Cold War Civil Rights

Cold War

Democracy versus Communism

As the world’s exemplary democracy, America ostensibly stood for life, liberty & pursuit of happiness and offered to extend this system around the world.

Soviet Union pointed to American race relations as an example of American hypocrisy.

McCarthyism affected the careers of leading African-American activists:o Paul Robesono W.E.B. DuBois

International Opinion

Gunnar Myrdal, et. al., An American Dilemma (1944)

U.N. Declaration of Universal Human Rights (1948)

UNESCO “The Race Question” (1950) “We Charge Genocide” (1951) Pan-Africanism African & Southeast Asian Liberation

Movements• Ghandi’s Resistance to British Rule in India• South African “Defiance Campaign” (1952)• Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya (1953-1961)• Ghanaian Independence (1957)

Route 40 Racism

Legal Victories Against Segregation

Segregated Education1. Missouri ex. rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)2. Sweatt v. Painter (1950)3. McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents (1950)4. Brown v. Board of Education (1954 & 1955)

Segregated Transportation5. Mitchell v. U.S. (1941)6. Morgan v. Virginia (1946)7. Henderson v. United State (1950)8. ICC Ruling (1955)9. Browder v. Gayle (1956)

Movement Victories

1. Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956)MIA -> SCLC “Passive Resistance”

2. Integration of Little Rock Central H.S. (1957)

3. Expansion of Southern NAACP• Robert F. Williams (NC) ~ armed

resistance• Megar Evers (MS) ~ boycotts

Brown v. Board of Education

Prejudice & Personality

Massive Resistance

The Problem We All Live With

Emmett Till

Southern Voting Patterns