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Course: US history > Unit 6
- Life after slavery for African Americans
- The origins of Jim Crow - introduction
- Origins of Jim Crow - the Black Codes and Reconstruction
- Origins of Jim Crow - the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
- Origins of Jim Crow - Compromise of 1877 and Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson
- The Compromise of 1877
- The New South
- The South after the Civil War
- Jim Crow laws were laws created by white southerners to enforce racial segregation across the South from the 1870s through the 1960s.
- Under the Jim Crow system, “whites only” and “colored” signs proliferated across the South at water fountains, restrooms, bus waiting areas, movie theaters, swimming pools, and public schools. African Americans who dared to challenge segregation faced arrest or violent reprisal.
- In 1896, the Supreme Court declared Jim Crow segregation legal in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision. The Court ruled that “separate but equal” accommodations African Americans were permitted under the Constitution.
Jim Crow: a symbol for racial segregation
The end of jim crow, what do you think.
- For more on Jim Crow, see C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955).
- For more on minstrel shows, see Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
- For Henry Brown's decision, see Justia, Plessy v. Ferguson . For more on the case, see Brook Thomas, Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997).
- For the end of Jim Crow, see Richard Wormser, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (New York: St. Martin's, 2003).
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racial segregation
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
- Academia - Racial Segregation and Equality
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Racial residential segregation: a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health.
- Frontiers - Segregation and Life Satisfaction
- The Canadian Encyclopedia - Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada
- segregation - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
- segregation - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
racial segregation , the practice of restricting people to certain circumscribed areas of residence or to separate institutions (e.g., schools, churches) and facilities (parks, playgrounds, restaurants, restrooms) on the basis of race or alleged race. Racial segregation provides a means of maintaining the economic advantages and superior social status of the politically dominant group, and in recent times it has been employed primarily by white populations to maintain their ascendancy over other groups by means of legal and social colour bars. Historically, however, various conquerors—among them Asian Mongols , African Bantus , and American Aztecs —practiced discrimination involving the segregation of subject races.
Racial segregation has appeared in all parts of the world where there are multiracial communities , except where racial amalgamation occurred on a large scale as in Hawaii and Brazil . In such countries there has been occasional social discrimination but not legal segregation. In the Southern states of the United States , on the other hand, legal segregation in public facilities was current from the late 19th century into the 1950s. ( See Jim Crow law .) The civil rights movement was initiated by Southern Blacks in the 1950s and ’60s to break the prevailing pattern of racial segregation. This movement spurred passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which contained strong provisions against discrimination and segregation in voting, education, and use of public facilities.
Elsewhere, racial segregation was practiced with the greatest rigour in South Africa , where, under the apartheid system, it was an official government policy from 1950 until the early 1990s.
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Segregation in the United States
By: History.com Editors
Updated: January 12, 2023 | Original: November 28, 2018
Segregation is the practice of requiring separate housing, education and other services for people of color. Segregation was made law several times in 19th- and 20th-century America as some believed that Black and white people were incapable of coexisting.
In the lead-up to the liberation of enslaved people under the Thirteenth Amendment , abolitionists argued about what the fate of slaves should be once they were freed. One group argued for colonization, either by returning the formerly enslaved people to Africa or creating their own homeland. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln recognized the ex-slave countries of Haiti and Liberia, hoping to open up channels for colonization, with Congress allocating $600,000 to help. While the colonization plan did not pan out, the country, instead, set forth on a path of legally mandated segregation.
Black Codes and Jim Crow
The first steps toward official segregation came in the form of “ Black Codes .” These were laws passed throughout the South starting around 1865, that dictated most aspects of Black peoples’ lives, including where they could work and live. The codes also ensured Black people’s availability for cheap labor after slavery was abolished.
Segregation soon became official policy enforced by a series of Southern laws. Through so-called Jim Crow laws (named after a derogatory term for Blacks), legislators segregated everything from schools to residential areas to public parks to theaters to pools to cemeteries, asylums, jails and residential homes. There were separate waiting rooms for whites people and Black people in professional offices and, in 1915, Oklahoma became the first state to even segregate public phone booths.
Colleges were segregated and separate Black institutions like Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee were created to compensate. Virginia’s Hampton Institute was established in 1869 as a school for Black youth, but with white instructors teaching skills to relegate Black people in service positions to whites.
The Supreme Court and Segregation
In 1875 the outgoing Republican-controlled House and Senate passed a civil rights bill outlawing discrimination in schools, churches and public transportation. But the bill was barely enforced and was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883.
In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that segregation was constitutional. The ruling established the idea of “separate but equal.” The case involved a mixed-race man who was forced to sit in the Black-designated train car under Louisiana’s Separate Car Act.
Housing Segregation
As part of the segregation movement, some cities instituted zoning laws that prohibited Black families from moving into white-dominant blocks. In 1917, as part of Buchanan v. Warley, the Supreme Court found such zoning to be unconstitutional because it interfered with property rights of owners.
Using loopholes in that ruling in the 1920s, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover created a federal zoning committee to persuade local boards to pass rules preventing lower-income families from moving into middle-income neighborhoods, an effort that targeted Black families. Richmond, Virginia, decreed that people were barred from residency on any block where they could not legally marry the majority of residents. This invoked Virginia’s anti-mixed race marriage law and was not technically in violation with the Supreme Court decision.
Segregation During the Great Migration
During the Great Migration , a period between 1916 and 1970, six million African Americans left the South. Huge numbers moved northeast and reported discrimination and segregation similar to what they had experienced in the South.
As late as the 1940s, it was still possible to find “Whites Only” signs on businesses in the North. Segregated schools and neighborhoods existed, and even after World War II , Black activists reported hostile reactions when Black people attempted to move into white neighborhoods.
Segregation and the Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration’s efforts to build housing for people displaced during the Great Depression focused on homes for white families in white communities. Only a small portion of houses was built for Black families, and those were limited to segregated Black communities.
In some cities, previously integrated communities were torn down by the PWA and replaced by segregated projects. The reason given for the policy was that Black families would bring down property values.
Starting in the 1930s, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Home Owners' Loan Corporation conspired to create maps with marked areas considered bad risks for mortgages in a practice known as “red-lining.” The areas marked in red as “hazardous” typically outlined Black neighborhoods. This kind of mapping concentrated poverty as (mostly Black) residents in red-lined neighborhoods had no access or only very expensive access to loans.
The practice did not begin to end until the 1970s. Then, in 2008, a system of “reverse red-lining,” which extended credit on unfair terms with subprime loans, created a higher rate of foreclosure in Black neighborhoods during the housing crisis.
In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that a Black family had the right to move into their newly-purchased home in a quiet neighborhood in St. Louis, despite a covenant dating back to 1911 that precluded the use of the property in the area by “any person not of the Caucasian race.” In Shelley v. Kramer, attorneys from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) , led by Thurgood Marshall , argued that allowing such white-only real estate covenants were not only morally wrong, but strategically misguided in a time when the country was trying to promote a unified, anti-Soviet agenda under President Harry Truman . Civil rights activists saw the landmark case as an example of how to start to undo trappings of segregation at the federal level.
But while the Supreme Court ruled that white-only covenants were not enforceable, the real estate playing field was hardly leveled. The Housing Act of 1949 was proposed by Truman to solve a housing shortage caused by soldiers returned from World War II . The act subsidized housing for whites only, even stipulating that Black families could not purchase the houses even on resale. The program effectively resulted in the government funding white flight from cities.
One of the most notorious of the white-only communities created by the Housing Act was Levittown, New York, built in 1949 and followed by other Levittowns in different locations.
Segregation in Schools
Segregation of children in public schools was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education . The case was originally filed in Topeka, Kansas after seven-year-old Linda Brown was rejected from the all-white schools there.
A follow-up opinion handed decision-making to local courts, which allowed some districts to defy school desegregation. This led to a showdown in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower deployed federal troops to ensure nine Black students entered high school after Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had called in the National Guard to block them.
When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, the civil rights movement began in earnest. Through the efforts of organizers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the resulting protests, the Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964, outlawing discrimination, though desegregation was a slow process, especially in schools.
Boston Busing Crisis
One of the worst incidents of anti-integration happened in 1974. Violence broke out in Boston when, in order to solve the city’s school segregation problems, courts mandated a busing system that carried Black students from predominantly Roxbury to South Boston schools, and vice versa.
The state had passed the Elimination of Racial Balance law in 1965, but it had been held up in court by Irish Catholic opposition. Police protected the Black students as several days of violence broke out between police and Southie residents. White crowds greeted the buses with insults, and further violence erupted between Southie residents and retaliating Roxbury crowds. State troopers were called in until the violence subsided after a few weeks.
Segregation in the 21st Century
Segregation persists in the 21st Century. Studies show that while the public overwhelmingly supports integrated schools, only a third of Americans want federal government intervention to enforce it.
The term “apartheid schools” describes still-existing, largely segregated schools, where white students make up 0 to 10 percent of the student body. The phenomenon reflects residential segregation in cities and communities across the country, which is not created by overtly racial laws, but by local ordinances that target minorities disproportionately.
Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi , published by Bodley Head. The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates , The Atlantic . Dismantling Desegregation by Gary Orfield and Susan E. Eaton by the New Press.
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My View of Segregation Laws
- December 02, 1915
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Introduction
From the 1890s onward, Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) spoke and acted in opposition to the wave of racially motivated injustice—the lynchings; the disfranchisement; the unequal public funding of schools; the segregation of railway cars, of public accommodations, and of residential housing—that engulfed southern blacks in that period. His speech and actions on these subjects, however, were carefully modulated and often indirect, and thus to some degree hidden from public view. Because of that, W.E.B. Du Bois and other rivals and critics (See Souls of Black Folk and “An Address to the Country” ) were able to affix to Washington the reputation for “accommodationism”—submissiveness in the face of injustice—that persists to the present day.
In the final few years of his life, Washington chose to address the mounting injustices in a more straightforward manner. The selection below was originally published in the progressive journal The New Republic a few weeks after his death.
Source: Booker T. Washington, “My View of Segregation Laws,” New Republic 5, no. 57 (December 4, 1915), 113–114; available at https://newrepublic.com/article/103513/ my-view-segregation-laws .
In all of my experience I have never yet found a case where the masses of the people of any given city were interested in the matter of the segregation of white and colored people; that is, there has been no spontaneous demand for segregation ordinances. In certain cities politicians have taken the leadership in introducing such segregation ordinances into city councils, and after making an appeal to racial prejudices have succeeded in securing a backing for ordinances which would segregate the Negro people from their white fellow citizens. After such ordinances have been introduced it is always difficult, in present state of public opinion in the South to have any considerable body of white people oppose them, because their attitude is likely to be misrepresented as favoring Negroes against white people. They are, in the main, afraid of the stigma “Negro-lover.”
It is probably useless to discuss the legality of segregation; that is a matter which the courts will finally pass upon. It is reasonably certain, however, that the courts in no section of the country would uphold a case where Negroes sought to segregate white citizens. This is the most convincing argument that segregation is regarded as illegal, when viewed on its merits by the whole body of our white citizens.
I have never viewed except with amusement the sentiment that white people who live next to Negro populations suffer physically, mentally, and morally because of their proximity to colored people. Southern white people who have been brought up in this proximity are not inferior to other white people. The president of the United States was born and reared in the South in close contact with black people. Five members of the present cabinet were born in the South; and many of them, I am sure, had black “mammies.” The Speaker of the House of Representatives is a southern man, the chairman of leading committees in both the United States Senate and the lower House of Congress are southern men. Throughout the country today, people occupying the highest positions not only in the government but in education, industry and science, are persons born in the South in close contact with the Negro. Attempts at legal segregation are unnecessary for the reason that the matter of residence is one which naturally settles itself. Both colored and whites are likely to select a section of the city where they will be surrounded by congenial neighbors. It is unusual to hear of a colored man attempting to live where he is surrounded by white people or where he is not welcome. Where attempts are being made to segregate the races legally, it should be noted that in the matter of business no attempt is made to keep the white man from placing his grocery store, his dry goods store, or other enterprise right in the heart of a Negro district. This is another searching test which challenges the good faith of segregationists.
It is true that the Negro opposes these attempts to restrain him from residing in certain sections of a city or community. He does this not because he wants to mix with the white man socially, but because he feels that such laws are unnecessary. The Negro objects to being segregated because it usually means that he will receive inferior accommodations in return for the taxes he pays. If the Negro is segregated, it will probably mean that the sewerage in his part of the city will be inferior; that the streets and sidewalks will be neglected, that the street lighting will be poor; that his section of the city will not be kept in order by the police and other authorities, and that the “undesirables” of other races will be placed near him, thereby making it difficult for him to rear his family in decency. It should always be kept in mind that while the Negro may not be directly a large taxpayer, he does pay large taxes indirectly. In the last analysis, all will agree that the man who pays house rent pays large taxes for the price paid for the rent includes payment of the taxes on the property.
Right here in Alabama nobody is thinking or talking about land and home segregation. It is rather remarkable that in the very heart of the Black Belt 1 where the black man is almost ignorant the white people should not find him so repulsive as to set him away off to himself. If living side by side is such a menace as some people think, it does seem as if the people who have had the bulk of the race question to handle during the past fifty years would have discovered the danger and adjusted it long ago.
A segregated Negro community is a terrible temptation to many white people. Such a community invariably provides certain types of white men with hiding-places—hiding-places from the law, from decent people of their own race, from their churches and their wives and daughters. In a Negro district in a certain city in the South a house of ill-repute of white men was next door to a Negro denominational school. In another town a similar kind of house is just across the street from the Negro grammar school. In New Orleans the legalized vice section is set in the midst of the Negro section, and near the spot where stood a Negro school and a Negro church, and near the place where the Negro orphanage now operates. Now when a Negro seeks to buy a house in a reputable street he does it not only to get police protec- tion, lights, and accommodations, but to remove his children to a locality in which vice is not paraded.
White people who argue for the segregation of the masses of black people forget the tremendous power of objective teaching. To hedge any set of people off in a corner and sally among them now and then with a lecture or a sermon is merely to add misery to degradation. But put the black man where day by day he sees how the white man keeps his lawns, his windows; how he treats his wife and children, and you will do more real helpful teaching than a whole library of lectures and sermons. Moreover, this will help the white man. If he knows that his life is to be taken as a model, that his house, dress,
A fertile cotton-producing area stretching in a shallow crescent from southern Virginia through Louisiana and north along the Mississippi River into Mississippi and Arkansas. The area had a high density of slaves before the Civil War and a large black population afterward. manners are all to be patterns for someone less fortunate, he will deport him- self better than he would otherwise. Practically all the real moral uplift the black people have got from the whites—and this has been great indeed—has come from this observation of the white man’s conduct. The South today is still full of the type of Negro with gentle manners. Where did he get them? From some master or mistress of the same type.
Summarizing the matter in the large, segregation is ill advised because
- It is unjust.
- It invites other unjust measures.
- It will not be productive of good, because practically every thoughtful Negro resents its injustice and doubts its sincerity. Any race adjustment based on injustice finally defeats itself. The Civil War is the best illustration of what results where it is attempted to make wrong right or seem to be right.
- It is unnecessary.
- It is inconsistent. The Negro is segregated from his white neighbor, but white businessmen are not prevented from doing business in Negro neighborhoods.
- There has been no case of segregation of Negroes in the United States that has not widened the breach between the two races. Wherever a form of segregation exists it will be found that it has been administered in such a way as to embitter the Negro and harm more or less the moral fiber of a white man. That the Negro does not express this constant sense of wrong is no proof that he does not feel it.
It seems to me that the reasons given above, if carefully considered, should serve to prevent further passage of such segregation ordinances as have been adopted in Norfolk, Richmond, Louisville, Baltimore, and one or two cities in South Carolina.
Finally, as I have said in another place, as white and black learn daily to adjust, in a spirit of justice and fair play, those interests which are individual and racial, and to see and feel the importance of those fundamental interests which are common, so will both races grow and prosper. In the long run no individual and no race can succeed which sets itself at war against the com- mon good; for “in the gain or loss of one race, all the rest have equal claim.” 2
- 1. A fertile cotton-producing area stretching in a shallow crescent from southern Virginia through Louisiana and north along the Mississippi River into Mississippi and Arkansas. The area had a high density of slaves before the Civil War and a large black population afterward.
- 2. From “The Present Crisis,” a poem by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891).
The House-Grey Memorandum
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How did African Americans respond to Jim Crow and did they view separation and segregation in the same way? Having students Students should understand the difference between voluntary separation and segregation. compare the two should reveal that for the most part African Americans did not oppose separation so long as it was voluntary. Following the Civil War, blacks formed their own schools, churches, and civic organizations over which they exercised control that provided independence from white authorities, including their former masters. African Americans took great pride in the institutions they built in their communities. Black businessmen accumulated wealth by catering to a Negro clientele in need of banks, insurance companies, health services, barber shops and beauty parlors, entertainment, and funeral homes. African Americans as diverse politically as Booker T. Washington in the 1890s , Marcus Garvey in the 1920s , W.E.B. DuBois in the 1930s advocated that blacks concentrate on promoting self-help within their communities and develop their own economic, Integration weakened some black community institutions. social, and cultural institutions. Ironically, one of the unintended side effects of racial integration in the second half of the twentieth century was the erosion of longstanding black business and educational institutions that served African-Americans during Jim Crow.
Students can then see that in contrast to voluntary separation and self-determination, segregation was coercive and grew out of attempts to maintain black subordination and second-class citizenship. Sanctioned by the government, Jim Crow demeaned African Americans, denied them equal opportunity, and assigned them to the margins of public life. If African Americans overstepped Jim Crow’s boundary lines they were forced back by law and, if necessary, through retributive violence.
How did African Americans challenge segregation and white supremacy ? In other words, when did the Civil Rights Movement begin and Begin your teaching of the Civil Rights Movement with World War II. what did it seek to accomplish? These are questions that historians still debate. My advice is to start before the usual launching point of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and begin with World War II, when African Americans began a “ Double V” Campaign —victory against totalitarianism abroad and racism at home. The continued migration of blacks to the North and West gave African Americans increased voting power to help pressure presidents from Harry Truman on to pass civil rights legislation that would aid their family, friends, and neighbors remaining in the South. At the same time, southern black communities organized and mobilized. A new generation of leaders, many of them military veterans or black college graduates , challenged Jim Crow and disfranchisement. Black women have often been ignored as a significant force behind the Civil Rights Movement, with the focus on the men who led the major organizations. However, teachers should emphasize the role of mothers who permitted their children to face the dangers of integrating schools , daughters who readily joined protest demonstrations, domestic servants who walked miles to work to boycott segregated buses , and churchwomen who rallied their congregations behind civil rights.
Finally, what did African Americans strive for in eliminating segregation? Usually integration is wrongly interpreted as an end in itself or an attempt by blacks to Stress that integration was a tactic, not a goal. assimilate into white society. It is most important for students to understand that for blacks integration was a tactic, not a goal. For example, African Americans sought to desegregate education not because they wanted to socialize with white students, but because it provided the best means for obtaining a quality education. Blacks confronted Jim Crow to defeat white supremacy and obtain political power —the kind that could result in jobs, affordable housing, satisfactory health care, and evenhanded treatment by the police and the judicial system. Rather than erasing their pride in being black or expressing a desire to be like whites , African Americans gained an even greater respect for their race through participation in the Civil Rights Movement and their efforts to shatter Jim Crow.
Historians Debate
In 1955, C. Vann Woodward published The Strange Career of Jim Crow . Woodward reflected the optimism following the previous year’s Brown decision by arguing that segregation was not as inherent to southern society as previously believed. He demonstrated that not until the 1890s did southern whites institute the rigid system of Jim Crow that segregated the races in all areas of public life. Woodward pointed out numerous instances during and after Reconstruction when blacks had access to public accommodations. Woodward’s research suggested that segregation might be eradicated through simple changes in public policies, reversing those that had created it in the not-so-distant past.
Woodward’s book spawned a number of other studies both challenging and modifying his thesis. Many of these appeared as the South waged massive resistance to combat the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, suggesting the depth of white racism and the difficulty of overcoming it. In North of Slavery (1961), Leon Litwack found that even before the Civil War free northern Negroes encountered segregation in schools and public accommodations, the kind of discrimination they would face in the South after slavery. Accordingly, segregation had a longer pedigree than Woodward had argued, and it transcended the South and operated nationwide. Joel Williamson’s After Slavery: The Negro in South Carolina during Reconstruction, 1861-1877 (1965) examined race relations in the Palmetto State and found Woodward’s interpretation wanting. Williamson concluded that freed blacks encountered segregation soon after emancipation. He asserted that specific laws were not necessary to keep the races apart because segregation was maintained de facto . He discovered that most white South Carolinians did not accept racial equality and intended to adopt segregation as soon as blacks gained their freedom from slavery.
Howard N. Rabinowitz did not focus so much on the timing of segregation as on its form. In Race Relations in the Urban South, 1865-1890 (1978), Rabinowitz argued that racial segregation appeared as a substitute for racial exclusion. Thus, in the post-emancipation South freed blacks gained access for the first time to public facilities such as public transportation and health and welfare services. Accordingly, segregation should not be perceived as a punitive measure but as a means of extending services, albeit separate and unequal, to African Americans.
To summarize, historians generally agree that de facto segregation both preceded and accompanied de jure segregation, but that racial interaction in public spheres was less rigid than it became after the 1890s. Whatever its form, however, Jim Crow was always separate and never equal; it constituted a means for reinforcing black subordination and white supremacy. Whatever the exact beginning of segregation, southern whites shared a broad consensus for preserving it. It required a mass, black-led, Civil Rights Movement, combined with the power and renewed willingness of the national government, to overthrow Jim Crow.
Steven F. Lawson was a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in 1987-88. He holds a Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University and is currently Professor of History at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Dr. Lawson is author of Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944-1969 (1976), which won the Phi Alpha Theta prize for best first book; In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics, 1965-1982 (1985); Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle (2003) ; and Running for Freedom: Civil Rights and Black Politics in America since 1941 (3 rd ed., 2009).
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To cite this essay: Lawson, Steven F. “Segregation.” Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe©. National Humanities Center. DATE YOU ACCESSED ESSAY. <https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/segregation.htm>
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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Jim Crow Laws — Jim Crow Laws: A Historical Analysis of Segregation Laws & its Effects
Jim Crow Laws: a Historical Analysis of Segregation Laws & Its Effects
- Categories: Jim Crow Laws
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Words: 721 |
Published: Feb 12, 2019
Words: 721 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read
Works Cited
- Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press.
- Flashfocus. (n.d.). Jim Crow. In Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century Five-volume Set (Vol. 2, pp. 75-77). Oxford University Press.
- Pilgrim, D. (n.d.). What was Jim Crow? Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Retrieved from [insert URL]
- Anderson, J. D. (2016). The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. The University of North Carolina Press.
- Ashworth, J., & Palenchar, J. (Eds.). (2018). Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities. University of Chicago Press.
- Blackmon, D. A. (2009). Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Anchor Books.
- Dailey, J. (2017). The Routledge History of the Twentieth-Century United States. Routledge.
- Fairclough, A. (2010). Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890-2000. Penguin Books.
- Litwack, L. F. (2009). How Free is Free? The Long Death of Jim Crow. Harvard University Press.
- Woodward, C. V. (2001). The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Oxford University Press.
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Primary Sources for 20th Century History-- U.Va. Library Databases
- Civil Rights
- East Asian Sources
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Civil Rights Sources
- Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South This link opens in a new window The project records and preserves the living memory of African American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South from the 1890s to the 1950s. It is the largest single collection of Jim Crow-era oral histories in the world: visitors to the site can listen to over 175 hours of recordings. Additionally, there are over 10,000 pages of transcripts from the interviews, which "capture the vivid personalities, poignant personal stories, and behind-the-scenes decision-making" that made up the African American experience in the South during this period.
- Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window Primary source documents from the National Negro Business League, a business organization founded in 1900 by Booker T. Washington. The League included small African American business owners, doctors, farmers, craftsmen, and other professionals. Its goal was to allow business to put economic development at the forefront of getting African-American equality in America.
- Bush Presidency and Development and Debate Over Civil Rights Policy and Legislation This link opens in a new window This collection contains materials on civil rights, the development of civil rights policy, and the debate over civil rights legislation during the administration of President George H.W. Bush and during his tenure as vice president. Contents of this collection includes memoranda, talking points, correspondence, legal briefs, transcripts, news summaries, draft legislation, statements of administration policy (SAP’s), case histories, legislative histories and news-clippings covering a broad range of civil rights issues.
- Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse This link opens in a new window Documents and information about civil rights cases in the United States. Topics include child welfare, school desegregation, election/voting rights, immigration, police profiling, conditions in public housing, jails prisons, mental health facilities.
- Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project This link opens in a new window The William Elwood Civil Rights Lawyers Project tells the legal history of the civil rights struggle through scores of digitized interviews made from 273 tapes left to the UVa Library.
- Explorations in Black Leadership This link opens in a new window Video, audio, and text of interviews with leaders in the black community, conducted chiefly by Julian Bond. These oral histories focus on leadership and the transformational role of the civil rights movement in America.
- Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman This link opens in a new window Primary source documents related to voting rights activist and civil rights leader, Fannie Lou Hamer. Fannie Lou Hamer was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The collection includes correspondence, financial records, programs, photographs, newspaper articles, invitations, and other printed items. The papers are arranged in the following series: Personal, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Freedom Farms Corporation, Delta Ministry, Mississippians United to Elect Negro Candidates, Delta Opportunities Corporation, and Collected Materials.
- Federal Surveillance Of African Americans:1920-1984 This link opens in a new window Throughout the twentieth century Black Americans of all political persuasions were subject to federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution. The Federal Bureau of Investigation enlisted black "confidential special informants" to infiltrate a variety of organizations. Hundreds of documents in this collection were originated by such operatives. The reports provide a wealth of detail on "Negro" radicals and their organizations. In addition to infiltration, the FBI contributed to the infringement of First Amendment freedoms by making its agents a constant visible presence at radical rallies and meetings. This archive is based on original microfilm.
