in the epochal decision of Chief Justice Earl Warren in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education. By demanding integration of public schools, this landmark case sent shockwaves through the nation and electrified the growing social revolution that was already brewing. These titanic actions came to a head in 1957 when the Little Rock Nine were denied entrance to the previously all white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In an unprecedented exercise of federal authority, President Dwight Eisenhower utilized military force to override the obstructive actions of the local police. A prime example of the struggle between state and federal authority, these events were crucial in correcting the obvious failings of Reconstruction.
One of the major reasons the shortcomings of Reconstruction were not addressed until this point was the extreme hesitance of presidents to rock the boat too much. While Kennedy had catered to the African American population during his campaign, it was with trepidation that he considered the growing social unrest. Both violent and peaceful protests by African Americans across the country, but especially in the South, soon made this apathy no longer an option. Police frequently violated both civil and human rights in their efforts to break up protests. Americans were horrified as images of police assaulting demonstrators with attack dogs, electric cattle prods, tear gas, and high pressure water hoses filled their televisions and newspapers, necessitating executive action. In June of 1963, President Kennedy demanded civil rights legislation in a televised address to the nation; this was a step in the right direction, but by the time of his death in November, this historic leap was still far off on the horizon.
Dating back to the Great Compromise of 1787, the issue over state and federal power has been at the heart of many of the country’s most thorny controversies. The inextricable link between this political tug-o-war and the fight for civil rights shaped the course of the nation’s history over the years, culminating in the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Until this point, no US President had even dreamed of the potential power that Eisenhower was able to wield when the issue of the Little Rock Nine reared its ugly head. His unprecedented decision to directly contradict state action newly embodies the spirit of the Declaration of Independence by boldly striking down government that was not operating within its intended sphere of influence. In an odd twist of fate, it was the smaller authority that needed to be put in its place, rather than the tyrannical executive power that the Founding Fathers so feared. One of the chief lessons that the Civil Rights Movement offers is that government is most effective in protecting prosperity when it allows for the expansion of freedom, instead of fighting to limit it. In this way, the delicate equilibrium of power is maintained and the country is able to focus its united effort in other more advantageous efforts. One of the most painful ironies of this time is the large number of women who were opposed to desegregation. While women’s suffrage and abolition had once stood hand in hand, the growing individualist climate of the time made people like the Mothers’ League turn their backs on plight of African Americans. Without the increased federal power, the necessary change might not have been and the fear of the unknown and different may have continued to dictate the legal status of the nation’s citizens.
While it is unfair to say that the efforts of Reconstruction in the years following the Civil War were failures, the immense social and political upheaval that erupted during the mid-twentieth century serves to illuminate the extent to which race relations in the United States had deteriorated. To think that students were denied access to their public high school based on the color of their skin is abominable, but the need for federal intervention in unforgiveable. It may be impossible to determine whether or not the Civil Rights Movement completely repaired the gaping holes left by the meager reform efforts of Reconstruction, but the summation of the impact of the movement as a whole delivered the much needed push that the country needed to finally operate on the world stage without the damning stain of hypocrisy tarnishing the nation’s credibility. Beginning with the obvious evil of segregation, the dominoes of inequality were knocked down, leaving only residual marks in the opinion of the few rather than the many. While the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement are still being fought for today, the severe injustices of the Reconstruction era are far off in the nation’s past.
During the 1950’s the Civil Rights Movement was merely a rumble on America’s radar until the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American high school students, stepped on campus at Little Rock Central High School to attend class. The epochal Brown vs. Board of Education verdict gave these students the legal precedent to attend a “white’s only school” in the South. The ruling reinforced the reality that racism and prejudice were slowly dying off and a new wave of federally enforced integration was dawning upon the South. This small step of integration proved to be a large step in remedying the aliments of reconstruction. In a larger sense the Little Rock Nine was the face of the new Civil Rights movement which rocked the nation for over decade and was propped up by the awesome power of the U.S Federal Government. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s addressed the failures of reconstruction by affirming the power of Federal Government in education; by reestablishing the power of the Federal Government to enforce Federal Mandates in the South; and by finally passing a Civil Rights which granted new rights for Blacks. These aspects of the Civil Rights movement remedied the aliments of Reconstruction and the Little Rock Nine was indicative of the fresh and new ideas that would take hold of nation and change it forever.
After the horrors of the Civil War, the South was required to undergo a period of reform known as Reconstruction, which sought to end the bigotry in South. This high minded attempt to extinguish the racism and prejudice in the South failed to win the hearts and minds of the Southerners because the wounds from the war were still fresh. Eventually through an act of political expediency Congress was forced to pull out the remaining soldiers in the South, who were supporting these unpopular reforms, thus leaving the African Americans to fend for themselves in an even more hostile environment. The greatly diminished Federal presence in the South gave Southern legislators the breathing room to reinstitute their bigoted worldview through Jim Crow laws which discriminated Blacks in aspects of public life. Education, historically a states right issue, was shaped by Southern state legislators to be an instrument of racial prejudice because southern legislators wanted to reaffirm White supremacy over Blacks. The use of the educational system as a means of racial discrimination was not the national norm as document 2 shows that Massachusetts had barred their state educational system from discriminating against race, color, or religious opinion. This document shows that regional biases towards Blacks often diffused into state educational systems for example states like Massachusetts, located in the North, were more tolerant of Blacks while states like Arkansas, located the South, were not and this resulted in segregated educational systems. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s was spurred by the Brown vs. Board of Education verdict which declared segregation of schools was unconstitutional thus eliminating regional biases in education to certain degree. The Civil Rights movement finally brought an end to segregation in schools and the Little Rock Nine were the first to test this newfound privilege. The Little Rock Nine symbolized the new wave of African American rights and a triumph over racial discrimination in education, something untouched during Reconstruction. Most importantly this Civil Rights movement settled the Constitutional issue of state power to discriminate in education something greatly overlooked during Reconstruction.
