Assess the Importance of the Federal Government in the Advancement of African American Civil Rights in the Period 1865-1992

 Assess the importance of the federal government in the advancement of African American civil rights in the period 1865-1992

The federal government was very important in the advancement of the African American civil rights in the period 1865-1992; however its participation was limited. Throughout this period, African American civil rights made a massive progress. For any progress to be made, the federal government had to implement new laws and legislations, but usually, the government were not keen to act and in some cases actually made little impact on the civil rights movement. The African Americans themselves pushed the government to make changes through the leadership of the organisations set up, that led to the change in the civil rights that they eventually gained.

Considering the Presidency, they never really showed any support towards the African American civil rights movements. Some Presidents were hostile to the African American Civil rights, Andrew Johnson who tried to restore slavery in all but name in his “Presidential Reconstruction” which allowed southern states to pass “black codes” 1865-7 e.g. the Louisiana Black Code stated, “Every Negro is required to be in the regular service of some white person”. Continually, Wilson who segregated the White House. Although most presidents 1877-1933 were indifferent to African American civil rights, later ones turned out to be lukewarmly supportive: Franklin D Roosevelt was the first president since Grant to condemn lynching, even still, he allowed many of his New Deal programmes to discriminate against African Americans and unlike his wife Eleanor he refused to give Bills to make lynching a federal crime because he needed the support of southern Democrat senators. Roosevelt appointed a far greater number of blacks to positions of responsibility within his government than any previous president and introduced the “Black cabinet” (a group of African American public policy advisors). Truman desegregated the armed forces and set up the fair employment practices commission in 1945, but was preoccupied with the Cold War and his civil rights Bill in 1938 was blocked by Southern congressman.

During the Gilded Age (1877-96), control of the House of Representatives repeatedly changed hands between the Democratic and Republican parties. Some historians have dubbed Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison the “forgotten presidents.” This may be due to their lack of change in the way things were going, almost no progress was made in this era for the advancement of African American civil rights.

The civil rights era from 1954 was very significant, President Eisenhower was key in the advancement. He federalised the National Guard to enforce integration in Little Rock school in 1957 and passed Civil Rights Acts 1957 and 1960 in attempt to ensure blacks could vote; however he regretted appointing Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and never intervened to enforce Brown. Democratic presidents like Lyndon B Johnson passed the crucial Civil and Voting Rights Acts 1964-5 which finally made the 15th Amendment a reality, for example the number of black voters in Mississippi rose tenfold in 3 years and resulted in a massive increase in black political office holding from the 1970s onwards to an extent not seen since Reconstruction. However, Martin Luther King’s “dream” speech in 1963 did “force” John F Kennedy to promise the Civil rights act and Johnson to pass it due to the 250,000 people who attended the march and the large publicity. Kennedy helped by ensuring Meredith went to the University of Mississippi in 1962 by sending in the US Army to supress disorder to ensure his admission and he desegregated bus facilities in 1961, but he did only did intervene under pressure from media, white racist violence and civil rights campaigners.