- Fight For Racial Justice And The Civil Rights Congress This link opens in a new window Search over 56,000 pages of the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) involvement in notable civil rights and civil liberties issues such as Willie McGee, the Trenton Six, Martinsville Seven and many others. The CRC also held many high profile protests in Washington DC and the UN. Due to its Communist Party affiliations, the Civil Rights Congress was cited as subversive by President Harry S. Truman’s Attorney General, Thomas Clark.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945 This link opens in a new window This series contains a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement-concerned with the issues of Lynching, Segregation, Race riots, and Employment discrimination. This collection from FDR’s Official File provides insight into his political style and presents an instructive example of how he balanced moral preference with political realities.
- Integration of Alabama Schools and the U.S. Military, 1963 This link opens in a new window This collection includes essential materials for the study of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement at a critical moment in its history. This archive details Operation Oak Tree, the code name for the Army's plans to intervene in Alabama in the event of civil disturbances related to school integration in May 1963. The documents in this collection are sourced from the Records of the Department of the Army, in the custody of the National Archives of the United States.
- James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi This link opens in a new window This collection contains extensive FBI documentation on Meredith’s battle to enroll at The University of Mississippi in 1962 and white political and social backlash, including his correspondence with the NAACP and positive and negative letters he received from around the world during his ordeal.
- Papers of the ACLU, 1912-1990 This link opens in a new window For most of the twentieth century the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was the principal defender of the rights that citizens can assert against government. These files cover numerous topics that resonate for contemporary research. Subjects include: the first “Red Scare” following the Russian Revolution of 1917; debates in the 1920s on immigration; the American Birth Control League; lynchings in the 1930s; debates on aliens and immigrants in the years immediately preceding the U.S. entry into the Second World War; and the ACLU’s involvement in two of the mid-century’s most important issues: the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement.
- Papers Of Amiri Baraka/Poet Laureate Of The Black Power Movement This link opens in a new window The collection consists of rare works of poetry, organizational records, print publications, over one hundred articles, poems, plays, and speeches by Baraka, a small amount of personal correspondence, and oral histories. The collection has been arranged into eighteen series.
- NAACP Papers This link opens in a new window Digital collection of the NAACP’s archive of internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the U.S. It covers the organization’s involvement in crucial civil rights issues such as lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, housing, etc.
- Quest For Labor Equality In Household Work: National Domestic Workers Union: 1965-1979 This link opens in a new window The collection consists of records of the United Domestic Workers Union. It includes digitized Union correspondence, minutes, subject files, financial documents, membership records, and legal documents.
- Ralph J. Bunche Oral Histories Collection on the Civil Rights Movement This link opens in a new window This collection is a unique resource for the study of the era of the American civil rights movement. Included here are transcriptions of close to 700 interviews with those who made history in the struggles for voting rights, against discrimination in housing, for the desegregation of the schools, to expose racism in hiring, in defiance of police brutality, and to address poverty in the African American communities.
- SNCC Digital Gateway This link opens in a new window The SNCC Digital Gateway portrays how SNCC, alongside thousands of local Black residents, worked for Black people to take control of their political and economic lives. It unveils the inner workings of SNCC as an organization, examining how it coordinated sit-ins and freedom schools, voter registration and economic cooperatives, anti-draft protests and international solidarity struggles. It includes: • Historic materials including documents, photographs, oral history interviews, and audiovisual material hosted in digital collections at repositories across the country • Profiles examining individuals’ contributions to the Movement • Events tracing the evolution of SNCC’s organizing • Inside SNCC pages unveiling the inner workings of SNCC as an organization • Our Voices sections presenting aspects of SNCC’s history from the eyes of the activists themselves • Map connecting users to the people who worked–and the events that happened–in a specific place
- We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 This link opens in a new window Primary source documents related to the Freedom Riders, civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated South to test the United States Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia. Boynton had outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines.
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Chapter 13 Introductory Essay: 1945-1960
Written by: patrick allitt, emory university, by the end of this section, you will:.
- Explain the context for societal change from 1945 to 1960
- Explain the extent to which the events of the period from 1945 to 1960 reshaped national identity
Introduction
World War II ended in 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union had cooperated to defeat Nazi Germany, but they mistrusted each other. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, believed the Americans had waited too long before launching the D-Day invasion of France in 1944, leaving his people to bear the full brunt of the German war machine. It was true that Soviet casualties were more than 20 million, whereas American casualties in all theaters of war were fewer than half a million.
On the other hand, Harry Truman, Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president, who had become president after Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, believed Stalin had betrayed a promise made to Roosevelt at the Yalta summit in February 1945. That promise was to permit all the nations of Europe to become independent and self-governing at the war’s end. Instead, Stalin installed Soviet puppet governments in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, the parts of Europe his armies had recaptured from the Nazis.
These tensions between the two countries set the stage for the Cold War that came to dominate foreign and domestic policy during the postwar era. The world’s two superpowers turned from allies into ideological and strategic enemies as they struggled to protect and spread their systems around the world, while at the same time developing arsenals of nuclear weapons that could destroy it. Domestically, the United States emerged from the war as the world’s unchallenged economic powerhouse and enjoyed great prosperity from pent-up consumer demand and industrial dominance. Americans generally supported preserving the New Deal welfare state and the postwar anti-communist crusade. While millions of white middle-class Americans moved to settle down in the suburbs, African Americans had fought a war against racism abroad and were prepared to challenge it at home.
The Truman Doctrine and the Cold War
Journalists nicknamed the deteriorating relationship between the two great powers a “ cold war ,” and the name stuck. In the short run, America possessed the great advantage of being the only possessor of nuclear weapons as a result of the Manhattan Project. It had used two of them against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war in the Far East, with destructive power so fearsome it deterred Soviet aggression. But after nearly four years of war, Truman was reluctant to risk a future conflict. Instead, with congressional support, he pledged to keep American forces in Europe to prevent any more Soviet advances. This was the “ Truman Doctrine ,” a dramatic contrast with the American decision after World War I to withdraw from European affairs. (See the Harry S. Truman, “Truman Doctrine” Address, March 1947 Primary Source.)
President Harry Truman pictured here in his official presidential portrait pledged to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion with his “Truman Doctrine.”
The National Security Act, passed by Congress in 1947, reorganized the relationship between the military forces and the government. It created the National Security Council (NSC), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the office of Secretary of Defense. The Air Force, previously a branch of the U.S. Army, now became independent, a reflection of its new importance in an era of nuclear weapons. Eventually, NSC-68, a secret memorandum from 1950, was used to authorize large increases in American military strength and aid to its allies, aiming to ensure a high degree of readiness for war against the Soviet Union.
What made the Soviet Union tick? George Kennan, an American diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow who knew the Soviets as well as anyone in American government, wrote an influential article titled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct.” Originally sent from Moscow as a long telegram, it was later published in the journal Foreign Affairs under the byline “X” and impressed nearly all senior American policy makers in Washington, DC. The Soviets, said Kennan, believed capitalism and communism could not coexist and that they would be perpetually at war until one was destroyed. According to Kennan, the Soviets believed communism was destined to dominate the world. They were disciplined and patient, however, and understood “the logic of force.” Therefore, said Kennan, the United States must be equally patient, keeping watch everywhere to “contain” the threat.
Containment became the guiding principle of U.S. anti-Soviet policy, under which the United States deployed military, economic, and cultural resources to halt Soviet expansion. In 1948, the United States gave more than $12 billion to Western Europe to relieve suffering and help rebuild and integrate the economies through the Marshall Plan. The Europeans would thus not turn to communism in their desperation and America would promote mutual prosperity through trade. The Berlin crisis of 1948–1949 was the policy’s first great test. (See the George Kennan (“Mr. X”), “Sources of Soviet Conduct,” July 1947 Primary Source.)
Berlin, jointly occupied by the major powers, lay inside Soviet-dominated East Germany, but access roads led to it from the West. In June 1948, Soviet forces cut these roads, hoping the Americans would permit the whole of Berlin to fall into the Soviet sphere rather than risk war. Truman and his advisors, recognizing the symbolic importance of Berlin but reluctant to fire the first shot, responded by having supplies flown into West Berlin, using aircraft that had dropped bombs on Berlin just three years earlier. Grateful Berliners called them the “raisin bombers” in tribute to one of the foods they brought.
After 11 months, recognizing their plan had failed, the Soviets relented. West Berlin remained part of West Germany, making the first test of containment a success. On the other hand, the United States was powerless to prevent a complete Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, whose government had shown some elements of independence from Moscow’s direction. (See The Berlin Airlift Narrative.)
Alarm about the Czech situation hastened the American decision to begin re-arming West Germany, where an imperfect and incomplete process of “de-Nazification” had taken place. The United States also supervised the creation in 1949 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance of Western nations to forestall Soviet aggression in central Europe. The U.S. government also continued research on and development of new and more powerful nuclear weapons. Americans were dismayed to learn, in 1949, that the Soviets had successfully tested an atomic bomb of their own, greatly facilitated by information provided by Soviet spies. Europe and much of the world were divided between the world’s two superpowers and their allies.
U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson along with the foreign ministers of Canada and 10 European nations gathered to sign the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4 1949 founding NATO.
Postwar Uncertainty
The postwar years were politically volatile ones all over the world, due to widespread decolonization. Britain, though allied with the United States during World War II, had been weakened by the conflict and could no longer dominate its remote colonies. The British Empire was shrinking drastically, and this made the Truman Doctrine all the more necessary. In 1947, an economically desperate Britain reluctantly granted India and Pakistan the independence their citizens had sought for years. Britain’s African colonies gained independence in the 1950s and early 1960s. The United States and the Soviet Union each struggled to win over the former British colonies to their own ideological side of the Cold War. (See the Who Was Responsible for Starting the Cold War? Point-Counterpoint and Winston Churchill, “Sinews of Peace,” March 1946 Primary Source.)
Israel came into existence on May 14, 1948, on land that had been a British-controlled mandate since the end of World War I. The Zionist movement, founded in the 1890s by Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodore Herzl, had encouraged European Jews to immigrate to Palestine. There, they would buy land, become farmers, and eventually create a Jewish state. Tens of thousands, indeed, had migrated there and prospered between 1900 and 1945. Widespread sympathy for the Jews, six million of whom had been exterminated in the Nazi Holocaust, prompted the new United Nations to authorize the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. From the very beginning, these two states were at war, with all the neighboring Arab states uniting to threaten Israel’s survival. President Truman supported Israel, however, and in the ensuing decades, most American politicians, and virtually all the American Jewish population, supported and strengthened it.
In 1949, a decades-long era of chaos, conquest, and revolution in China ended with the triumph of Mao Zedong, leader of a Communist army. Against him, America had backed Chiang Kai-Shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader, whose defeated forces fled to the offshore island of Taiwan. American anti-communist politicians in Washington, DC, pointed to the growing “red” (Communist) areas of the map as evidence that communism was winning the struggle for the world. Domestically, Truman and the Democrats endured charges that they had “lost” China to communism.
War in Korea
Korea, one of the many parts of Asia that Japan had conquered in the earlier twentieth century but then lost in 1945, was now partitioned into a pro-Communist North and an anti-Communist South. In June 1950, the Truman administration was taken by surprise when North Korea attacked the South, overpowering its army and forcing the survivors back into a small area of the country’s southeast, the Pusan perimeter. Truman and his advisors quickly concluded they should apply the containment principle to Asia and procured a resolution of support from the United Nations, which was unanimous because the Soviet representatives were not present in the Security Council during the vote. See the Truman Intervenes in Korea Decision Point.)
U.S. troops were sent to Korea shortly after Truman’s decision to apply containment to the region. Pictured is a U.S. gun crew near the Kum River in July 1950.
An American invasion force led by General Douglas MacArthur thus made a daring counterattack, landing at Inchon, near Seoul on the west coast of the Korean peninsula, on September 15, 1950. At once, this attack turned the tables in the war, forcing the North Koreans into retreat. Rather than simply restore the old boundary, however, MacArthur’s force advanced deep into North Korea, ultimately approaching the Chinese border. At this point, in October 1950, Mao Zedong sent tens of thousands of Chinese Communist soldiers into the conflict on the side of North Korea. They turned the tide of the war once again, forcing the American forces to fall back in disarray.
After a brutal winter of hard fighting in Korea, the front lines stabilized around the 38th parallel . MacArthur, already a hero of World War II in the Pacific, had burnished his reputation at Inchon. In April 1951, however, he crossed the line in civil-military relations that bars soldiers from dabbling in politics by publicly criticizing one of President Truman’s strategic decisions not to expand the war against the Chinese. MacArthur was so popular in America, he had come to think the rules no longer applied to him, but they did. Truman fired him with no hesitation, replacing him with the equally competent but less egotistical General Matthew Ridgway. The war dragged on in a stalemate. Only in 1953, after the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, was a truce declared between the two Koreas. It has held uneasily ever since. (See The Korean War and The Battle of Chosin Reservoir Narrative.)
Prosperity and the Baby Boom
The late 1940s and early 1950s were paradoxical. They were years of great geopolitical stress, danger, and upheaval, yet they were also a time of prosperity and opportunity for millions of ordinary American citizens. Far more babies were born each year than in the 1930s, resulting in the large “ baby boom ” generation. Millions of new houses were built to meet a need accumulated over the long years of the Great Depression and the war. Suburbs expanded around every city, creating far better and less-crowded living conditions than ever before. Levittown housing developments were just one example of the planned communities with mass-produced homes across the country that made homeownership within the reach of many, though mostly white families, thanks to cheap loans for returning veterans (See the Levittown Videos, 1947–1957 Primary Source). Wages and living standards increased, and more American consumers found they could afford their own homes, cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, and even television sets—TV was then a new and exciting technology. The entire nation breathed a sigh of relief on discovering that peace did not bring a return of depression-era conditions and widespread unemployment. (See The Sound of the Suburbs Lesson.)
Television became a staple in U.S. households during the 1940s and 1950s.
Full employment during the war years had strengthened trade unions, but for patriotic reasons, nearly all industrial workers had cooperated with their employers. Now that the war was over, a rash of strikes for better pay and working conditions broke out. In 1945, Truman expanded presidential power by seizing coal mines, arguing it was in the national interest because coal supplied electricity. He then forced the United Mine Workers to end their strike the following year.
Although coal miners won their demands, the power of organized labor waned over the next few decades. Republican members of Congress, whose party had triumphed in the 1946 mid-term elections, passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, aiming to curb the power of unions by banning the closed shop, allowing states to protect the right to work outside the union, setting regulations to limit labor strikes and excluding supporters of the Communist Party and other social radicals from their leadership. Truman vetoed the act, but Congress overrode the veto. In 1952, Truman attempted to again seize a key industry and forestall a strike among steelworkers. However, the Supreme Court decided in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) that Truman lacked the constitutional authority to seize private property, and steelworkers won significant concessions.
Watch this BRI AP U.S. History Exam Study Guide about the Post-WWII Boom: Transition to a Consumer Economy to explore the post-World War II economic boom in the United States and its impacts on society.
Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare
Fear of communism, not only abroad but at home, was one of the postwar era’s great obsessions. Ever since the Russian Revolution of 1917, a small and dedicated American Communist Party had aimed to overthrow capitalism and create a Communist America. Briefly popular during the crisis of the Great Depression and again when Stalin was an American ally in World War II, the party shrank during the early Cold War years. Rising politicians like the young California congressman Richard Nixon nevertheless discovered that anti-Communism was a useful issue for gaining visibility. Nixon helped win publicity for the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), whose hearings urged former communists to expose their old comrades in the name of national security, especially in government and Hollywood. In 1947, President Truman issued Executive Order No. 9835, establishing loyalty boards investigating the communist sympathies of 2.5 million federal employees. (See The Postwar Red Scare and the Cold War Spy Cases Narratives.)
The most unscrupulous anti-communist was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI), who used fear of communism as a powerful political issue during the early Cold War. He made reckless allegations that the government was riddled with communists and their sympathizers, even including Secretary of State George Marshall. Intimidating all critics by accusing them of being part of a great communist conspiracy, McCarthy finally overplayed his hand in publicly televised hearings by accusing the U.S. Army of knowingly harboring communists among its senior officers. The Senate censured him in December 1954, after which his influence evaporated, but for four years, he had been one of the most important figures in American political life. Although he was correct that the Soviets had spies in the U.S. government, McCarthy created a climate of fear and ruined the lives of innocent people for his own political gain during what became known as the “Second Red Scare.” (See the McCarthyism DBQ Lesson.)
Senator Joseph McCarthy (left) is pictured with his lawyer Roy Cohn during the 1950s McCarthy-Army clash.
Be sure to check out this BRI Homework Help video about The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy to learn more about Joseph McCarthy and his battle against communists in the U.S. government.
Several highly publicized spy cases commanded national attention. Klaus Fuchs and other scientists with detailed knowledge of the Manhattan Project were caught passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. In 1950, Alger Hiss was prosecuted for perjury before Congress and accused of sharing State Department documents with the Soviets. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried for espionage in 1951 and executed two years later. Julius was convicted of running a spy ring associated with selling atomic secrets to the Russians, though the case against Ethel’s direct involvement was thinner.
From Truman to Eisenhower
After the 1946 midterm election, in which Republicans won a majority in the House and the Senate, the Democratic President Truman struggled to advance his domestic program, called the Fair Deal in an echo of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. For instance, Truman was the first American president to propose a system of universal health care, but the Republican Congress voted it down because they opposed the cost and regulations associated with the government program and called it “socialized medicine.” Truman did succeed in other areas. He was able to encourage Congress to pass the Employment Act of 1946, committing the government to ensuring full employment. By executive order, he desegregated the American armed forces and commissioned a report on African American civil rights. He thus played an important role in helping advance the early growth of the civil rights movement.
Truman seemed certain to lose his re-election bid in 1948. The Republicans had an attractive candidate in Thomas Dewey, and Truman’s own Democratic Party was splintering three ways. Former Vice President Henry Wallace led a Progressive breakaway, advocating a less confrontational approach to the Cold War. Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina senator, led the southern “Dixiecrat” breakaway by opposing any breach in racial segregation. The Chicago Daily Tribune was so sure Dewey would win that it prematurely printed its front page with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.” One of the most famous photographs in the history of American journalism shows Truman, who had upset the pollsters by winning, holding a copy of this newspaper aloft and grinning broadly.
President Truman is pictured here holding the Chicago Daily Tribune with its inaccurate 1948 headline.
Four years later, exhausted by Korea and the fierce stresses of the early Cold War, Truman declined to run for another term. Both parties hoped to attract the popular Supreme Allied commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, to be their candidate. He accepted the Republicans’ invitation, defeated Adlai Stevenson in November 1952, and won against the same rival again in 1956.
Rather than roll back the New Deal, which had greatly increased the size and reach of the federal government since 1933, Eisenhower accepted most of it as a permanent part of the system, in line with his philosophy of “Modern Republicanism.” He worked with Congress to balance the budget but signed bills for the expansion of Social Security and unemployment benefits, a national highway system, federal aid to education, and the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In foreign policy, he recognized that for the foreseeable future, the Cold War was here to stay and that each side’s possession of nuclear weapons deterred an attack by the other. The two sides’ nuclear arsenals escalated during the 1950s, soon reaching a condition known as “ mutually assured destruction ,” which carried the ominous acronym MAD and would supposedly prevent a nuclear war.
At the same time, Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles supported the “New Look” foreign policy, which increased reliance on nuclear weapons rather than the more flexible but costly buildup of conventional armed forces. Despite the Cold War consensus about containment, Eisenhower did not send troops when the Vietnamese defeated the French in Vietnam; when mainland China bombed the Taiwanese islands of Quemoy and Matsu; when the British, French, and Egypt fought over the Suez Canal in 1956; or when the Soviets cracked down on Hungary. Instead, Eisenhower assumed financial responsibility for the French war effort in Vietnam and sent hundreds of military advisers there over the next several years. (See the Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 1961 Primary Source.)
Birth of the Civil Rights Movement
Encouraged by early signs of a change in national racial policy and by the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) , African American organizations intensified their efforts to challenge southern segregation. Martin Luther King Jr., then a spellbinding young preacher in Montgomery, Alabama, led a Montgomery bus boycott that began in December 1955. Inspired by the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a city bus, African Americans refused to ride Montgomery’s buses unless the company abandoned its policy of forcing them to ride at the back and to give up their seats to whites when the bus was crowded. After a year, the boycott succeeded. King went on to create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which practiced nonviolent resistance as a tactic, attracting press attention, embarrassing the agents of segregation, and promoting racial integration. (See the Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Narrative and the Rosa Parks’s Account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Radio Interview), April 1956 Primary Source.)
In 1957, Congress passed the first federal protection of civil rights since Reconstruction and empowered the federal government to protect black voting rights. However, the bill was watered down and did not lead to significant change. In August, black students tried to attend high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, but were blocked by National Guard troops. Over the next few weeks, angry crowds assembled and threatened these students. President Eisenhower decided to send in federal troops to protect the nine black students. In the postwar era, African Americans won some victories in the fight for equality, but many southern whites began a campaign of massive resistance to that goal.
Check out this BRI Homework Help video about Brown v. Board of Education to learn more about the details of the case.
Thus, the pace of school desegregation across the south remained very slow. White southerners in Congress promised massive resistance to the policy. When it came to the point, however, only one county, Prince Edward County, Virginia, actually closed down its public schools rather than permit them to be desegregated. Other districts, gradually and reluctantly, eventually undertook integration, but widespread discrimination persisted, especially in the South.
Mexican Americans, like African Americans, suffered from racial discrimination. Under the bracero program, inaugurated during the 1940s, Mexicans were permitted to enter the United States temporarily to work, mainly as farm laborers in the western states, but they too were treated by whites as second-class citizens. They were guest workers, and the program was not intended to put them on a path to U.S. citizenship. (See The Little Rock Nine Narrative.)
Pictured are Mexican workers waiting to gain legal employment and enter the United States as part of the “ bracero ” program begun in the 1940s.
The Space Race
The desegregation of schools was only one aspect of public concern about education in the 1950s. The Soviet Union launched an artificial orbiting satellite, “Sputnik,” in 1957 and ignited the “ Space Race .” Most Americans were horrified, understanding that a rocket able to carry a satellite into space could also carry a warhead to the United States. Congress reacted by passing the National Defense Education Act in August 1958, devoting $1 billion of federal funds to education in science, engineering, and technology in the hope of improving the nation’s scientific talent pool.
NASA had been created earlier that same year to coordinate programs related to rocketry and space travel. NASA managed to catch up with the Soviet space program in the ensuing years and later triumphed by placing the first person on the moon in 1969. Better space rockets meant better military missiles. NASA programs also stimulated useful technological discoveries in materials, navigation, and computers. (See the Sputnik and NASA Narrative and the Was Federal Spending on the Space Race Justified? Point-Counterpoint.)
Another major initiative, also defense related, of the Eisenhower years was the decision to build the interstate highway system. As a young officer just after World War I, Eisenhower had been part of an Army truck convoy that attempted to cross the United States. Terrible roads meant that the convoy took 62 days, with many breakdowns and 21 injuries to the soldiers, an experience Eisenhower never forgot. He had also been impressed by the high quality of Germany’s autobahns near the war’s end. A comprehensive national system across the United States would permit military convoys to move quickly and efficiently. Commerce, the trucking industry, and tourism would benefit too, a belief borne out over the next 35 years while the system was built; it was declared finished in 1992. See The National Highway Act Narrative and the Nam Paik, Electronic Superhighway , 1995 Primary Source.)
New Roles for Women
American women, especially in the large and growing middle class, were in a paradoxical situation in the 1950s. In one sense, they were the most materially privileged generation of women in world history, wealthier than any predecessors. More had gained college education than ever before, and millions were marrying young, raising their children with advice from Dr. Spock’s best-selling Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), and enjoying labor-saving domestic devices and modern conveniences like washing machines, toasters, and electric ovens. Affluence meant many middle-class women were driving cars of their own. This 1950s advertisement for Ford automobiles persuaded women to become a “two Ford family.” At the same time, however, some suffered various forms of depression and anxiety, seeking counseling, often medicating themselves, and feeling a lack of purpose in their lives.
This situation was noticed by Betty Friedan, a popular journalist in the 1950s whose book The Feminine Mystique , published in 1963, helped ignite the new feminist movement. Its principal claim was that in America in the 1950s, women lacked fulfilling careers of their own, and material abundance was no substitute. (See the Dr. Benjamin Spock and the Baby Boom Narrative.) A feminist movement emerged in the 1960s and 1970s seeking greater equality. In the postwar period, however, not all women shared the same experiences. Millions of working-class and poor women of all races continued to work in factories, retail, domestic, or offices as they had before and during the war. Whether married or single, these women generally did not share in the postwar affluence enjoyed by middle-class, mostly white, women who were in the vanguard of the feminist movement for equal rights for women.
By 1960, the United States was, without question, in a superior position to its great rival the Soviet Union—richer, stronger, healthier, better fed, much freer, and much more powerful. Nevertheless Eisenhower, in his farewell address, warned against the dangers of an overdeveloped “military-industrial complex,” in which American traditions of democracy, decentralization, and civilian control would be swallowed up by the demands of the defense industry and a large, governmental national security apparatus. He had no easy remedies to offer and remained acutely aware that the Cold War continued to threaten the future of the world.
Timeline of events in the postwar period from 1945 to 1960.
