In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education decision ushered in a new understanding of civil rights by declaring segregation unconstitutional. At the same time, the Brown v. Board of Education decision’s careful wording made an impact on how quickly states were going to comply with the Supreme Court’s call for integration. Because the legal language permitted southern states to slowly integrate and even not comply in some cases, the Civil Rights Movement called for the immediate end of segregation and for equal rights for blacks.
As time went on, a distinct difference emerged between the legal language used in Brown v. Board of Education and that of which was used in the civil rights legislation that is passed in the 1960s. The legal language used in the civil rights legislation of the 1960s called for the immediate end of discrimination, which would have ramifications in the decline of the Civil Rights Movement. The Brown v. Board of Education decisions determined that separate but equal was unconstitutional and argued for the gradual process of integration.
The Kennedy and Johnson administrations responded to the Civil Rights Movement’s demands for immediate desegregation and equal rights by passing legislation that banned discrimination in all facets of government and society. Despite these key victories, the immediacy of change that these laws required lead to the decline of the Civil Rights Movement and the failure of Johnson’s Great Society. The Brown v. Board of Education played a pivotal role in advancing the Civil Rights Movement by declaring that segregation was unconstitutional.
In its decision, the Supreme Court determined that “the doctrine of’separate but equal has o place” in America and that segregation deprives blacks “of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment” (H392). With this decision, the Supreme Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision which permitted “separate but equal” spaces since the Supreme Court at the time believed it did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Brown v. Board of Education decision was not without its opponents. A statement written by a group southern Congressmen, dubbed the Southern Manifesto, declared the Southern states’ opposition to the end of segregation.
The southern Congressmen argued that the Brown v. Board of Education decision went against a longstanding precedent which allowed for segregation under the Fourteenth Amendment, and threatened peaceful relations southerners created “through ninety years of patient effort by the good people of both races” (H394). The unwillingness by the South to integrate played a crucial role in how quickly integration would happen in the United States. Even with the Supreme Court’s clear stance that segregation was unconstitutional, three words in the Brown v. Board of Education lead to ramifications in how quickly state governments would respond to the call for integration.
The “with deliberate speed” phrase, as Foner argues, caused massive resistance in the South to the Civil Rights Movement (F280). This vague phrase in the Brown v. Board of Education decision allowed for the South to stall and prevent integration to take place in their schools. While Eisenhower may have sent federal troops to Little Rock to enforce integration, the federal government, besides the Supreme Court, remained distant from the Civil Rights Movement’s struggles (F280). It would not be until John F. Kennedy’s administration that the federal government would take steps towards in enforcing the Brown v.
Board of Education decision and furthering the Civil Rights Movement. The Kennedy administration took a more forceful stance on enforcing integration and advocating for civil rights than its predecessor. President Kennedy did not take this stance initially but was inclined to do so as the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum and its opposition grew more violent. Civil rights activists wanted segregation to end immediately because to them, freedom meant “an end to all that was wrong” which undoubtedly was segregation and the oppression of the rights of blacks(F277).
Blacks could not continue to live in a country in which their freedom was taken away, especially when the Supreme Court had that their oppression was indeed unconstitutional. Along with the increasing number of sit-ins, marches, and boycotts came more violence in response. This prompted for the Kennedy administration to take a firmer stance on the Civil Rights Movement. Kennedy stated that the country was in a moral crisis and until blacks achieved full citizenship, America “”‘for all its hopes and for all it boasts, will not be fully free” (F280).
With such an endorsement, Kennedy stayed true to his word by introducing an executive order on March 6, 1961 that demanded the federal government and its government contractors to take affirmative action against discrimination in their hiring process and in their employment of federal workers. The executive order also helped set up the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity which was to study the employment practices of the executive branch and make recommendations on policies of nondiscrimination (C59).
While this was not a piece of legislation, Kennedy’s executive order signaled a change in the federal government’s stance towards discrimination. The executive order not only demonstrated the immediacy of the issue, but also used the language of “discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin is contrary to the Constitutional principles and policies of the United States” to boldly point out Kennedy’s and the federal government’s stance on the issue of discrimination (C59). As Lyndon B. Johnson took over the presidency, this language would be crucial in crafting future civil rights legislation.
