Civil Rights
Long-term Champions & Opponents
Kevin T. Brady, Ph.D.
Early Civil Rights Acts
• Civil Rights Act of 1866
• Reconstruction Act of 1867
• Reconstruction Amendments
– 13th
– 14th
– 15th
Natural Rights – 1865
Civil Rights
– 1868
Political Rights – 1870
• Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
1877 End of
Reconstruction
DEMOCRATS RETAKE SOUTHERN
STATES
INSTITUTE JIM CROW LAWS
Early Twentieth Century
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Teddy Roosevelt
• My Dear Governor Durbin, (IN) ... permit me to thank you as an American
citizen for the admirable way in which you have vindicated the majesty of
the law by your recent action in reference to lynching... All thoughtful
men... must feel the gravest alarm over the growth of lynching in this
country, and especially over the peculiarly hideous forms so often taken
by mob violence when colored men are the victims – on which occasions
the mob seems to lay more weight, not on the crime but on the color of
the criminal.... There are certain hideous sights which when once seen
can never be wholly erased from the mental retina. The mere fact of
having seen them implies degradation.... Whoever in any part of our
country has ever taken part in lawlessly putting to death a criminal by the
dreadful torture of fire must forever after have the awful spectacle of his
own handiwork seared into his brain and soul. He can never again be the
same man.
Eugenics
•
1916 The Passing of a Great Race, Madison Grant
•
1920 The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy, Lothard
Stoddard
•
"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race." Margaret Sanger
Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company,
1922. P. 12.
•
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service
backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational
approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to
go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the
man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more
rebellious members.“
December 19, 1939 Margaret Sanger letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams
Street, Milton, Massachusetts.
Woodrow Wilson
•
•
•
•
Progressive Democrat
Born in Virginia
Historian & President of Princeton University
Governor of New Jersey
The film called The Birth of the Nation
was released in 1915.
It was based on a 1905 novel called
The Clansman.
The success of the film at the box-office
was uncertain until it was viewed at the White House,
by Woodrow Wilson
During the film, Wilson had jumped to his
feet and shouted that “It is like writing history
with lightning. And my only regret is that it is
all so terribly true.”
Papers reported that Wilson
loved the film and the
money started to roll in.
William J. Simmons formed a new
(the second) Ku Klux Klan in Georgia.
The 2nd Klan was by far the largest. It had a big
presence in New Jersey and especially in the Midwest.
The prime focus of hatred went towards Catholic
& Jewish immigrants and against any Catholics in
America.
Wilson’s Racial Attitudes
• He believed that giving African Americans the right to vote was
“…
the foundation of every evil in this country.”
• During his first term in office, the House passed a law making racial
intermarriage a felony in the District of Columbia.
• His Postmaster General also ordered that his Washington offices be
segregated, with the Treasury and Navy soon doing the same.
• Photographs were required of all applicants for federal jobs. When
pressed by black leaders, Wilson replied, "The purpose of these
measures was to reduce the friction. It is as far as possible from being
a movement against the Negroes. I sincerely believe it to be in their
interest."
Woodrow Wilson
• In 1913 Wilson reintroduced
segregation to Washington DC and
brought Jim Crow to the Federal
Workforce
• He also dismissed Blacks from Federal
jobs in the South and in DC
Woodrow Wilson
To an African American black delegation
in the White House he said:
• “Segregation is not a humiliation. . .but
a benefit and ought to be so regarded
by you gentlemen.”
Warren G. Harding
• Spoke in Birmingham Alabama and
advocated civil rights for African
Americans on October 26, 1921.
• Hired Federal Workers in the South
• Spoke out against lynching
• Supported Rep. Leonidas Dyer’s antilynching bill. It passes House
• Defeated in the Senate after a Democratic
Filibuster
Calvin Coolidge
• Coolidge often spoke out the rights of AfricanAmericans.
– Most African-Americans voted for the GOP
back then.
– The white south was solidly Democratic
• Formed a committee of blacks & whites to
promote mutual understanding of the
northern migration of blacks since WWI.
• Sent $1 million dollars to Howard University
• He publically spoke out against lynching
Calvin Coolidge and
Lynching
• Numbered among our population are some
twelve million colored people. Under our
Constitution their rights are just as sacred as
those of any other citizen. It is both a public
and private duty to protect those rights. The
Congress ought to exercise all its powers of
prevention and punishment against the hideous
crime of lynching, of which the negroes
are by no means the sole suffers, but
for which they furnish a majority of the
victims.
Anti-lynching Bills
• All could not be enacted because of
Democratic Filibusters
• FDR did not want to promote anti-lynching
bills. He feared southern Democratic voters.
• Eleanor wanted him to support ant lynching
and would bug him when she was home.
• He made sure he was not alone with her at
breakfast, so he could change the topic.
Legislators Introduce Antilynching and Anti-poll Tax
Bills
•
•
•
•
Bill to protect black voters in 1890
Anti-lynching 1922, 1935, & 1938
Anti-poll tax bills 1942, 1944, & 1946
All defeated by Democratic Filibusters
Fair Employment Practices
Committee
• In June 1941, FDR issued Executive
Order 8802 and created the Fair
Employment Practices Committee. The
order required the Federal government
to not use race, color, creed, or national
origin as a consideration when hiring
any person.