Additional Chapter Resources
- Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Nations Narrative
- The G.I. Bill Narrative
- Jackie Robinson Narrative
- The Murder of Emmett Till Narrative
- The Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate Narrative
- William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement Narrative
- Truman Fires General Douglas MacArthur Decision Point
- Eisenhower and the Suez Canal Crisis Point-Counterpoint
- Richard Nixon “Checkers” Speech September 1952 Primary Source
- Critics of Postwar Culture: Jack Kerouac On the Road (Excerpts) 1957 Primary Source
- Kennedy vs. Nixon: TV and Politics Lesson
Review Questions
1. The major deterrent to Soviet aggression in Europe immediately after World War II was
- that the Soviets lost 20 million people during the war
- the Truman Doctrine
- the United States’ possession of atomic power
- the presence of U.S. troops in western Europe after World War II was over
2. Why did the United States maintain large armed forces in Europe after World War II?
- To stop renewed German aggression
- To halt Soviet aggression despite the wartime alliance
- To help the British relinquish their empire
- To maintain high levels of employment at home
3. The memorandum NSC-68 authorized
- the formation of the CIA
- the creation of the Department of Defense
- increases in the size of U.S. military forces
- the formation of an independent air force
4. The United States’ first successful application of its policy of containment occurred in
- Prague Czechoslovakia
- Moscow U.S.S.R.
- Berlin Germany
- Bombay India
5. During the late 1940s the Truman Administration supported all the following countries except
- Republic of Korea
- People’s Republic of China
6. When North Korea invaded South Korea the Truman Administration resolved to apply which strategy?
- The Truman Doctrine
- Containment
- A plan similar to the Berlin Airlift
- The bracero program
7. Events in which European country led the United States to allow the re-arming of West Germany?
- East Germany
- Czechoslovakia
8. The Taft-Hartley Act was most likely passed as a result of
- fear of labor involvement in radical politics and activities
- concern that strong labor unions could rekindle a depression
- fear that labor would restrict the freedom of workers
- desire to make the labor strike illegal
9. Why was it reasonable to expect Truman to lose the presidential election of 1948?
- McCarthyism was creating widespread dislike of the Democratic Party.
- Truman had been unable to win the Korean War.
- The Democratic Party split into three rival branches including one dedicated to racial segregation.
- The Democrats had controlled Congress since 1933.
10. Why were many middle-class women dissatisfied with their lives in the 1950s?
- They were excluded from most career opportunities.
- The cost of living was too high.
- Fear of losing their traditional roles caused them constant anxiety.
- They opposed the early civil rights movement.
11. All the following were Cold War based initiatives by the Eisenhower Administration except
- the creation of NASA
- the National Defense Highway Act
- the National Defense Education Act
- the Taft-Hartley Act
12. Anti-communist crusader Senator Joseph McCarthy overplayed his advantage in the Red Scare when he
- claimed members of the president’s Cabinet were known communists
- charged Martin Luther King Jr. with being a communist
- asserted the U.S. Army knowingly protected known communists in its leadership
- hinted that President Eisenhower could be a communist
13. As a presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower recognized the significance of all the following except
- the success of some New Deal programs
- the Cold War’s impact on U.S. foreign policy
- racial integration
- mutually assured destruction (MAD)
14. Which of the following statements most accurately describes the United States’ foreign policy during 1945-1960?
- The United States distanced itself from the global free-market economy.
- The United States based its foreign policy on unilateral decision-making.
- The Cold War was based on military policy only.
- The United States formed military alliances in reaction to the Soviet Union’s aggression.
15. Betty Friedan gained prominence by
- supporting women’s traditional role at home
- promoting the child-rearing ideas of Dr. Benjamin Spock
- researching and writing about the unfulfilling domestic role of educated women
- encouraging more women to attend college
16. Before leaving the office of the presidency Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation of the danger of
- falling behind in the space race
- having fewer nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union
- allowing the growth of the military-industrial complex
- overlooking communists within the federal government
Free Response Questions
- Explain President Harry Truman’s reaction to the Taft-Hartley Act.
- Describe President Truman’s role in advancing civil rights.
- Describe Dwight D. Eisenhower’s reaction to the New Deal programs still in existence when he was elected president.
- Explain the main reason for the United States’ military participation in Korea.
AP Practice Questions
Political cartoon by Clifford Berryman regarding civil rights and the 1948 election.
1. The main topic of public debate at the time this political cartoon was published was the
- deployment of U.S. troops in Korea
- dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan
- integration of the U.S. military
2. Which of the following groups would most likely support the sentiments expressed in the political cartoon?
- Progressives who argued for prohibition
- William Lloyd Garrison and like-minded abolitionists
- Antebellum reformers in favor of free public education
- Members of the America First Committee
“It would be an unspeakable tragedy if these countries which have struggled so long against overwhelming odds should lose that victory for which they sacrificed so much. Collapse of free institutions and loss of independence would be disastrous not only for them but for the world. Discouragement and possibly failure would quickly be the lot of neighboring peoples striving to maintain their freedom and independence. Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East. We must take immediate and resolute action. I therefore ask the Congress to provide authority for assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400 0 000 for the period ending June 30 1948.”
President Harry S. Truman The Truman Doctrine Speech March 12 1947
3. President Truman’s speech was most likely intended to increase the public’s awareness of
- rising tensions over oil reserves in the Middle East
- the Cold War and the struggle against Communism in Europe
- the United States’ need for access to the Black Sea
- the need to rebuild Europe after World War II
4. The immediate outcome of the event described in the excerpt was that
- the United States unilaterally rebuilt Europe
- worldwide freedom of the seas was guaranteed for all nations
- the United States’ foreign policy of containment was successfully implemented
- Europe was not as vital to U.S. interests as initially believed
5. Based on the ideas in the excerpt which of the following observations of U.S. foreign policy in the post World War II years is true?
- The United States was making a major shift in foreign policy from its stance after World War I.
- More people opposed the idea of U.S. involvement in world affairs.
- A majority believed that U.S. foreign policy was being dictated by the United Nations.
- The United States needed to reassert the “Good Neighbor Policy” but with a focus on Europe.
“Women especially educated women such as you have a unique opportunity to influence us man and boy and to play a direct part in the unfolding drama of our free society. But I am told that nowadays the young wife or mother is short of time for the subtle arts that things are not what they used to be; that once immersed in the very pressing and particular problems of domesticity many women feel frustrated and far apart from the great issues and stirring debates for which their education has given them understanding and relish. . . . There is often a sense of contraction of closing horizons and lost opportunities. They had hoped to play their part in the crisis of the age. . . . The point is that . . . women “never had it so good” as you do. And in spite of the difficulties of domesticity you have a way to participate actively in the crisis in addition to keeping yourself and those about you straight on the difference between means and ends mind and spirit reason and emotion . . . In modern America the home is not the boundary of a woman’s life. . . . But even more important is the fact surely that what you have learned and can learn will fit you for the primary task of making homes and whole human beings in whom the rational values of freedom tolerance charity and free inquiry can take root.”
Adlai Stevenson “A Purpose for Modern Women” from his Commencement Address at Smith College 1955
6. Which of the following best mirrors the sentiments expressed by Adlai Stevenson in the provided excerpt?
- Women should be prepared to return to a more traditional role in society.
- The ideals espoused by Republican Motherhood should be upheld.
- The United States would not have won World War II if women had not worked in factories.
- Women had the opportunity to influence the next generation of citizens.
7. The reference that “many women feel frustrated and far apart from the great issues and stirring debates for which their education has given them understanding and relish” is a reference to the ideas espoused by
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Betty Friedan
- Dr. Benjamin Spock
Primary Sources
Eisenhower Dwight D. “Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation.” http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm
Eisenhower Dwight D. “Interstate Highway System.” Eisenhower proposes the interstate highway system to Congress. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-the-congress-regarding-national-highway-program
“‘Enemies from Within’: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Accusations of Disloyalty.” McCarthy’s speech in Wheeling West Virginia. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456
Friedan Betty. The Feminine Mystique . New York: W. W. Norton 1963.
Hamilton Shane and Sarah Phillips. Kitchen Debate and Cold War Consumer Politics: A Brief History with Documents . Boston: Bedford Books 2014.
Kennan George F. American Diplomacy . New York: Signet/Penguin Publishing 1952.
King Martin Luther Jr. “(1955) Martin Luther King Jr. ‘The Montgomery Bus Boycott.'” http://www.blackpast.org/1955-martin-luther-king-jr-montgomery-bus-boycott
King Martin Luther Jr. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story . New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers 1958.
MacLean Nancy. American Women’s Movement 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents . Boston: Bedford Books 2009.
Marshall George C. “The ‘Marshall Plan’ speech at Harvard University 5 June 1947.” http://www.oecd.org/general/themarshallplanspeechatharvarduniversity5june1947.htm
Martin Waldo E. Jr. Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents . Boston: Bedford Books 1998.
Schrecker Ellen W. The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents . Boston: Bedford Books 2016.
Story Ronald and Bruce Laurie. Rise of Conservatism in America 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books 2008.
Truman Harry. “A Report to the National Security Council – NSC 68 April 12 1950.” https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/report-national-security-council-nsc-68
Truman Harry. “The Fateful Hour (1947)” speech. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/harrystrumantrumandoctrine.html
Suggested Resources
Ambrose Stephen and Douglas Brinkley. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1938. Ninth ed. New York: Penguin 2010.
Branch Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 . New York: Simon and Schuster 1988.
Brands H.W. American Dreams: The United States Since 1945 . New York: Penguin 2010.
Brands H.W. The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War . New York: Anchor 2016.
Cadbury Deborah. Space Race: The Epic Battle Between American and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space. New York: Harper 2007.
Cohen Lizabeth A. A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America . New York: Vintage 2003.
Coontz Stephanie. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap . New York: Basic Books 2016.
Dallek Robert. Harry S. Truman . New York: Times Books 2008.
Diggins John Patrick. The Proud Decades: America in War and Peace 1941-1960 . New York: W. W. Norton 1989.
Fried Richard. Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective . Oxford: Oxford University Press 1991.
Gaddis John Lewis. The Cold War: A New History . New York: Penguin 2005.
Halberstam David. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. New York: Hyperion 2007.
Hitchcock William I. The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s. New York: Simon and Schuster 2018.
Johnson Paul. Eisenhower: A Life. New York: Penguin 2015.
Lewis Tom. Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways Transforming American Life. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press 2013.
May Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era . New York: Basic 2008.
McCullough David. Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster 1993.
Patterson James T. Grand Expectations: The United States 1945-1974. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996.
Whitfield Stephen J. The Culture of the Cold War. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press 1996.
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Birmingham, 1963: Three Witnesses to the Struggle for Civil Rights
Mary Bush, Freeman Hrabowski, and Condoleezza Rice grew up and were classmates together in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early ’60s. We reunited them for a conversation in Birmingham’s Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Rice’s father was pastor during that period.
Birmingham, 1963: Three Witnesses To The Struggle For Civil Rights
Mary Bush, Freeman Hrabowski, and Condoleezza Rice grew up and were classmates together in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, in the late 1950s and early ’60s. We reunited them for a conversation in Birmingham’s Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Rice’s father was pastor during that period. The three lifelong friends recount what life was like for Blacks in Jim Crow Alabama and the deep bonds that formed in the Black community at the time in order to support one another and to give the children a good education. They also recall the events they saw—and in some cases participated in—during the spring, summer, and fall of 1963, when Birmingham was racked with racial violence, witnessed marches and protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King, and was shocked by the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. The latter event resulted in the deaths of four little girls, whom all three knew. The show concludes with a visit to a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. erected in Kelly Ingram Park—where in 1963 Birmingham’s commissioner for public safety Bull Connor ordered that fire hoses and attack dogs be used on protestors. There, Condoleezza Rice discusses Dr. King’s legacy and his impact on her life.
To view the full transcript of this episode, read below:
Peter Robinson: In Birmingham, Alabama, 60 years ago, black students, some still in elementary school, marched for an end to segregation. They were met with police dogs, fire hoses, and handcuffs. Today, three people who can remember those events because they themselves were students right here in Birmingham. Businesswoman, Mary Bush, University President, Freeman Hrabowski, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On Uncommon Knowledge now.
- [George Corley Wallace] And so my friends, they did not die in vain. God still has a way of ringing good out of evil, and history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. ♪ Freedom ♪ ♪ Freedom ♪ ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪
Peter Robinson: Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge. I'm Peter Robinson. Mary Bush grew up in segregated Birmingham, then went on to a career in finance and business that saw her earn an MBA from the University of Chicago, work at Citibank in Chase Manhattan, serve in the Treasury Department during the Reagan administration, sit on the boards of companies, including Marriott and Texaco, and found Bush International, the consulting firm, which she now serves as President. Freeman Hrabowski III grew up right across the street from Mary Bush. He went on to a career in academia earning a doctorate in higher education, administration, and statistics from the University of Illinois. Beginning in 1992, Dr. Hrabowski served as President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, one of the 12 universities in the University of Maryland system. During his tenure, UMBC became the number one producer in the nation of African Americans who went on to complete STEM PhDs. Dr. Hrabowski stepped down as president of UMBC just last year. Condoleezza Rice grew up here in Birmingham, in the same neighborhood as Mary Bush and Freeman Hrabowski. She went on to earn a doctorate in international relations from the University of Denver. She then went on to a career at Stanford University that saw her rise to Provost and that she interrupted to serve during the administration of George W. Bush as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. Secretary Rice now serves as Director of the Hoover Institution, the Public Policy Center at Stanford. We're gathered in Birmingham today in the Westminster Presbyterian Church, where the pastor in the 1960s was the Reverend John Wesley Rice Jr., Condie's father. I've only been here a day and a half, but it seems to fall to me to welcome the three of you back to your hometown in Birmingham. The spring of 1963, April 3rd, a local civil rights organization, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, led by Birmingham's own Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth is joined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Southern Christian Leadership Conference in conducting sit-ins at downtown lunch counters. April 6th, Reverend Shuttlesworth leads a march on City Hall. More than 30 protesters are arrested. April 11, Dr. King is served with an injunction against boycotting, trespassing, or encouraging such acts. April 12th, Dr. King, Reverend Shuttlesworth, and others lead a march protesting the injunction. They're arrested. April 14th, Easter Sunday, a thousand protestors attempt to march on City Hall, police block their way arresting more than 30. April 19, the New York Post publishes excerpts of a document that Dr. King, using fragments of newspapers, has composed in what would soon become known as the Letter from Birmingham Jail. Dr. King writes, quote, "I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Anyone who lives in the United States can never be considered an outsider." May 2nd, young blacks begin leaving school to march. They walk in groups of 10 to 50 across Kelly Ingram Park, the City Square, intending to protest at City Hall just a few blocks away. They never reach City Hall. The Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor, orders his men to assault the students with fire hoses and police dogs. Many of the young people are injured. More than a thousand are arrested. May 10th, a settlement is reached under the terms of the Birmingham Truce, Dr. King, Reverend Shuttlesworth and other civil rights leaders agree to end the protests, Birmingham business leaders promise in turn that within 90 days they will desegregate businesses and public facilities. For the most part, they keep their word and official segregation in Birmingham, unofficial segregation would continue for a long time, but official segregation in Birmingham comes, for the most part, to an end. That's not by any means the means of the story. And we'll continue to what happened afterwards. But for now, let me ask you about those events. What is now referred to often as the Children's Crusade. You're the last generation who experienced the Old South and the Civil Rights Movement that rose against it. Mary Bush, you were only in your teens, but if I understand this correctly, you heard Dr. King speak.
Mary Bush: I did.
Peter Robinson: Tell us about what he was like, what it meant to this town when he came here.
Mary Bush: The time that I heard Dr. King speak was at my church, Sixth Avenue Baptist Church.
- [Martin Luther King] That the federal government not put a cent in this city unless it decides to face the realities of desegregation.
Mary Bush: The church was absolutely packed. My parents and I went, and it was really a momentous event because here was Martin Luther King who had become, well-known for his civil rights activities.
Peter Robinson: He was a famous figure coming to town.
Mary Bush: He was a famous figure coming to town. So it made a huge impression on me. One, to hear him speak and to talk about freedom. When the children's marches were organized, I very much wanted to participate. But I had a father who when he said something, he meant it. He said, no, you cannot go. However, I will tell you one other part of the story. As you probably know, my friend, Freeman Hrabowski, did participate. It's a very interesting story as to how he got to do it, which maybe he'll tell you. But he was arrested, and I came home from somewhere one day, and my father is in our front yard, and there are tears strolling down his face. And I said, Daddy, what's wrong? And he said, Freeman has been arrested. Well, you see, Freeman was like his child too.
Peter Robinson: Freeman lived across the street.
Mary Bush: He lived right across the street from me. So my father was in much distress because he didn't know what was going to happen to Freeman because this was a city that reacted to people trying to get their freedom in very violent ways.
Peter Robinson: So Freeman, Mary's father said, no, you're not marching.
Freeman Hrabowski: Right.
Peter Robinson: Did you get your parent's permission? Did you march in spite? Let me explain the question.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah.
Peter Robinson: It's easy, looking back on these events 60 years ago, to think that the black community rose as one. Well, you were united, but there were hard decisions to make every day.
Peter Robinson: There was violence all around this notion of children marching was not easy. Dr. King himself resisted it for a number of days before deciding it had to be done. So how did you and your family address that? You were how old at this stage?
Freeman Hrabowski: I was 12.
Peter Robinson: 12 years old.
Peter Robinson: You were still a child.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah. But I was in the ninth grade. I was about to go to the 10th grade. I had skipped a couple of grades. And I should tell you that most people saw Dr. King as a, certainly a hero, but he was also a troublemaker. He was gonna change things. People don't realize that, in that it was uncomfortable. People were worried, particularly people who were maybe buying houses. The word had gone around that, my goodness, banks could pull mortgages. Right. People were saying, we don't know what's gonna happen. It wasn't like everybody was saying, this is the right thing to do. When you look back on it, it seems like this was all a good idea. No, people were very confused about what to do and about sending children out. So it was n't a given that, oh, this is the right thing to do. They were proud of the idea, we are doing something. But no, we went home. I didn't want to go to church anyway. Who wants to go to church in the middle of the week? I was a rebellious kid. And they placated me by letting me take my math. I love math. Reverend Rice knew I love math. So I'm sitting in the back doing my math, and this man at the lectern says, if the children participate, they'll go to better schools. Now, we loved our teachers, but we always had been told the white schools were better. We wanted to see what that was all about. And I wanted to see if they were as smart as people said they were. 'Cause I knew I was smart, because to me, smart meant you could work hard. Right. And you could solve the math problems. So I'm doing my algebra, and this guy says this, and I look up and it, of course, it's Dr. King. And here's the point. I went home and I said, I want to go. And they said, what? Absolutely not.
Peter Robinson: Same reaction Mary got.
Freeman Hrabowski: Absolutely not. And I said to my parents, in typical Freeman form, you guys are hypocrites. You made me go, I listened and now you say no. And what will your parents say? Go to your room because you are not supposed to tell your parents they're hypocrites. Right. And so I was punished. They sent me to my room. The next morning they came in, they had not slept. They prayed all night. I knew I was in trouble. And they said to me, with real distress on their faces, it wasn't that we didn't trust you, we don't trust the people who will be over you, because if you march, you're going to jail. But we're gonna put you in God's hands. Now, my students say, doc, you must have been really brave. I was not a brave child. If a fight broke out at school, Freeman was running the other way. The only thing I'd ever attacked in my life was a math problem. You get that. Right? But I did want a better education. My teachers were wonderful. We did not have the resources. We didn't understand what great education might be. We didn't understand what it might be. But I did go, and it was a horrific experience. They treated us like slaves, like animals. Too many kids, stinky, not enough bathrooms.
Peter Robinson: This is in prison?
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah, in the jail.
Peter Robinson: So what was it like when you were marching?
Freeman Hrabowski: It was both inspiring and frightening.
Peter Robinson: These are hard questions to ask.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah. Yeah.
Peter Robinson: I don't know if you noticed this, but I'm white. That makes it very, very, very uncomfortable. But I keep thinking-
Freeman Hrabowski: And we in Birmingham, Alabama. Alright.
Peter Robinson: And here we are in Birmingham. But what was it like to have an encounter with a white person? What was it like not to be able to go to a certain store or during this event, to have an encounter with the police and you knew they were going to be against you just because you were black? Do you avoid them? Do you shrink from it? How does this work?
Freeman Hrabowski: It's interesting that Dr. King's-
Peter Robinson: It's gone now, but you remember.
Freeman Hrabowski: No, no. All the people. And the two things I would say, we are all from privilege in that we had these wonderful parents, working mothers and fathers and of faith. We were going to church all the time. Sixth Avenue Baptist, Westminster. And her father, Reverend Rice, our beloved Reverend Rice, Reverend Porter, dear friends, and Reverend Rice was our youth fellowship advisor, he was amazing, Presbyterian, who would come to Sixth Avenue. We would have these wonderful conversations about what it meant to be teenagers. Right. And talking about ideas in our Honor Society. He was an advisor to our Honor Society. Right. And he was an intellectual. And we would have these, so in our community, we could talk about ideas. And yet we, you tell me about you all, but I've never talked to anybody white.
Peter Robinson: You never did?
Condoleezza Rice: No. The only time I remember a white person was we went to visit Santa Claus.
Freeman Hrabowski: Oh yeah.
Condoleezza Rice: And I was five.
Condoleezza Rice: You would go down to Pissits or down to Lovemans to visit Santa Claus. And this particular Santa Claus was taking all the little black children and holding them out here. He was taking little white children and putting them on his knee. Now you knew my father. My father said to my mother, Angelina, if he does that to Condoleezza, I'm gonna pull all that stuff off of him and show him to be the cracker that he is. So there we're sitting there, I'm five, daddy, Santa Claus, daddy, Santa Claus. What a way to meet Santa Claus.
Freeman Hrabowski: That's Reverend Rice.
Condoleezza Rice: So I think somehow Santa Claus could see my father, who was six three and a football player. And when it came time, Santa Claus took me and he put me on his knee said, nice little girl. So that was the only, but to your question, is the only white person I'd ever seen.
Freeman Hrabowski: Context, yeah.
Condoleezza Rice: Yeah.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah, yeah.
Peter Robinson: Before we depart, we'll return to it in a moment. But before we depart from those events in 1963, your father, as we've heard, was a beloved figure.
Condoleezza Rice: Yes.
Peter Robinson: He was reverend in this church, the black community was, as I've looked, it's about a hundred thousand people. It strikes me that the pastors, the ministers must have known each other.
Condoleezza Rice: They did, yeah.
Peter Robinson: So your father knew Reverend Shuttlesworth.
Condoleezza Rice: They were good friends.
Peter Robinson: Good friends.
Condoleezza Rice: Yes. Yes.
Peter Robinson: And of course, you were a very little girl. But do you remember at the time these tensions, it's fascinating to me to think, once you think it, it seems obvious, but the assumption that there's this uprising of righteousness and peaceful, nonviolent protest. But, of course, it was more complicated than that. Dr. King was an outsider. This notion of putting children in harm's way. Do you remember your father talking about that at home?
Condoleezza Rice: I do remember my father talking about it. I was little. I'm a little younger than these two. And I remember a couple of things about it. I remember my father saying to my mother who was sitting, standing in our little hallway: Angelina, I'm not gonna go down there and pretend to be nonviolent, because if a policeman takes a billy club to me, I'm gonna try to kill him. And my daughter will be an orphan. Because my father actually didn't believe in the nonviolent part. Do you know who one of my father's great friends was? Stokely Carmichael.
Peter Robinson: Really?
Condoleezza Rice: Yes. He somehow found that more confrontational side, something that he admired. And so when the children's march came along, it was a lot like Mary and Freeman's parents. My father said, why would you send children into Bull Connor's henchman? Why would you do that? I wouldn't let my daughter go. And he was very much against the children's march. But when all his students were all carted off to jail, he came down and he walked around. He had good relationship with the police. They let him walk around and he would call parents and say, I saw your daughter. She's fine. I saw your son.
Peter Robinson: And repeat, more than a thousand kids.
Condoleezza Rice: Yeah, yeah.
Peter Robinson: Were jailed.
Condoleezza Rice: Yeah. Not too far from here. The jail was not too far from here.
Freeman Hrabowski: And he was wonderful. When I came back, just two, three parts of the story to show you.
Peter Robinson: Please, please.
Freeman Hrabowski: First of all, the reason they allowed me to go was that I challenged my mother. My mother had led a protest in 1948.
Freeman Hrabowski: For the equalization of teacher salaries and was fired for that. And she was always proud of that in another county. And one of her best friends was the mother of Angela Davis.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah. And my mother and Angela Davis' mother taught together over the years. And my mother taught Angela Davis and her sister, and my mother, and Angela Davis's mother taught me. And they had this great sisterhood about fighting for justice. Alright. And I reminded, I said, mother, you fought for justice. She said, but I was an adult. And I said, but you taught me to think. And they did allow me to go. It was amazing. About her father, when we did get back to school, he and George Bell gave me special attention to see how I was psychologically. And he said to me, remember, you are an A student. You are an A student. He wanted me to remember that. He wanted me to remember how to define myself. It was very important. Just as Mr. Bell, who was the uncle of Alma Vivian Powell, General Powell's wife.
Mary Bush: There's something else.
Condoleezza Rice: That's right, yeah.
Mary Bush: Something else you need to know about Dr. Bell. He was the principal of the Allemen High School, we mentioned earlier that Freeman and I both went to, Dr. Bell was an amazing man. He was very much about excellence. He would come to our classes, he would give the students extra problems to solve, but he was also a disciplinarian. So even the really big guys who might have a tendency to act out were coward by Dr. Bell because he has this-
Condoleezza Rice: He was a tiny guy.
Mary Bush: Booming voice. And he was a tiny man. But we loved him because he was all about hard work and excellence, and always striving to be the best you could be. So when my class was going into its senior year, Dr. Bell was about to retire, and we literally begged him not to retire. This shows you one, how close the principals, the ministers that we've talked about, the teachers were to the students. So it was our parents, who really pushed us about hard work, excellence, and the value of education. But it was also our teachers and our principals.
