Civil Rights
How accurate is it to say that the Federal Government hindered the Civil Rights movement in the period 1945-1968?
The Federal Government was a significant part in pushing the civil rights movement forwards, but in some cases it hindered the civil rights movement, especially with Presidential figures such as Eisenhower who had no interest in the Civil Rights movement. He believed that the social status and power of the black community in the US would improve naturally of its own accord over time and that there was no need for the government to get involved, or it was not the governments job to improve the conditions for black people.an example of Eisenhower hindering the Civil Rights Movement would be at the Little Rock campaign where he was very slow to respond to the much needed help of the nine black students, as they were not being allowed into the school because of the national guard and he didn’t condemn any of the white violence directed towards the black students or people of Little Rock. Although Eisenhower can also be seen to have pushed the movement forwards in some ways, for example at Little Rock he used federal troops to uphold the Brown ruling, but again he was very reluctant in doing this, which I think doesn’t show that he tried to move the Civil Rights Movement forward, but was in fact forced to intervene because of the image Little Rock was giving the USA, a hypocrite. On the other hand, towards the end of his presidency he proposed two Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and 1960 but these did little to help and it showed what little interest he had in supporting and pushing the Civil Rights Movement forward, which was proved when he refused to give federal support for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Truman was the opposite of Eisenhower, as he was the first President since Lincoln to publicly commit himself to the civil rights agenda. During his presidency a ground-breaking report was produced called ‘to secure these rights’ which effectively called for
The Federal Government was a significant part in pushing the civil rights movement forwards, but in some cases it hindered the civil rights movement, especially with Presidential figures such as Eisenhower who had no interest in the Civil Rights movement. He believed that the social status and power of the black community in the US would improve naturally of its own accord over time and that there was no need for the government to get involved, or it was not the governments job to improve the conditions for black people.an example of Eisenhower hindering the Civil Rights Movement would be at the Little Rock campaign where he was very slow to respond to the much needed help of the nine black students, as they were not being allowed into the school because of the national guard and he didn’t condemn any of the white violence directed towards the black students or people of Little Rock. Although Eisenhower can also be seen to have pushed the movement forwards in some ways, for example at Little Rock he used federal troops to uphold the Brown ruling, but again he was very reluctant in doing this, which I think doesn’t show that he tried to move the Civil Rights Movement forward, but was in fact forced to intervene because of the image Little Rock was giving the USA, a hypocrite. On the other hand, towards the end of his presidency he proposed two Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and 1960 but these did little to help and it showed what little interest he had in supporting and pushing the Civil Rights Movement forward, which was proved when he refused to give federal support for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Truman was the opposite of Eisenhower, as he was the first President since Lincoln to publicly commit himself to the civil rights agenda. During his presidency a ground-breaking report was produced called ‘to secure these rights’ which effectively called for