AS History HIS2P June 2011
Question 1
There were many reasons why the civil rights movement made little progress from 1950 to 1954. During this time the civil right movement had slowed down as this was shortly after the legislation "to secure these rights" was published in 1947 by President Harry S Truman. This was a great triumph for the civil rights movement, but unfortunately the movement became sluggish after this legislation.
Firstly I believe one of the reasons the civil rights movement became sluggish was the NAACP had a legal approach which had somewhat proved useful in the past with Thurgood Marshall, however it took time to gain results and further progress in the civil rights movement using this method. For example even the Brown decision of 1954 to a large amount of time to draw a decision and although it was a great triumph for the civil rights campaign proved to be to no avail as no date was set, therefore all the work done to erode the Plessey Ferguson ruling of separate but equal was now wasted as southerners could use any methods they wanted to slow down the process of desegregation hence eradicating the verdict. Further proof that the legal route was not successful is that the Supreme Court ruled against the civil rights legislation and Congress did not pass it. This meant a lot of work and time was unprofitable.
Secondly I believe another reason why the civil rights movement made little progress from 1950 to 1954 was that United States was very focused on the Cold War and were fearing communism, hence very little focus was on the civil rights movement and the presidents as well as Congress were not as worried about internal affairs as International ones. In addition I would say that the media would have been more focused on national incidents than those of the civil rights movement.
Another reason for the lack of progress during the early 1950s would be the migration of a lot of southern blacks this was part of the second great migration where over 5 million blacks
There were many reasons why the civil rights movement made little progress from 1950 to 1954. During this time the civil right movement had slowed down as this was shortly after the legislation "to secure these rights" was published in 1947 by President Harry S Truman. This was a great triumph for the civil rights movement, but unfortunately the movement became sluggish after this legislation.
Firstly I believe one of the reasons the civil rights movement became sluggish was the NAACP had a legal approach which had somewhat proved useful in the past with Thurgood Marshall, however it took time to gain results and further progress in the civil rights movement using this method. For example even the Brown decision of 1954 to a large amount of time to draw a decision and although it was a great triumph for the civil rights campaign proved to be to no avail as no date was set, therefore all the work done to erode the Plessey Ferguson ruling of separate but equal was now wasted as southerners could use any methods they wanted to slow down the process of desegregation hence eradicating the verdict. Further proof that the legal route was not successful is that the Supreme Court ruled against the civil rights legislation and Congress did not pass it. This meant a lot of work and time was unprofitable.
Secondly I believe another reason why the civil rights movement made little progress from 1950 to 1954 was that United States was very focused on the Cold War and were fearing communism, hence very little focus was on the civil rights movement and the presidents as well as Congress were not as worried about internal affairs as International ones. In addition I would say that the media would have been more focused on national incidents than those of the civil rights movement.
Another reason for the lack of progress during the early 1950s would be the migration of a lot of southern blacks this was part of the second great migration where over 5 million blacks