Condoleezza Rice: You have to be twice as good. Right?
Mary Bush: Twice as good. Twice as good.
Peter Robinson: So, I find this so striking that here you are in the Jim Crow South and you've got parents who are wonderful parents.
Mary Bush: Yes.
Peter Robinson: And schools that are good schools.
Condoleezza Rice: And good teachers.
Peter Robinson: And good teachers, dedicated. I mean, honestly, truly, I hear you describe the circumstances in which you grew up. And I wouldn't hesitate, would not, now my children are older now, but I'd have dropped my children.
Peter Robinson: In black Birmingham like that because of the education, the self-confidence.
Condoleezza Rice: But let me-
Peter Robinson: So what am I missing here?
Condoleezza Rice: Let me step back a little bit because I wanna say two things. First of all, about the principles. To be a principal in a school in Birmingham Was like being a God.
Mary Bush: Exactly.
Condoleezza Rice: We admire-
Peter Robinson: The revered position.
Condoleezza Rice: Revered position So Alma Powell's father, Mr. R.C. Johnson was the principal of Parker High, which was the largest black school. And her uncle was the principal of Alleman High, which was the second largest. When Mr. W.W. Whetstone, who was the principal of our elementary school, died. His funeral was like that for the Head of State, because teachers were revered, principals were revered. But there was a dark underbelly to that, which is that if you were an educated black person, you really only had a couple of good options. And teaching was the best option. And so it was a sense of a lack of opportunity for black professionals that led to the best and brightest going into teaching. In another time-
Peter Robinson: So that funeral, everybody understood this is a man who holds a position of importance to us, but he's also the best we have produced.
Condoleezza Rice: The best we have produced
Peter Robinson: The best of our community. I see.
Condoleezza Rice: And if you were a teacher, you were really highly regarded and in another generation or two, people would have other options. And some would take them.
Freeman Hrabowski: With few exceptions, who became physicians and lawyers.
Condoleezza Rice: The few, you had a couple of lawyers, a few businessmen.
Mary Bush: I call this the best minds. We got the best minds because just as Condie said the generation before us, our parents and teachers, they didn't have the other opportunities. The doors were not open. So they became teachers and we were the wonderful blessed recipients of that.
Peter Robinson: I see.
Freeman Hrabowski: But I want to go back because you talk about your children coming here, it depends on what background your children would've had. Because again, I wanna say this, we were so privileged, they gave us the piano lessons, and we had books in the house.
Condoleezza Rice: French lessons.
Freeman Hrabowski: And French lessons, all of that.
Mary Bush: The symphony.
Mary Bush: Which we couldn't go to, they did it at home.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah. We couldn't go into the museum, but my mother would get the pamphlets, and we would read stuff on the outside. And so my parents sent me to Massachusetts to get extra education and to see what it would be like to be in classes with white kids in the summers and I saw the difference between the Southern education and the education of New England. And I saw the superiority in Massachusetts, you see, in chemistry, in literature. And here's the point, clearly the money that they were putting into education in New England would make that education there far superior to any education in public schools for black or white in Alabama. And you see it in the standardized test scores for children in general. As I look at, as I study test scores, whatever level. Alright, number one. Number two, when you look beyond the well-educated families as we were from the working families. All right? When you look at poor children, white and black, here or in America, but in Alabama. And you see what happens to those children. Back then and today, the future is not bright. That's the challenge.
Condoleezza Rice: But Freeman, I wanna challenge you on one thing and agree with you on another, I'm not sure it was superior, right?
Peter Robinson: The New England education?
Condoleezza Rice: The New England education, because I'm not sure I could have turned out better if I'd gone to school in New England or that you could, or that Mary could. And I look at Amelia Rutledge and I look at Cheryl McCarthy.
Freeman Hrabowski: For the best, for the very best.
Condoleezza Rice: But we weren't actually elite. We were kind of professional class, middle-class. There was a more elite black community that lived over past Smithfield. All right.
Freeman Hrabowski: But I'm particularly looking at math and science.
Freeman Hrabowski: I'm looking at math and science. All right. I'm looking at chemistry, I'm looking at those areas and I'm looking at, for example, what was covered in chemistry in Massachusetts and what was covered here. And then I looked at what happened when I took some courses at the university here at the white university compared to there, it was superior, as a mathematician, I'm saying.
Condoleezza Rice: All that I'm saying is the resources may have been superior.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah. The resources.
Condoleezza Rice: I'm not sure that the instruction was. And I am gonna tell you why, because I then went to Denver and I went to one of the best high schools in Denver, St. Mary's Academy. When we arrived in Denver, I went to St. Mary's Academy 'cause my parents who were educators said the Denver Public schools are not as good as the schools that you went to in Birmingham.
Freeman Hrabowski: Well, let's say this.
Condoleezza Rice: So they made that choice.
Freeman Hrabowski: I love the fact that we can disagree like that.
Freeman Hrabowski: Because we also disagree on philosophies of other things. And that lemme just say that, listen, let's go there too. Let's go there too. And I always say middle-class Birmingham may love each other in many ways, but politically and stuff, we have some differences here. We have agreed to disagree.
Condoleezza Rice: But I wanna-
Freeman Hrabowski: But lemme tell you my part as mathematician, standardized test scores. All you need to do is look at standardized test scores in Massachusetts compared to Alabama.
Freeman Hrabowski: And my point is made QED.
Freeman Hrabowski: Mathematically, right.
Condoleezza Rice: No, well, I don't know about standardized test scores. I know where you ended up. But let me go back to a point, the place where I agree, but I wanna extend the story.
Freeman Hrabowski: Go ahead.
Condoleezza Rice: All right. So it is absolutely true that if you were poor.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Condoleezza Rice: In the communities here where Mary, and Freeman, and others of our friends grew up, faith, family, education.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yes, yes, yes.
Condoleezza Rice: Faith was first, family was, and we had two-parent families.
Freeman Hrabowski: That's true.
Condoleezza Rice: That cared. And then education. Right behind this church there was a government project, as they called it in those days, called Loveman's Village. And those kids were poor.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yes.
Condoleezza Rice: But my parents were determined that those kids were gonna get some of what they were able to give me.
Condoleezza Rice: And so my father, when he would have, there was a dentist who came here on Tuesday nights to do dentistry.
Freeman Hrabowski: To the church?
Condoleezza Rice: To the church. Those kids got to come. When he had math, algebra tutoring, and French, those kids got to come.
Freeman Hrabowski: And Sixth Avenue had some of those children.
Condoleezza Rice: And Sixth Avenue had those. And so I don't wanna give the impression that we just sat on our privilege.
Freeman Hrabowski: That's right. That's right.
Condoleezza Rice: Our parents were determined that that privilege was going to be extended to those who might not otherwise have had it.
Peter Robinson: I'd like to return to the events of spring and autumn of 1963. But I wanna go back to this notion of what deprivation you felt. You said that Santa held black children out here.
Peter Robinson: That's something everybody can get.
Peter Robinson: You said your parents had to send you to New England to see-
Freeman Hrabowski: And they were geniuses. I wanna say something that they wouldn't say. Okay. Both of these young women, and I say this based on my own education, they're geniuses.
Peter Robinson: These two ladies?
Yeah, they both are geniuses.
Condoleezza Rice: No, we're not.
Freeman Hrabowski: They're just that damn good.
Condoleezza Rice: Pretty good.
Freeman Hrabowski: Excuse the expression. No, no, no. She's playing it down. I mean, of course, they went ahead, they had a good, solid education. But they're geniuses. They are.
Peter Robinson: In what way? I mean, I'm conscious that the year 1963 began in this state with the inauguration of George Corley Wallace. And he said, January, 1963.
- Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.
Freeman Hrabowski: I will never forget looking at that man's face when he told me I couldn't go to the University of Alabama. I was sitting in front of the TV crying. And you know what my mother said to me, you don't have time to be a victim.
Condoleezza Rice: That's right.
Peter Robinson: Wow.
Freeman Hrabowski: She said, get the knowledge. When I was in Massachusetts, I called my parents and I said, they don't like me. Because all of them are talking about the quality of the education, nobody would speak to me there either. They wouldn't speak to me, the children wouldn't speak to me. The teachers wouldn't speak to me. I'd raise my hand when nobody else was raising them because I was getting an answer. I was 13 and they were 16. Alright. I'd raise my hand. Yeah, I was precocious. And I didn't have the answer. They'd look right through me. It was my first time understanding what Ellison meant by the "Invisible Man". And I would be so hurt. I'd be raising my little fat hand trying to get 'em to call on me. They would not call on me. I called my mom and dad and I said, they don't like me. And she said, how many more black kids are in the class? I said, none. She said, how many people you think from Birmingham are there getting that education? I said, none. She said, you know, I love you, right? I said, yeah. She said, have a seat, I sat down, she said, son, suck it up. She said, suck it up, because you know what? The world is not there.
Mary Bush: Let's talk about deprivation.
Peter Robinson: How did you experience it in your life? How did you experience the deprivation?
Mary Bush: Deprivation?
Peter Robinson: Deprivation, yes.
Mary Bush: Well, okay. I couldn't drink water from a white water fountain, but there was a black water fountain. And I'll tell you a funny story. One of our other friends, Otto Stallworth, said that he was downtown one day with his mom and he sort of ran away from her while she was buying something, and he drank out of the white water fountain. And he ran back to her and said, mommy, mommy, their water tastes just like ours. Okay. So deprivation was not being able to go to a restaurant other than the one black-owned restaurant, or a hotel, other than the one black-owned hotel.
Condoleezza Rice: At the estel.
Mary Bush: Yeah. Or to Kiddie Land Park. But what I found out years later, after we could finally go to Kiddie Land Park, when I was adult, I said, oh, I gotta see it. It was horrible. It was dirty. It was just unbelievable. So we were not really deprived except for things that Freeman is talking about. Like going to some of the schools that we might have wanted to in Alabama. So our parents made up for what would have been deprivation. We could only go to the symphony downtown one day a year. We could not-
Peter Robinson: Blacks were allowed one day a year?
Mary Bush: Blacks were allowed one day a year. We could not go to the Birmingham Public Library downtown. We could only go to the community one, which is a few blocks from here. However, our parents made sure that we had exposure to the symphony, to classical music. Condie's mother and grandmother.
Mary Bush: Taught her classical piano.
Condoleezza Rice: Exactly.
Mary Bush: And some of my other friends, they were taught ballet. So they made it up for it. They made sure that we read broadly and widely. I read so much, Freeman loves to tell this story, almost burned our house down once.
Freeman Hrabowski: We did, we did, flashlight or something under the cover.
Peter Robinson: Oh, yeah.
Mary Bush: Naked lamp bulb. Because I didn't wanna stop reading and after that-
Freeman Hrabowski: We were reading broadly, we were doing that for the privileged kids.
Condoleezza Rice: No. And Freeman, I have to keep challenging you on the privileged kids.
Freeman Hrabowski: All these children at our schools, unfortunately.
Condoleezza Rice: Our parents were, I doubt my parents ever in their lifetime, made more than $80,000 together.
Freeman Hrabowski: But relative to the other blacks on our community, we were privileged.
Condoleezza Rice: No, no. But let's stick with this.
Condoleezza Rice: Because to say we were privileged, I think is to underestimate what our parents achieved.
Mary Bush: That's right.
Condoleezza Rice: Right.
Freeman Hrabowski: Oh, I see differently you,
Condoleezza Rice: When you think about what Mary said.
Freeman Hrabowski: Relative to other people.
Condoleezza Rice: We have a friend, Deborah Cheatham, who said that she wanted to go to Kiddie Land. And her parents said, you don't wanna go to Kiddie Land, we're going to Disneyland.
Mary Bush: All right, yes.
Condoleezza Rice: So they found ways.
Condoleezza Rice: But when I think of privilege, I think of it was almost ordained.
Condoleezza Rice: And I don't think you can say, my parents worked. My mother was a teacher. My father was a teacher, football coach, minister.
Condoleezza Rice: He had more jobs than, we talked about Denise McNair's father.
Condoleezza Rice: He was the milkman, the mailman, the photographer, and he taught.
Condoleezza Rice: So they did everything to give us opportunity.
Freeman Hrabowski: Absolutely.
Condoleezza Rice: And I think they worked hard to make sure that other kids could.
Freeman Hrabowski: My parents worked six jobs.
Mary Bush: Yeah.
Freeman Hrabowski: Six.
Peter Robinson: Name 'em.
Mary Bush: My father worked three jobs.
Freeman Hrabowski: My father left, my father had a college degree. He left it to become a steel, working on steel, because he could make more money working in a steel factory and doing the reading and writing for his white supervisor. Who was illiterate? Alright. He worked at the railroad station and doing the same thing for the white folks. And then he worked at the funeral home on the weekend. My mother worked, a math and english teacher, but then she did GED in the evening.
Peter Robinson: She tutored kids?
Freeman Hrabowski: No, no. She taught people to get the GED. And then she sold insurance to give me the best.
Peter Robinson: You had multiple jobs?
Mary Bush: My father worked three jobs. My parents were not educators like Condie's and Freeman's, but they were passionate about education. And to a large extent, they were self-educated. They grew up in a small farm town about 90 miles from Birmingham. And, the black high school went to the 10th grade, whereas the white high school went to the 12th grade. So my mother got a 10th-grade education. My father, unfortunately, had to stop school when he was 13 years old because his father died. And he was the only boy who could work the farm. And that hurt him all of his life because he passionately loved education. However, he read everything he could get his hands on, newspapers, books. He was the center of conversation at dinner parties my parents would give. I can remember him talking about things in the international world, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, what Khrushchev was doing, what was happening in Asia. And I think that's where I got my love of international things. It started there. So they both really educated themselves.
Peter Robinson: Let's go back to the late spring and the early autumn of 1963. Another timeline here. We ended the timeline a moment ago with the truce. Now here's what happens. Official Birmingham, the business leaders in Birmingham promised to desegregate and they begin to do so. But they can't control all of Birmingham and the white racists continue a fight. May 11th, the bombing at the Gaston Hotel. You mentioned Mr. Gaston. He was the black businessman who owned the one hotel in town.
Freeman Hrabowski: Now we'd agree, he was privileged. He was privileged.
Condoleezza Rice: No, he was rich.
Freeman Hrabowski: He was our millionaire.
Peter Robinson: Alright.
Peter Robinson: So there's a May 11th, a bombing at the Gaston Motel. May 12th, President Kennedy sends troops to bases near Birmingham, intending to use them to restore order, if necessary. May 20th. The Birmingham Board of Education orders the expulsion from school of the more than 1000 black students who had been arrested in the protests. Two days later, a federal judge reverses the expulsion, ordering the schools to admit those students. July 23rd, summer, schools out, the Birmingham Council votes unanimously to repeal all of Birmingham segregation laws. In August and early September, a series of bombings take place. Among these incidents, there are too many for me to list, two bombings at the home of Arthur Shores, a black civil rights lawyer, firebombs thrown into the home of Mr. Gaston, A.G. Gaston once again. September 9th, Alabama Governor George Wallace turns black students away from state universities, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham. September 10th, the day afterwards, President Kennedy federalizes the Alabama National Guard, ordering Secretary of Defense McNamara, to enforce the integration of Alabama schools. And this brings us to the Sunday morning of September 15th, when the 16th Street Baptist Church is bombed and four girls are killed. Three were 14 and one was just 11. You remember that morning?
Condoleezza Rice: I remember that. I was right here in this church because my father was the pastor. My mother was the Minister of Music. And so we were here early. And it, of course, no cell phones. But word started to spread. You could feel the church shutter because it's not that far.
Peter Robinson: You felt the explosion?
Condoleezza Rice: You felt the explosion.
Mary Bush: Oh, yes.
Condoleezza Rice: And down at Sixth Avenue, I'm sure you did too. You could feel it.
Peter Robinson: You were in church that morning as well?
Freeman Hrabowski: We all were.
Peter Robinson: I was not. That was one of the few Sundays we did not go to church. But I felt it at my home.
Freeman Hrabowski: We all felt it.
Condoleezza Rice: We all felt it. And you knew what it was because there'd been so many bombings. And then word started to spread. It had been at 16th Street Baptist Church. There were four little girls. They were in the basement in the bathroom. And then the names started to come out. And everybody knew at least one of those little girls. Denise McNair, who had been in this church kindergarten. I have a picture of my father giving her her kindergarten certificate. My uncle taught Addie Mae Collins. And he said that Monday morning when he woke up and went to school, her chair was empty and he just broke down and cried. Cynthia Wesley. I mean, everybody knew these little girls.
Mary Bush: Yeah. Yeah. That's a day I will never forget. It brings me almost to tears now. Because these four little girls would also have been stars.
Condoleezza Rice: Yes, they would have.
Mary Bush: Denise McNair was the daughter of one of my elementary school teachers. So she was the youngest, so not in my age group, but she always came to her mother's classroom after her classes. So I knew her very well. Cynthia Wesley had just been at my birthday party a few months before. So this was unthinkable, unimaginable. And it just tears at me to this day. It really does.
Peter Robinson: But again, difficult questions here. You've been thinking about this all your lives. So difficult questions for me. But what was the effect? Was there any thought that it had gone too far? That maybe it all had pushed the white community too far too fast? That criticism of Dr. King had been validated? No such thought ever entered? No.
Condoleezza Rice: I think if anything, this one did reinforce the sense that these were awful people.
Peter Robinson: Who had to be stood up to.
Condoleezza Rice: Who had to be stood up to. And I just remember being for the first time, really scared because my parents, I thought, could deal with anything. I never worried that I was gonna, but that night I asked if I could sleep in their bed.
Peter Robinson: Oh, did you?
Condoleezza Rice: I did. That night.
Freeman Hrabowski: This is the difference in ages.
Condoleezza Rice: Because I was a little girl.
Freeman Hrabowski: She was a little girl.
Freeman Hrabowski: Remember I was in 10th grade. We were in high school, two people said to those of us who had gone to jail, if y'all hadn't done this, those girls would still be alive.
Condoleezza Rice: Really? I never heard that.
Peter Robinson: So they did say that?
Freeman Hrabowski: Oh, yes.
Mary Bush: Never heard that.
Condoleezza Rice: Never heard that.
Freeman Hrabowski: They told King that. That they told those of us who had gone to jail. If y'all hadn't done this, if Dr. King hadn't come here, things would be better.
Condoleezza Rice: Where was that coming from, Freeman?
Freeman Hrabowski: From blacks.
Condoleezza Rice: Yeah. But I mean, who?
Freeman Hrabowski: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It was very clear. It was very clear. Very clear. And Dr. King felt that when he took courage, when he came and had to look into the faces of those mothers.
Mary Bush: At the funeral.
Freeman Hrabowski: At the funeral. And I was chosen to represent Alleman and I came-
Peter Robinson: Alleman High School.
Freeman Hrabowski: Alleman High School. And my parents had said I could come to the funeral. And Dr. Bell saw me and he said, come here son. And I didn't have an appropriate tie. And at that time he was supposed to wear a dark tie. And I just put on a tie and he took off his tie. He had a black tie, and he tied the tie on me. It was so special. And he said, you're representing all of us. And he said, just remember, you're representing all of us and we are proud of you. It was so special. Really was. But this is the point. Dr. King and I looked in his face. I was sitting up on the balcony looking right at him. And he said, when he was looking into the faces of those mothers, and I'll never forget the three coffins with little Denise's, little coffin in the middle. I'd never seen multiple small coffins.
Condoleezza Rice: So small.
Freeman Hrabowski: This small coffin. There was only three. One mother refused to allow her daughter.
Peter Robinson: Oh, she did?
Freeman Hrabowski: Yeah. It was only three coffins. But the baby, Denise, they left in the middle and he said, life is as hard as steel as he looked into those faces.
- [Martin Luther King] Life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel, it has its bleak and difficult moments. If one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him. And that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace. And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents. And no greater epitaph can come to them as children than where they died and what they were doing when they died, they died between the sacred walls of the church of God. And they were discussing the eternal meaning of love.
Freeman Hrabowski: And he was just, what do you say to those mothers when you know what people are telling them that it's your fault. I'll never forget that feeling. The other thing though, that I've talked about before, it was the first time in my church, in our church, I had seen white people. On the right-hand side, men of all faiths, rabbis, Muslims, priests. And it was the first time I'd seen white men crying.
Mary Bush: I think as heinous an event as this was, I think it's one of the things that really started changing minds and the hearts in America, in Birmingham and in America.
Condoleezza Rice: The whole country.
Freeman Hrabowski: I didn't know white men could cry about black girls being killed. They had never thought about that.
Peter Robinson: So that event to some component of the white community in Birmingham, that event, they said, this has to stop.
Freeman Hrabowski: Not just in Birmingham, but in the country.
Condoleezza Rice: I also think that, you mentioned the truce and what was happening in black businesses, and I'm gonna say something fairly controversial. For a lot of the white community, segregation had become just a pain.
Condoleezza Rice: You know, it was just an inconvenience in some ways.
Condoleezza Rice: And so I remember my dad was highly regarded by a man named Clay Sheffield, who was the head of counseling, guidance counseling for the whole city. And my father was kind of his protege in some ways. And my mother got a very bad infection, bronchitis. And so she kept trying doctors and nothing was working. And so my father mentioned this to Mr. Sheffield and he said, I want you to take her to this doctor, Dr. Carmichael. And so we went and the black, this was probably 1961 or '62 maybe. And the waiting room for the blacks was next to the pharmacy and the paint was peeling and you had to go up the backstairs. And Dr. Carmichael saw my mother, and then he said to my father, Reverend Rice, Angelina needs to come every week to see me, but why don't you come after five? And then after five we could sit in the regular waiting room. And so you could see that, we forget there were people of conscience who were white. And so I do think this was catalyzing, but even before then, beginning to think, my father had a very close relationship with the pastor of Shades Valley Presbyterian Church, which is over in Mountain Brook. And they would exchange youth fellowships and so forth.
Peter Robinson: Mountain Brook, the white enclave, the wealthy white.
Condoleezza Rice: Wealthy white enclave. But when '63 happened, they had to stop because it was so violent. But there were things going on underneath. And we should acknowledge this.
Mary Bush: This is a very, very good point. My father's three jobs. He was a steelworker. And he would go there from seven to three. He would come home, have dinner, get a little rest, and then he would go to his two other jobs, which were to clean two buildings. He was the janitor for Liberty National Insurance Company and for the US Steel Credit Union. So I tell everybody, I got my start in finance very early because my brother and I, sometimes on a Friday evening or sometimes even during the week, we would go with him and my mother. 'Cause she would help him sometimes. And we would do our homework while they were finishing up the work. Sometimes there were, and it was of course, all whites who staffed both organizations. And the ones who were still there were just so very kind to my brother and me, to a person. And whenever they had parties, they would leave little treats for us. So there were people of good conscience, and people who really cared about what was going on, and didn't agree with what was going on.
Peter Robinson: Two final questions, if I may. And here's the first one. Here we sit six decades later. Six decades later, your own lives have turned out pretty darn well. An amazing career in finance and business, the presidency of a major institution, Secretary of State. When you return to this town, do you feel, looking back on those events that they had to happen, that it was right, and that the events of 1963 represent a victory? Or when you look at this town today, where there's just no racial tension, at least that I've experienced, do you say, well, it was inevitable, this somehow or other segregation had to end. Maybe that wasn't necessary. Maybe it would all just washed itself out in time.
Freeman Hrabowski: So let me say something that's controversial. People think of Condie as the Secretary of State. I see her still as this amazing force who still to me was a little girl walking with her father with a book. Because when she left Birmingham, she was only maybe 11 or so, 1965. So when we still have this argument, she was privileged, alright, in this, I don't care what she says, she was privileged.
Peter Robinson: He's not gonna let that one.
Freeman Hrabowski: Lemme say why, because our church and 16th Street were privileged churches. This was a privileged church, a Presbyterian church, a black Presbyterian church is a church of privilege. Now compared to whites, it's a different word. But in the black community, usually, you're gonna have a larger percentage of educated people. In the sixties, only 3% of blacks had a college degree. Let's think that way, and you'd have more blacks. Oh, who could play classical piano? So in that sense, alright, now why do I say that? So, we were challenged in the sense that there were segregation. We couldn't go to places. Alright? Today, educated people have done well in America and in Alabama, in Birmingham, the Head of Medicine for the University of Alabama, quite frankly, an African American, a mentee of mine, who recently moved to New York to a big position. It's a big deal. Big deal. At the same time, at the same time in this state, you still have major challenges. While you may have a black who is the mayor, alright? And you have some blacks at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, you've got the same challenges that you have in other cities that the vast majority of black children still cannot read well. And you still have the segregation. So yes, we needed the sixties. And what it showed was that even in the most privileged of churches like 16th Street, where you did have a number of educated people.
Peter Robinson: Are you proud of going to jail?
Freeman Hrabowski: I'm very proud. I'm very proud to have been.
Mary Bush: Should be.
Peter Robinson: Are you proud of him for it?
Mary Bush: Oh, absolutely.
Mary Bush: Absolutely.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yes. Yes, yes.
Condoleezza Rice: Of course. But I wanna come back to what we should celebrate and what we shouldn't.
Freeman Hrabowski: Yes. Good, good.
Condoleezza Rice: So I won't use the word privilege, I still don't like that word. But were we in a position to succeed?
Freeman Hrabowski: Good.
Condoleezza Rice: Yes. I'm not even the first PhD in my family, my father's sister has a PhD in Victorian literature, all right.
Freeman Hrabowski: You make QED, QED, QED.
Condoleezza Rice: Yeah, right. Not even the first PhD. So were we in that sense, were we given a head start? Absolutely.
Condoleezza Rice: But that head start came from Mary's parents who were, your father who had to drop out at 13.
Mary Bush: Labor.
