Cold War Civil Rights

United states presented itself to the world as the leader of the democratic “Free World” as against the socialist Union of Soviet Socialists Republics(USSR), which championed colonial movements for independence. The USSR continuously criticized the United states for its treatment of African-descended citizens. In this setting, the cold war exerted contradictory influences: it made Americans less hostile to black civil rights and more hospitable to black creativity. National civil rights groups such as NAACP were distracted by accusations that the they harbored Communists. Such as accusations-- known as “red baiting”-did not need to be founded in fact.Anyone suspected of harboring “Communist sympathies” faced the possibility of being hauled before a congressional committee. One indication of “Communist sympathies” was a concern for black civil rights.

Human Rights in Cold War Context

Anti communism Eclipses internationalism:

During this era, Americans divided the world’s nations into three

groups: (1) the “Free world” of the US and western Europe, (2) the “Communist World” of the eastern European nations, the USSR, the People’s Republic of China, and the (3) the “Third World” of poor countries that had been colonies of Europe and Japan. These poor countries were termed a s”underdeveloped” or, euphemistically developing”, in comparison with the wealthier or “developed “ countries.

The anti communist witch-hunt that ensued injured prominent African- American figures who has been internationally. Two highly respected African Americans of the era fell victim to the witch-hunt: W.E.B Du Bois and Paul Robeson.

Brown vs. Board of Education:

In the Third World, the separation of children on the basis of race

provoked intense criticism. School segregation made the US vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy when it proclaimed itself a champion of democracy. World wide criticism of american racism played a part in the U.S Supreme Court’s 1954 brown vs board of Education which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The NAACP Legal Defense had laid the groundwork for this landmark decision in the 1930s by bringing long series of cases challenging unequal conditions for teachers and student in the southern schools.

The main complaint by the black parents was that their children had to walk long distance to inferior schools , while the white pupils were bused shorter distances with superior facilities.

Together these cases challenged the basic premise of school segregation: that separate education was, in fact, equal . The U.S Supreme Court had established the “separate but equal’ doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson(1896).

Southern “Massive Resistance” to Legal Desegregation:

In Particular, the Brown decision’s condemnation of the racial segregation aggravated Southern white supremacists, who

mourned what they called ‘massive resistance” to desegregation. Segregationists had denounced the desegregation of the armed forces and the democratic Party’s embrace of black civil rights in the presidential election of 1948. The hastily formed States Rights democrats ('dixiecrats’) ran their own candidate for president in that election. However the Dixiecrats’ alarm proved premature. For after the election, the Truman administration quickly pulled back from black civil rights.

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