The Civil Rights Era
Part 1: Desegregation | Civil Rights in the Arena and on the Stage
Part 2
The post-war era marked a period of unprecedented energy against the second class
citizenship accorded to African Americans in many parts of the nation. Resistance to
racial segregation and discrimination with strategies such as civil disobedience,
nonviolent resistance, marches, protests, boycotts, "freedom rides," and rallies
received national attention as newspaper, radio, and television reporters and
cameramen documented the struggle to end racial inequality. There were also
continuing efforts to legally challenge segregation through the courts.
Success crowned these efforts: the Brown decision in 1954, the Civil Rights Act of
1964, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 helped bring about the demise of the
entangling web of legislation that bound blacks to second class citizenship. One
hundred years after the Civil War, blacks and their white allies still pursued the battle
for equal rights in every area of American life. While there is more to achieve in
ending discrimination, major milestones in civil rights laws are on the books for the
purpose of regulating equal access to public accommodations, equal justice before the
law, and equal employment, education, and housing opportunities. African Americans
have had unprecedented openings in many fields of learning and in the arts. The black
struggle for civil rights also inspired other liberation and rights movements, including
those of Native Americans, Latinos, and women, and African Americans have lent
their support to liberation struggles in Africa.
Few other institutions can present the African American mosaic of life and culture as
completely as the Library of Congress. The Library's photographs, film footage,
newspapers, magazines, manuscripts, and music holdings chronicle this period better
than any other collection in existence. In addition to the NAACP and NUL papers, the
Library also holds papers of civil rights activists such as Thurgood Marshall, Roy
Wilkins, Patricia Roberts Harris, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Mary Church
Terrell, Robert Terrell, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and others. Although the quest may
not be fully realized, the Library's collections document the relentless and significant
process of pursuing full equality.
Desegregation
President Harry Truman Wipes Out Military Segregation
Press release for Executive Order
No. 9981, establishing the
President's Committee on
Equality of Treatment and
Opportunity in the Armed
Forces.
July 26, 1948.
Typescript document.
NAACP Collection, Manuscript
Division. (9-1)
Courtesy of NAACP
On July 26, 1948,
President Harry
Truman issued
two executive
orders. One
instituted fair
employment
practices in the
civilian agencies
of the federal
government; the
other provided for
"equality of
treatment and
opportunity in the
armed forces
without regard to
race, color,
religion,or
national origin."
"By Executive Order-President Truman Wipes Out
Segregation in Armed Forces."
Chicago Defender, July 31,
1948.
Copyprint from microfilm.
Serial and Government
Publications Division. (9-2)
Courtesy of the Chicago Daily
Defender, Chicago, Illinois.
This was a major victory for civil rights advocates in the quest for full citizenship.
Land Where Our Fathers Died
Oliver W. Harrington (1912-1995) knew he
wanted to become a cartoonist during grade school,
when drawing caricatures made him feel better
about disturbing situations. Harrington received a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Yale
University. In 1951, he left the United States, but
continued to provide cartoon strips for American
newspapers. His images address the social and
political injustices of capitalism and racism.
Harrington's Dark Laughter strip first appeared in
The Amsterdam News in May 1935.
Oliver W. Harrington.
Dark Laughter.
"My Daddy said they didn't seem
to mind servin' him on the Anzio
beach head. . ."
Published in the Pittsburgh
Courier,
April 2, 1960.
Crayon, ink, blue pencil, and
pencil on paper.
Prints and Photographs Division.
(9-28)
Courtesy of Dr. Helma Harrington
Psychological Effects of Racism
Kenneth B. Clark.
The Genesis of Racial Identification
and Preferences in Negro Children,
1940.
K. B. Clark Papers, Manuscript
Division. (9-15)
In the "doll test," popularized by social
psychologists Kenneth Bancroft Clark and his
wife, Mamie Phipps Clark, children were given a
black doll and a white doll and asked which one
they preferred. Most black children preferred the
white doll, to which they also attributed the most
positive characteristics. During court trials
relating to segregated schools, the NAACP and
the NAACP Legal Defense Fund enlisted
Kenneth Clark's services as an expert witness on
the detrimental effects of racial exclusion and
discrimination. The Defense Fund lawyers also
submitted a report that explained the test results
to the Supreme Court as evidence in the Brown v.
Board of Education case. In a unanimous ruling
in 1954, the court found that separate schools
were inherently unequal and specifically cited the
Clark report.
Thurgood Marshall on "Saving the Race"
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American
to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court. His legal
career began with the NAACP. Many of the
NAACP's records reveal Marshall's grueling
traveling and meeting schedule, as well as his
acute sense of humor, even in the face of threats
from whites and distrust by African Americans.
After the inauspicious beginning of a case
challenging the Texas primary, Marshall wrote this
memo.
Thurgood Marshall to the NAACP,
Tuskegee Institute, Research
Department.
November 17, 1941.
NAACP Collection, Manuscript
Division. (8-16)
Courtesy of the NAACP
Brown Decision--Separate Is Inherently Illegal
George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood
Marshall, and James Nabrit,
congratulating each other, following
Supreme Court decision declaring
segregation unconstitutional, 1954.
Copyprint.
New York World-Telegram and Sun
Photograph Collection, Prints and
Photographs Division.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62111236 (9-11)
Courtesy of AP/Wide World Photos.
Beginning in 1950, the NAACP and the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund attorneys worked on a
school desegregation case originating in
Charleston, S.C. In 1952 the case came before the
U.S. Supreme Court, whose members decided to
hear it with cases from Delaware, Virginia,
Kansas, and the District of Columbia under the
collective title Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka. Thurgood Marshall and other NAACP
lawyers argued the case and won. Brown marked
a landmark victory in the fight for full
citizenship, offering hope that the system of
segregation was not unassailable.