Condoleezza Rice: So in that sense, the head start, the privilege, if you will, came from an attitude about what ought to be our lives, and our prospects, and our horizons. It was almost like Bull Connor is not gonna own our children.
Mary Bush: Right.
Condoleezza Rice: And so that was the privilege, that we had people who believe that.
Freeman Hrabowski: I get it.
Condoleezza Rice: It is still the case that there are people who are trapped in the witche’s brew that is race and poverty.
Condoleezza Rice: If you are black and educated and doing well, yes, there are still some awful things. You know the young man, Aubrey, who was running and was shot, it happens. But for the most part, you can make a great life in America. And now you can go to a restaurant and now you can go to the University of Alabama. And if you wanna take your Kiddie Land, they'd be happy to have you. So that constraint, that ugliness is gone. But we have to remember that we can't celebrate as a country when so many people are left behind.
Freeman Hrabowski: That's right.
Condoleezza Rice: And now not all of them are black.
Freeman Hrabowski: No.
Condoleezza Rice: If you live in the rural South your prospects are not very good.
Condoleezza Rice: And so people like us, what our parents taught us, what our teachers taught us is not to just enjoy your privilege, that you have to extend to others. You have to care about others. What Freeman has done as an educator is really remarkable because your students didn't all come from privilege.
Freeman Hrabowski: That's right. That's right. And they're not all black, black and white.
Condoleezza Rice: Yes. And so to be able to extend that hand of, all right, I need to pull you up too.
Condoleezza Rice: That's what we need to do because we should celebrate what Birmingham produced in us and in others. But Birmingham's got a lot more work to do. And so does every city in this country.
Peter Robinson: Last question, again, I'm taking you back to the events of the spring of 1963. Students listening, well, let's put it this way, Freshmen at your institution at Stanford were born four decades after these events, four decades ago. They stand farther from the events of 1963 than you stood from the First World War when those events were taking place. This is old history to them. Can you give me a sentence? I mean, really compress it. What do they need to grasp? What do they need to hold on?
Mary Bush: What they need to grasp is that a lot of life is about attitude and belief. Now I know as Freeman and Condie have beautifully pointed out here, that there are many people, many young people, many children who live in such circumstances that it's hard to take on that attitude and belief. But it's made harder by either parents or society or whoever tells them that they are limited in what they can do and what they can be. We were told, despite the circumstances here in Birmingham, that we could do and be anything that we wanted, our parents believed that, they had that vision. Our teachers believed it. They said, we knew change was coming and that we had to have you in a state of readiness. That's what one of my teachers said to me. And that is the message that we all need to carry to children today. To parents, particularly those who live in circumstances that are very, very challenging. I chair an organization in Washington where our kids come from the poorest areas. There's a lot of violence in their neighborhoods. But we get them mentors, people who can help them see that there are opportunities and that they can be those things as well. That's part of the purpose that we serve.
Condoleezza Rice: Yeah. I would say that there are two messages depending on where you sit. So if you sit in a position where you have been fortunate enough to be able to really take advantage of what America is, then by all means, go and help somebody who has less. Because the thing that sometimes really gets on my nerves about young people, and that means I'm getting older, is that sense that, oh, woe is me. Oh, things are, if you go and help somebody who has less than you have, you will never again ask, why do I have so little? You'll say, why do I have so much?
Condoleezza Rice: And so if you're in that position, then I don't care what you do, volunteer to go help a kid, work at the Boys and Girls Club, do something to help others. If you are that young person, and I work with Boys and Girls Clubs and I see them, the kid living in a car where the parents are totally dysfunctional. But you can still make it. There are still ways up and out. You have to work very, very hard. But to Mary's mentoring point, there has to be an advocate for that child. It has to come from someplace. But I just feel so badly when kids will sometimes say to me, 75% of the people in my neighborhood never finished school. And they think of themselves as a statistic. And I say, be in the 25% that does. Be in that statistic.
Peter Robinson: A 19-year-old student of yours says, you went to prison, what was that all about?
Peter Robinson: How do you answer that?
Freeman Hrabowski: I say that I hear so many elected officials today talking about moral clarity. Now, here's my moral clarity that I talked about when I was 12. We must speak truth to power and I believe in our country. And so the first thing I'm gonna say to young people is that we must vote. And I'm not gonna tell you the whom to vote for, but I am gonna say this, vote for people who tell the truth.
Mary Bush: Thank you.
Freeman Hrabowski: Vote for people who care about children. Okay. Vote for people who care about poor people. Right. Who wants a country who doesn't wanna see poor people at the bottom killing each other. That we can be better than this as a country, where poor people are dying every day. That's what we have to be. We can be so much better as a country. We are better than this, as a country.
Condoleezza Rice: We're better than this. And Birmingham, I think, shows that we can be better than this because despite its long, and difficult, and tortured history, it did produce some of us.
Freeman Hrabowski: Some of us. Yeah.
Condoleezza Rice: And oh, by the way, it is a different place than it was. When I would travel around the world as Secretary and people would say, how can you speak for America? Your country was slave-owning. You grew up in segregated Birmingham. And I would say, since when did people tell you that democracy was ever a finished product? And in fact, that is the one lesson that Birmingham shows.
Peter Robinson: Condoleezza Rice, Freeman Hrabowski, Mary Bush, thank you.
Condoleezza Rice: Thank you.
Mary Bush: Thank you, Peter.
Peter Robinson: For Uncommon Knowledge, filming today at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm Peter Robinson. Thank you for joining us.
Peter Robinson: What a beautiful sunny day.
Condoleezza Rice: Isn't it gorgeous? We got very fortunate about that.
Peter Robinson: Yeah. Did you see Dr. King at all?
Condoleezza Rice: I did. I saw one of his speeches. I saw him leading and marching close to our neighborhood. I never met him. I've met his children and I knew Coretta Scott King, but yeah, I remember him well.
Peter Robinson: Condie, I have to say, prepping for our visit here today.
Peter Robinson: I read and re-read the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Condoleezza Rice: Birmingham Jail. Yes. Yes.
Peter Robinson: This document, all that he was doing comes out of his notion of the church.
Condoleezza Rice: And children of God
Peter Robinson: And children of God.
Condoleezza Rice: If you are a child of God, then how could you treat other children of God this way? He also, we've tended what happens with a figure like Dr. King is that over time people put on him whatever their thoughts are, and their beliefs, and their ideology. And we have to keep going back to the essence of who he was. He believed in this country, actually.
Peter Robinson: Yes.
Condoleezza Rice: He believed this country could redeem itself.
Condoleezza Rice: He believed in a colorblind content of your character. And yet sometimes he's used to talk about other ways of thinking about race and so, and he would have a long legacy actually beyond the Civil Rights legacy because he would get concerned about human rights across the world, and the treatment of workers, and the like. But the essence of what he did here was to try to make America be what it said it was.
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Dr. King’s Birmingham Jail Letter: a Timeless Call for Justice
This essay is about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written in April 1963 in response to criticism from white clergymen. Dr. King defends the necessity of civil disobedience to combat racial injustice emphasizing the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. He argues that waiting for a more convenient time for civil rights is not an option due to the ongoing suffering of African Americans. The essay highlights Dr. King’s critique of the white moderate’s preference for order over justice and places the civil rights movement within a broader historical context of global struggles for freedom. It underscores the letter’s enduring relevance and powerful message of justice and equality.
How it works
In April 1963 the city of Birmingham Alabama became the unlikely site of one of the most important documents in the American civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. detained for participating in nonviolent protests against racial segregation composed a letter from his jail cell that would echo through history. Addressed to eight white clergymen who had criticized his actions the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” stands as a powerful defense of civil disobedience and a stirring plea for justice.
Dr. King’s letter opens with an explanation of why he felt compelled to come to Birmingham.
He compares himself to the Apostle Paul who carried the gospel far and wide. By drawing this parallel Dr. King establishes a moral and spiritual foundation for his actions emphasizing that he could not ignore injustice anywhere as it threatens justice everywhere. This eloquent beginning sets the tone for the entire letter underscoring the moral imperatives that drove the civil rights movement.
One of the letter’s most poignant sections addresses the distinction between just and unjust laws. Dr. King argues that individuals have not only a legal but also a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. He quotes St. Augustine “An unjust law is no law at all” and elaborates that a just law aligns with moral law and uplifts human dignity while an unjust law degrades it. This philosophical discourse challenges readers to consider the deeper ethical implications of the laws they accept and obey.
Dr. King also tackles the clergymen’s suggestion that the civil rights movement should be patient and wait for a more appropriate time. He passionately refutes this highlighting the relentless suffering endured by African Americans. He writes “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.'” Through vivid and heartrending examples Dr. King illustrates the brutal realities of segregation making it clear that waiting is not a viable option when justice is at stake.
The letter also contains a searing critique of the white moderate who Dr. King argues is more of a hindrance to civil rights than outright racists. He describes the white moderate as someone who prefers a “negative peace” which is merely the absence of tension to a “positive peace” which is the presence of justice. This critique highlights a key obstacle in the fight for civil rights: the complacency of those who are not directly affected by injustice but who fail to support those who are.
Dr. King’s eloquence is matched by his strategic use of historical and global references. He aligns the civil rights movement with historical struggles for freedom and justice from the early Christians who defied unjust laws to the American Revolution. By situating the civil rights movement within this broader context Dr. King emphasizes its significance not just for African Americans but for all humanity. He reminds his readers that the fight for justice is universal and timeless.
What makes the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” particularly powerful is its ability to convey deep philosophical arguments in a way that is both accessible and moving. Dr. King’s writing is filled with vivid imagery and emotional appeal yet it never loses sight of its intellectual rigor. This balance makes the letter a profound piece of rhetoric that continues to inspire and educate.
In conclusion Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a monumental document in the history of civil rights. It eloquently defends the necessity of civil disobedience against unjust laws critiques the harmful complacency of the white moderate and places the struggle for civil rights within a larger historical and moral framework. Its powerful message remains relevant urging every generation to reflect on their own beliefs and actions in the pursuit of justice. Dr. King’s letter is not merely a response to criticism but a timeless manifesto for equality and human dignity resonating across the decades as a beacon of moral clarity.
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Looking forward and back as the Civil Rights Act turns 60
The law ended segregation, extended lives and improved public education. its full promise remains unrealized, activists say..
It's been 60 years since the 1964 Civil Rights Act was signed into law.
Across the country, civil rights groups, scholars and others have commemorated the landmark law with panels, comprehensive reports and rallies. Many have cited its impact and other federal laws that came in its wake, including one protecting the right to vote for all citizens and another banning discrimination in housing.
“It propelled a movement that was able to make major civil rights gains,’’ said Melanie Campbell, president of the nonpartisan National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.
The law outlawed segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, called the law “transformative.”
“It has not just only changed the arc for Black people. It has changed the arc for women and for other people of color in a profound way,’’ he said.
Dig deeper: Timeline: US leaders have pledged to eradicate racism time and again. They keep falling short.
USA TODAY invited nearly a dozen leaders of national organizations to share their take on how far the country has come since the act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. They also shared how far they think the U.S . has to go to achieve the full promise of the law.
Extended lives, improved educational success, helped people get better jobs
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Imagine a sweeping set of laws ushered in that extended lives, improved educational success for kids, and helped people get better jobs. We’d not only celebrate it – we'd protect it. We have that law today.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 added years, literally about three to four years, onto the life expectancy of Black people when health care had to open its once-segregated doors.
More Black students saw their education improve, while white students continued on the same educational footing. It helped to reduce “intense segregation” – schools with 10% or less white students – of Black students in Southern schools from 78% in 1978 to 24% in 1988.
Thanks to employment protections, Black job opportunities, while still far from sufficient, got significantly better, with less of a wage gap and less of an employment gap.
Instead of seeing the tremendous advancement that the law – with lots of legal and community activism – has produced, federal courts and right-wing advocacy groups are attacking the gains we’ve made by using division rather than multiplication.
We should multiply its use rather than divide people by claiming what is good for people of color is bad for people who are white.
Progress is not simply possible – we are living proof
Kelley Robinson , president of the Human Rights Campaign
At moments like these, I can’t help but think of my family – the first free Black family in a little town called Muscatine, Iowa. My great-aunt Bert, our matriarch, passed away recently at the young age of 102, and we went back to that little town to celebrate her homegoing.
There, we told the story of how Great-Aunt Bert sat at the feet of those who had been born into slavery. We told the story of how we made our way from bondage in Mississippi and Louisiana to freedom in Muscatine.
That was two generations ago. Now, I am the first queer, Black woman to serve as President of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.
Progress is not simply possible – we are living proof of it. Our ancestors were jailed, beaten, and bled because they knew a better future was worth fighting for. They would be proud to see us standing tall today, but they would remind us that our work is far from over.
Today, bullies want to strip us of our hard-earned freedoms and roll back progress. As we mark 60 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we must honor those who came before us, like Great-Aunt Bert, by recommitting to our fight for freedom and justice – without exception.
Still need to protect the civil liberties of all citizens
John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund
It has been 60 years since passage of Civil Rights Act, but the struggle for fair treatment remains.
Native Americans still face the type of discrimination that motivated the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and we still see a failure to uphold our treaty rights under U.S. law.
At the Native American Rights Fund, we have been challenging the unfair treatment that Native Americans have been subjected to for far too long. For example, throughout Indian Country, Native Americans have to overcome unreasonable barriers just to cast a ballot. Election services can be over 50 miles away and there is still no residential mail delivery on many Native American reservations.
States are also passing laws intended to disenfranchise Native Americans, especially after Native Americans exercise political power. We have also seen an uptick in discriminatory practices – last year a hotel instituted a no Native Americans allowed policy , which brought a legal challenge from the Department of Justice under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This blatant discrimination occurs too often.
It has been 60 years, but we still need to protect the civil liberties of all citizens and hold the government to its word.
A conservative perspective: We've gone too far
Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America
The Civil Rights Act was an extraordinary accomplishment, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and national origin and securing all Americans’ participation in our society. For the first time, a colorblind society was codified into law.
But today, the Civil Rights Act is in bad shape. College campuses discriminate against certain racial groups in the admissions process in clear violation of the law. Mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion courses force workers to treat their co-workers differently based on the color of their skin. Some federal programs have been restricted to minority applicants and religious employers have been hit with penalties .
The law is a teacher, and for decades, Americans learned the lesson of the Civil Rights Act: every American deserves equal treatment and respect. But in recent years, many have forgotten that lesson, replacing equality under the law with equity of outcomes. Moving forward, our leaders must reverse the trend and commemorate this anniversary by abandoning discriminatory policies.
Our 'abiding commitment to freedom' is being undermined
Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he said it represented “a more abiding commitment to freedom, a more constant pursuit of justice, and a deeper respect for human dignity.”
A century after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Act ushered in a transformative era of open doors and unprecedented access.
But the backlash triggered by the racial justice uprising of 2020 presents the gravest threat to the Civil Rights Act in its 60-year history.
Our “abiding commitment to freedom” is undermined by discriminatory voting laws and gerrymandering.
Our “pursuit of justice” is derailed by persistent racism in policing and sentencing and the dismantling of diversity and inclusion policies.
Our “respect for human dignity” is betrayed by an unraveling social safety net and economic policies that uplift the wealthy at the expense of working families.
My predecessor, Whitney M. Young, was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, developing a “Domestic Marshall Plan” that Johnson incorporated into his Great Society program.
The National Urban League remains committed to his legacy, working to uproot the racial divisions embedded in our institutions and realize the promise of 1964.
Souls lost to exploitation and racism
Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens
In the early 1900s, Mexican and Native American villages were burned by rangers in the South in the name of ''expansion.'' We’ve seen the tears and heartbreak of those who have lost loved ones to senseless violence like the victims of the Uvalde school shooting or the physical abuse that was experienced by people of color at the hands of individuals with no respect for human life.
Souls lost to exploitation and racism.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, founded in 1929, is the oldest Latino civil rights grassroots organization in the U.S. Throughout our history, we have significantly influenced legislation on education, immigration, military issues and gun safety.
On the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, we are reminded the work is ongoing. As we see an unidentified sea of individuals crossing the border from all over the world, we continue to urge government leaders for immigration reform for those who left their countries of origin and who have no rights there ‒ and now here. It is our mission to contribute to the American fabric and we remain committed to the American dream.
But the question remains where do we go from here? In 60 years, some things have changed and others remain the same. It is vital that Latinos and our allies come together. As the saying goes ‒ "El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido" (The people united will never be defeated).
Every generation makes progress
John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice ‒ AAJC
To commemorate the anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is an honor we do not take lightly at Asian Americans Advancing Justice ‒ AAJC. At the time the 1964 legislation was signed into law, it was groundbreaking in prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
In the early 1960s, Asian Americans were only 0.5% of the population. Our community benefited from the Black Civil Rights Movement successes of the 1950s and 60s. The solidarity shown by Black civil rights leaders for Asian Americans demonstrated the success of intersectional/collective activism in civil rights movements. Even as Asian Americans have grown to represent 7% of the population, the 1964 Civil Rights Act serves as a reminder of progress made and the distance we have yet to travel to achieve true equity.
Every generation makes progress toward the goal of true equity in this country, but none of us will realize the full impact of laws like the Civil Rights Act until and unless we work collectively with the Black community to stop the rollback of our rights and realize the dream of a fair and equitable society for all.
We still have a very long way to go
Melanie L. Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
When theCivil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, it was described by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the “Second Emancipation.”
The Act banned segregation, barred discrimination by employers and labor unions, gave way to the formation of the EEOC; and paved the way for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Fair Housing Act of 1968.
Unfortunately, there are forces currently working tirelessly to reverse the rights and freedoms established by The Act .
Last year, there was a “reverse discrimination” ruling by the Supreme Court, Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard, restricting affirmative action efforts by public colleges/universities. This unjust ruling restricts the historic affirmative action efforts that have provided disadvantaged black and brown students the opportunity to attend the nation’s elite schools. Further, these same forces are using this case as an excuse to attack Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in the public and private sector.
These and other constant attacks on our voting rights and the rights of women to control our own bodies on a state level, requires those who believe in freedom, justice, equity, and equality for all to fight back at the ballot box and vote in record numbers in 2024 and beyond.
Channel discontent for a resurrection rather than an insurrection
Rev. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign
In popular memory, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the legislative response to the demands of the March on Washington.
While it is true that the legislation would never have been won without that mass mobilization, the original demands of that march for “Jobs and Freedom” included an increase in the minimum wage for all Americans and the voting rights protections that would only be enshrined in the Voting Rights Act after the brutality of Bloody Sunday and the courageous Selma to Montgomery March of 1965.
Sixty years later, we must be honest: the federal minimum wage, indexed for inflation, is lower than it was in 1964. What’s more, because the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its 2013 Shelby decision and Congress has failed to remedy it, we have less voting rights protections today than we did on August 6, 1965.
The celebration of historic wins alongside this egregious decay is a source of discontent among everyday Americans. But we have no time for despair.
We are determined to channel discontent for a resurrection rather than an insurrection .
And we are committed to reach 15 million low-income voters who have the power to redefine this political moment as America's single-largest swing vote if they unite around an agenda that once again insists that everyone deserves a living wage and voting rights in the United States of America.
We're all created in the image of God
Rabbi Jonah Pesner , director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
In our Jewish tradition, equality is based on the concept that all of God's children are "created in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27).
This precept has led the Jewish community to respond powerfully in the fight against racial segregation and discrimination: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was drafted in large part in our building in Washington, D.C.
However, racism, like antisemitism, has never been fully eradicated from our society; those who seek power weaponize it for their own nefarious purposes. We see it today in the forces of division that aim to restrict the freedom to vote by targeting communities of Color and other marginalized groups.
This blatant discrimination fuels the Reform Jewish Movement’s nonpartisan Every Voice, Every Vote Campaign to strengthen our democracy by encouraging and protecting voter participation.
Our work ties together our Jewish values with our commitment to protecting all minorities, including the many in our Jewish communities who have been targeted due to their intersectional identities as Jews of Color, people with disabilities, or members of the LGBTQ+ community.
As long as some seek to perpetuate racism and discrimination, we must continue to recommit ourselves to the sacred tenets of the Civil Rights Act.
It is all of our responsibility
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD
As we reflect on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act as a nation, I’m moved by how much progress we’ve made toward acceptance and equality as a society while still being reminded of how deeply racism and violence against communities of color persists, and how much work there is left to do.
Change is often born from the pain and outrage of individuals courageous enough to imagine and fight for a more just world. It’s impossible to talk about the quest for LGBTQ equality without first acknowledging the significant strides made within the civil rights movement and the historic interconnectedness between Black and LGBTQ communities.
The revolutionary Stonewall Uprising of 1969 was spearheaded by LGBTQ people of color. Progress for the acceptance and equality of LGBTQ people over the past 51 years would not be possible if not for the path paved by civil rights leaders before us.
It is all of our responsibility to speak out against racism and systemic injustice and to continue elevating voices and amplifying stories of people of color, especially those who are Black, queer, and transgender.
In the words of (activist) Marsha P. Johnson , "No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us."
We must take an active role in protecting its legacy
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP
As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, it’s important that we understand the journey that lies ahead of us.
While the law was a first step, it was not until the amended legislation passed in 1965 that we truly began to make significant strides toward equality and justice. It’s also important to understand that the culture of racism is deeply embedded in the country’s foundation. That’s why, as systemic racism continues to manifest in many forms, the promises of the legislation have yet to be fulfilled for all Black Americans.
While Black Americans continue to fall victim to a system that has, at many times, posed insurmountable barriers to progress, we also face mounting threats to the right to effect change.
As of today, more than 40 states have enacted anti-protest laws. And almost half of the country will face new restrictions to the ballot box in November.
The anniversary comes at a critical time. Will we push forward or revert to a time where the color of our skin is used as justification for the degradation of fundamental freedoms?
If we are to truly honor this historic legislation and the pathway it created, we must take an active role in protecting its legacy while building a brighter future. We must reject politicians who deny the fact that Black history is American history or who seek to deny our community the right to have a seat in corporate conference rooms or the halls of Congress.
We must band together, striving towards a time where the promises of our Constitution are fulfilled for every American.
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Introduction, ethnic hierarchies, discrimination, and local context, the russian context, research design, data availability, acknowledgements.
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Ethnic Discrimination in Multi-ethnic Societies: Evidence from Russia
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Alexey Bessudnov, Andrey Shcherbak, Ethnic Discrimination in Multi-ethnic Societies: Evidence from Russia, European Sociological Review , Volume 36, Issue 1, February 2020, Pages 104–120, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcz045
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Field experiments have provided ample evidence of ethnic and racial discrimination in the labour market. Less is known about how discrimination varies in multi-ethnic societies, where the ethnic composition of populations is different across locations. Inter-group contact and institutional arrangements for ethnic minorities can mitigate the sense of group threat and reduce discrimination. To provide empirical evidence of this, we conduct a field experiment of ethnic discrimination in Russia with a sample of over 9,000 job applications. We compare ethnically homogeneous cities and cities with ethnically mixed populations and privileged institutional status of ethnic minorities. We find strong discrimination against visible minorities in the former but much weaker discrimination in the latter. These findings demonstrate how institutions and historical contexts of inter-group relations can affect ethnic prejudice and discrimination.
The field experiment has now become a standard method for studying racial and ethnic discrimination in the labour market. In a typical labour market experiment (also known as an audit or correspondence study), researchers randomly assign a signal of race or ethnicity to fictitious CVs, apply for jobs and record contacts from employers. As long as the signal assignment is random, the differences in the contact rates across the groups can be treated as evidence of discrimination. Such experiments have now been conducted in many countries [for recent literature reviews, see Rich (2014 ); Zschirnt and Ruedin (2016 ); Bertrand and Duflo (2017 ); Baert (2018) ; and Neumark (2018) ]. There is overwhelming evidence that on average employers contact applicants from majority groups more often than applicants from minority groups. Racial and ethnic discrimination in the labour market is well documented.
In this article, we present the results of the first ethnic discrimination experiment conducted in Russia. We focus on two main questions.
First, attitudes of ethnic majorities towards different minority groups are not the same, and vary according to an implicit hierarchy. In Western countries, minority groups of European origin are usually more widely accepted than groups of African and Asian origin ( Hagendoorn, 1995 ). Most field experiments to date looked at one or only a few minority groups. Even the larger audit studies rarely had enough statistical power to provide reliable estimates of the differences in contact rates across minority groups. In this study, we implement a design with 10 ethnic groups and a sample size of over 9,000 job applications that allows us to provide reliable estimates of discrimination for each group and explore the ethnic hierarchy for multiple groups in Russia.
Second, we focus on geographical variation in discrimination. Russia is a multi-ethnic federation where, in some regions, indigenous ethnic groups have a special institutional status. Are the patterns of ethnic discrimination and hierarchy the same or different in ethnically heterogeneous, compared with ethnically Russian, regions? To answer this question, we conducted our experiment in four Russian cities. Two of them (Moscow and St. Petersburg) are metropolitan areas, with mostly ethnically Russian populations. The other two cities (Kazan and Ufa) are capitals of ethnic autonomies, with mixed ethnic Russian and indigenous Muslim populations.
The results show considerable differences in the patterns of ethnic discrimination across these locations. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, employers discriminate against visible ethnic minorities of Southern origin but not against groups of European origin. Discrimination against ethnic minority men is stronger than that against ethnic minority women. On the other hand, in Kazan and Ufa, all ethnic groups are treated by employers in approximately the same way, with the contact rates for most groups of Southern origin being only marginally, and not statistically significantly, lower than for groups of European origin.
Therefore, the contributions of this article to the literature on ethnic discrimination are the following. We show that (i) ethnic discrimination in Russia is mostly directed against groups of Southern origin, with not much discrimination against groups of European origin (ethnic hierarchy); (ii) men from ethnic minorities face stronger discrimination compared with women; and (iii) the pattern and extent of ethnic discrimination differ across locations with varying ethnic composition of the populations and the history of ethnic inter-group relations. These findings contribute to the literature on the inter-group distance and contact hypothesis showing how the history of inter-group contact and institutional arrangements can mitigate the sense of ethnic group threat.
