Civil Rights

Long-term Champions & Opponents

Kevin T. Brady, Ph.D.

Early Civil Rights Acts

• Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Reconstruction Act of 1867

• Reconstruction Amendments– 13th Natural Rights – 1865– 14th Civil Rights – 1868– 15th Political Rights – 1870

• Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871

DEMOCRATS RETAKE SOUTHERN STATES

INSTITUTE JIM CROW LAWS

1877 End of Reconstruction

Early Twentieth Century

William McKinley

Theodore Roosevelt

William Howard Taft

Teddy Roosevelt

• My Dear Governor Durbin, (IN) ... permit me to thank you as an American citizen for the admirable way in which you have vindicated the majesty of the law by your recent action in reference to lynching... All thoughtful men... must feel the gravest alarm over the growth of lynching in this country, and especially over the peculiarly hideous forms so often taken by mob violence when colored men are the victims – on which occasions the mob seems to lay more weight, not on the crime but on the color of the criminal.... There are certain hideous sights which when once seen can never be wholly erased from the mental retina. The mere fact of having seen them implies degradation.... Whoever in any part of our country has ever taken part in lawlessly putting to death a criminal by the dreadful torture of fire must forever after have the awful spectacle of his own handiwork seared into his brain and soul. He can never again be the same man.

Eugenics

• 1916 The Passing of a Great Race, Madison Grant

• 1920 The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy, Lothard Stoddard

• "Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race." Margaret Sanger Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. P. 12.

• "We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.“December 19, 1939 Margaret Sanger letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts.

Woodrow Wilson

• Progressive Democrat

• Born in Virginia

• Historian & President of Princeton University

• Governor of New Jersey

The film called The Birth of the Nation was released in 1915. It was based on a 1905 novel called The Clansman.

The success of the film at the box-office was uncertain until it was viewed at the White House, by Woodrow Wilson

During the film, Wilson had jumped to his feet and shouted that “It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”

Papers reported that Wilsonloved the film and the money started to roll in.

William J. Simmons formed a new (the second) Ku Klux Klan in Georgia.

The 2nd Klan was by far the largest. It had a big presence in New Jersey and especially in the Midwest.

The prime focus of hatred went towards Catholic & Jewish immigrants and against any Catholics in America.

The Klan marched on Washington, DC in 1925.

Wilson’s Racial Attitudes

• He believed that giving African Americans the right to vote was “… the foundation of every evil in this country.”

• During his first term in office, the House passed a law making racial intermarriage a felony in the District of Columbia.

• His Postmaster General also ordered that his Washington offices be segregated, with the Treasury and Navy soon doing the same.

• Photographs were required of all applicants for federal jobs. When pressed by black leaders, Wilson replied, "The purpose of these measures was to reduce the friction. It is as far as possible from being a movement against the Negroes. I sincerely believe it to be in their interest."

Woodrow Wilson

• In 1913 Wilson reintroduced segregation to Washington DC and brought Jim Crow to the Federal Workforce

• He also dismissed Blacks from Federal jobs in the South and in DC

Woodrow WilsonTo an African American black delegation

in the White House he said:

• “Segregation is not a humiliation. . .but a benefit and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.”

Warren G. Harding

• Spoke in Birmingham Alabama and advocated civil rights for African Americans on October 26, 1921.

• Hired Federal Workers in the South• Spoke out against lynching• Supported Rep. Leonidas Dyer’s anti-lynching

bill. It passes House• Defeated in the Senate after a Democratic

Filibuster

Calvin Coolidge

• Coolidge often spoke out the rights of African-Americans.– Most African-Americans voted for the GOP back

then.– The white south was solidly Democratic

• Formed a committee of blacks & whites to promote mutual understanding of the northern migration of blacks since WWI.

• Sent $1 million dollars to Howard University• He publically spoke out against lynching

Calvin Coolidge and Lynching

• Numbered among our population are some twelve million colored people. Under our Constitution their rights are just as sacred as those of any other citizen. It is both a public and private duty to protect those rights. The Congress ought to exercise all its powers of prevention and punishment against the hideous crime of lynching, of which the negroes are by no means the sole suffers, but for which they furnish a majority of the victims.

Anti-lynching Bills

• All could not be enacted because of Democratic Filibusters

• FDR did not want to promote anti-lynching bills. He feared southern Democratic voters.

• Eleanor wanted him to support ant lynching and would bug him when she was home.

• He made sure he was not alone with her at breakfast, so he could change the topic.

Legislators Introduce Anti-lynching and Anti-poll Tax

Bills • Bill to protect black voters in 1890

• Anti-lynching 1922, 1935, & 1938

• Anti-poll tax bills 1942, 1944, & 1946

• All defeated by Democratic Filibusters

Fair Employment Practices Committee

• In June 1941, FDR issued Executive Order 8802 and created the Fair Employment Practices Committee. The order required the Federal government to not use race, color, creed, or national origin as a consideration when hiring any person.

