Truman Civil Rights Analysis

Firstly Truman had a positive impact via his setting up of the Civil Rights Committee and his empowering speeches that were focused on equality. Truman set up the Civil Rights Committee shortly after being outraged at the treatment of Black veterans coming home. The main aim of the committee was to monitor the progress of black people’s rights and find out how they could be helped. After discovering reports of the treatment of black veterans coming home after fighting racial oppression, Truman said “My stomach turned over when I learned that Negro soldiers, just back from overseas, were being dumped out of army trucks in Mississippi and beaten.” Him saying this clearly demonstrates that he felt admiration towards these veterans and was disgusted,
Eisenhower, introduced the Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and another version in 1960. These acts made it a crime to stop people from voting on the grounds of race and threatening potential voters. The one published in 1960 also formed a committee to monitor polling stations to ensure blacks were given equal opportunity. Despite his efforts, this act only added 3% of black voters to the register as the locals and the KKK used other forms of intimidation to stop blacks from reaching the polling station in the first place. However, this policy could’ve been said to be a pivotal moment as it became the first civil rights legislation passed by congress after 87 years, thus insinuating that more change is to come. Moreover, Eisenhower also began desegregating the educational system despite being reluctant to enforce integration in the south. One of the key events at the time was the Little Rock Nine, where nine black students tried to join Little Rock High School and were met with threats of lynching and abuse from the locals. This event attracted wide-spread media coverage that went all over the world and appalled everyone. This forced Eisenhower to step in, to protect America’s name as the ‘Protector of Freedom’, and get the students to school safely using federal troops after the governor dispatched his own State Guard to keep them out. This was a key event as it signified Eisenhower’s position and showed that he would only do something to help the CRM when his reputability is at stake. However, Eisenhower did appoint Earl Warren as the Chief of Justice in the Supreme Court and he was seen as being “liberal” and a champion of civil rights. Earl Warren carried through and contested many legislations in favour of the CRM, a key one being the Brown v Topeka case that ruled in favour