Human societies tend to be organized as group-based hierarchies ( Sidanius and Pratto, 2001 ). Many modern societies are multi-racial and multi-ethnic and include large ethnic minorities, often both indigenous and of immigrant origin. Researchers of inter-group social distance argue that social status varies across racial and ethnic groups. In many Western societies North Europeans have the highest status, followed by South and Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans ( Hagendoorn, 1995 ). This ethnic hierarchy can be stable across time ( Kleg and Yamamoto, 1998 ; Ford, 2011 ) and is often accepted both by the ethnic majority and by minorities ( Verkuyten, Hagendoorn and Masson, 1996 ; Zick et al. , 2001 ), although some ethnic boundaries can blur over time ( Alba, 2005 ). Survey evidence confirms that attitudes of natives towards immigrants of different ethnic origin can vary strongly. Ethnic stereotypes are group specific. In the United States, respondents rate White Americans higher than Asians, and Asians higher than African Americans and Hispanics, on most traits ( Bobo and Massagli, 2001 ). The British public accepts immigrants from Australia, but many are more sceptical about Europeans, and especially immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean region and South Asia ( Ford, 2011 ).
Correspondence studies have mostly been interpreted as attempts to measure discrimination in the labour market. As most experiments, they often lack external validity and generalizability ( Baldassarri and Abascal, 2017 ). By design, these studies are limited to only a few occupations, skills, locations, racial and ethnic groups, and channels of recruitment. In most cases, we can only collect data about invitations to interviews rather than actual job and wage offers. Extrapolating experimental estimates of discrimination in recruitment to other areas of the labour market requires us to make many assumptions. Theoretically, correspondence studies mostly contributed to separating statistical from taste-based discrimination and have been detached from the literature exploring the group threat and contact hypotheses that often underpin the sociological studies of the attitudes towards immigrants. However, correspondence tests can also be seen as a tool for measuring group-specific ethnic prejudice, as revealed in employers’ hiring decisions. While not coming from nationally representative samples, experimental studies of ethnic prejudice have the important advantage of minimizing social desirability bias. The focus of research then shifts, from providing unbiased estimates of labour market discrimination, to examining the relative standings of racial and ethnic groups.
Most correspondence studies only involved one or two ethnic minority groups and were not designed to measure group variation in discrimination. When multiple groups were involved the results often showed that in Western countries minorities of European origin were treated preferentially compared with minorities of non-European origin ( Baldini and Federici, 2011 ; Booth, Leigh and Varganova, 2012 ; Carlsson and Eriksson, 2015 ; Acolin, Bostic and Painter, 2016 ; Baert et al. , 2017 ; Lancee, 2019 ; Vernby and Dancygier, 2019 ). These findings confirm the existence of an ethnic hierarchy in the labour market and are consistent with the social distance research, and survey evidence of ethnic differences in employment and wages ( Heath and Cheung, 2007 ). Not all minorities are the same, and some are treated better than others.
Blumer (1958) famously suggested that racial prejudice emerges when members of the dominant group perceive a challenge, to their superior social status, from subordinate out-groups. The group threat hypothesis became one of the pillars of the literature on attitudes towards immigrants ( Ceobanu and Escandell, 2010 ). Empirically, it is often tested by looking at the association between prejudice and real or perceived immigrant group size, possibly mediated by economic conditions ( Quillian, 1995 ; Semyonov, Raijman and Gorodzeisky, 2006 ). Majority members may feel more threatened in places with a higher proportion of ethnic minority members, especially when the economy is poor. The support, from empirical survey evidence, of the group threat hypothesis has been mixed. When the analysis is conducted at the regional rather than the country level, some studies confirm the association between minority group size and anti-immigrant prejudice in Europe ( Markaki and Longhi, 2013 ), whereas others fail to find this link ( Hjerm, 2009 ; Rustenbach, 2010 ).
Another well-established theoretical approach that is often discussed in this literature is the contact hypothesis ( Allport, 1954 ). Under certain conditions, experiencing positive contact with members of out-groups may reduce prejudice ( Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006 ). While the group threat and contact theories may generate contradictory predictions, they both stress the importance of contextual factors for inter-group relations. Both theories imply that the level of discrimination would vary across locations with different racial and ethnic population compositions. More ethnically diverse places may stimulate inter-group contact that will reduce prejudice. On the other hand, the influx of ethnically different populations may trigger the sense of group threat and provoke negative attitudes towards newcomers. Correspondence studies showed that in some places (France, London) housing discrimination against minorities was stronger in locations with more immigrants ( Carlsson and Eriksson, 2015 ; Acolin, Bostic and Painter, 2016 ), whereas in others (Sweden) the effect was in the opposite direction ( Carlsson and Eriksson, 2014 ).
The population share of ethnic minorities is a rather crude measure of group threat, and can sometimes be misleading. In his famous essay, Blumer (1958) notes that group position is a historical product and is set by the conditions of initial contact. When looking at the association between the ethnic composition of a population and the level of prejudice it is important to consider the historical origins of ethnically diverse locations. Ethnically mixed populations may emerge as a result of migration when minority groups, often with a lower status in the ethnic hierarchy, move to a territory already populated by the dominant group, as in the case of the slave trade in Americas (forced migration) or modern immigration to Western countries. Most existing studies of discrimination analysed it in the context of ethnic heterogeneity historically produced by immigration. Another historical cause of ethnically mixed locations is conquest and colonization, when a dominant group subjugates a territory with an ethnically distinct population. The European colonization of Asia, Africa, and the Americas produced many racially and ethnically heterogeneous populations across the world. Some ethnically mixed regions in Europe are also products of earlier colonization (Wales and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, the Basque country in Spain). Perceptions of group threat may be different in places where ethnic heterogeneity originated from earlier colonization by a high-status group and where the indigenous group maintains its ethnic identity. We use this observation in our research design.
According to the most recent census, in 2010, ethnic Russians constitute about 80 per cent of Russia’s population ( Rosstat, 2012 ). The other 20 per cent, or 26 million people, describe themselves as not ethnically Russian and belong to over 100 ethnic groups. This ethnic heterogeneity reflects the history of the Russian state and is a result both of conquest and colonization (by ethnic Russians, of territories with indigenous populations) and of immigration of ethnic minorities to Russia’s heartlands.
The Grand Duchy of Moscow that originally occupied a relatively small territory in what is known now as the Central European Russia and was populated predominantly by Orthodox Slavs, started a rapid territorial expansion in the 15th century. By the 18th century, when the Russian state became an empire, it acquired vast territories in the Volga river basin, the Urals, Ukraine, and Siberia, populated by indigenous ethnic groups ( Riasanovsky, 2000 ). By the time of the First World War and the 1917 revolution, the Russian empire was a multi-ethnic conglomerate where ethnic Russians constituted less than a half of the total population ( Mironov, 2017 ). After the Soviet Union was founded in 1922, the Bolsheviks had a debate about the ‘nationalities question’ in Soviet Russia. Eventually, they rejected the orthodox Marxist approach that denied the significance of ethnic identities, and adopted the ‘great danger’ concept that argued Russian chauvinism was a greater danger compared with local ethnic nationalisms. The political implication of this approach was the adoption of a policy intended to promote local ethnic identities and accelerate the social, economic, and cultural development of ‘backward’ ethnic groups ( Vujacic, 2007 ), in what was called in the literature the ‘affirmative action empire’ ( Martin, 2001 ). The Soviet state introduced ethnic quotas in universities and governmental organizations, promoted ethnic elites, established language schools, printed books and newspapers in local languages, and supported intellectuals from ethnic minorities ( Slezkine, 1994 ; Hirsch, 1997 , 2000 ). The ‘affirmative action empire’ policy was revoked in the mid-1930s and many ethnic groups later suffered from state repression and forced deportations. However, some of the institutions adopted in this early period stayed in place and continue to affect Russia’s ethnic policies until now.
According to the 1936 Constitution, the Soviet Union was organized as a nested hierarchy of administrative units ( Tishkov, 1997 ). At the highest level, there were 11 (later 15) Soviet socialist republics; the Russian Federation was one of them. Russia further consisted of autonomous Soviet republics in the territories populated by the largest ethnic minorities, provinces ( oblasts ) in the ethnic Russian heartlands, and territories ( krays ) in the colonized territories with ethnically mixed populations. Krays included ethnic autonomous oblasts , populated by smaller ethnic groups. With some changes, this structure, based on the principles of ethnic federalism, remained in place until the disintegration of the USSR, and was inherited by modern Russia.
In contemporary Russia, among 85 ‘federation subjects’, there are 22 ethnic republics and 4 ethnic autonomous districts. Most republics have a ‘titular’ ethnic group (or in some cases two groups) that is usually reflected in their names (e.g. Tatarstan for the republic of Volga Tatars). The population share belonging to titular ethnic groups varies across the republics. Chechens are 95 per cent of Chechnya’s population, whereas in the northern republic of Karelia, the Karels (a Finno-Ugric people) constitute only 7 per cent of residents. The language of the titular ethnic group is usually recognized, in each of the republics, as an official language in addition to Russian. The extent to which indigenous languages are actually used in everyday life varies, but most republics have print media and TV and radio broadcasting in the languages of titular groups. Titular languages are taught in schools, although examinations have to be taken in Russian. Many republics still keep the Soviet institutions that were originally designed to produce native ethnic intelligentsia (such as local Academies of Sciences, etc.; Gorenburg, 2003 ; Giuliano, 2011 ). The system of ethnic quotas in the government and employment is no longer in place, but the ‘nativization’ of local cadres remains at approximately the same level as in the late Soviet period ( Shcherbak and Sych, 2017 ).
In addition to the conquest of new lands, another source of Russia’s ethnic heterogeneity has been voluntary or forced migration of ethnically non-Russian groups. Small communities of foreign craftsmen, merchants and soldiers had lived in Moscow since the Middle Ages, but the first mass migration occurred in the 18th century, when Catherine the Great invited colonists from Germany into Russia. About 40,000 came, mostly settling in the Volga river region and modern Eastern Ukraine ( Mironov, 2014 ). By 1914, over 1 million ethnic Germans moved to the Russian empire ( Osinsky, 1928 ). WWI and the 1917 revolution marked the end of the Pale of Settlement (a law that banned Jews from settling outside the western parts of the empire), and thereafter many Jews moved to the cities in Central Russia. By the time of the 1926 census, they constituted 6 per cent of Moscow’s and 5 per cent of Leningrad’s populations, being the second largest ethnic group in both cities after ethnic Russians ( Perepis, 1928 ). Rapid industrialization and urbanization in the Soviet period stimulated internal migration. Soviet colonization of the Urals and Siberia involved many ethnic groups, leading to ethnically heterogeneous populations in Siberian urban centres.
The collapse of the USSR in 1991 led to further population flows. Ethnic Russians started to return to Russia from the former Soviet republics that became independent states. Following ethnic wars and the deterioration of the economic situation in the Caucasus in the early 1990s, many Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians moved to Russia. These migration flows are hard to quantify, but between the 1989 and 2002 censuses the Armenian population of Russia increased from 0.5 million to 1.1 million people. Russia’s economic recovery, that started in the early 2000s, stimulated new waves of economic migration, mainly from Ukraine, Moldova, and Central Asia ( Agadjanian, Menjívar and Zotova, 2017 ). Official statistics for the most recent immigration flows are poor, but in 2012 there were over 2 million Uzbek and over 1 million Tajik nationals in Russia, mainly employed in low-skilled occupations in the Moscow region and in other metropolitan areas. The number of Ukrainian passport-holders in Russia was 1.4 million in 2012, and it has significantly increased after the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict in 2014 ( Bessudnov, 2016 ).
A number of previous studies used survey data to explore attitudes towards immigrants in Russia. Anti-immigrant sentiment is stronger in Russia than in most other European countries, whereas the explanatory power of the models that try to predict attitudes towards immigrants with the indicators of socio-economic position and the attitudinal variables is much lower ( Gorodzeisky, Glikman and Maskileyson, 2015 ; Bessudnov, 2016 ), although explanations based on group threat and economic competition theories cannot be dismissed ( Bahry, 2016 ). Ethnic Russians are on average more negative about immigrants than ethnic minorities ( Gorodzeisky and Glikman, 2017 ), and the opposition towards immigration is often based on racial prejudice ( Gorodzeisky, 2019 ). There is little evidence of a strong trend towards increasing or decreasing xenophobia between 1996 and 2012 ( Chapman et al. , 2018 ). In this article, we complement the survey evidence presented in this literature with experimental results.
The ethnic heterogeneity of Russia’s population makes it an interesting case for studying ethnic hierarchies and discrimination. Russia has large ethnic minorities of both European origins (e.g. Germans, Jews, and Ukrainians) and non-European origins (e.g. Armenians, Chechens, Georgians, Tatars, and Uzbeks). There are religious differences as well; some groups are mostly Orthodox Christian (Armenians, Georgians, and Ukrainians), whereas others are Muslim (Azerbaijanis, Chechens, Tatars, and Uzbeks) or Buddhist (Kalmyks and Tuvans). Previous research into inter-ethnic social distance in Russia shows that Slavic minorities of Eastern European origin are placed higher in the ethnic hierarchy than minorities of Southern origin ( Hagendoorn et al. , 1998 ; Bessudnov, 2016 ). Another differentiating factor is the institutional status of minorities. Ethnic groups whose indigenous settlement area is within the Russian borders are usually titular, i.e. have the institutionalized privileged status in ethnic republics that they perceive as ‘theirs’ ( Hagendoorn, Poppe and Minescu, 2008 ; Minescu, Hagendoorn and Poppe, 2008 ; Minescu and Poppe, 2011 ). Ethnic groups of immigrant origin do not have titular rights.
Our research design aims to employ these characteristics of the Russian case. First, we are interested in whether ethnic discrimination in the Russian labour market is group specific and follows an ethnic hierarchy, in which groups of European origin occupy a higher position than non-European groups. Second, we want to investigate if ethnic discrimination in employment is context dependent and varies between ethnically Russian regions and titular ethnic republics.
Ethnic Groups
Table 1 shows characteristics of the ethnic groups that we included in the study. We selected groups of both European and non-European origin and both titular and non-titular groups.
Ethnic groups included in the study
| Ethnic group . | Size in Russia in 2010 (thousand) . | Region of origin . | Dominant religion . | Titular . |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnic Russians | 111,017 | European Russia | Orthodox Christian | |
| Armenians | 1,182 | Caucasus | Orthodox Christian | No |
| Azerbaijanis | 603 | Caucasus | Muslim | No |
| Chechens | 1,431 | North Caucasus | Muslim | In Chechnya |
| Georgians | 158 | Caucasus | Orthodox Christian | No |
| Germans | 394 | Western Europe | Christian | No |
| Jews | 157 | Eastern Europe | Jewish | No |
| Latvians | 19 | Eastern Europe | Christian | No |
| Lithuanians | 31 | Eastern Europe | Christian | No |
| Tajiks | 200 | Central Asia | Muslim | No |
| Tatars | 5,311 | Volga region | Muslim | In Tatarstan |
| Ukrainians | 1,928 | Eastern Europe | Orthodox Christian | No |
| Uzbeks | 290 | Central Asia | Muslim | No |
| Ethnic group . | Size in Russia in 2010 (thousand) . | Region of origin . | Dominant religion . | Titular . |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnic Russians | 111,017 | European Russia | Orthodox Christian | |
| Armenians | 1,182 | Caucasus | Orthodox Christian | No |
| Azerbaijanis | 603 | Caucasus | Muslim | No |
| Chechens | 1,431 | North Caucasus | Muslim | In Chechnya |
| Georgians | 158 | Caucasus | Orthodox Christian | No |
| Germans | 394 | Western Europe | Christian | No |
| Jews | 157 | Eastern Europe | Jewish | No |
| Latvians | 19 | Eastern Europe | Christian | No |
| Lithuanians | 31 | Eastern Europe | Christian | No |
| Tajiks | 200 | Central Asia | Muslim | No |
| Tatars | 5,311 | Volga region | Muslim | In Tatarstan |
| Ukrainians | 1,928 | Eastern Europe | Orthodox Christian | No |
| Uzbeks | 290 | Central Asia | Muslim | No |
Notes: Population size reported according to the 2010 Russian census. It underestimates the size of ethnic groups in the most recent immigration wave, in particular, Ukrainians, Tajiks, and Uzbeks.
We followed the standard practice of signalling ethnicity by randomly assigning ethnic names to CVs. We collected ethnic first names and surnames from a popular Russian social media website (examples of ethnic names are provided in the Supplementary Appendix ).
To make sure that the names could be recognized as ethnic by employers, we conducted a survey. In the survey, we presented a list of names to respondents and asked them to assign the names to ethnic groups in an open-ended question, without providing a list of groups. We recruited a non-probability snowball sample on social media websites ( n = 861). Compared with the general population, people in our sample were younger and more educated, more often female and Moscow and St. Petersburg were over-represented. Arguably this may better reflect demographic characteristics of urban HR employees than a national probability sample. 1
The recognition of ethnic names varied by group (see Table 2 ). For four groups (ethnic Russians, Armenians, Georgians, and Ukrainians) respondents correctly identified the names in over 80 per cent of the cases. For all Muslim ethnic groups the identification rates were much lower. However, most respondents, even when unable to correctly identify the exact ethnic group for Muslim names, gave as an answer the name of another Muslim group. Muslim names have common origins and may indeed sound similar. For all ethnic minority groups, except Germans, the names were recognized as not ethnically Russian in over 95 per cent of cases. German names, arguably the most assimilated group in the list, were recognized as not ethnically Russian in 85 per cent of the answers.
Recognition of ethnic names
| Ethnic group . | Correct (%) . | Broadly correct (%) . | Not Russian (%) . |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgian | 91 | 98 | 100 |
| Armenian | 90 | 96 | 100 |
| Russian | 88 | 90 | 12 |
| Ukrainian | 82 | 92 | 95 |
| Jewish | 72 | 84 | 99 |
| Tatar | 57 | 90 | 99 |
| German | 42 | 62 | 85 |
| Latvian | 35 | 65 | 100 |
| Lithuanian | 22 | 73 | 100 |
| Chechen | 20 | 83 | 99 |
| Uzbek | 19 | 91 | 100 |
| Azerbaijani | 16 | 90 | 100 |
| Tajik | 12 | 84 | 99 |
| Ethnic group . | Correct (%) . | Broadly correct (%) . | Not Russian (%) . |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgian | 91 | 98 | 100 |
| Armenian | 90 | 96 | 100 |
| Russian | 88 | 90 | 12 |
| Ukrainian | 82 | 92 | 95 |
| Jewish | 72 | 84 | 99 |
| Tatar | 57 | 90 | 99 |
| German | 42 | 62 | 85 |
| Latvian | 35 | 65 | 100 |
| Lithuanian | 22 | 73 | 100 |
| Chechen | 20 | 83 | 99 |
| Uzbek | 19 | 91 | 100 |
| Azerbaijani | 16 | 90 | 100 |
| Tajik | 12 | 84 | 99 |
Notes: Broadly correct identification includes the following groups. For Russian and Ukrainian names any Slavic group; for Georgian and Armenian any group from the Caucasus; for Jewish and German Jews or Germans; for Latvian and Lithuanian any Baltic group; for Azerbaijani, Chechen, Tatar, Tajik, and Uzbek names any Muslim group, or generic ‘Caucasus’, or ‘Central Asia’.
We conducted the experiment in four cities in Russia. Two cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, are large metropolitan areas in European Russia with mostly ethnically Russian populations. The other two, Kazan and Ufa, are capitals of titular ethnic republics in the Volga river region. Table 3 provides information about the cities’ populations and ethnic composition.
Characteristics of four locations
| City . | Population (2017, thousand) . | Ethnic composition (2010), per cent . |
|---|---|---|
| Moscow | 12,381 | Russians (92) |
| Ukrainians (1.3) | ||
| Tatars (1.3) | ||
| Armenians (1) | ||
| St. Petersburg | 5,282 | Russians (92) |
| Ukrainians (1.5) | ||
| Belarusians (0.9) | ||
| Tatars (0.7) | ||
| Kazan | 1,232 | Russians (49) |
| Tatars (48) | ||
| Ufa | 1,116 | Russians (49) |
| Tatars (28) | ||
| Bashkirs (17) |
| City . | Population (2017, thousand) . | Ethnic composition (2010), per cent . |
|---|---|---|
| Moscow | 12,381 | Russians (92) |
| Ukrainians (1.3) | ||
| Tatars (1.3) | ||
| Armenians (1) | ||
| St. Petersburg | 5,282 | Russians (92) |
| Ukrainians (1.5) | ||
| Belarusians (0.9) | ||
| Tatars (0.7) | ||
| Kazan | 1,232 | Russians (49) |
| Tatars (48) | ||
| Ufa | 1,116 | Russians (49) |
| Tatars (28) | ||
| Bashkirs (17) |
Notes: Data on the population come from the estimates of the Russian Statistical Office. Data on the ethnic composition come from the 2010 census.
Moscow is Russia’s capital, with a population of over 12 million people. According to the 2010 census, 92 per cent of the population are ethnically Russian. The census estimates are unlikely to include many people from the most recent immigration waves from the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Ukraine. In 2016, about 500,000 foreign workers had a work permit in Moscow and the Moscow region ( Scherbakova, 2017 ). According to the census, the largest ethnic minorities in Moscow are Ukrainians, Tatars, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Jews. The largest groups in the recent immigration wave, unaccounted for in the census, are Tajiks and Uzbeks.
St. Petersburg, Russia’s capital between 1712 and 1918, is the second largest city in the country, with a population of over 5 million people. Over 90 per cent are ethnically Russian; the largest ethnic minorities are the same as in Moscow.
Kazan is the capital of the ethnic republic of Tatarstan. In the 16th century, the Moscow state conquered the Khanate of Kazan, populated by groups of Turkic and Finno-Ugric origin ( Romaniello, 2012 ). In the late imperial period, ethnic Russians were already a majority of the city’s population; according to the 1897 census, 74 per cent of the inhabitants spoke Russian as their mother tongue and 22 per cent spoke Tatar. In 1920, the city became the capital of the Tatar Autonomous Socialist Republic, and Tatars—a predominantly Muslim ethnic group—acquired a titular status. In 2010, 49 per cent of the Kazan population was ethnically Russian, and 48 per cent Tatar.
Ufa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan located to the east of Tatarstan, in the region between the Volga river and the Ural mountains. Bashkirs, the titular group, were a nomadic Muslim people who acknowledged the authority of the Russian tsar in the 16th century. Ufa was founded by Russian settlers in 1574, and for most of its history had a small ethnic Bashkir population. The Bashkir and Tatar languages are mutually intelligible, and the identity boundaries between these two groups have been fluid ( Gorenburg, 1999 ). In 2010, Ufa had a 49 per cent ethnic Russian population, 28 per cent Tatars and 17 per cent Bashkirs. 2
The choice of locations was driven by our research questions. We have two cities with predominantly ethnically Russian populations, located outside ethnic republics (Moscow and St. Petersburg). Two other cities (Kazan and Ufa) are capitals of titular ethnic republics, and in both cities ethnic Russians are about half of the population. Kazan and Ufa are also large enough (both have a population of over 1 million people) to simplify the logistics of the experiment. Kazan and Ufa are mostly Russian speaking (for several thousand applications submitted in these cities we only had one or two cases when an employer initiated a conversation in a local language while contacting applicants on the phone).
Experimental Design
The study was conducted on two most popular Russian job search websites, with monthly audiences of 3 and 10 million visitors (according to the Yandex.Radar data for May 2019). The job application process is similar on both websites. A person looking for a job creates an account on the website, completing the required fields. Then the job seeker can browse through vacancies advertised by firms, and apply online. After an application is made, firms gain access to the applicant’s CV, and decide if they want to contact them. Contact can be made on the website or by phone.
We created accounts for applicants in four cities and across four occupations: salesperson (low skilled, high customer contact); cook (low skilled, low customer contact); sales manager (high skilled, high customer contact); and computer programmer, specializing in 1C software 3 (high skilled, low customer contact). Each account was randomly assigned gender and an ethnic name. Creating accounts was a time-consuming process that could not be automated. At this stage, we reduced the number of ethnic groups to 10, combining several groups pairwise: Azerbaijanis and Chechens (both Muslim groups from the Caucasus); Latvians and Lithuanians (Baltic groups); and Tajiks and Uzbeks (Muslim Central Asian groups). Our survey shows that, for these groups, employers are unlikely to identify the names precisely, although most will be able to attribute them to broader regions.
Thus we have a full factorial design, with two treatments, ethnicity (10 levels) and gender (2 levels), and two strata, city (4 levels) and occupation (4 levels). This required the creation of 320 online accounts, 160 on each website (selected to constitute a fractional factorial design on each website; Lawson, 2015 ). For each ethnic group, we have 32 names (16 male and 16 female). This is considerably more than in most previously conducted experiments, reducing idiosyncratic name effects ( Gaddis, 2017 ). Name was the only signal of ethnicity. All job applicants were presented as Russian nationals in the age range 28–35 years, with Russian as their mother tongue. We assigned to them educational credentials from vocational schools and universities in the city of job application, and local mobile telephone numbers. For all applicants we provided previous experience for the last 7 years (two fictitious jobs in the same city). No information about marital status or the number of children was included. Applications were submitted by filling forms on the websites that included several other mandatory questions, such as knowledge of foreign languages (we added English for sales managers and computers programmers, but not for cooks and sales persons), having a driving licence (‘yes’ for sales managers and programmers, ‘no’ for cooks and sales persons), skills, responsibilities in both previous jobs and personal information (e.g. ‘I am an enthusiastic and easy going person’). For skills, responsibilities, and personal information, we randomly chose several bullet points for each candidate from the pre-prepared occupation-specific lists.