The Warren court’s bold new verdict shocked the South’s world view to its very core, when ruled in favor of desegregating schools. Still feeling the sting of the Civil War, the South was not going to let Federal power dominate its affairs. Document 5 showed that school integration in the South had virulent opposition which was so powerful that even the Mothers League of Little Rock wanted to preserve their so called schools. This document showed that there was a large consensus that was against integration of schools which translated into political pressure for both local and state governments to not allow this to happen. This political pressure from the White voting block forced state governments to disobey and circumvent the power of the Federal Government. The Post- Reconstruction South engaged in similar activity when they passed numerous laws to restrict the Constitutional rights of Black and these laws were a product of White voting block which dominated the South. These laws deflected the power of the Federal Government to advance the South in race relations and allow Blacks to enjoy their Constitutional rights. The confluence of the racist worldview of many Southerners and the beginning of Federally enforced integration proved to be disastrous when Orval Faubus , the governor of Arkansas, placed troops in the front of Little Rock Central High School. Document 6 throws down the hammer of Federal power when President Eisenhower declares Orval Faubus’s actions an obstruction of Justice and through Executive Order Eisenhower forced the Arkansas National Guardsmen to cease and desist. This action by Eisenhower demonstrated the supremacy of Federal power by forcing Arkansas to enforce Brown vs. Board of Education, something it would never do on its own. This action shatters the precedent that states can circumvent federal authority, which was a huge failure of Reconstruction. After the North pulled troops out of the South, the South looked for as many ways as possible to circumvent the Federal mandate which was to abolish slavery. They did this by establishing Jim Crow laws which were a form of slavery because it chained African Americans to their color rather than their merit and often these laws bread African American dependency on the plantation system. After Eisenhower issued the executive order, the Civil Rights movement effectively shattered the states ability to weasel around Federal authority, forcing them to conform to the progressive ideas of the Federal Government. Consequently these actions by Eisenhower established the Federal Government as a preeminent figure in the Civil Rights movement.
The crux of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this far reaching law granted African Americans many rights not meted out to them during Reconstruction. This far reaching law was not the first of its kind, a similar bill was passed during Reconstruction but it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Document 4 is the Civil Rights Act of 1876 law which grants Blacks equally treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and it also prohibited the exclusion of Blacks from jury service. Many of these rights granted to Blacks in this bill were on the forefront in the new Civil Rights movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed the rights that were struck down in Civil Rights Act of 1876 during Reconstruction. This bill was a direct solution to the injustices overlooked during Reconstruction. This act barred unequal application of voting requirements. The choice application of voting requirements in the South was common place. African Americans were held to higher standard in order to vote, while White people had lower standards in order to vote. An example of this were the literacy test given Blacks which required them to name all of the county judges, and even declare how many bubbles there were in a bar of soap! While poor and illiterate Whites could use the “grandfather clause” which waved one literacy requirements if their grandfather was registered voter before 1866. Most of the African Americans grandparents were slaves before 1866 making such law useless to them. These blatant failures of Reconstruction were remedied when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed because it reduced the qualifications to vote for Blacks by forcing polling booths to apply voting requirements equally amongst races. In title 11 of the bill, it states that government Agencies caught discriminating can lose Federal funding. This provision in the law provides the support needed to enforce the law because the Civil Rights Act of 1866 failed miserably because it lacked the teeth to enforce it. Overall the Civil Rights Act of 1964 reversed the wrongs committed by the Supreme Court during Reconstruction and added the appropriate enforcement mechanism needed to have law be effective.
The Little Rock symbolized the collapse of the status quo in the South and the coming of a new era of tolerance and equality in America. This new Civil Rights movement avoided the pitfall of Reconstruction by having the Federal Government on the forefront of the movement, in order to keep the unruly southern states in line when they would try to circumvent the new reforms. The epochal Brown vs. Education verdict opened up all schools to all races something never done on Federal level till 1950’s. The Federal government was essential in the Civil Rights movement because only Federal power can dismantle Jim Crow laws in the South and manage the short comings of Reconstruction.
I turned mine in via Edmodo(Word Document).
The Civil War was such a large step in the right direction for civil rights often people over glorify the civil rights aspect of it. In reality while it was a win for civil rights politically and economically it did almost absolutely nothing socially and during the time after the Civil War known as the Reconstruction era, slavery was abolished but the treatment of slaves actually got worse and slavery reincarnated itself many forms. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s was when the ideals and politics of civil rights actually hit the ground. And boy did they hit the ground running with violent and nonviolent protests, infamous figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were born to be icons of this era and symbols of peace and equal rights for the world at large. All of these things defined the movement but there were three main aspects that were particularly significant in furthering civil rights where reconstruction didn’t/ couldn’t. First, the supposed “separate but equal” segregation excuse was put to bed and that ideology was squelched; second, with the 13th and 14th amendments already passed all the people needed was for the government to start enforcing the ideas behind the amendments and so there were many protests and petitions for this; and third, the federal power had increased almost inexplicably and this not only enabled but empowered the government as a whole to right these wrongs. Thus, the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s addressed all if not more of the issues that reconstruction miserably failed at resolving.
