Throughout the unit you will...
· Analyze the effects of anti-communism on civil rights development and progress.
· Identify how Civil Rights advocates link the plight of African-Americans on the domestic front to anti-colonialist ideologies on the international spectrum.
· Identify foreign policy that was both an impetus and context for domestic policy changes in the United States.
· Analyze how foreign policy influenced the methods policy entrepreneurs framed and structured their arguments for change between 1941 and 1960.
· Understand the relationship between democracy and civil rights.
Cold War Civil Rights Timeline
January 1937 Council on African Affairs (CAA) was formed
May 1938 The House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) was created
February 1945 The Cold War begins
April 1945 Harry S. Truman becomes president
September 1945 World War II ends
October 1945 The 5th Pan-African Conference is held
The United Nations is created
June 1947 Truman’s address to the NAACP
October 1947 “An Appeal to the World” is presented to the United Nations
June 1948-May 1949 The Berlin Blockade
June 1950-July 1953 The Korean War
July 1954 Vietnam Divided into North and South at the 17th parallel
January 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes president
May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education overturns Plessy v. Ferguson
December 1955 Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus
The FBI starts a file on Martin Luther King Jr.
Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
December 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott ends
September 1957 The Little Rock Nine are prevented from entering Little Rock High by
the National Guard
April 1959 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) was formed
January 1961 John F. Kennedy becomes president
October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
April 1963 The Birmingham Campaign faces the violence of Eugene “Bull” Connor
November 1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated
Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president
August 1963 The March on Washington
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a Dream” speech
July 1964 The Civil Rights Act is passed
August 1965 The Voting Rights Act is passed
January 1969 Richard M. Nixon becomes president
January 1937 Council on African Affairs (CAA) was formed
May 1938 The House of Un-American Activities (HUAC) was created
February 1945 The Cold War begins
April 1945 Harry S. Truman becomes president
September 1945 World War II ends
October 1945 The 5th Pan-African Conference is held
The United Nations is created
June 1947 Truman’s address to the NAACP
October 1947 “An Appeal to the World” is presented to the United Nations
June 1948-May 1949 The Berlin Blockade
June 1950-July 1953 The Korean War
July 1954 Vietnam Divided into North and South at the 17th parallel
January 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes president
May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education overturns Plessy v. Ferguson
December 1955 Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus
The FBI starts a file on Martin Luther King Jr.
Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
December 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott ends
September 1957 The Little Rock Nine are prevented from entering Little Rock High by
the National Guard
April 1959 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) was formed
January 1961 John F. Kennedy becomes president
October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
April 1963 The Birmingham Campaign faces the violence of Eugene “Bull” Connor
November 1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated
Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president
August 1963 The March on Washington
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a Dream” speech
July 1964 The Civil Rights Act is passed
August 1965 The Voting Rights Act is passed
January 1969 Richard M. Nixon becomes president
Key Ideas in Civil Rights
Look at the word clouds above.
What are some of the key issues surrounding the Civil Rights Movement?
What are some of the key issues surrounding the Civil Rights Movement?
The Push for Civil RightsPresident Truman speaks to the NAACP at the Lincoln Memorial.
June 28, 1947 I should like to talk to you briefly about civil rights and human freedom. It is my deep conviction that we have reached a turning point in the long history of our country's efforts to guarantee a freedom and equality to all our citizens. Recent events in the United States and abroad have made us realize that it is more important today than ever before to insure that all Americans enjoy these rights. And when I say all Americans -- I mean all Americans. The civil rights laws written in the early years of our republic, and the traditions, which have been built upon them, are precious to us. Those laws were dawn up with the memory still fresh in men's minds of the tyranny of an absentee government. They were written to protect the citizen against any possible tyrannical act by the new government in this country. But we cannot be content with a civil liberties program, which emphasizes only the need of protection against the possibility of tyranny by the Government. We cannot stop there. We must keep moving forward, with new concepts of civil rights to safeguard our heritage. The extension of civil rights today means, not protection of the people against the Government, but protection of the people by the Government. We must take the Federal Government a friendly, vigilant defender of the rights and equalities of all Americans. And again I mean all Americans. As Americans, we believe that every man should be free to live his life as he wishes. He should be limited only by his responsibility to his fellow countrymen. If this freedom is to be more than a dream, each man must be guaranteed equality of opportunity. The only limit to an American's achievement should be his ability, his industry and his character. The rewards for his effort should be determined only by these truly relevant qualities. Our immediate task is to remove the last remnants of the barriers, which stand between millions of our citizens and their birthright. There is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry, or religion. Or race, or color. We must not tolerate such limitations on the freedom of any of our people and on their enjoyment of the basic rights, which every citizen in a truly democratic society must possess. Every man should have the right to a decent home, the right to an education, the right to adequate medical care, the right to a worthwhile job, the right to an equal share in the making of public decisions through the ballot, and the right to a fair trial in a fair court. We must insure that these rights -- on equal terms are enjoyed by every citizen. To these principles I pledge my full and continued support. Many of our people still suffer the indignity of insult, the harrowing fear of intimidation, and, I regret to say, the threat of physical injury and mob violence. The prejudice and intolerance in which these evils are rooted still exist. The conscience of our nation, and the legal machinery which enforces it, have not yet secured to each citizen full freedom from fear. We cannot wait another decade or another generation to remedy those evils. We must work, as never before, to cure them now. The aftermath of war and the desire to keep faith with our nation's historic principles make the need a pressing one. The support of desperate populations of battle-ravaged countries must be won for the free way of life. We must have them as allies in our continuing struggle for the peaceful solution of the world's problems. Freedom is not an easy lesson to teach, nor an easy cause to sell, to peoples beset by every kind of privation. They may surrender to the false security offered so temptingly by totalitarian regimes unless we can prove the superiority of democracy. Our case for democracy should be as strong as we can make it. It should rest on practical evidence that we have been able to put or house in order. For these compelling reasons, we can no longer afford the luxury of a leisurely attack upon prejudice and discrimination. There is much that state and local governments can do in providing positive safeguards for civil rights. But we cannot, any longer, await the growth of a will to action in the slowest state of the most backward community. Our national government must show the way. |
Review Questions for Truman's Speech
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Warm Up Activity
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Primary Sources
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What do Historians Say?
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Final Activity
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