Prior to the main study, but after a pilot study (that involved sending 1,000 job applications), we conducted power analysis with the following assumptions: effect size of 0.2 (corresponding approximately to the difference between 40 per cent and 30 per cent contact rate); intraclass correlation of 0.01 where names were treated as clusters (this value was determined by the pilot study); 95 per cent statistical significance level; and power of 80 per cent. With these assumptions, we required a sample size of about 8,000 in order to obtain reliable estimates for 10 ethnic groups, interacted with a factor with two levels (such as sex or pairwise combinations of cities or occupations).
Data were collected between June 2017 and January 2018. We employed six research assistants who monitored the websites, sent job applications, and recorded contact made by employers on the websites or on the phone. When employers contacted applicants on the phone, research assistants were instructed to politely decline invitations to job interviews.
Contact Rates by Ethnic Group and Location
Overall, we submitted 9,607 job applications. In 36 per cent of the cases, employers invited applicants for an interview, either by contacting them on the phone (21 per cent) or on the website (23 per cent), with some employers using both communication channels. Table 4 reports contact rates by ethnic group. This is shown separately for Moscow and St. Petersburg—on the one hand—and Kazan and Ufa on the other. Figure 1 shows this information as a dot plot with 95 per cent confidence intervals. We do not have enough statistical power to report estimates in four cities separately, but the patterns are similar in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in Kazan and Ufa (see Supplementary Appendix for details). Table 5 presents linear probability models for being contacted by employers that control for all the other characteristics of applications (gender, occupation, city, website, and research assistant) and test for statistical significance of the differences from the reference group, ethnic Russians.
Contact rates by ethnic group and location
| Ethnic group . | applications . | response . | Proportion contacted . | 95% confidence interval . | Call-back ratio . | Odds ratio . |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moscow and St. Petersburg | ||||||
| Russian | 616 | 254 | 0.41 | [0.35; 0.47] | 1 | 1 |
| Ukrainian | 559 | 220 | 0.39 | [0.34; 0.45] | 1.05 | 0.92 |
| Jewish | 604 | 237 | 0.39 | [0.35; 0.44] | 1.05 | 0.92 |
| German | 642 | 232 | 0.36 | [0.32; 0.40] | 1.14 | 0.81 |
| Latvian and Lithuanian | 551 | 185 | 0.34 | [0.29; 0.38] | 1.23 | 0.72 |
| Tatar | 610 | 170 | 0.28 | [0.23; 0.32] | 1.48 | 0.55 |
| Tajik and Uzbek | 570 | 159 | 0.28 | [0.22; 0.34] | 1.48 | 0.55 |
| Azerbaijani and Chechen | 598 | 165 | 0.28 | [0.23; 0.32] | 1.48 | 0.54 |
| Armenian | 610 | 163 | 0.27 | [0.22; 0.31] | 1.54 | 0.52 |
| Georgian | 549 | 142 | 0.26 | [0.21; 0.30] | 1.59 | 0.50 |
| Kazan and Ufa | ||||||
| Jewish | 384 | 187 | 0.49 | [0.42; 0.55] | 0.90 | 1.24 |
| German | 369 | 167 | 0.45 | [0.38; 0.53] | 0.96 | 1.08 |
| Russian | 402 | 174 | 0.43 | [0.38; 0.49] | 1 | 1 |
| Tatar | 343 | 147 | 0.43 | [0.36; 0.49] | 1.01 | 0.98 |
| Ukrainian | 365 | 155 | 0.42 | [0.38; 0.47] | 1.02 | 0.97 |
| Tajik and Uzbek | 373 | 150 | 0.40 | [0.34; 0.46] | 1.08 | 0.88 |
| Georgian | 368 | 144 | 0.39 | [0.31; 0.47] | 1.11 | 0.84 |
| Armenian | 378 | 148 | 0.39 | [0.34; 0.44] | 1.11 | 0.84 |
| Latvian and Lithuanian | 355 | 138 | 0.39 | [0.33; 0.44] | 1.11 | 0.83 |
| Azerbaijani and Chechen | 361 | 138 | 0.38 | [0.32; 0.44] | 1.13 | 0.81 |
| Ethnic group . | applications . | response . | Proportion contacted . | 95% confidence interval . | Call-back ratio . | Odds ratio . |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moscow and St. Petersburg | ||||||
| Russian | 616 | 254 | 0.41 | [0.35; 0.47] | 1 | 1 |
| Ukrainian | 559 | 220 | 0.39 | [0.34; 0.45] | 1.05 | 0.92 |
| Jewish | 604 | 237 | 0.39 | [0.35; 0.44] | 1.05 | 0.92 |
| German | 642 | 232 | 0.36 | [0.32; 0.40] | 1.14 | 0.81 |
| Latvian and Lithuanian | 551 | 185 | 0.34 | [0.29; 0.38] | 1.23 | 0.72 |
| Tatar | 610 | 170 | 0.28 | [0.23; 0.32] | 1.48 | 0.55 |
| Tajik and Uzbek | 570 | 159 | 0.28 | [0.22; 0.34] | 1.48 | 0.55 |
| Azerbaijani and Chechen | 598 | 165 | 0.28 | [0.23; 0.32] | 1.48 | 0.54 |
| Armenian | 610 | 163 | 0.27 | [0.22; 0.31] | 1.54 | 0.52 |
| Georgian | 549 | 142 | 0.26 | [0.21; 0.30] | 1.59 | 0.50 |
| Kazan and Ufa | ||||||
| Jewish | 384 | 187 | 0.49 | [0.42; 0.55] | 0.90 | 1.24 |
| German | 369 | 167 | 0.45 | [0.38; 0.53] | 0.96 | 1.08 |
| Russian | 402 | 174 | 0.43 | [0.38; 0.49] | 1 | 1 |
| Tatar | 343 | 147 | 0.43 | [0.36; 0.49] | 1.01 | 0.98 |
| Ukrainian | 365 | 155 | 0.42 | [0.38; 0.47] | 1.02 | 0.97 |
| Tajik and Uzbek | 373 | 150 | 0.40 | [0.34; 0.46] | 1.08 | 0.88 |
| Georgian | 368 | 144 | 0.39 | [0.31; 0.47] | 1.11 | 0.84 |
| Armenian | 378 | 148 | 0.39 | [0.34; 0.44] | 1.11 | 0.84 |
| Latvian and Lithuanian | 355 | 138 | 0.39 | [0.33; 0.44] | 1.11 | 0.83 |
| Azerbaijani and Chechen | 361 | 138 | 0.38 | [0.32; 0.44] | 1.13 | 0.81 |
Notes: Groups ordered by the contact rate within each pair of locations. 95% CI stands for 95% confidence interval, calculated after adjusting standard errors for cluster-design effects ( Green and Vavreck, 2007 ). Call-back ratio was calculated as the proportion of responses for ethnic Russians divided by the proportion of responses for an ethnic group. Odds ratios were calculated as the odds of receiving a response, for an ethnic group, divided by the odds of receiving a response for ethnic Russians.
Linear probability models of being contacted by employers
| . | Dependent variable: contacted by employer | |
|---|---|---|
| . | Moscow/ St. Petersburg (1) . | Kazan/ Ufa (2) . |
| Ethnic group (ref.: ethnic Russians) | ||
| Jewish | –0.02 | 0.06 |
| (0.04) | (0.04) | |
| Ukrainian | –0.02 | 0.002 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| German | –0.05 | 0.04 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Latvian/Lithuanian | –0.07 | –0.04 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Tatar | –0.13 | 0.005 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Tajik/Uzbek | –0.13 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Azerbaijani/Chechen | –0.13 | –0.04 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Armenian | –0.14 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Georgian | –0.15 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Observations | 5,909 | 3,698 |
| . | Dependent variable: contacted by employer | |
|---|---|---|
| . | Moscow/ St. Petersburg (1) . | Kazan/ Ufa (2) . |
| Ethnic group (ref.: ethnic Russians) | ||
| Jewish | –0.02 | 0.06 |
| (0.04) | (0.04) | |
| Ukrainian | –0.02 | 0.002 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| German | –0.05 | 0.04 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Latvian/Lithuanian | –0.07 | –0.04 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Tatar | –0.13 | 0.005 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Tajik/Uzbek | –0.13 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Azerbaijani/Chechen | –0.13 | –0.04 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Armenian | –0.14 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Georgian | –0.15 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.04) | |
| Observations | 5,909 | 3,698 |
Linear probability models; standard errors in parentheses. The dependent variable is binary (1 if contacted by employer, 0 if not). All models control for gender, occupation, city, website, and research assistant’s name (coefficients not shown). Cluster-robust standard errors applied (clustered by applicant’s name). Ethnic Russians are the reference group.
P < 0.05;
P < 0.01;
P < 0.001.
Contact rates by ethnic group and location.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the in-group, ethnic Russians, have the highest contact rate—41 per cent. Applicants with Ukrainian, Jewish, and German names have only slightly, and not statistically significantly, lower contact rates. On the other hand, all ethnic groups of non-European Southern origin have significantly lower contact rates, ranging from 26 per cent (Georgians) to 28 per cent (Tatars). Applicants with Latvian and Lithuanian names are in the middle of the list, with a contact rate of 34 per cent. We observe a clear ethnic hierarchy in hiring, where all groups of European origin are given preference compared with Southern groups of non-European origin, most of whom are visible minorities.
In Kazan and Ufa, the response rates are higher than in Moscow and St. Petersburg across all the ethnic groups. This reflects characteristics of the local labour markets. In contrast to the results in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Kazan and Ufa none of the differences in the contact rates between ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups is large or statistically significant. Jewish and German applicants have the highest contact rates, closely followed by ethnic Russians and Tatars, who are contacted by employers with equal frequency. The difference between ethnic Russians and Tatars, on the one hand, and other groups of Southern origin, on the other hand, is only between 2 and 5 percentage points, and not statistically significant. The overall ethnic hierarchy, though, is similar to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and most groups of European origin are contacted more often than most groups of Southern origin, even if the differences in contact rates are smaller.
Overall, we find substantial differences in the ethnic preferences of employers between Moscow and St. Petersburg, on the one hand, and Kazan and Ufa, on the other. In the former, there is strong discrimination against all non-ethnically Russian groups of Southern origin. In the latter, discrimination is much weaker, to the extent that—given our sample size—we cannot be sure that it exists in the population.
Gender Differences in Contact Rates across Ethnic Groups
Do men and women of ethnic minority origin experience discrimination to the same extent? To answer this question, we fit regression models with interaction effects between ethnicity and gender. Our sample size is not large enough to allow for the analysis at the level of individual ethnic groups (split by location) and we combine all ethnic groups into two categories: of European origin (Germans, Jews, Latvians and Lithuanians, ethnic Russians, and Ukrainians) and of non-European origin (Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Chechens, Georgians, Tajiks and Uzbeks, and Tatars). The results are reported in Table 6 .
Interaction between ethnicity and gender
| . | Dependent variable: contacted by employer | |
|---|---|---|
| . | Moscow/ St. Petersburg (1) . | Kazan/Ufa (2) . |
| Ethnic group (ref.: European) | ||
| Southern | –0.07 | –0.02 |
| (0.02) | (0.02) | |
| Gender (ref: female) | ||
| Male | 0.0001 | 0.01 |
| (0.02) | (0.03) | |
| Southern × male | –0.07 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.03) | |
| Observations | 5,909 | 3,698 |
| . | Dependent variable: contacted by employer | |
|---|---|---|
| . | Moscow/ St. Petersburg (1) . | Kazan/Ufa (2) . |
| Ethnic group (ref.: European) | ||
| Southern | –0.07 | –0.02 |
| (0.02) | (0.02) | |
| Gender (ref: female) | ||
| Male | 0.0001 | 0.01 |
| (0.02) | (0.03) | |
| Southern × male | –0.07 | –0.03 |
| (0.03) | (0.03) | |
| Observations | 5,909 | 3,698 |
Linear probability models; standard errors in parentheses. All the models control for occupation, city, website, and research assistant’s name (coefficients not shown). Cluster-robust standard errors applied (clustered by applicant’s name). Groups of European origin and women are the reference groups. European origin includes Germans, Jews, Latvians and Lithuanians, ethnic Russians, and Ukrainians. Non-European origin includes Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Chechens, Georgians, Tajiks and Uzbeks, and Tatars.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, discrimination against men of Southern origin is stronger compared with discrimination against women, and the difference is statistically significant. On average, female applicants from Southern groups are contacted 7 percentage points less often than female applicants from European groups. For male applicants the difference is 14 percentage points. In Kazan and Ufa, we do not find strong evidence of discrimination, and the interaction effect between ethnicity and gender is smaller and not statistically significant.
We conducted a similar analysis for the interaction between ethnicity and occupation, and did not find much evidence that ethnic hierarchies vary across occupations in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Kazan and Ufa, cooks from Southern groups had about the same contact rates as European groups, whereas for skilled occupations (sales manager and computer programmer) the contact rates for Southern groups were lower than for European groups. The details of the analysis are available in the Supplementary Appendix .
Contact on the Phone and on the Websites
In this section, we analyse the communication channels that employers used for contacting applicants. They could do this either on the websites (by sending a message asking an applicant to contact them) or by making a call to an applicant’s mobile phone. By sending a message through the websites employers could avoid initiating a personal conversation with an applicant on the phone. Table 7 reports models that look at the probability of receiving a phone call as opposed to not receiving a call, for those applications that got a positive response.
Contact on the phone and on the websites
| . | Dependent variable: contacted on the phone | |
|---|---|---|
| . | Moscow/ St. Petersburg (1) . | Kazan/ Ufa (2) . |
| Ethnic group (ref.: ethnic Russians) | ||
| Jewish | –0.11 | –0.07 |
| (0.05) | (0.04) | |
| Ukrainian | –0.07 | –0.01 |
| (0.05) | (0.05) | |
| German | –0.12 | 0.06 |
| (0.06) | (0.04) | |
| Latvian/Lithuanian | –0.17 | –0.03 |
| (0.06) | (0.05) | |
| Tatar | –0.18 | –0.02 |
| (0.06) | (0.07) | |
| Tajik/Uzbek | –0.22 | –0.10 |
| (0.05) | (0.05) | |
| Azerbaijani/Chechen | –0.19 | –0.01 |
| (0.05) | (0.06) | |
| Armenian | –0.16 | –0.02 |
| (0.06) | (0.04) | |
| Georgian | –0.17 | –0.02 |
| (0.06) | (0.05) | |
| Observations | 1,927 | 1,548 |
| . | Dependent variable: contacted on the phone | |
|---|---|---|
| . | Moscow/ St. Petersburg (1) . | Kazan/ Ufa (2) . |
| Ethnic group (ref.: ethnic Russians) | ||
| Jewish | –0.11 | –0.07 |
| (0.05) | (0.04) | |
| Ukrainian | –0.07 | –0.01 |
| (0.05) | (0.05) | |
| German | –0.12 | 0.06 |
| (0.06) | (0.04) | |
| Latvian/Lithuanian | –0.17 | –0.03 |
| (0.06) | (0.05) | |
| Tatar | –0.18 | –0.02 |
| (0.06) | (0.07) | |
| Tajik/Uzbek | –0.22 | –0.10 |
| (0.05) | (0.05) | |
| Azerbaijani/Chechen | –0.19 | –0.01 |
| (0.05) | (0.06) | |
| Armenian | –0.16 | –0.02 |
| (0.06) | (0.04) | |
| Georgian | –0.17 | –0.02 |
| (0.06) | (0.05) | |
| Observations | 1,927 | 1,548 |
Notes: Linear probability models; standard errors in parentheses. The sample includes only applications that received a positive response. The dependent variable is 1 if contact was made on the phone and 0 if the phone was not used. The models control for gender, occupation, city, website, and research assistant’s name. Cluster-robust standard errors applied (clustered by applicant’s name). Ethnic Russians are the reference group.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, all ethnic groups are less likely to be contacted on the phone, compared with ethnic Russians. The effect is statistically significant for all groups, except Ukrainians. Even Germans and Jews, two groups that overall are contacted by employers about as often as ethnic Russians, are considerably less likely to receive a phone call (by 11 and 12 percentage points). For all the Muslim groups, the effect is even stronger, and the difference from the phone contact rate with ethnic Russians reaches about 20 percentage points. In Moscow and St. Petersburg many employers try to avoid initiating phone conversations with the members of out-groups, especially Muslim groups of Southern origin. In contrast, in Kazan and Ufa the differences in phone contact rates across ethnic groups are much smaller and none of them is statistically significant at the 95 per cent level.
On the websites, employers could send an optional rejection message to unsuccessful applicants. The message was automatic, impersonal, and only required employers to press a rejection button. We interpret sending a message as a stronger signal of rejection. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the probability of being explicitly rejected is higher for groups of Southern origin (except Tatars) compared with ethnic Russians. We do not observe this effect in Kazan and Ufa. The details of the analysis are available in Supplementary Appendix .
In this article, we answer three questions. First, our findings confirm the predictions derived from the literature on social dominance and ethnic hierarchies ( Hagendoorn, 1995 ; Sidanius and Pratto, 2001 ) showing that the ethnic preferences of Russian employers are structured according to an implicit ethnic hierarchy, with groups of European origin preferred to groups of Southern origin. Our second finding speaks to the literature on intersectionality showing that the strength of discrimination against Southern groups varies by gender, with men from ethnic minority groups experiencing stronger prejudice than women. Finally, we contribute to the study of the group threat and contact hypotheses, showing that ethnic discrimination can vary across places with different ethnic structures of the populations and the history of inter-group contacts. We will now discuss these results separately.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, we find a clear pattern of ethnic discrimination in the job market. Applicants from the groups of European origin receive preferential treatment compared with the groups of Southern origin. As predicted by the theory of ethnic hierarchies, the in-group, ethnic Russians, has the highest contact rate. The contact rates for some other groups of European origin (Germans, Jews, and Ukrainians) are similar to those for ethnic Russians, and the differences between these groups are not statistically significant.
Some of these findings may seem surprising. Antisemitism, both in the general population and in state policies, was a feature of Jewish life in the late Soviet Union, and Jews were discriminated against in higher education and in a number of white-collar occupations ( Pinkus, 1990 ). The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 was followed by large-scale Jewish immigration to Germany, Israel, and the United States. In the 1990s and 2000s, state discrimination against Jews disappeared, and antisemitism in Russian society became less pronounced. In a 2015 survey, only 8 per cent of Russians expressed negative attitudes towards Jews ( Levada, 2016 ; Levinson, 2016 ). Our results confirm these findings.
We collected data in 2017, 3 years after the beginning of the Russian–Ukrainian military conflict that resulted in the annexation of the Crimea and the establishment of pro-Russian military regimes in parts of Eastern Ukraine. The Russian state media closely followed the conflict, with a largely anti-Ukrainian stance. Ukrainian names were well recognized in the survey we conducted. Yet, we do not find evidence of discrimination against Ukrainians, who were contacted by employers about as often as ethnic Russians. Perhaps the explanation is that many ethnic Russians do not see Ukrainians as being from a separate nation and, therefore, do not perceive them as an out-group. Their views on the Ukrainian state are more negative than on the Ukrainian people. In a survey conducted in 2015 in Russia, 43 per cent said that there was no difference at all between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, and another 35 per cent said the differences were minor. Only 3 per cent reported negative attitudes towards Ukrainians (64 per cent reported positive attitudes; Public Opinion Foundation, 2015 ).
For all the groups of Southern origin, the contact rates in Moscow and St. Petersburg are much lower than for ethnic Russians. Among the Southern groups, there is little difference in the contact rates. Partly this can be explained by the inability of HR employees to differentiate between the names of different Muslim groups (as shown in our pre-experiment survey). However, two Christian ethnic groups from the Southern Caucasus, with members whose names are easily recognized by Russians (Armenians and Georgians), have contact rates that are as low as for the Muslim groups. These results show that religion is not the main factor that structures Russia’s ethnic hierarchy. The groups of European origin who are not visible minorities, and are more culturally Russified (or at least are perceived by ethnic Russians as Russified) are rarely discriminated against. In contrast, visible minorities from the South (both Muslim and Christian) are perceived as out-groups and are treated more negatively.
How strong is ethnic discrimination in Russia compared with other countries? In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the odds ratio for all Southern groups compared with ethnic Russians ranged between 0.5 and 0.57. In a recent meta-analysis ( Zschirnt and Ruedin, 2016 ), the average odds ratio across 34 correspondence tests conducted in Western countries was 0.6. In a famous US study ( Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004 ), the odds ratio for African American versus White job applicants was 0.59. Ethnic discrimination in Moscow and St. Petersburg appears to be close to these estimates. Note that the signal of ethnicity in our study is relatively weak: we only randomize applicants’ names and indicate that all applicants are Russian nationals and native Russian speakers. We do not include photographs in the applications. This makes our estimates of discrimination more conservative. In reality, job applicants from ethnic minorities, who sometimes speak Russian with an accent and are not Russian citizens, may face stronger discrimination at the stage of recruitment.
With respect to the interaction between ethnicity and gender, male applicants from discriminated ethnic groups achieve lower contact rates than female applicants. This is consistent with the results from some other experimental studies ( Arai, Bursell and Nekby, 2016 ; Liebkind, Larja and Brylka, 2016 ; Vernby and Dancygier, 2019 ) and contradicts the ‘double disadvantage’ (or intersectionality) hypothesis ( Browne and Misra, 2003 ). 4 According to a meta-analysis of 37 correspondence tests, white men receive 63 per cent more callbacks compared with ethnic minority men, whereas the gap for women is 52 per cent ( Quillian and Nanni, 2018 ). In the social dominance literature, this is known as the subordinate male target hypothesis; this postulates that ethnic discrimination is directed primarily against men from out-groups ( Sidanius and Veniegas, 2000 ; Sidanius and Pratto, 2001 ). While we do not have data to test this empirically, it is likely that in Russia ethnic minority men are perceived by employers as more threatening than women. Russia’s post-Soviet history has seen several ethnic riots that all started after street altercations between young ethnically Russian men and migrants from the Caucasus ( Foxall, 2014 ; Arnold, 2018 ), and popular stereotypes about men from Southern ethnic groups are often related to impulsiveness and aggression ( Bodrunova et al. , 2017 ).
Perhaps the most intriguing finding of the study is the difference in ethnic discrimination between Moscow and St. Petersburg, on the one hand, and Kazan and Ufa, on the other hand. In contrast to the findings in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Kazan and Ufa we do not find much variation in the contact rates across all ethnic groups. In both cities (Kazan and Ufa), ethnic Russians and Tatars are the two largest ethnic groups, and the contact rates for them are very similar. The rates are lower for other groups of Southern origin, but the difference from ethnic Russians and Tatars is small (odds ratios vary between 0.81 and 0.93) and not statistically significant. We believe that this is a unique case, as most previous experimental studies discovered discrimination against minority groups.
Why are the results in Kazan and Ufa different from those in Moscow and St. Petersburg? We only have four cities in this study, and have to combine them pairwise to increase statistical power. With, essentially, only two cases, we are therefore unable to conduct statistical analysis and make any generalizations. We can, however, discuss possible explanations that may be tested in future studies.
One possible explanation is the ethnicity of employers. Perhaps ethnically Russian employers discriminate on the basis of ethnicity and non-Russian employers do not. As Kazan and Ufa have a higher share of the non-Russian population this may reduce discrimination. We think that this is an insufficient explanation for our findings. Both in Kazan and Ufa, ethnic Russians are about 50 per cent of the population. We do not have data on their share among employers, but we were able to estimate the ethnic composition of the group of HR employees who responded to job applications (by coding their first names as ethnically Russian or non-Russian). In Kazan and Ufa, 28 and 23 per cent of the HR employees had non-ethnically Russian names, compared with 7 per cent in Moscow and 4 per cent in St. Petersburg. This suggests that ethnic Russians constitute a majority of employers in Kazan and Ufa. Besides, surveys suggest that at the national level the attitudes towards immigrants from the South, among Tatars, are only marginally more positive than among ethnic Russians ( Bessudnov, 2016 ).
Another possible explanation is related to characteristics of the local labour markets. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the labour markets are more competitive (overall, 33 per cent of the job applications received a positive response) compared with Kazan and Ufa (43 per cent). Perhaps employers have less space for discrimination when the job market is tight and there are fewer applicants. This is the argument proposed by Baert et al. (2015) , who show with data from Belgium that discrimination against Turks only exists in occupations with a larger pool of candidates, and is absent in occupations where vacancies are more difficult to fill. However, this is not what we find in our study. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, cooks had a higher contact rate compared with other occupations, suggesting a less competitive job market for cooks, yet the level of discrimination is similar in all four occupations and is not lower for cooks (see Supplementary Appendix for details).
As in other countries, in Russia, the internet is only one of the channels for job search. Several studies that used data from the 1990s and early 2000s documented the importance of social networks and personal contacts in the Russian labour market ( Yakubovich, 2005 ; Gerber and Mayorova, 2010 ). Since then job search mechanisms have evolved. While personal contacts remain important, in 2014 76 per cent of Russian firms and 49 per cent of job seekers (77 per cent in Moscow and St. Petersburg) used web sites for job search ( Roshchin, Solntsev and Vasilyev, 2017 ). In this respect, Russia is not very different from many Western countries. According to a 2017 survey, 53 per cent of respondents in Russia used internet job sites, compared with 37 per cent in the United States and 40 per cent in Germany ( Sakurai and Okubo, 2017 ). While our experiment was only conducted on the internet, we would expect similar patterns of ethnic preferences to apply to other job search mechanisms ( Pager, Bonikowski and Western, 2009 ) and more generally, other types of social interaction (housing and rental market, ethnic intermarriage, etc.).