It is evident that the Civil War was not the answer to civil rights that it was supposed to be. Shortly after the passage of the 13th amendment the Jim Crow laws were put in place, essentially taking three steps back after one step forward. Despite these setback’s however the Civil Rights act was passed in 1866 and the Freedman’s Bureau gained popularity. This was short lived however when Chief Justice Fuller essentially ended all major civil rights movements with his 1896 decision in Plessy vs Ferguson, established and essentially legalizing the notion of “separate but equal.” 70 years later the Supreme Court was again faced with a similar case in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education. It was then Chief Justice Earl Warren’s decision then that would decide the legal fate of the Civil Rights Movement and he decided in favor of Brown. This was just the catalyst that America needed to revitalize civil rights and spark the social revolution that would spread across the nation changing America once again. The growing controversy was very much a personification of the age old Constitutional controversy between Federal Power and States Power. This fight is most obviously seen in 1957 when the Little Rock Nine were not allowed to attend Central High School in Arkansas because of their ethnicity. General Eisenhower directly opposed the state’s militia by using federal force to allow the children to attend the school. Federal power actually physically defending civil rights was a crucial encouragement and win for civil rights.
The presidents during reconstruction and up to the 50’s and 60’s are notorious for being unwilling to pick a side when it came to civil rights and it wasn’t really until Eisenhower and Kennedy that presidents began to fight for civil rights. This in part was because local police often violated basic human rights to try and break both peaceful and violent protests. The nation was shocked to see their sins displayed on national television as police were using attack dogs, tear gas grenades, and electric cattle prods to assault protesters. This attention made executive action a necessity and President Kennedy just before his death began televising his demands for civil rights. This was a big step forward from the presidents of the reconstruction era.
It is apparent that the reason that Reconstruction was such a miserable failure at establishing equal rights because of the lack of federal power necessary to enforce the legislation. Ever since The Great Compromise of 1787 the government at the state level has been fighting the government at the federal level. This is what sets us apart from a lot of other nations, our two steps of government keep each other in balance. Unfortunately this is also what kept the Civil Rights issue to be put off for so long. It took an unprecedented amount of federal power for Eisenhower to execute his movements involving the Little Rock Nine effectively. Also when the states tried to flex their muscles and end the protests they unintentionally invoked federal responses because of the immoral nature of what they were doing. President Abraham Lincoln (if he had survived) could never have acted like this simply because the federal power had not accumulated yet. So even though the presidents of the Reconstruction Era were not willing to step out and risk their political careers and take a stand for civil rights, they probably wouldn’t have had the federal power to do so. These things showed the public that the states were not handling certain issues correctly and after a few years of realization when it came time for them to vote America would vote in favor of civil rights, giving the federal government more and more power. It became a part of all of the political campaigns and slogans. This especially resonates today because of the recent election not only involving an African American president but also because of the recent push for the “Latino vote.” So yes the Civil Rights Movements of the 50’s and 60’s did replace the Reconstruction Era as the pivotal moment in our history when we took a step forward in civil rights but did it do enough? It wasn’t until 2008 that an ethnically diverse man took the office of presidency, fifty years after we “ended segregation.” The question we face now is to what extent do we need to continue the civil rights movement?
Cammie Gelbuda
Mr. Korling
Period 1 & 4
Part 1
The Civil liberties and equal rights that are granted to African American people today took close to a 100-year struggle to accomplish. Slaves were emancipated in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. There was the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Rosa Parks sat in the whites only section of the bus in Montgomery Alabama. These were all important milestones to equal rights. The Little Rock Nine anti-segregation of an all white high school showed the government’s stronger role in demanding equal rights for all people. First, Southern white Americans refused to except the freedom and equality that the government gave to black slaves; second, there were major conflicts between the federal government and the state government; and third, the path that many former slaves had to follow was based more on their needs than what they wanted.
After the Civil War ended the country was left very divided between anti-black and pro-black sentiments. Freed slaves of this time were often just freed slaves. They were not freed people with equal rights. When bloody and vicious race riots were happening in several Southern cities, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act on March 2, 1867. This Reconstruction act basically divided the South into five districts and temporality removed thousands and thousands of former Confederates from the Union. The Reconstruction Act required these five districts to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment giving former slaves their equal rights as citizens and to also pay full suffrage to their former adult male slaves. If they did this they would get readmission as a State in the Union. This Reconstruction Act freed the Federal Government from the responsibility for the protection of blacks rights. It made the states responsible for individually addressing black equality state by Southern state.
Cammie Gelbuda
Part 2
Even though the Reconstruction Act was passed and the states were readmitted to the Union, discrimination based on color, especially in the south was very wide spread. The majority of white Southerners still kept blacks like slaves. Violence and threats were often a big part of a freed slaves life. African Americans were still very segregated from whites. White Southerners and even some from the North were not willing to except that African Americans were liberated. That feeling continued to hold blacks back clear into the 1950 and 1960s, nearly 90 years later.
The 1950s through the 1960s was a very important time for African Americans. The American Civil Rights Movement tried to fix the failures of the Reconstructions era. The Civil Rights Movement allowed equality to become a part of normal everyday discussions and life. Business people, families and peers became more familiar and aware with the struggle, both non violent protest and sometimes violent ones that were occurring daily as the African American population tried to lose the “separate but equal” rights given to them during Emancipation. One of the most visible struggles and possible the turning point in the struggle for equality was what would become known as the “Little Rock Nine.” When nine young black students tried to enter the all white called Little Rock Central High School.
