By 1944, the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, in a study of American racial practices, concluded that segregation had become so entrenched that the white southerner practically never saw a Negro except as a servant and in other formalized segregated situations. For decades, civil rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909, worked tirelessly attacking segregation in the courts. There were some victories: in 1947, the South Carolina Democratic primary was opened to blacks; the courts ordered new trials in cases where blacks had been systematically excluded from juries; in 1950, the Supreme Court ordered the admission of two black students to universities in Texas and Oklahoma when it was demonstrated that separate facilities were grossly unequal. In the Oklahoma case, the University was forced to dismantle the special cubicles, marked "reserved for colored," which had been constructed in the corner of each classroom for the exclusive use of the University's one black student. But the principle of separate but equal remained; these black students would not have been admitted if their separate facilities had been judged equal by the courts.
Brown v. Board of Education
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional because it was "inherently unequal" in quality and therefore a violation of the rights of black children to equal protection of the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. This decision effectively overturned the Supreme Court’s earlier opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson. The Court required the desegregation of public education "with all deliberate speed." Most southern political leaders claimed that the desegregation decision violated the rights of the states to manage their systems of public education and responded with defiance, legal challenges, delays or token compliance. As a result, school desegregation proceeded very slowly. By the end of the 1950’s less than ten percent of black children in the South were attending integrated schools.
Civil Rights Protests: 1955-1960
The pace of civil rights protests rose sharply in response to the Supreme Court decision. The Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott of 1955, led by twenty‑six year old Martin Luther King, Jr., ended segregated seating in Montgomery and won national attention. Throughout this period, President Eisenhower never publicly endorsed the Supreme Court ruling or made any statement supporting the principle of integration. A crisis erupted in 1957 when the governor of Arkansas promised to resist the desegregation of Little Rock High School. The Eisenhower administration was finally compelled to federalize the National Guard and escort the nine black students into the school.
But, even after Little Rock, school integration was painfully slow—mostly token in nature. And, segregation in general remained largely untouched. In February 1960, four black students from segregated Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, N.C. sat down in a local Woolworth's and asked to be served lunch. (Segregation laws allowed them to purchase items in the store, but did not allow them to sit at the lunch counter.) They were refused service. Within days, more than 50 students had volunteered and within weeks the movement had spread across college campuses. Sit‑ins, stand‑ins, wade‑ins, and pray‑ins swept the South, with more than 65 cities in 12 states affected in the first two months and more than 50,000 young people participating during the first year. Pictures of white crowds spilling sugar and mustard on the demonstrators or putting cigarettes out on their necks only increased the numbers of volunteers --many of them white.
The 1960 Election
Civil rights thus emerged as a major issue during the 1960 presidential campaign. JFK decided to phone Coretta Scott King after her husband had been arrested for leading civil rights protests in Georgia. Kennedy's offer to help secure Dr. King's safe release led to a public endorsement by Martin Luther King, Sr., influential father of the civil rights leader. The black vote went solidly for Kennedy across the nation (over 70%), providing the winning edge in several key states.
When Kennedy took office in January 1961, black Americans had high expectations for the new administration. But, because of his narrow election victory, small working margin in Congress and reluctance to loose southern support for legislation (such as housing, which would help minorities and the poor), Kennedy decided not to seek civil rights legislation. Instead, relying on executive authority, he appointed unprecedented numbers of blacks to high‑level positions in the administration and strengthened the Civil Rights Commission. He spoke out in favor of school desegregation, praised a number of cities for integrating their schools and put Vice President Lyndon Johnson in charge of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Attorney General Robert Kennedy turned his attention to voting rights, initiating five times the number of suits brought during the previous administration.