Chapter 7: Brown and the Civil Rights Movement Presentation by: Kelly Morrow

1. Chapter 7: Brown and the Civil Rights Movement Presentation by: Kelly Morrow

2. Direct Effect • -How much desegregation did Brown produce? • -in border states that were already desegregating, Brown simply accelerated the process • -many schools such as in northern Maryland, half of Missouri school districts, and Oklahoma discovered they saved money when they desegregated schools • -residential segregation • Eleven states of the former Confederacy violently opposed desegregation • NAACP : captured the benefits, and offset the costs of desegregation litigation; southern whites declared war on the association • Judges: white, southern born, judges were not quick to implement desegregation • In the end, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, not Brown, was the cause of most school desegregation in the South • -In this chapter Klarman investigates the linkage between the Court decision and the statute

3. Indirect Effects “Brown was less directly responsible than is commonly supposed for the direct-action protests of the 1960’s and more responsible for ensuring that those demonstrations were brutally suppressed by southern law enforcement officers. That violence, when communicated through television to national audiences, transformed racial opinion in the North, leading to the enactment of landmark civil rights legislation” -Klarman 364

4. Salience and Education -Court ruling can direct public opinion to previously ignored issues -Brown forced many people to take a position on school segregation -Brown dramatically increased the importance of race in southern politics -Southern politicians denounces Brown; northern liberals condemned segregation as a moral evil -conventional idea is that Brown educated white Americans to condemn racial segregation, when actually there is not evidence to support this -most Americans ultimately agreed with Brown, but it was more due to other developments, such as the civil rights movement, than the court ruling itself; in fact, the Court ruling caused white supremacists to ridicule the Court -Brown may have had an impact on people who were undecided in their opinions, but it did not fundamentally transform the racial attitudes of most Americans

5. Motivational Effect -motivated black southerners to challenge segregation -even in the deep south, which would have been inconceivable in the mid 1950’s without Brown -also motivated southern whites to be more vigorously defensive of the racial status quo -motivated litigation, but connection to direct-action protest is weak -Brownhad symbolic importance -did it directly influence Montgomery bus boycott? -direct-action protests of early 1960’s direct effect of Brown? -most likely not -political, economic, social and ideological forces had created conditions that were ripe for racial protest -subsiding of the cold war left space for racial protests -NAACP discourages direct action protest in preference to litigation -as southern whites suppressed NAACP, blacks supported other organizations that had different tactics -in the long term Brownaffected direct-action protest by raising hopes and expectations

6. Brown’s Backlash -early 1960’s direct-action protest had erupted -sit-ins, Freedom Rides and street demonstrations -when law enforcement responded with restraint and arrests, media attention waned, and demonstrations usually failed to accomplish their goals -when southern sheriffs violently suppressed demonstrations with beatings, police dogs and fire hoses, media attention escalated and northerners reacted with horror and outrage -what is the connection between Brownand violent suppression of civil rights demonstrations? -Brown radicalized southern politics, as voters elected extreme segregationist candidates -it created concrete occasions upon which violent confrontation was likely -it was the brutality of southern white resistance that in the end rallied northerners to support Brown and enact civil rights legislation

7. Brown’s Impact on Southern Politics Pre-Brown -before Brown racial moderates generally controlled southern politics -Big Jim Folsom -“all men are just alike” and he urged “fellowship and brotherly love” -elected in 1946 and 1954 -after Brown joked, “I don’t intend to make the good colored people of Alabama…go to school with us white folks” -were exceptions to this : Dixiecrats: they were not successful because “the great masses of southerners would no longer be bamboozled by racist appeals” -In political environment after WWII and before Brown, gradual racial reform could be accomplished without inciting a white backlash -though this does not include any speedy desegregation of schools

8. Brown’s Impact on Southern Politics Brown and the Radicalization of Southern Politics -Brown radicalized southern politics, unlike previous racial change, for three principal reasons 1. Brown was harder to ignore than previous changes 2. Brown represented federal interference in southern race relations 3.Brown commanded that racial change take place in a different order than might otherwise have occurred -Brown backlash: -retrogression -politics moved significantly to the right -”nearly united white South had enlisted in the campaign to overturn or defy Brown” -Little Rock -Eisenhower’s use of armed forces to enforce desegregation in Little Rock only fueled the fire for extremists; only way to protest desegregation was to close schools

9. Explaining Massive Resistance -Southern Politicians: most extreme views won out; created a chilling effect for moderates -extreme segregationists were more outspoken and passionate than moderates -most white southerners wanted segregation; only difference is some were willing to do more than others to accomplish this -Fear -Brown II furthered extremist conviction; they sensed the beginning of a judicial retreat -Governor Almond of Virginia had, “faith that the decision ultimately will be reversed” -diehard segregation had financial backlash; closing of schools is very costly, and people’s strict anti-segregation views began to change

10. Brown, Violence, and Civil Rights Legislature -violent episodes involving school desegregation tarnished the national image of white southerners -most Americans believed judicial ruling should be obeyed -John F. Kennedy sent troops into Oxford, Missouri which emphasized his duty “to implement the orders of the court” -the landmark Civil Rights Bill Kennedy proposed in 1963 “was not even conceived of as recently as a year ago” –William F Buckley -Kennedy proposed: broader voter rights protections, desegregation of public accommodations, authority of attorney general to bring school desegregation suits and the termination of federal funding for programs that engage in race discrimination -1964 Johnson passes Civil Rights Act