In 1950 there was approximately 15 million black people in the United States. They followed a set of rules known as the Jim Crow laws. This kept black people separated as much as possible from whites, while still calling them “equal.” For example blacks attended segregated schools and used separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, restaurants, trains, buses, and waiting rooms. Only about 20% of eligible blacks were registered to vote. African Americans had slightly better and more equal rights in the Northern States. For Example in 1947, Jackie Robinson was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. It was not long after that, that on a cold day in December 1955, Rosa Parks, a college-educated black seamstress made history on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest for violating the Jim Crow law sparked a yearlong protest and let everyone know that blacks would no longer abide by the Jim Crow rules.
In 1954, the Federal Government established the Brown Vs. Board of Education case that stated that the states had lost the rights to make rules for their schools and the Federal Government demanded that equality in schools was mandatory. In 1957, the governor of Arkansas told his national guard to prevent the nine black students from enrolling at the all white high school. President Eisenhower, knowing that this action was against the federal authority, sent troops to escort the nine black children to their classes.
The Civil Rights movement had a lasting positive effect in repairing the minimal reform effects of the Reconstruction era. Though the slaves were freed 1863, and the going through the next 90 years was very slow, the “Little Rock Nine” and the Civil Rights movement left the injustices of the Reconstruction Era mostly in the past.
A giant step in the right direction, the Civil War paved a way for civil rights. However, people often over praise that piece of it. The reality was that although it was a win both economically and politically, socially it did next to nothing, particularly during the time directly following the Civil War (known as the Reconstruction Era). Even though slavery was abolished, treatment of African Americans unfortunately got worse, and slavery was reawakened in many different areas. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s, however, was when all the politics and ideas of the broad range of civil rights hit the ground running. Both non-violent and violent protests ensued, and many idolized individuals (such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.) became infamous symbols of the peace and equal rights obtained at this time. Three main aspects that played key roles in furthering the significance of civil rights in this era compared to the Reconstruction Era are – first, the popular excuse for segregation (“separate but equal”) ideal was crushed; second, both protests and petitions were constructed due to the pressing need for government participation in enforcing the 13th and 14th Amendments; and third, thanks to the ever increasing federal power, the government was able to collectively right many of the wrongs. Thus, in these three ways, the 1950s and the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement repaired the damage that Reconstruction left in its wake.
Unfortunately, the Civil War did not turn out to be the answer to the major civil rights issues that people expected. Shortly after, the thirteenth amendment was passed, the Jim Crow laws were soon put into place to counter it, sending African Americans into what could have been considered as worse times than before. However in 1866, in spite of these complications, the Civil Rights act was passed. At the same time, the Freedman’s Bureau was significantly gaining acceptance, but this was short lived. Chief Justice Fuller was essentially the reason for the end of many if not all of the civil rights movements with his Plessy vs. Ferguson case decision in 1896. This established and also fundamentally legalized the conception of different races being “separate but equal.” In 1954, about 90 years later, the Supreme Court was faced with another challenge in the Brown vs. Board of Education case. Chief Justice Earl Warren’s decision in favor of Brown decided the legal fate of the Civil Rights movement. This was just the thing to revive the American people from their slumber and revitalize their need for a social revolution in favor of many new civil rights. This growing debate was very much characterized by the ever on-going Constitutional controversy between State’s power and the Federal Power. This was directly exemplified when the Little Rock Nine were not permitted to attend a school in Arkansas called Central High School simply because of their ethnicity in 1957. Using Federal force to allow the children to go to the school, General Eisenhower went directly against the state’s forces. This shows the physical involvement of the federal government in the popular debate of the need of many more civil rights.
The American presidents in the Reconstruction Era up to the 1950s and the 1960s were famous for being particularly unwilling to pick sides in the war of civil rights. It was not until President Eisenhower and Kennedy paved the way that many started to follow. A reason for this may have been the fact that many local police forces often went against human rights trying to appease both violent and non-violent protests. Through the use of television, the American people were appalled to see the use of electric cattle prods and tear gas grenades, among many other things, being used to hold back and assault the protesters. This forced a federal intervention, and right before his death, President Kennedy showed his true character on this civil rights topic through his demanding speech advocating for more to be done. This was giant leap forward looking at the different of presidents in 1877 up to the Civil Rights Movement Era.
The absence of federal power and its need to enforce certain legislation greatly contributed to the fact of Reconstruction being the failure that it was in the civil rights department. Since the Great Compromise of 1787, the United States government was at almost a seemingly permanent disagreement with the governments at the state levels, setting the country apart from the rest. This unfortunately also kept the Civil Rights issue on the backburner. The unparalleled amount of effort put into the federal backing of Eisenhower in his involvement in the Little Rock Nine situation openly illustrates this. Also, through the state’s immoral handling of these protests, the government on the national level was frequently called to interfere.
Even though in most cases the presidents of the United States during the Reconstruction Period were not willing or able to put their political careers on the line and stand up for their beliefs in civil rights, this was greatly due to there not being enough federal power to do so effectively. This showed the population of citizens the states inability to right certain wrongs correctly. After a few years, this finally dawned on the people, and many turned to vote for the necessary civil rights. This in turn gave more and more power to the federal government, for better or for worse. This also became a popular addition in many of the political slogans, cartoons, and campaigns at this time. All this directly correlates to the most recent presidential election. The need for the Latino vote and the African American vote has become a very important necessity in the run for the White House. In the end, it took many years for this cycle of segregation to end, for in 2008, the first black president was elected.
These three main points show the ways in which the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s and the 1970s replace the civil efforts in the Reconstruction Era.