Eisenhower

• Eisenhower runs against Adlai Stevenson

• Stevenson, personally, had a hard time with African Americans--- He was known to “experience personal discomfort around Negroes.”

• Stevenson chose a segregationist, John Sparkman from Alabama to run as Vice President.

Eisenhower Breaks the Solid South

• 1952- He wins Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida.

• Comes close in Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina

• Deep south who had voted for staunch segregationist & Dixiecrat, Strom Thurman in 1948 voted for Stevenson. In 1952.

Integrating the Military

• Harry Truman had issed an executive order to integrate the military in 1948; however, it was never implemented.

• Eisenhower integrates the military in 1953.

• He also appoints African Americans to higher federal posts.

November 25, 1955

The Eisenhower administration bans racial segregation on interstate bus

travel

G.O.P. Platform 1956

• The Republicans endorsed the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision on their party platform

• The Democrats do not.

October 19, 1956

• While campaigning, Vice President Richard Nixon vows: “American boys and girls shall sit, side by side, at any school – public or private – with no regard paid to the color of their skin. Segregation, discrimination, and prejudice have no place in America”

Orval Eugene Faubus

• Progressive, New Dealer, the Democratic Governor of Arkansas blocked the school doors rather than let African American students enter white schools in Little Rock.

• Faubas and his family were great admirers of American socialist presidential candidates, Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas.

• He was named after Debs.

Eisenhower sends troops

• Ike took a chance and federalized Arkansas national guard.

• Arkansas guardsmen had to decide to follow Ike’s orders or to stay loyal to their governor and to Arkansas.

• Ike weigh as former Allied Commander during World War II wins out and they obey.

• There is a chance of a new civil war.• Ike send in the 101st Airborne of the

regular army in also, just in case.

Faubus • Faubus stayed on as governor until he

was defeated by Republican, Winthrop Rockefeller in 1966.

• Rockefeller wins desite only having 11% of Arkansas' population registered Republicans.

• He segregates Arkansas schools.• He integrates Arkansas’ draft board.

1957—Ike Pushes for a New Civil

Rights Act• Republicans introduce a new Civil Rights

Act.

• Ike’s Attorney General, Herbert Brownell writes the bill.

• The bill guarantees black voting rights and would be guaranteed by the Department of Justice.

Lyndon Baines Johnson• As majority leader, Johnson dominates the

Senate. He reacted to the bill and he warns: “Be ready to take up the G– D---ed N-word bill again.”

• To fellow segregationists, North Carolina Senator (from Watergate fame) Sam Ervin, reassures: “I’m on your side, not theirs. We’ve got to give the G– D---ed N-word something.”

Vice PresidentRichard Millhouse Nixon

• He comes down strongly on the side of civil rights.

• He tries to get the Senate rules changed so a simple 51% majority, instead of a 60% super majority, could end a filibuster.

LBJ• LBJ guts the enforcement provision

from the 1957 bill.• Anyone accused of violating the Civil Rights

Acts will not be dealt with by the Justice Department. Now they will appear in local court.

• All white, local courts have notoriously issued Jury Nullification verdicts to protect white neighbors for any prosecution.

Strom Thurmond

• The longest filibuster in speech in the history of the Senate was made by Strom Thurmond, Democrat from South Carolina. Thurmond, spoke for twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes during a filibuster against passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957

GOP Senator Charles Potter

• I fought besides Negroes in the war. I saw them die for us. For the Senate of the United States to repay these valiant men by a watered down version of this legislation would make a mockery of the democratic concepts we hold so dear.

Ike’s 1960 MandateNear the end of his presidency, President Eisenhower again pushed for a civil rights

act. He asked Congress for seven recommendations on how to best protect civil rights:

• Strengthen laws against the obstruction of court orders in school desegregation cases.• Give investigative authority to the FBI to crimes involving the destruction of

schools/churches.• Give the Attorney General the authority to investigate Federal election records.• Provide temporary program for aid to agencies to assist changes necessary for

school desegregation decisions.• Authorize provision of education for children of the armed forces.• Consider establishing a statutory Commission on Equal Job Opportunity Under

Government Contracts (later mandated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to create the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

• Extend the Civil Rights Commission an additional 2 years.

1960 Ike Introduces a Civil Rights Commission Bill

• To reintroduce the provisions that LBJ had cut out.

• Democrats stage the longest filibuster in history, 125 hours to stop any vote on the bill.

• The bill finally passed and was signed by Eisenhower on May 6, 1960.

Voting NO on the Bill

• Richard Russel • Mendell Rivers • William Fulbright • Robert Byrd • Fritz Hollings • Al Gore, Sr.• Strom Thurmond

• Rep. George McGovern voted present

JFK and MLK• Harris Wofford talked Jack Kennedy into calling

Coretta Scot King when Rev. King was in Reidsville jail.

• He also got the Democratic authorities to give him a two-minute call with King.

• Nixon has no comment.• Kennedy’s Campaign jumped into action.• “No comment Nixon versus a candidate with a

heart, Senator Kennedy.”

Election of 1960

• MLK had thanked Nixon for all of his efforts in 1957 and as a Republican, he was going to vote for Nixon.

• Nixon belonged to the NAACP

• Kennedy did not

MLK Neutrality

• MLK said, “I expected to vote against Kennedy because of his religion, but now Kennedy can be my President, Catholic or whatever he is. It took courage to call my daughter-in-law in a time like this.”

• MLK stayed neutral in the election. Most black Baptist ministers still voted Republican.

1964

• More African Americans can now vote because of the 1957 Act.

• Former segregations now courted African American voters.

• LBJ had voted against every civil rights bill, during his tenure in the Senate.

• He needs to make a 180o flip.

Robert Byrd’s Filibuster

• Segregationist Democrats led by Robert Byrd Filibustered to not allow a vote on the Civil Rights Act.

• Byrd filibustered for 14 hours and 13 minutes himself.

LBJ Needed Help

• Still LBJ need the a large Republican majority to get the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts through.– 82% of Republicans Senators voted yeah– 66% of Democratic Senators voted yeah– 80% of Republican House members – 63% of Democratic House members

Barry Goldwater

• Goldwater rejects two points of bil.– He believed that the Senate had the power

to stop the government from discriminating, but not private actor.

– But, he would go further than JFK and withhold funding from anyone getting Federal funds, not just discretionary funds.

Goldwater

• Fought against segregation all his life.• He was a Founder of the NAACP in Arizona.• Donated thousands of today’s dollars to help.• As head of the Arizona National Guard, he

integrated the Guard before Truman’s executive order.

• He had desegregated his family’s department store.

Government Jim CrowGovernment Jim Crow

• He believed powerful government had imposed segregation and Jim Crow.

• Powerful government routinely violates civil rights and liberties.

• Bus companies in the South did not want separate sections-- government imposed segregation.

Nixon in 1966

• 1966 Nixon comeback: He said that the GOP stood for small government and strong national defense. He would leave it to the Democrats “to squeeze the last juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice”.

• He call the Democrats, the party of (Lester) Maddox, GA; Mahoney, (George) Wallace, AL.

Voting Rights Act

• Reinforce the 15th Amendment

• Reinforce Eisenhower's Civil Rights Acts

• Outlaw literacy tests

• Our law poll taxes

Civil Rights Act 1968

• Fair Housing Act

• Reintroduces provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

1968 Segregationists Vote for Humphrey

• Michael Barone: Nixon’s status as a longtime supporter of civil rights in the Eisenhower administration and at the 1960 Republican Convention made it hard to steal votes from Wallace.

1968 Campaign

• At the beginning of the campaign– Nixon 42%– Humphrey 29%– Wallace 22%

• At the end of the campaign:– Nixon 43,5%– Humphrey surged to 42.7%– Wallace 13.5%

Nixon Desegregates Schools

• January 1969— No man can fully be free while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all is to go forward together. This means black and white together, as one nation, not two. The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what is law—

• To ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born in dignity before man.

Nixon Desegregated the Schools

• 1954Brown v. Board of Education• 1957Little Rock• Nothing under Kennedy or under

Johnson• More schools were desegregated during

Nixon’s first term, 1969 to 1973, than at any time before, or at any time after.

Attorney General John Mitchell

• “Watch what we DO, not what we SAY.”

• Nixon ordered that no boasting come from the Cabinet. They needed to just do this and not make a big deal about it. They did not want to awake strong, violent opposition.

Schools

1968 African-American students attending all-black schools 68%

1970 African-American students attending all-black schools 18.4%

1968 African-American students attending majority white schools 18.4%

1970 African-American students attending majority white schools 38.1%

Affirmative Action

• Broke the back of discriminatory building trades.

• Nixon imposed formal racial quotas and timelines.

• In response to aggressive racial discrimination by construction unions.

• Nixon had recommended this back in the Eisenhower administration.

Philadelphia Plan

• Run by George Schultz

• Nixon: People in the ghetto have to have more than an equal chance. They should be given a dividend.

• LBJ had abandoned a similar Philadelphia plan when his comptroller nixed it.

• Nixon vetoed his comptrollers’ objections

Southern Strategy???

1852

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