How Did African Americans Changed During The 1950's

The 1950's brought major breakthroughs in history for African Americans starting with recognition from President Truman in the late 1940's. During his time in the White House, Truman managed to form the first Committee on Civil Rights whose main goal was to eliminate segregation. The resulting report that was issued was titled "To Secure These Rights" taking into consideration of "race, color, creed, or national origin from American life" (Schultz 2014). From this report, the president made the decision to end desegregation in the U.S. military in 1948 but was not perfected until the year 1954. Ultimately, this became a symbol for Americans that the federal government wanted a change to occur and the action illustrated that desegregation would work. Thus, encouraged, civil rights groups used the time to build up momentum for what was to come during the 1960's.
Around the same time, there were changes happening in professional baseball where there was for the first time a Black American playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The WWII veteran, Jackie Robinson, made history in April of 1947 by playing and then winning the Rookie of the Award in that same year (Schultz 2014). In fact, he showed great dignity as well as being an excellent ambassador for the men who followed his lead. Even so, he faced many challenges from teammates who would not accept his presence and from opponents who showed aggression. Along a completely different line, there were changes occurring in schools where desegregation was taking shape in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education. In the 1954 ruling, the Supreme Court made the ruling which made the call that separate schools for blacks and whites was "inherently unequal" but changes were not seen many years (Schultz
2014).
The retaliatory movement that came to be called the "massive resistance" was where the advances that blacks were making were met with white resistance and many times aggression (Schultz 2014). In Little Rock, Arkansas, when nine black students were chosen to integrate the Central High School, angry mobs met them with violence from the public as well as state officials. As the right was determined by the earlier Brown case, President Eisenhower took control by sending the U.S. Army to intervene on the students' behalf. But after a month the protection was withdrawn only to become a time of torture for the students, while the National Guard looked on (Schultz 2014). Another important case was the one involving Emmett Till, age 14, who was brutally murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman, and the two men charged were declared innocent (Schultz 2014). The retaliatory movement also brought the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and the emergence of White Citizens' Councils. For some schools, the only defense was to close their doors rather than to allow the integration to happen.