Following Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson passed a series of civil rights legislation that were landmarks for the Civil Rights Movement. In comparison to Kennedy, Johnson was more profound in his support for the Civil Rights Movement. During the crisis in Selma in 1965, Johnson called for legislation that secured the right to vote, and declared that the marchers represented “the outraged conscience of the nation” and “man’s unending search for freedom” (F280). This was also evident in the civil rights legislation that Johnson passed during his Presidency.
The year after Kennedy’s death, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an all-encompassing piece of legislation that sought to end discrimination in the many facets of society. Title VII in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expanded on Kennedy’s executive order banning discrimination of federal government and applied it to state and local governments as well as the private sector. Adding sex to the criteria, the phrase from Kennedy’s executive order had become that no one could be discriminated because of their “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (H396).
The legal language used in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 demonstrated the federal government’s ased stance against racial discrimination, as well expanding the protection from discrimination to women. This language would be used by the Civil Rights Movement to further push envelope of what their movement could cover. The Civil Rights Movement aimed to make further progress following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, yet the movement was met with frustration for much of the late 1960s. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. created the Chicago Freedom Movement to improve the quality of living in Chicago for blacks.
To King’s dismay, his movement faced heavy opposition from Chicago politicians and residences alike, thus draining King of his optimism that he had early in the 1960s (F283). Foner argues that while the first phase of the Civil Rights Movement was successful, the second phase “witnessed ideological and organizational fragmentation and few significant victories” (F283). Foner’s argument is correct regarding the amount of legislation that managed to pass during the second phase of the movement. For Johnson, he hoped the crowning achievement of his Presidency was going to be the Great Society.
The Great Society was aimed to be a “War on Poverty”; a means to eradicate poverty in America and to empower the poor and working-class of all races and both sexes economically (F285). While Johnson’s Great Society was the boldest welfare initiative since the New Deal and some successes such establishing Medicare and Medicaid, Johnson’s brainchild ultimately failed. Johnson and other politicians were against the government providing a direct income or welfare for those in need, while over one-half of Americans believed that the government should play a role in ensuring every citizen had a decent standard of living (F285).
Johnson also believed that America’s economy would be able to both achieve the domestic goals of the Great Society and fight the Vietnam War at the same time. However, this was not the case as further escalation in the Vietnam War prevented any government resources or attention to be put towards the Great Society (F287). The decline of the Civil Rights Movement and Johnson’s Great Society would also signal an end to major developments in civil rights legislation and the advocacy for civil rights enforcement as well. In conclusion, Brown v.
Board of Education made segregation unconstitutional by finding that “separate but equal” deprived blacks their equal rights protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Brown v. Board of Education faced vast opposition in the South because decision overturned nearly sixty years of legal precedent, and allowed for states to take “deliberate speed” to comply with the decision. This lead to the Civil Rights Movement to grow in strength and for the movement’s opposition to grow more violent. In response, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations took a stronger stance on civil rights and passed legislation that outright banned discrimination.
Despite major victories, the growing opposition to integrate lead to decline of the Civil Rights Movement. The Vietnam War’s further escalation prevented any resource to be spent on accomplishing the goals of Johnson’s Great Society. What had impacted the sequence of events following Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the legal language used in both the court decision and the law. More so, the sequence of the events following Brown v. Board of Education impacted the legal language used in Kennedy’s affirmative action executive order and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
While the Civil Rights Movement had declined by the end of the 1960s, it is hard to ignore the significance and the impact of the civil rights legislation that had passed during that time. The civil rights legislation that passed during the 1960s aimed to end discrimination and ensure equal rights for virtually of the citizens of the United States. And while the United States still faces today the issues of discrimination that the Civil Rights Movement identified, the Civil Rights Movement has shown that the evolving legal language can impact the progress to be made on issues of discrimination.