Civil Rights
Truman
-1946 - Columbia, Tennessee riot
-Liberals & leftists joined Elanor Roosevelt in forming National Committee for Justice in Columbia TN &
with NAACP et al to form National Emergency Committee Against Violence
-President's Committee on Civil Rights -> To Secure These Rights report
-Truman: everyone should be able to vote; needed growing black vote; racism hurt international relations
-liberals & urban Democrats give go for Civil Rihts; "Dixiecrats" leave w/ Strom Thurmond
Eisenhower
-Warren Court:
-Jencks v. US: let accsed view government files to be used against him
-Yates v. US: Smith Act overturned
-Brown v. Board of Ed. Of Topeka: reversed Plessy v. Ferguson's separate-but-equal
-Southern Manifesto signed by southern legislatures denounced Brown
-Faubus used Nat. Guard to prevent integration; Eisenhower nationalized Arkansas NG and used them to
patrol schools; Faubus closed Little Rock's schools
-Civil Rights Act of 1957 made civil rights commission
-Hispanics & Native Americans in barrios and other ghettos; exploitation of exportation laws
-House Concurrent Resolution 108: ended status as wards of US and liquidated reservations and
government programs
Kennedy
-James Meredith & "Ole Miss": federal troops used to quell southern riot at Meredith's attendance to U of
M
-"Bull" Connor & Birmingham; sit-in led to whites rioting; "Freedom Now!"; JFK compromised w/ Connor
to end demonstrations if desegregation occurred
-JFK decides on more comprehensive civil rights plan near end
-Medgar Evers, a Mississippi NAACP leader, murdered
Lyndon B Johnson
-Civil Rights Act of 1964: outlawed segregation on public facilities and worked for equal opportunity with
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOEC)
-"Great Society":
-"unconditional war on poverty in America"
-Economic Opportunity Act made Office of Economic Opportunity to fund Job Corps
-Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) was domestic group for people to help in poverty areas
-Project Head Start & Public Works
-89th Congress: "Congress of Fulfillment"