In the years after the Civil War, America slowly began to scramble to deal with the rising issues of Civil Rights in America. The country was in a huge disagreement with the civil right of blacks in the country and freed African Americans repeatedly found themselves segregated from their own rights as an American Citizen. The case of the Little Rock Nine proved to be a huge step towards freedom of African Americans. First, Political quarrels within the country about proper governing and personal motivations led to issues between the House of Representatives and the Federal Government; second, the economic standing of the south prevented the African American population from their complete fundamental rights; third, the prominent position of southern whites in the south prevented the Government to intrude for the benefit of the Blacks. Thus, for political, economic, and social reasons, the 50’s and 60’s became the time of peaceful and violent protests against segregation of African Americans and ultimately changed the federal governments methods of governing.
Ever since African Americans were emancipated by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, The Southern Whites regard of African Americans has only become more stressed. Government used different tactics, such as poll tax and Literary tests, to cut down African American voting numbers. But the African Americans continued their protests and joined civil rights advocates to begin a voter registration drive in the state of Mississippi. When Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Voting rights act of 1965 to more effectively emancipate black voters in the states, a huge advancement of the Federal Government of the United States was demonstrated. By doing this, Johnson showed how the executive authority could justly help American citizens who have been unfairly treated. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965 peaceable, controlled protest that the African Americans had successfully kept up until this point, came to a halt. Black protesters were now brutally treated (Attacked by dogs, sprayed with fire hoses, and bruised and battered by vigilantes). Organizations and clubs, “sit-ins”, marches, boycotts, and “freedom Rides” were formed by African Americans to represent their discomfort with their rights as citizens. Examples of these are: The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the event in 1960 where four black college freshman kept their seats at a whites only lunch table, and the boycott after the Rosa Parks Incident. After 1965 African Americans shifted from peaceful protests to more forceful protests. Blacks were growing tired of their treatment and their tactics began to take on the violent side. The DIARY DICTATED BY DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER shows the political weight created by the chief executive as Eisenhower appropriates political means rather than just raw government power in order to more effectively secure aid for the black people in their civil rights movement.
The economic standpoint of the South during the time of Reconstruction did a lot to obstruct blacks’ rights after emancipation. The more conspicuous example of this would be the Black Codes, which were issued partly as a result of President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction plan that had the disenfranchisement of wealthy southerners as well as Confederate leaders. Johnson, granting abundant pardons to those who begged his favor, ended up politically recreating the South’s planter elite, and therefore aided the southern structure while inspiring the new southern regimes to design new governments. A seed of the new southern governments, the Black Codes were designed to manage the affairs of emancipated blacks in order to ensure a secure and extremely compliant labor force, for the southern states had taken great physical devastation by the conclusion of the Civil War. Many blacks, with little money and nothing to offer besides their labor, got forced into labor contracts or sharecropping, under which their debts skyrocketed. By the 20th century, blacks were starting to see more and more employment in offices, and the same economic opportunity was beginning to present itself to them. The EXECUTIVE ORDER REAFFIRMING POLICY OF FULL PARTICIPATION IN THE DEFENSE PROGRAM issued in 1941 demonstrates the progression of black employment into national and government jobs. Expressing that discrimination is not allowed in defense programs specifically, this document shows the government’s more devoted involvement in “workers’ morale and or national unity” as well as acknowledges the African-American movement’s constant and merciless calls for equal opportunity and rights.
Without regard to the Civil War, blacks were essentially kept as slaves by a vast number of white southerners, whose harsh disapproval only intensified with both words and actions. Emancipation was different throughout the Confederacy, many blacks were even brought back into enslavement, but for the freedmen, bullying and assaults were common threats targeted at restraining their progress in society. A good example of fright-or-force intimidation can be seen in the Ku Klux Klan, whose tactics directed many qualified black voters from the polls. Hence, white southerner’s reluctance to accept blacks’ liberated status showed to be a prominent trend that would prolong well into the 20th century. During the Reconstruction, the federal government made little effort in advertising blacks’ rights – one of the few instances of congressional acts that had to do with blacks during this time was the passage of the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 that allowed federal troops to control the KKK. Tensions between blacks and whites remained in angst all the way into the 20th century, by which time Jim Crow laws had taken hold in the South, aided by the Supreme Court’s 1847 “Plessy v. Ferguson” ruling on the constitutionality of “separate but equal” facilities. Although, in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of the bus, sparking a black boycott of city buses which lasted for a year. This harmless protest showed African-Americans’ motivation to no longer abide by the unfair laws of segregation, and is one of the countless demonstrations within the blacks’ battle. The changing role of the government throughout the years can be explained with the TRANSCRIPT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 10730 calling for the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. Issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this order demanded the military to guard the black students going to and from the previously all-white school. This document shows how far and how powerful the government had become, as it had enough authority to surpass state governments (the governor had earlier ordered the National Guard to prevent the black children from entering), intrude in the situation, and directly utilize the military for the welfare of “minority” citizens. This executive ability to take such an overreaching course of action would not have been allowed under the American government the 1700s, as demonstrated in the EXCERPT FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. This document, written in 1776, showed the American people’s idea of a proper government back then, which was based on the principle that the government’s role was only to provide the structure of the country, while the real power was vested in the people. This is because in 1776, government was seen as harmful to the Americans, and therefore they wanted there to be a balance between the people and the government. From a hazardous federal government to one that makes use of resources of the states themselves in order to guard the citizens’ rights, by the 1950s the U.S. government had developed into a strong implement for civil rights.
All graded up to this point.
