ivil rights. They set the stage for the Warren Court of the 1950s and 1960s that made landmark decisions directly affecting racial equality.
Social Progress Stalled
Despite important gains made in public attitudes and positions of blacks in government, some viewed the New Deal era as a setback in the struggle for civil rights. The growing momentum within the black community of the early twentieth century was sidetracked by the country’s urgent pursuit of economic recovery programs. As a result, blacks would have to wait until after World War II to pursue racial justice. Changes in public attitude translated to little concrete change in New Deal programs. Black sharecroppers, unskilled laborers, and domestic helpers still had twice the unemployment rate as whites. Jim Crow laws and public segregation continued for twenty more years.
The onset of World War II forced President Roosevelt and the federal government to confront race issues more directly. The hiring quota system Secretary Ickes introduced in the WPA set a precedent for the wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission. It also served as a model for civil rights legislation and court decisions of the 1960s and 1970s. Job opportunities for blacks boomed through the war years, only to decline afterwards.
Despite the stalled momentum for sweeping social change, two lasting changes brought by the New Deal era were the increase in black expectations of racial equality and the decrease in open white hostility. White supremacy was far less tolerated in public.
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement grew following World War II, building on the factors of increased public awareness of black issues, increased black expectations, and the role of the federal government. The movement became a “freedom struggle” by black Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. The goal was equality with white Americans. Equality meant freedom from discrimination in employment, education, and housing, the right to vote, and equal access to public facilities such as theaters, inns, and restaurants.
The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education had proved the spark for change. The ruling directly struck down segregation in public schools. But the historic ruling also closed the door on the “separate-but-equal” doctrine supporting Jim Crow laws.
Black activists sought to extend the Brown ruling and racial reform to other aspects of life. In 1955 Rosa Parks, a secretary for the NAACP, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give her seat on a city bus to a white man as required by city law. This incident led to the rise of a young 27-year old preacher, Martin Luther King, Jr. King preached nonviolent, civil disobedience tactics. This strategy contrasted to both the Ku Klux Klan’s violent terrorism and the NAACP’s quiet legal approach.
King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 to provide leadership to the movement. But white resistance to racial equality led to years of conflict. Highly publicized confrontations followed in 1957 at Little Rock, Arkansas, and in 1962 at the University of Mississippi.
The high point of the civil rights movement came on August 28, 1963 when 250,000 thousand persons marched on Washington, DC. They urged the federal government to support desegregation and protect black voting rights. King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, preaching nonviolent action. Congress responded with passage of the sweeping Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination in public places. This action came almost three decades after President Roosevelt had issued his limited order addressing discrimination in federal office buildings.
White violence, including assassination of a NAACP leader and murders of civil rights activists, followed. Mounted police using tear gas, dogs, and clubs attacked black protest marches in the South. Urban riots across the country in 1965 called attention to the plight of blacks. In reaction Congress added the Voting Rights Act in 1965 expanding voting rights of blacks.
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