Daisy Bates and The Little Rock Nine
Daisy Bates to Roy Wilkins,
December 17, 1957, on the treatment
of the Little Rock Nine.
Holograph letter.
NAACP Collection, Manuscript
Division. (9-18a)
Arkansasborn Daisy
Bates worked
as a
crusading
newspaper
ownerjournalist,
becoming
president of
the Arkansas
NAACP.
After the
1954 Brown
schooldesegregation
decision,
Little Rock
school board
officials
decided to
begin
desegregation
of Central
High School
in September
1957.
The Little Rock Nine, ca 195760.
Copyprint.
NAACP Collection, Prints and
Photographs Division.
Reproduction Number: LCUSZ62-119154 (9-18b)
Courtesy of the NAACP
Arkansas governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to preserve
order, a euphemism for keeping the nine prospective African American students
out. However, on September 25, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower
federalized the Arkansas National Guard and deployed paratroopers to carry out
the desegregation orders of the federal courts. Bates supported the students
throughout the year and with them received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in
1958.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to
a white person in Montgomery, Alabama, and
was arrested in December 1955, she set off a
train of events that generated a momentum the
civil rights movement had never before
experienced. Local civil rights leaders were
hoping for such an opportunity to test the city's
segregation laws. Deciding to boycott the buses,
the African American community soon formed
a new organization to supervise the boycott, the
Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA).
The young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was
chosen as the first MIA leader. The boycott,
more successful than anyone hoped, led to a
1956 Supreme Court decision banning
segregated buses.
"5,000 at Meeting Outline Boycott;
Bullet Clips Bus." Montgomery,
Alabama, Bus Boycott.
Montgomery Advertiser, December 6,
1955.
Copyprint from microfilm.
Serial and Government Publications
Division. (9-3)
Courtesy of the Montgomery
Advertiser.
James Meredith and Ole Miss
In September 1962, a federal court ordered the University of Mississippi to
accept James Meredith, a twenty-eight-year-old Air Force Veteran, much to the
consternation of segregationists. Governor Ross Barnett said he would never
allow the school to be integrated. After days of violence and rioting by whites,
Meredith, accompanied by federal officials, enrolled on October 1, 1962.
Because he had earned college credits elsewhere, Meredith graduated the
following August without incident.
Marion S. Trikosko. James Meredith, Oxford, Mississippi, 1962. Copyprint. New York WorldTelegram and Sun Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction
Number: LC-U9-8556-24 (9-8)
In 1966 Meredith began a 220-mile "March Against Fear" from Memphis,
Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. He hoped to demonstrate a positive change
in the racial climate, but he was shot soon after he commenced the march. Civil
rights leaders rallied to the cause and came to continue the march from the point
at which Meredith fell.
Civil Rights in the Arena and on the Stage
Gospel Singer Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans in
1911, and from childhood sang in church. She
resisted the lure to secular music saying, "When
you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a
cure for what's wrong. But when you are
through with the blues, you've got nothing to
rest on." She first sang in church store-fronts,
but as her recognition grew, she began giving
church concerts, making records, and touring
the U.S. and abroad. She also sang on radio and
television. Jackson became involved with the
civil rights movement at the urging of Martin
Luther King, Jr. In this photograph she is
singing at the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for
Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial--a civil rights
rally, held on the third anniversary of the
Brown decision. Jackson also sang just before
King's "I have a Dream" speech during the 1963
March on Washington.
Mahalia Jackson at the May 17,
1957, Prayer Pilgrimage of
Freedom in Washington, D.C.
Silver gelatin print.
NAACP Collection, Prints and
Photographs Division.
Reproduction Number: LCUSZC4-6177/LC-USZ62-119977
(9-16)
Courtesy of the NAACP
Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement
Max Roach.
Jazz performers responded to the force of the civil
rights movement by recording and performing their
music. The most ambitious response was the Freedom
Now Suite of Max Roach, recorded in August and
September 1960, and involving such major performers
as Coleman Hawkins, Abbey Lincoln, and Nigerian
drummer Olatunji. The Freedom Now Suite was
issued on the small label Candid Records rather than
on Max Roach's regular label, Mercury.
We Insist! Max Roach's
Freedom Now Suite.
New York: Candid Records,
1960.
Record jacket.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting,
and Recorded Sound Division.
(9-6)
Courtesy of Candid
Production, LTD
Two Baseball Greats
William C. Green. [Willie Mays,
standing, with his arm around Roy
Campanella], 1961.
Copyprint.
New York World-Telegram & Sun
Collection, Prints and Photographs
Division. (9-25)
Born in 1921 in Philadelphia, Roy Campanella
was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in
1969. Willie Howard Mays, Jr. ("Say Hey"), born
in 1931 in Westfield, Alabama, was inducted ten
years later. Both Campanella, who was a catcher
with the Brooklyn Dodgers for most of his
professional years, and Mays, the third African
American player in the 1951 Giants outfield,
began their careers in the Negro Baseball
Leagues. Although Jackie Robinson was the first
black player in the major leagues, these other
players also faced difficulties and sometimes
even danger from hostile players and fans.
Record Breaking Hank Aaron
By hitting his 715th home run in 1974, Henry Louis Aaron, born in Alabama in
1934, broke Babe Ruth's famous home run record at the age of 40. Some whites
resented an African American taking this coveted record and sent thousands of
hate letters and threatened Aaron's life and family as he was nearing the record.
Before he retired from the Atlanta Braves, Aaron increased the record to 755
runs and held twelve other major league records, including most at bats, most
total bases, and most runs batted in. In 1969 the Atlanta Braves fans named
"Hank" Aaron the greatest player ever. In 1982, he was inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame.