Eisenhower's Civil Rights

Question 1

What was Brown v Board of Education and what was the result?

Answer 1

• NAACP legal team, headed by Thurgood Marshall, presented evidence that separate school facilities were inherently unequal
• Chief Justice Earl Warren announced that the court had ruled unanimously in favour of Brown
• later created problems for Eisenhower, who said that appointing Warren was ‘the greatest damned fool mistake I ever made’

Question 2

What backlash did Brown v Board of Education face?

Answer 2

• white citizen’s councils formed and by 1956 boasted 250,000 members
• KKK revitalised and growing in membership and brutality
• the Southern Manifesto was signed by 101 Dixiecrat Congressmen: threatened to use ‘all lawful means’ to oppose the Supreme Court’s decision on the basis that it was infringing upon state’s rights

Question 3

What was the Little Rock Crisis?

Answer 3

• in 1957, Little Rock High School, in Arkansas, was due to accept its first nine black students
• Governor Orval Faubus mobilised the National Guard to turn the students away - they also faced many protesters
• international embarrassment to Eisenhower, leading to him federalising the National Guard and dispatching the 101st Airborne to protect the students
• despite being able to attend the school, still faced much abuse
• the following year Faubus closed all public schools in Little Rock claiming the city had to assert itself against federal decisions (no African Americans could afford to attend private school)

Question 4

What was the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 4

• NAACP activist Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the white section of a bus
• boycott organised and led by Martin Luther King
• succeeded original plan of one day to 381 days, costing the bus company 80% of their costs per day
• during the boycott, the NAACP took Browder v Gayle to the supreme court and ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment

Question 5

What was the aim of Eisenhower’s 1957 civil rights bill?

Answer 5

• to ensure African American voting rights in the build up to the election
• 80% of African Americans not registered in the south

Question 6

How were Eisenhower’s civil rights bills undermined?

Answer 6

• Dixiecrats and filibustering
• 1957 bill: Strom Thurmond filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes to obstruct it
• weakened legislation only added 3% more black voters in the South, with Eisenhower failing to protect the bill