Tristan Mauricio
Periods 1 & 6
5/29/13
Even after a century of supposed “freedom and equality” African Americans would stage a massive civil rights movement that would last throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. Civil Reform Bills, movements, and passionate advisors fighting for total equality between whites and blacks during the Reconstruction era proved to be an utter failure clearly shown post World War II. Socially, Southern people’s arrogance and stubbornness would bar the Federal Government from intervening: politically none of the pieces of legislation were ever recognized by independent Southern States governments; and economically the African Americans were unable to progress from their social status thus prolonging the segregation of the States. Therefore socially, politically, and economically The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s worked to address the failures of Reconstruction.
Despite the outcome of the Civil War, African Americans were not entirely free, Southern whites treated them the same, the only difference is that Blacks were paid for their hard labor. The Emancipation Proclamation eventually freed all of the Slaves in the South; however Southern interpretation of the Proclamation was not the desired outcome(DOC E). However the Federal Government encouraged Blacks to pursue American privileges such as making something better out of your life as a free man in the United States (DOC A) and in result, African Americans were voted into office. But Southern Whites did not agree with the outcome their former slaves were being given an education, hold public offices, and perhaps the worst thing was that these Blacks were now equal to the people who had owned them. Some of these Southern Whites formed groups to discourage Blacks from exercising their rights as American Citizens through means of intimidation. These demonstrations proved to be successful as Blacks had remained impoverished and few Blacks had pursued office. Enslavement turned to prejudices as the Black Community transitioned from slaves to second hand citizens.
The tension between the North and South over the “peculiar institution” was not one that occurred overnight it had been around for a while. With the passage of The Emancipation Proclamation and 3 Amendments were designed to protect the freedoms guaranteed underneath the Constitution(DOC C), Southern State Governments became more stubborn to Laws passed by the Federal Government. After the Civil War had ended and Reconstruction began, the majority resided in the Southern Democrats, former Confederates. These Southern Congressmen were allowed back into Congress to accelerate a establishment of good relations between the North and South, yet the intended outcome did not go as planned, The Southern Democrats elected back into Congress actually suppressed efforts at Civil Reform which in result slow the progress down immensely. The failures of Reconstruction gave way to a shaky relationship between the Federal Government over the course of a century which was shown during later decades. Southern State legislatures passed Jim Crow Laws which effectively prohibited integration of any sort, these laws were loopholes in which Blacks were free but they were not equal to white people in social status. The Civil Rights Movement was fought in the Deep
Tristan Mauricio
Periods 1 & 6
5/29/13
Even after a century of supposed “freedom and equality” African Americans would stage a massive civil rights movement that would last throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. Civil Reform Bills, movements, and passionate advisors fighting for total equality between whites and blacks during the Reconstruction era proved to be an utter failure clearly shown post World War II. Socially, Southern people’s arrogance and stubbornness would bar the Federal Government from intervening: politically none of the pieces of legislation were ever recognized by independent Southern States governments; and economically the African Americans were unable to progress from their social status thus prolonging the segregation of the States. Therefore socially, politically, and economically The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s worked to address the failures of Reconstruction.
Despite the outcome of the Civil War, African Americans were not entirely free, Southern whites treated them the same, the only difference is that Blacks were paid for their hard labor. The Emancipation Proclamation eventually freed all of the Slaves in the South; however Southern interpretation of the Proclamation was not the desired outcome(DOC E). However the Federal Government encouraged Blacks to pursue American privileges such as making something better out of your life as a free man in the United States (DOC A) and in result, African Americans were voted into office. But Southern Whites did not agree with the outcome their former slaves were being given an education, hold public offices, and perhaps the worst thing was that these Blacks were now equal to the people who had owned them. Some of these Southern Whites formed groups to discourage Blacks from exercising their rights as American Citizens through means of intimidation. These demonstrations proved to be successful as Blacks had remained impoverished and few Blacks had pursued office. Enslavement turned to prejudices as the Black Community transitioned from slaves to second hand citizens.
The tension between the North and South over the “peculiar institution” was not one that occurred overnight it had been around for a while. With the passage of The Emancipation Proclamation and 3 Amendments were designed to protect the freedoms guaranteed underneath the Constitution(DOC C), Southern State Governments became more stubborn to Laws passed by the Federal Government. After the Civil War had ended and Reconstruction began, the majority resided in the Southern Democrats, former Confederates. These Southern Congressmen were allowed back into Congress to accelerate a establishment of good relations between the North and South, yet the intended outcome did not go as planned, The Southern Democrats elected back into Congress actually suppressed efforts at Civil Reform which in result slow the progress down immensely. The failures of Reconstruction gave way to a shaky relationship between the Federal Government over the course of a century which was shown during later decades. Southern State legislatures passed Jim Crow Laws which effectively prohibited integration of any sort, these laws were loopholes in which Blacks were free but they were not equal to white people in social status. The Civil Rights Movement was fought in the Deep
(Part 2)South to fight against the evils of segregation a perfect example of the Southern State governments disrespecting the word of the Federal Government was at a High school in Little Rock Kansas. The incident began when nine black teenagers attempted to attend classes in Little Arkansas Central high, a school that was filled with White kids. Arkansas State Governor Orval Faubus ordered The National Guard to keep the “Little Rock Nine” from entering the school despite the orders to step down by President Eisenhower (DOC G). In response to the incident President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne, the group of soldiers who famously removed Hitler from Nazi Germany during World War II, to replace the National Guard. It became a scene of awe; nine Black teenagers were now being escorted by Federal Soldiers to and from class. To add to the horrendous event that took place during the Civil Rights Movement, peaceful protests lead by people such as Martin Luther King often fell prey to attack by police officers armed with fire hoses, dogs, and batons. However the Federal Government would not back down to the State Governments and eventually bring about order.
In the wake of essentially terrorists groups like the KKK wreaking havoc on innocent Black families, ex-slaves were not only intimated to stay out of office or vote, they were also heavily suppressed by laws passed against them. Jim Crow Laws were the obvious jailer of the African American Rights but the different systems that re-established African American servitude. In the aftermath of the Civil War there was a major shift of Black population as they moved about freely for various reasons such as to find lost family members or move to the North. The odd thing was that the exodus of Blacks from the South to the North was halted as restriction to a small amount of admitted Black individuals to prevent competition in jobs passed by Congress as Black Codes. Most slave owners were terrified at losing most slaves, to prevent their slaves from leaving, sharecropping, a system where tenant farmers own a plot of land while paying another farmer rent essentially, became a popular system. This system would not only force Blacks who could not afford to leave the plantation for an extended period of time it would also cause debts to their previous masters to retain control over their lives. The next century would continue without any significant movements in Civil Reform, African Americans were still regarded as an entirely different race, to rub salt onto the wound the separate but equal mindset had been installed into Southern folk. Segregation was all over the South; all forms of public services were separated into normal White institutions while Black public institutions such as restaurants were run down. With the enforcement of Black Codes passed during Reconstruction would not help the cause at all, they were designed t control African American movement and limit Black rights, Southern State governments would use literacy tests and/or poll taxes to encourage that notion. Not only was the Reconstruction a disappointing and utter failure it also served as a perfect example of Injustices that played out over the course of the century.
All grading complete up to this point.
(Part 1) During the tumultuous time of the 1950 to 1960s Civil rights movement, the United States experienced dramatic social change, as the African American population sought to end the dispute over which America’s people really were. Eighty years following the end of the Reconstruction Era, many questioned the “solutions” that Congress put forth in hopes to end the issue of civil rights, yet these measures taken left many questioning the purpose of the Civil War as true freedom was overlooked as the Union sought to reestablish the guiltless South. The African American Civil Rights Movement addressed these failures through three responses: first, by recognizing to the evil of discrimination; second, through protests by the people to have their demands recognized; and thirdly, the exponential growth of executive power for its presidents and the steps taken by each in response to the . After two decades less of a century, the Civil Rights Movement influenced the national governments to finally respond to the immoral effects of Reconstruction, or lose the control of its people.
After passing the Fourteenth amendment in 1868and granting African Americans citizenship as opposed to the Dred Scott decision, the US government seemed to recognize the demands for freedom by the African Americans as the Civil War ended, yet the adjustments to civil rights had not finished. After the sharecropping and Jim Crow laws, discrimination, the “separate, but equal” statement in 1896, slave-like labor was reintegrated into southern lifestyle, provoking a call to change for decades until the 19570s, in both Radical Republicans and common citizens, as was seen in the revocation of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The controversy of discrimination in the United States became one of the largest rallying calls to change in the 1950s and 60’s, an unaddressed wound that slowly drained the nation of support by the people. After decades of federal opposition that followed through support from several presidents, including Truman, congressmen (mainly southern democrats) found it futile to brave the constant waves of uproar from a surging and unrelenting ocean of American abolitionists. No longer able to choose indecision over the fight for freedom as Congress had for decades before the Civil war, federal leaders took action to dismiss discrimination, often requiring the use of military and the National Guard, as was ordered by president Eisenhower towards Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Sitting on the sidelines was no longer the status quo for the national government, as doing so would have ultimately initiated a second Civil War. In order to maintain the peace, America’s leaders had to be willing to make difficult decisions with harsh consequences, instead of allowing the most harrowing consequence to erupt as a result. It was necessary for politicians to take a radical initiative if they wished to overcome a radical movement.
(Part 2) The social unrest of the oppressed American people ultimately encouraged passing the Civil Rights amendment of 1964, whether the protest was of peaceful or violent nature, as both have influenced our nation today. The earliest forms of protest by the Civil Rights Movement was sparked officially after the simple action of refusals by people such as Rosa Parks who, in 1955, refused to have her seat taken by a white man, in which she was arrested, soon creating the Montgomery Bus Boycott, joined by several activists, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. This was the early example of civil rights protests, which are seen by most historians as giving the greatest effect in securing liberties for the oppressed African-American. However, after the protests in the late 60’s and early 70’s, many were divided in dispute over the effectiveness of the following violent protests lead by other African Americans of differing interests, including Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, Stokely Carmichael, and others. Born Malcolm Little, Malcolm X campaigned under the Nation of Islam for a separation between whites and blacks, criticizing King Jr.’s strategy for racial integration as weak, while the Black Panthers zealously called for violent protest in Oakland, California, 1966. Leaders of many civil-rights groups began rallying under the political slogan “Black Power”, as Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael advocated overtaking the government. Many activists divided between separation and integration into white society as the answer, as violence fought peace, to where the passing of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment removed poll taxes established in some southern states since Reconstruction. As racist riots, angering assassinations, and foreboding fascist-like groups continued in the succession of a few years, fear and respect prodded Congress’ divided politicians to agree in hopes that social order may be established. Whether it was violence or peace, integration or separation, the efforts of either side pushed for a successful change in racial discrimination and civil rights that defines our nation today.
(Part 3) Since the Andrew Jackson took office, the power of the presidency increased drastically as did the nation’s population, technology, and national problems. During the reconstruction era, Andrew Johnson took drastic measures to follow Lincoln’s policies and plans, as he fired a cabinet member without the consent of Congress, and vetoed many of the Radical Republicans’ proposed acts. Another example, President Theodore Roosevelt committed imperialistic actions in examples such as the establishment of the Panama Canal in 1904, and the acquisition of the Philippines in 1899. With just these examples, the president’s power grew important use by the time of the 1950s, as the abilities of the president helped determine the outcome of the Civil Rights Movement. If the presidents following Reconstruction had not taken the opportune moment of seizing executive power during Reconstruction and following, the outcome of the 1960s would have taken a more drastic turn. As was seen during the affair in Little Rock, President Eisenhower effectively used his presidential abilities to send the 101st Airborne to protect the African-American students attending Central High school, or when JFK asked Congress to act on the civil rights movement, while also allowing Martin Luther King Jr. to give the “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C. The President was highly influential during the Civil Rights Movement, and allowed it to make its effective influence on the nation. Without a compliant Congress, and a compromising president, the rights of the people would not have been heard, confirming a futile outcome for civil rights activists.
The Civil Rights Movement was the result of the insufficient attempts to satisfy the freedmen, as Reconstruction encouraged its birth. What made this movement most effective, however, was not just because of the people, but because of the power of the president and Congress. Ultimately, through these factors, the movement for the civil liberties of the people was addressed, and its effects still ripple through the present day.
Nick Palmares
Per. 4
Civil Reform Bills, movements, and passionate advisors fighting for total equality between whites and blacks during the Reconstruction era proved to be an utter failure clearly shown post World War II. Socially, Southern people’s arrogance and stubbornness would bar the Federal Government from intervening: politically none of the pieces of legislation were ever recognized by independent Southern States governments; and economically the African Americans were unable to progress from their social status thus prolonging the segregation of the States. Therefore socially, politically, and economically The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s worked to address the failures of Reconstruction.
Despite the outcome of the Civil War, African Americans were not entirely free, Southern whites treated them the same, the only difference is that Blacks were paid for their hard labor. The Emancipation Proclamation eventually freed all of the Slaves in the South; however Southern interpretation of the Proclamation was not the desired outcome(DOC E). However the Federal Government encouraged Blacks to pursue American privileges such as making something better out of your life as a free man in the United States (DOC A) and in result, African Americans were voted into office. But Southern Whites did not agree with the outcome their former slaves were being given an education, hold public offices, and perhaps the worst thing was that these Blacks were now equal to the people who had owned them. Some of these Southern Whites formed groups to discourage Blacks from exercising their rights as American Citizens through means of intimidation. These demonstrations proved to be successful as Blacks had remained impoverished and few Blacks had pursued office.
The tension between the North and South over the “peculiar institution” was not one that occurred overnight it had been around for a while. With the passage of The Emancipation Proclamation and 3 Amendments were designed to protect the freedoms guaranteed underneath the Constitution(DOC C), Southern State Governments became more stubborn to Laws passed by the Federal Government. After the Civil War had ended and Reconstruction began, the majority resided in the Southern Democrats, former Confederates. These Southern Congressmen were allowed back into Congress to accelerate a establishment of good relations between the North and South, yet the intended outcome did not go as planned, The Southern Democrats elected back into Congress actually suppressed efforts at Civil Reform which in result slow the progress down immensely. The failures of Reconstruction gave way to a shaky relationship between the Federal Government over the course of a century which was shown during later decades. Southern State legislatures passed Jim Crow Laws which effectively prohibited integration of any sort, these laws were loopholes in which Blacks were free but they were not equal to white people in social status.
(cont.) The incident began when nine black teenagers attempted to attend classes in Little Arkansas Central high, a school that was filled with White kids. Arkansas State Governor Orval Faubus ordered The National Guard to keep the “Little Rock Nine” from entering the school despite the orders to step down by President Eisenhower (DOC G). In response to the incident President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne, the group of soldiers who famously removed Hitler from Nazi Germany during World War II, to replace the National Guard. It became a scene of awe; nine Black teenagers were now being escorted by Federal Soldiers to and from class. To add to the horrendous event that took place during the Civil Rights Movement, peaceful protests lead by people such as Martin Luther King often fell prey to attack by police officers armed with fire hoses, dogs, and batons.
In the wake of essentially terrorists groups like the KKK wreaking havoc on innocent Black families, ex-slaves were not only intimated to stay out of office or vote, they were also heavily suppressed by laws passed against them. Jim Crow Laws were the obvious jailer of the African American Rights but the different systems that re-established African American servitude. In the aftermath of the Civil War there was a major shift of Black population as they moved about freely for various reasons such as to find lost family members or move to the North. The odd thing was that the exodus of Blacks from the South to the North was halted as restriction to a small amount of admitted Black individuals to prevent competition in jobs passed by Congress as Black Codes. Most slave owners were terrified at losing most slaves, to prevent their slaves from leaving, sharecropping, a system where tenant farmers own a plot of land while paying another farmer rent essentially, became a popular system. This system would not only force Blacks who could not afford to leave the plantation for an extended period of time it would also cause debts to their previous masters to retain control over their lives. The next century would continue without any significant movements in Civil Reform, African Americans were still regarded as an entirely different race, to rub salt onto the wound the separate but equal mindset had been installed into Southern folk. Segregation was all over the South; all forms of public services were separated into normal White institutions while Black public institutions such as restaurants were run down. With the enforcement of Black Codes passed during Reconstruction would not help the cause at all, they were designed t control African American movement and limit Black rights, Southern State governments would use literacy tests and/or poll taxes to encourage that notion.
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