Eisenhower
• Eisenhower runs against Adlai Stevenson
• Stevenson, personally, had a hard time
with African Americans--- He was known
to “experience personal discomfort around
Negroes.”
• Stevenson chose a segregationist, John
Sparkman from Alabama to run as Vice
President.
Eisenhower Breaks the
Solid South
• 1952- He wins Tennessee, Virginia,
and Florida.
• Comes close in Kentucky, West
Virginia, and North Carolina
• Deep south who had voted for staunch
segregationist & Dixiecrat, Strom
Thurman in 1948 voted for Stevenson.
In 1952.
Integrating the Military
• Harry Truman had issed an executive
order to integrate the military in 1948;
however, it was never implemented.
• Eisenhower integrates the military in
1953.
• He also appoints African Americans to
higher federal posts.
November
25, 1955
The Eisenhower administration bans
racial segregation on interstate bus
travel
G.O.P. Platform 1956
• The Republicans endorsed the 1954
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme
Court decision on their party platform
• The Democrats do not.
October 19, 1956
• While campaigning, Vice President
Richard Nixon vows: “American boys
and girls shall sit, side by side, at any
school – public or private – with no
regard paid to the color of their skin.
Segregation, discrimination, and
prejudice have no place in America”
Orval Eugene Faubus
• Progressive, New Dealer, the Democratic
Governor of Arkansas blocked the school
doors rather than let African American
students enter white schools in Little Rock.
• Faubas and his family were great admirers of
American socialist presidential candidates,
Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas.
• He was named after Debs.
Eisenhower sends troops
• Ike took a chance and federalized Arkansas
national guard.
• Arkansas guardsmen had to decide to follow
Ike’s orders or to stay loyal to their governor
and to Arkansas.
• Ike weigh as former Allied Commander during
World War II wins out and they obey.
• There is a chance of a new civil war.
• Ike send in the 101st Airborne
of the regular army in also,
just in case.
Faubus
• Faubus stayed on as governor until he
was defeated by Republican, Winthrop
Rockefeller in 1966.
• Rockefeller wins desite only having 11%
of Arkansas' population registered
Republicans.
• He segregates Arkansas schools.
• He integrates Arkansas’ draft board.
1957—
Ike Pushes for a New Civil
Rights Act
• Republicans introduce a new Civil Rights
Act.
• Ike’s Attorney General, Herbert Brownell
writes the bill.
• The bill guarantees black voting rights and
would be guaranteed by the Department of
Justice.
Lyndon Baines Johnson
• As majority leader, Johnson dominates
the Senate. He reacted to the bill and
he warns: “Be ready to take up the G–
D---ed N-word bill again.”
• To fellow segregationists, North
Carolina Senator (from Watergate fame)
Sam Ervin, reassures: “I’m on your side,
not theirs. We’ve got to give the G– D--ed N-word something.”
Vice President
Richard Millhouse Nixon
• He comes down strongly on the side of
civil rights.
• He tries to get the Senate rules
changed so a simple 51% majority,
instead of a 60% super majority, could
end a filibuster.
LBJ
•
LBJ guts the enforcement
provision from the 1957 bill.
• Anyone accused of violating the Civil
Rights Acts will not be dealt with by the
Justice Department. Now they will
appear in local court.
• All white, local courts have notoriously
issued Jury Nullification verdicts to
protect white neighbors for any
prosecution.
Strom Thurmond
• The longest filibuster in
speech in the history of
the Senate was made by
Strom Thurmond,
Democrat from South
Carolina. Thurmond,
spoke for twenty-four
hours and eighteen
minutes during a filibuster
against passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1957
GOP Senator
Charles Potter
• I fought besides Negroes
in the war. I saw them die
for us. For the Senate of
the United States to repay
these valiant men by a
watered down version of
this legislation would
make a mockery of the
democratic concepts we
hold so dear.
Ike’s 1960 Mandate
Near the end of his presidency, President Eisenhower again pushed for a civil rights
act. He asked Congress for seven recommendations on how to best protect civil rights:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Strengthen laws against the obstruction of court orders in school desegregation
cases.
Give investigative authority to the FBI to crimes involving the destruction of
schools/churches.
Give the Attorney General the authority to investigate Federal election records.
Provide temporary program for aid to agencies to assist changes necessary for
school desegregation decisions.
Authorize provision of education for children of the armed forces.
Consider establishing a statutory Commission on Equal Job Opportunity Under
Government Contracts (later mandated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to create
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).
Extend the Civil Rights Commission an additional 2 years.
1960 Ike Introduces a Civil
Rights Commission Bill
• To reintroduce the provisions that LBJ
had cut out.
• Democrats stage the longest filibuster in
history, 125 hours to stop any vote on
the bill.
• The bill finally passed and was signed
by Eisenhower on May 6, 1960.
