Eisenhower- helped?

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  • Created by: Rosie
  • Created on: 07-04-13 17:30

Eisenhower- committed?

Advantages

  • In his first State of the Union address (1953) he called for publicity, persuasion and conscience to help end discrimination
  • Re-affirmed Truman's committment to desegregation the military
  • Worked against discrimination in federal facilities in Washington and federal hiring
  • when forced into action could be helpful (Little Rock using troops to protect the black children)
  • Employ ex-NAACP member E. Frederick Morrow 1955
  • inadvertently helped the Brown case (1954) by appointing Earl Warren, a sympathiser to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice
  • said he would always support federal court orders

Disadvantages

  • His president's committe on Government contracts lacked feist
  • far less inclined to help than Truman
  • said to congress in 1948 the armed forces shouldn't be fully desegregated
  • shared typical white fears of miscegnation
  • feared the emotional strains that desegregating schools would cause
  • a republican so ideologically opposed to large scale federal intervention- why he rejects re-establishing FEPC
  • Cared more for own political safety- seen how it caused split between democrats and dixiecrats
  • Morrow was only recruited with the black vote in mind, arranged parking spaces, answered correspondance from blacks, White House clerks and typists refused to file or type for him, Eisenhower never consulted with him on civil Rights,
  • Only met with black leaders King, Wilkins and Randolph once, criticised by them for inactivity, avoided talking to Adam Clayton Powell and considered him an extremist
  • His staff felt leaders over-dramaticised incidents of racial injustice, demanded too much time and attention and were ungrateful
  • regretted appointing Earl Warren and initial silence over Brown case including refusing to condemn the Southern manifesto
  • made no comment over Emmet Till's murder (1955) and kept quiet about Autherine Lucy's expulsion from the University of Alabama(1955)
  • refused federal support for the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • was forced into action at Little Rock as he was concerned about US prestige

Evaluation

inadvertently helped and kept quiet unless forced into action because he didn't want to risk his party or position in politics

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