Progress in Black civil rights 1945-55

(faced with accusations of communism after 1945, it was involved less with direct progress)

Employment

By 1953 20 states and 30 cities had adopted Roosevelt's fair employment regulations.

Voter Registration

The NAACP built on the supreme court 1944 Smith v. Allwright decision (no white Primaries in Texas) by launching registration drives. (heavy oppostion in Alabama and Mississippi)

2% of African Americans in1940 increased to 12% in 1947.

Roughly 25 AAs elected onto state legislatures. Example: Adam Clayton Powell elected to federal house of representatives.

However, black women voters were still the exception to the rule.

NAACP mounts challenges against 'Separate but Equal':

in 1949 South Carolina the money spent on each white child was over 3x that spent on black children

victory: 1954 Brown V. Board of Educationn, Topeka, Kansas. Thurgood Marshall convinces that it is against the constitution for a black child not to be allowed to go to her nearest school.

progress was slow: by 1957 less than 12% of school districts in the South were integrated.  

Progress by other means

Gaines v Canada (1938) promoted university rights for African Americans.

President Truman set up the Higher Education Commission in 1947 which aimed to end discrimination at colleges and universities.

Even though the numbers of African Americans in federal employment increased from 50,000 in 1933 to 200,000 in 1946, the majority of these were in low-level, unskilled occupations

President Truman desegregated the military in 1948.