Voting NO on the Bill
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Richard Russel
Mendell Rivers
William Fulbright
Robert Byrd
Fritz Hollings
Al Gore, Sr.
Strom Thurmond
JFK and MLK
• Harris Wofford talked Jack Kennedy into
calling Coretta Scot King when Rev. King
was in Reidsville jail.
• He also got the Democratic authorities to
give him a two-minute call with King.
• Nixon has no comment.
• Kennedy’s Campaign jumped into action.
• “No comment Nixon versus a candidate
with a heart, Senator Kennedy.”
Election of 1960
• MLK had thanked Nixon for all of his
efforts in 1957 and as a Republican, he
was going to vote for Nixon.
• Nixon belonged to the
NAACP
• Kennedy did not
MLK Neutrality
• MLK said, “I expected to vote against Kennedy
because of his religion, but now Kennedy can
be my President, Catholic or whatever he is. It
took courage to call my daughter-in-law in a
time like this.”
• MLK stayed neutral in the election. Most black
Baptist ministers still voted Republican.
1964
• More African Americans can now vote
because of the 1957 Act.
• Former segregations now courted
African American voters.
• LBJ had voted against every civil rights
bill, during his tenure in the Senate.
• He needs to make a 180o flip.
Robert Byrd’s Filibuster
• Segregationist Democrats led by Robert
Byrd Filibustered to not allow a vote on
the Civil Rights Act.
• Byrd filibustered for 14 hours and 13
minutes himself.
LBJ Needed Help
• Still LBJ need the a large Republican
majority to get the Civil Rights and
Voting Rights Acts through.
– 82% of Republicans Senators voted yeah
– 66% of Democratic Senators voted yeah
– 80% of Republican House members
– 63% of Democratic House members
Barry Goldwater
• Goldwater rejects two points of bil.
– He believed that the Senate had the power
to stop the government from discriminating,
but not private actor.
– But, he would go further than JFK
and withhold funding from
anyone getting Federal funds,
not just discretionary funds.
Goldwater
•
•
•
•
Fought against segregation all his life.
He was a Founder of the NAACP in Arizona.
Donated thousands of today’s dollars to help.
As head of the Arizona National Guard, he
integrated the Guard before Truman’s
executive order.
• He had desegregated his family’s
department store.
Government Jim Crow
• He believed powerful government had
imposed segregation and Jim Crow.
• Powerful government routinely violates
civil rights and liberties.
• Bus companies in the South did not
want separate sections-- government
imposed segregation.
Nixon in 1966
• 1966 Nixon comeback: He said that the
GOP stood for small government and
strong national defense. He would leave
it to the Democrats “to squeeze the last
juice out of the rotting fruit of racial
injustice”.
• He call the Democrats, the party of
(Lester) Maddox, GA; Mahoney,
(George) Wallace, AL.
Voting Rights Act
• Reinforce the 15th Amendment
• Reinforce Eisenhower's Civil Rights
Acts
• Outlaw literacy tests
• Our law poll taxes
Civil Rights Act 1968
• Fair Housing Act
• Reintroduces provision of the Civil
Rights Act of 1866.
1968 Segregationists
Vote for Humphrey
• Michael Barone: Nixon’s status as a
longtime supporter of civil rights in the
Eisenhower administration and at the
1960 Republican Convention made it
hard to steal votes from Wallace.
1968 Campaign
• At the beginning of the campaign
– Nixon
– Humphrey
– Wallace
42%
29%
22%
• At the end of the campaign:
– Nixon
– Humphrey
– Wallace
43,5%
surged to 42.7%
13.5%
Nixon Desegregates
Schools
• January 1969— No man can fully be free
while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all
is to go forward together. This means black
and white together, as one nation, not two.
The laws have caught up with our
conscience. What remains is to give life to
what is law—
• To ensure at last that as all are born equal in
dignity before God, all are born in dignity
before man.
Nixon Desegregated
the Schools
• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education
• 1957 Little Rock
• Nothing under Kennedy or under
Johnson
• More schools were desegregated during
Nixon’s first term, 1969 to 1973, than at
any time before, or at any time after.
Attorney General
John Mitchell
• “Watch what we DO, not what we SAY.”
• Nixon ordered that no boasting come
from the Cabinet. They needed to just
do this and not make a big deal about it.
They did not want to awake strong,
violent opposition.
Schools
1968
1970
1968
1970
African-American students
attending all-black schools
African-American students
attending all-black schools
African-American students
attending majority white schools
African-American students
attending majority white schools
68%
18.4%
18.4%
38.1%
Affirmative Action
• Broke the back of discriminatory
building trades.
• Nixon imposed formal racial quotas and
timelines.
• In response to aggressive racial
discrimination by construction unions.
• Nixon had recommended this back in
the Eisenhower administration.
Philadelphia Plan
• Run by George Schultz
• Nixon: People in the ghetto have to have
more than an equal chance. They should
be given a dividend.
• LBJ had abandoned a similar Philadelphia
plan when his comptroller nixed it.
• Nixon vetoed his comptrollers’ objections
Southern Strategy???
1852
1856
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012