Civil Rights During The Cold War Essay

Civil Rights during the cold war: The Political science realm. The Cold War was a period of political and military tension after World War ll, which is said to be dated from around 1947 to 1991. During this time, the world’s elite almost came to the brink of disaster. It was named the Cold War because they never fought each other directly; it was a power struggle between the elite at the time. While the United States Military was in battle across seas with the Soviet Union, there was another some may say “war” going on in the United States amongst its own people. The Civil right movement started approximately 7 years after the Cold War began, dating from 1954-1968.By definition; civil rights are the rights of citizens to political and social
freedom and equality. I chose this topic because it stuck my interest and I wanted to dig into the social and political ramifications of the Civil rights movements and also how it has a connection to the Cold war.
In addition this topic is highly relevant to that is happening in the news today with a percentage of the nation not trusting the local, national government or those in political power. Those who were in high political offices at the time, had to speak on key issues like such and lead their respective cities and states through a political movement and a war in another part of the county. In this research paper I plan to find primary source documents and a few scholarly articles that will help me to understand what was happening at this crucial time in history. The Civil Rights movement was largely recognized in the south and that is where I intended to focus on. I also will be coving the years of approximately 1954 to 1970,as this seems to be the height of both the Cold War and the Civil rights movement in the United
States. I will now begin to dig into my first primary source article. My first primary source article letter was created in 1964 in Montgomery Alabama at the Governor’s office on April 14th, by George C. Wallace, the governor at the time. Mr. Wallace is a Caucasian male and an American politician who came from a long line of male politician. He is most known for being a Southern populist and to have had a segregationist mindset. I believe that the environment in which Mr. Wallace was raised in had a great impact on his views of certain issues. An interesting fact while doing my research was George Wallace did not make race and issue when he was in his first governor race against John Patterson in 1958,which won the support of the NAACP. This was not a favorable move among the predominatly white town,which led to him losing by a considerable amount. In 1964when he ran again,Wallace used race as a tool and was for the use of segregation and won by a landslide. In this letter he explains that there is no real issue in the south and everything is working fine. Mr. Wallace also states that he has done more than anyone else in the state of Alabama than any other individual has. He also goes on to say in this letter that there is no history of segregation in the South and no literature on this document could be found. This document was a response letter to a woman by the name of Miss Martin whose fully identity was not disclosed for personal reasons. This primary source document was primarily made by the governor to are in complete contrast to what was happening at the time concerning race relations in Alabama. Writing that there had been no serious incidents was found to be false after digging farther into this article. During this time Alabama had seen bombings in the City of Birmingham, which is approximately an hour and a half apart from Montgomery. The 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed as a white supremacy terror act. Civil rights activists blamed George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, for creating the climate that led to the killings. Birmingham had become known as the city of “Bombingham”, because the city had endured more than 50 bombings since World War I. Only a week before the bombing Wallace had told The New York Times that to stop integration, Alabama needed a "few first-class funerals." Wallace believed that everyone was content about their ways on doing things and having separate churches, schools and society. This source is one that is relevant to this time period and has many hints of racism and inequality.
Primary document number two deals with Jackie Robinson and President Eisenhower.
Jackie Robinson was an American baseball player who became the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the Modern Era. He is known for breaking the color line when he suited up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15th, 1947. Robinson was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP in December of 1956, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962, the first year he was eligible. President Dwight D Eisenhower was a five star general in the United States Army during World War ll and served as supreme commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. In 1957 he authorized the establishment of NASA which led to the beginning of the space race. Both of these men would seem to have great resumes. In another primary source letter I found, Jackie Robinson wrote a letter to the president stating that he was in attendance at the Summit Meeting of Negro Leaders and he heard President Eisenhower state that African Americans must have patience. This did not sit well with Mr. Robinson, in which he wrote “ I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people. When you said we must have self-respect, I wondered how we could have self-respected and remain patient considering the treatment accorded to us through the years.” After the decision of making segregated schools unconstitutional, a group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School, a
predominantly white school in 1957. Eisenhower had to place the Airborne Division and the U.S army to restore order in the city of Little Rock. Eisenhower was criticized for not doing enough to ensure the rights and safety of African Americans. Eisenhower was one of the better presidents who tried to do the right thing, but did the right thing at the wrong time.