One of our arguments, in this article, is that ethnic discrimination in the labour market is driven not so much by rational deliberation by employers, or by local labour market conditions, but rather by underlying ethnic stereotypes that are often implicit and have roots in the history of inter-group relations. We believe that the case of Kazan and Ufa can be better explained by a combination of two factors—ethnic heterogeneity of the population and the system of ethnic federalism. This may also help us resolve a seeming contradiction between predictions made by the contact and group threat theories.
According to the group threat literature, a large out-group population is perceived by ethnic majorities as a threat; therefore, higher ethnic heterogeneity may lead to ethnic animosity and discrimination. This may well be the case in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the level of ethnic discrimination is high. Both cities recently experienced mass migration from the Caucasus and Central Asia, and the ethnic heterogeneity there is largely the result of migration of ethnic groups that are often perceived as subordinate in status. In Kazan and Ufa, the share of non-ethnically Russian population is higher, but historically this is a result of Russian colonization rather than migration of non-Russian ethnic minorities. The population there has been split between ethnic Russians, Tatars, and Bashkirs for several centuries, without major changes happening in living memory. A long history of ethnic coexistence may reduce ethnic threat, both for ethnic Russians and the titular ethnic groups.
The contact theory predicts that more frequent contact between ethnic groups contributes to more positive inter-group relations, and therefore, ethnic mixing may reduce discrimination. What is often forgotten is that according to Allport (1954) , inter-group conflict only ameliorates ethnic conflict under a number of conditions, including equal group status and support by authorities and institutions. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, recent immigrants are often occupationally segregated and work in low-skilled jobs in construction and services ( Lokshin and Chernina, 2013 ). This reduces opportunities for contact with the locals, and when contact occurs it is often in social situations that imply unequal status. In Kazan and Ufa, Tatars and Bashkirs are titular ethnic groups whose special status in the republics is institutionally recognized. Ethnic Russians living in these regions do not have a primordial sense of territorial ownership structured along ethnic lines. Ethnic segregation in the labour market is low, and both ethnic Russians and Tatars are well represented in white-collar occupations, although the share of non-manual workers among ethnic Russians is somewhat larger ( Giuliano, 2011 ). This may create more opportunities for everyday positive contacts between ethnic groups. Survey evidence suggests that the attitudes towards ethnic minorities of immigrant origin are more positive in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan compared with Moscow and St. Petersburg ( Bessudnov, 2016 ).
Most students of ethnic federalism focused their attention on the effects of federalism on separatism ( Erk and Anderson, 2009 ), whereas inter-ethnic attitudes in ethnic autonomous regions remain less widely studied ( Alexseev, 2010 ; Minescu and Poppe, 2011 ). Our results are consistent with the findings from China, where Maurer-Fazio (2012) reported the absence of labour market discrimination against Mongolians in Inner Mongolia and against Uyghurs in Xinjiang (although these results pre-date the recent crackdown on Uyghur nationalism by the Chinese government). However, our argument is stronger, as it is not only titular ethnic groups who are not discriminated against in two of Russia’s ethnic republics but also other non-indigenous groups of immigrant origin.
Given a small number of cases, we should be careful not to over-interpret these findings. Explanations of ethnic discrimination and conflict cannot be mechanically reduced to a few variables ( Brubaker and Laitin, 1998 ). After all, a federal status and a long history of ethnic mixing did not prevent the ethnic massacre in Yugoslavia ( Oberschall, 2000 ). Further studies of the effects, on discrimination, of ethnic autonomy and the ethnic composition of populations, may include a larger sample of Russia’s regions; as well as cases from Western Europe (Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Catalonia, the Basque country), China, India, and ethnic federations in Africa (such as Ethiopia and Nigeria).
Alexey Bessudnov is a Senior Lecturer in quantitative sociology at the University of Exeter. His research interests are ethnic minorities and inequalities in education, in Russia and the UK. His work appeared in the European Sociological Review , the European Journal of Public Health , and other journals.
Andrey Shcherbak is a Deputy Head of the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia. His research interests include ethnicity and nationalism, in particular, in the post-communist countries, and empirical studies of inter-ethnic relations in historical perspective.
In the experiment, we did not use the same names as in the survey, but they were selected using the same methodology.
The Bashkir population outside Bashkortostan is small, and Bashkir names are similar to Tatar ones. Initially, we included in the experiment a smaller number of Bashkir CVs, in Ufa only, but the sample size did not allow us to form any conclusions. We excluded Bashkir applications from all the reported analyses.
1C is a popular Russian software for accounting and enterprise management.
These results refer to hiring decisions only and can be different for gender inequalities in career development and wages.
The data and replication materials for this article are available at https://github.com/abessudnov/ruAuditPublic .
We are grateful to the research assistants who helped us with data collection: Alisa Alieva, Sergey Konontsev, Vladislav Kostin, Anastasia Roud, Pavel Savchenko, and Darya Smirnova. We also thank Jane Elliott; participants in the project ‘Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets’; and participants in seminars and conferences at the following venues, for their comments and questions: University of Oxford; University of Amsterdam; University of Exeter; King’s College London; Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the HSE in St. Petersburg; the HSE April 2018 conference; the Southern Sociological Association 2018 meeting; the American Sociological Association 2018 meeting; and the European Consortium for Sociological Research 2018 conference. The study has been approved by the ethics committees at the University of Exeter and the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
This study has been funded by the British Academy's International Partnership and Mobility grant (PM160023) and additionally supported by the Basic Research Programme at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5–100’.
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Something Has Gone Deeply Wrong at the Supreme Court
Jurists who preach fidelity to the Constitution are making decisions that flatly contradict our founding document’s text and ideals.
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F orget Donald Trump . Forget Joe Biden. Think instead about the Constitution. What does this document, the supreme law of our land, actually say about lawsuits against ex-presidents?
Nothing remotely resembling what Chief Justice John Roberts and five associate justices declared in yesterday’s disappointing Trump v. United States decision. The Court’s curious and convoluted majority opinion turns the Constitution’s text and structure inside out and upside down, saying things that are flatly contradicted by the document’s unambiguous letter and obvious spirit.
Imagine a simple hypothetical designed to highlight the key constitutional clauses that should have been the Court’s starting point: In the year 2050, when Trump and Biden are presumably long gone, David Dealer commits serious drug crimes and then bribes President Jane Jones to pardon him.
Adam Serwer: The Supreme Court puts Trump above the law
Is Jones acting as president, in her official capacity, when she pardons Dealer? Of course. She is pardoning qua president. No one else can issue such a pardon. The Constitution expressly vests this power in the president: “The President … shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States.”
But the Constitution also contains express language that a president who takes a bribe can be impeached for bribery and then booted from office: “The President … shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” And once our hypothetical President Jones has been thus removed and is now ex-President Jones, the Constitution’s plain text says that she is subject to ordinary criminal prosecution, just like anyone else: “In cases of Impeachment … the Party convicted shall … be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”
Obviously, in Jones’s impeachment trial in the Senate, all sorts of evidence is admissible to prove not just that she issued the pardon but also why she did this—to prove that she had an unconstitutional motive , to prove that she pardoned Dealer because she was bribed to do so. Just as obviously, in the ensuing criminal case, all of this evidence surely must be allowed to come in.
But the Trump majority opinion, written by Roberts, says otherwise, proclaiming that “courts may not inquire into the President’s motives.” In a later footnote all about bribery, the Roberts opinion says that criminal-trial courts are not allowed to “admit testimony or private records of the President or his advisers probing the official act itself. Allowing that sort of evidence would invite the jury to inspect the President’s motivations for his official actions and to second-guess their propriety.”
But such an inspection is exactly what the Constitution itself plainly calls for. An impeachment court and, later, a criminal court would have to determine whether Jones pardoned Dealer because she thought he was innocent, or because she thought he had already suffered enough, or because he put money in her pocket for the very purpose of procuring the pardon. The smoking gun may well be in Jones’s diary—her “private records”—or in a recorded Oval Office conversation with Jones’s “advisers,” as was the case in the Watergate scandal. Essentially, the Court in Trump v. United States is declaring the Constitution itself unconstitutional. Instead of properly starting with the Constitution’s text and structure, the Court has ended up repealing them.
In a quid-pro-quo bribery case—money for a pardon—Roberts apparently would allow evidence of the quid (the money transfer) and evidence of the quo (the fact of a later pardon) but not evidence of the pro: evidence that the pardon was given because of the money, that the pardon was motivated by the money. This is absurd.
In the oral argument this past April, one of the Court’s best jurists posed the issue well: “Giving somebody money isn’t bribery unless you get something in exchange, and if what you get in exchange is [an] official act … how does [the case] go forward?” The answer, of course, is by allowing evidence of all three legs of the bribery stool—the quid (the money), the quo (the official act), and the pro (the unconstitutional and vicious motive). Yet Roberts’s majority opinion entirely misses the thrust of this oral-argument episode.
Claire Finkelstein and Richard W. Painter: Trump’s presidential-immunity theory is a threat to the chain of command
This is astonishing, because the impressive jurist who shone in this oral exchange was none other than the chief justice himself. John Roberts, meet John Roberts.
And please meet the John Roberts who has long believed that the judiciary shouldn’t be partisan. Over the course of his career, Roberts has repeatedly said that there are no Republican justices or Democratic justices, no Trump justices or Obama justices or Biden justices—there are just justices, period. Yet the Court in Trump v. United States split along sharply partisan lines—six Republican appointees, three of whom were named to the Court by Trump himself, versus three Democratic appointees. Roberts failed to pull these sides together.
This is precisely the opposite of what happened in the celebrated decision United States v. Nixon , also known as the Nixon-tapes case, in which the Court—including three justices appointed by Richard Nixon himself—issued a unanimous no-man-is-above-the-law ruling against the president. (A fourth Nixon appointee—William Rehnquist, for whom a young Roberts later clerked—recused himself.) The opinion also made clear that presidential conversations with top aides are indeed admissible when part of a criminal conspiracy.
Yesterday’s liberal dissenters came much closer to the constitutional mark, but they, too, made mistakes. Their biggest blunder in Trump was relying on a 1982 case, Nixon v. Fitzgerald , that simply invented out of whole cloth broad immunity for ex-presidents in civil cases. If liberal precedents lacking strong roots in the Constitution, such as Roe v. Wade , are fair game for conservatives, then mistaken conservative precedents ought to be fair game for liberals. Fitzgerald made stuff up, and the liberals should have said so.
No one is above the law—or, at least, no one should be. Not presidents, not ex-presidents, and not justices either. Because the Constitution itself is our highest law, jurists across the spectrum must prioritize that document’s letter and spirit above all else. In Trump v. United States , the Court failed to do this and also failed to live up to America’s highest ideals: nonpartisan justice and the rule of law.
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To help your students analyze these primary sources, get a graphic organizer and guides: Analysis Tool and Guides
For more than a century after the Civil War, a system of laws and practices denied full freedom and citizenship to African Americans, segregating nearly all aspects of public life.
Historical Background
In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation symbolically established a national intent to eradicate slavery in the United States. Decades of state and federal legislation around civil rights followed. In January of 1865, the 13th amendment to the Constitution officially abolished slavery in this country, while the 14th amendment, passed in 1866, set forth three principles:
- All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. were citizens for the nation and no state could make or enforce any law that would abridge their rights of citizenship.
- No state could deny any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.
- No state could deny any person equal protection of the laws.
Finally, the 15th amendment, passed in 1869, outlawed the denial of voting rights due to race, color, or past servitude.
However, immediately after the Civil War ended, some states began imposing restrictions on the daily lives of African Americans, whether they were survivors of slavery or had always been free. By the end of the 19th century, laws or informal practices that required that African Americans be segregated from whites were often called Jim Crow practices, believed to be a reference to a minstrel-show song, "Jump Jim Crow."
With the Compromise of 1877, political power was returned to Southern whites in nearly every state of the former Confederacy. The federal government abandoned attempts to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments in many parts of the country. By 1890, when Mississippi added a disfranchisement provision to its state constitution, the legalization of Jim Crow had begun.
Jim Crow was not enacted as a universal, written law of the land. Instead, a patchwork of state and local laws, codes, and agreements enforced segregation to different degrees and in different ways across the nation. In many towns and cities, ordinances designated white and black neighborhoods, while in others covenants and unwritten agreements among real estate interests maintained residential segregation. African Americans were denied the right to vote by onerous poll taxes, unfairly applied tests, and other unjust barriers. The signs we associate today with Jim Crow – "Whites Only," "Colored"– appeared at bus stations, water fountains and rest rooms, as well as at the entrances and exits to public buildings. Hotels, movie theaters, arenas, night clubs, restaurants, churches, hospitals, and schools were segregated, and interracial marriages outlawed. Segregation was not limited to African Americans, but often applied to other non-white Americans.
Segregation was often maintained by uniformed law enforcement. In other instances, it was enforced by armed white mobs and violent attacks by anonymous vigilantes. African Americans resisted these pervasive restrictions using many different strategies, from public advocacy and political activism to individual self-defense and attempts to escape to a better life. In the century following the end of Reconstruction, millions of African Americans moved away from the South in what became known as the Great Migration, only to discover that they faced discrimination in the northern states.
In the middle of the twentieth century, generations of resistance to segregation culminated in the Civil Rights movement, in which African Americans launched widespread demonstrations and other public protests to demand the rights and protections provided by the Constitution. As a result, a series of landmark court cases and new legislation in the 1950s and 60s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, relegated many of the Jim Crow laws and practices of the previous century to the dustbin of history. The impact of a century of segregation can still be felt today, and, although the specific segregation policies of the 19th and 20th centuries have been discredited, voices calling for equal rights for all can still be heard today.
Suggestions for Teachers
Select one primary source that reflects racial segregation and ask your students to consider segregation from multiple perspectives. How would they react if they were excluded? How would they feel if they were not excluded? What would they do if they were asked to enforce the rule or law?
Ask students to analyze several primary sources that express or illustrate views in favor of Jim Crow segregation. What are some of the ways that proponents of segregation make it sound like a benefit -- either to whites, to African Americans, or to both? Invite them to explore what is meant by the term “separate but equal.” and how is this concept related to the arguments?
Ask students to compare and contrast several primary sources that express or illustrate opposition to Jim Crow segregation. What were some of the different justifications given for abolishing Jim Crow? What different methods – or approaches – of opposition can you identify? Brainstorm other forms of protest not shown in the primary sources and look for examples in either historical collections or the media of today.
Additional Resources
"With and Even Hand": Brown v. Board at Fifty
Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination
African American Photos for the Paris Exposition of 1900
Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom
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Pay for Lawyers Is So High People Are Comparing It to the N.B.A.
Enormous pay packages are popping up for top lawyers, especially those favored by well-heeled private equity clients.
Credit... Guillem Casasús
Supported by
By Maureen Farrell and Anupreeta Das
- Published July 1, 2024 Updated July 2, 2024
Hotshot Wall Street lawyers are now so in demand that bidding wars between firms for their services can resemble the frenzy among teams to sign star athletes.
Eight-figure pay packages — rare a decade ago — are increasingly common for corporate lawyers at the top of their game, and many of these new heavy hitters have one thing in common: private equity.
In recent years, highly profitable private equity giants like Apollo, Blackstone and KKR have moved beyond company buyouts into real estate, private lending, insurance and other businesses, amassing trillions of dollars in assets. As their demand for legal services has skyrocketed, they have become big revenue drivers for law firms.
This is pushing up lawyers’ pay across the industry, including at some of Wall Street’s most prestigious firms, such as Kirkland & Ellis; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Davis Polk; Latham & Watkins; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Lawyers with close ties to private equity increasingly enjoy pay and prestige similar to those of star lawyers who represent America’s blue-chip companies and advise them on high-profile mergers, takeover battles and litigation.
Numerous people compared it to a star-centric system like the N.B.A., but others worried that higher and higher pay had gotten out of hand and could strain the law firms forced to stretch their budgets to keep talent from leaving.
“Twenty million dollars is the new $10 million,” said Sabina Lippman, a partner and co-founder of the legal recruiter Lippman Jungers. In the past few years, at least 10 law firms have spent — or acknowledged to Ms. Lippman that they need to spend — around $20 million a year or more to lure the highest-profile lawyers.
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Notice of Segregation of Public Land for the Samantha Solar Project, White Pine County, Nevada
A Notice by the Land Management Bureau on 07/08/2024
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Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior.
Notice of segregation.
Through this notice the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is segregating public lands for the Samantha Solar project right-of-way application from appropriation under the public land laws, including the Mining Law, but not the Mineral Leasing or Material Sales Acts, for a period of 2 years from the date of publication of this notice, subject to valid existing rights. This segregation is to allow for the orderly administration of the public lands to facilitate consideration of development of renewable energy resources. The public lands segregated by this notice total 4,810.00 acres.
This segregation for the lands identified in this notice is effective on July 8, 2024.
Jared Bybee, Field Manager, at telephone (775) 289-1847; address 702 N Industrial Way, Ely, NV 89301 or email [email protected] . Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services for contacting Mr. Collins. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.
Regulations found at 43 CFR 2091.3-1(e) and 2804.25(f) allow the BLM to temporarily segregate public lands within a right-of-way application area for solar energy development from the operation of the public land laws, including the Mining Law, by publication of a Federal Register notice. The BLM uses this temporary segregation authority to preserve its ability to approve, approve with modifications, or deny proposed rights-of-way, and to facilitate the orderly administration of the public lands. This temporary segregation is subject to valid existing rights, including existing mining claims located before this segregation notice. Licenses, permits, cooperative agreements, or discretionary land use authorizations of a temporary nature that would not impact lands identified in this notice may be allowed with the approval of an authorized officer of the BLM during the segregation period. The lands segregated under this notice are legally described as follows:
T. 16 N., R. 60 E.,
Sec. 1, lots 1, 2, 7 thru 11, SW 1/4 NE 1/4 , and W 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 2, S 1/2 SW 1/4 and SW 1/4 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 10, E 1/2 NE 1/4 and E 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 11, N 1/2 , SW 1/4 , N 1/2 SE 1/4 , and SW 1/4 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 12, lots 1 thru 4, W 1/2 NE 1/4 , and W 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 13, lots 1 thru 4, W 1/2 NE 1/4 , NE 1/4 NW 1/4 , S 1/2 NW 1/4 , N 1/2 SW 1/4 , SE 1/4 SW 1/4 , and W 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 14, W 1/2 NE, W 1/2 , and NW 1/4 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 15, E 1/2 NE 1/4 and E 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 22, E 1/2 NE 1/4 and E 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 23, W 1/2 NE 1/4 and NW 1/4 ;
Sec. 24, lots 1 thru 4, W 1/2 NE 1/4 , E 1/2 NW 1/4 , E 1/2 SW 1/4 and W 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
Sec. 25, lots 1 thru 4, W 1/2 NE 1/4 , E 1/2 NW 1/4 , NE 1/4 SW 1/4 and W 1/2 SE 1/4 ;
T. 17 N., R. 60 E.,
Sec. 36, SW 1/4 NE 1/4 , SE 1/4 NW 1/4 , E 1/2 SW 1/4 , and SE 1/4 ;
T. 16 N., R. 61 E.,
Sec. 18, lots 3 and 4;
Sec. 19, lots 1 thru 4;
Sec. 30, lots 1 thru 4.
The area described contains 4,810.00 acres, according to the official protraction diagrams and the official plats of the surveys of the said lands, on file with the BLM.
As provided in the regulations, the segregation of lands in this notice will not exceed 2 years from the date of publication unless extended for an additional 2 years through publication of a new notice in the Federal Register . The segregation period will terminate and the land will automatically reopen to appropriation under the public land laws, including the Mining Law, at the earliest of the following dates: upon issuance of a decision by the authorized officer granting, granting with modifications, or denying the application for a right-of-way; automatically at the end of the segregation; or upon publication of a Federal Register notice terminating the segregation.
Upon termination of the segregation of these lands, all lands subject to this segregation would automatically reopen to appropriation under the public land laws, including the Mining Law.
Authority: 43 CFR 2091.3 -l(e) and 43 CFR 2804.25(f) .
Tiera Arbogast,
Acting Deputy District Manager—Ely District.
[ FR Doc. 2024-14906 Filed 7-5-24; 8:45 am]
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Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the ...
Jim Crow law, in U.S. history, any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel routine (actually Jump Jim Crow) performed beginning in 1828 by its author, Thomas Dartmouth ("Daddy") Rice ...
The massive effort to desegregate public schools across the United States was a major goal of the Civil Rights Movement. Since the 1930s, lawyers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had strategized to bring local lawsuits to court, arguing that separate was not equal and that every child, regardless of race, deserved a first-class education. These ...
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the ...
When southern legislatures passed laws of racial segregation directed against African Americans at the end of the 19th century, these statutes became known as Jim Crow laws. ... Ronald L. F. Davis - A series of essays on the history of Jim Crow. Archive index at the Wayback Machine. Creating Jim Crow - Origins of the term and system of laws.
Jim Crow segregation was a way of life that combined a system of anti-black laws and race-prejudiced cultural practices. The term "Jim Crow" is often used as a synonym for racial segregation, particularly in the American South.The Jim Crow South was the era during which local and state laws enforced the legal segregation of white and black citizens from the 1870s into the 1960s.
Articles and Essays. The March on Washington For many Americans, the calls for racial equality and a more just society emanating from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, deeply affected their views of racial segregation and intolerance in the nation. Since the occasion of March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 50 years ago ...
As segregation tightened and racial oppression escalated across the U.S., black leaders joined white reformers to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Early in its fight for equality, the NAACP used federal courts to challenge segregation. Job opportunities were the primary focus of the National Urban League.
Racial segregation has appeared in all parts of the world where there are multiracial communities, except where racial amalgamation occurred on a large scale as in Hawaii and Brazil.In such countries there has been occasional social discrimination but not legal segregation. In the Southern states of the United States, on the other hand, legal segregation in public facilities was current from ...
For inspiration, read Erin Aubrey Kaplan's op-ed essay, "School Choice Is the Enemy of Justice," which links a contemporary debate with the author's personal experience of school segregation.
Segregation is the practice of requiring separate housing, education and other services for people of color. Segregation was made law several times in 19th- and 20th-century America as some ...
While school desegregation cases are perhaps the best known examples of the Supreme Court's treatment of racial segregation under the Equal Protection Clause, the Court has struck down forced separation based on race in many other contexts. Indeed, the Court struck down several segregation laws before its landmark 1954 decision in Brown v
Jim Crow Laws. The segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as "Jim Crow" represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a ...
Segregation laws legally separated the races in public facilities, including trains, schools, churches, and hotels. These " Jim Crow " laws humiliated Blacks with a public badge of inferiority. Black members of Congress Robert B. Elliott and James T. Rapier made eloquent speeches in support of legislation to protect African Americans ...
My View of Segregation Laws. by Booker T. Washington. December 02, 1915. Edited and introduced by Peter C. Myers. Image: The New York Times. Booker T. Washington delivering his speech. 1906. Public Domain. Study Questions. Does the position Washington took in this later essay signify a substantive departure from the position he took in his ...
The Supreme Court's 1883 ruling in In the 1880s legislation strengthened segregation in the South. By the 1890s it had become entrenched. the Civil Rights Cases spurred states to enact segregation laws. Between 1887 and 1892, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and ...
Segregation contradicts what most students have learned about American freedom and democracy. Textbooks locate segregation's origins in Southern disenfranchisement laws of the 1890s and highlight the Supreme Court's 1896 "separate but equal" ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. The majority of African Americans still lived in the South and worked as ...
Segregation laws were made to encourage lower class white people to keep thinking that they were better than black people, so that they wouldn't form alliances with black people to overtake the upper-class whites. ... As seen from the essay, the impact of Jim Crow laws ensured racism that affected African Americans in every aspect of their ...
The project records and preserves the living memory of African American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South from the 1890s to the 1950s. It is the largest single collection of Jim Crow-era oral histories in the world: visitors to the site can listen to over 175 hours of recordings. ... Papers of the ACLU, ...
World War II ended in 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union had cooperated to defeat Nazi Germany, but they mistrusted each other. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, believed the Americans had waited too long before launching the D-Day invasion of France in 1944, leaving his people to bear the full brunt of the German war machine.
To view the full transcript of this episode, read below: Peter Robinson: In Birmingham, Alabama, 60 years ago, black students, some still in elementary school, marched for an end to segregation. They were met with police dogs, fire hoses, and handcuffs. Today, three people who can remember those events because they themselves were students right here in Birmingham.
The 74 reports on loopholes, laws and lack of protections allowing Black, brown, low-income students to be excluded from America's most coveted schools.
Essay Example: In April 1963 the city of Birmingham Alabama became the unlikely site of one of the most important documents in the American civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. detained for participating in nonviolent protests against racial segregation composed a letter from his
Looking forward and back as the Civil Rights Act turns 60 The law ended segregation, extended lives and improved public education. Its full promise remains unrealized, activists say.
In his famous essay, Blumer (1958) ... WWI and the 1917 revolution marked the end of the Pale of Settlement (a law that banned Jews from settling outside the western parts of the empire), and thereafter many Jews moved to the cities in Central Russia. ... Ethnic segregation in the labour market is low, ...
Mr. Tribe taught constitutional law at Harvard for 50 years. On Monday the Supreme Court dispensed with the rule of law by effectively depriving the American people of crucial information we ...
No one is above the law —or, at least, no one should be . Not presidents, not ex-presidents, and not justices either. Because the Constitution itself is our highest law, jurists across the ...
By 1890, when Mississippi added a disfranchisement provision to its state constitution, the legalization of Jim Crow had begun. Jim Crow was not enacted as a universal, written law of the land. Instead, a patchwork of state and local laws, codes, and agreements enforced segregation to different degrees and in different ways across the nation.
In the past few years, at least 10 law firms have spent — or acknowledged to Ms. Lippman that they need to spend — around $20 million a year or more to lure the highest-profile lawyers.
Start Preamble AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior. ACTION: Notice of segregation. SUMMARY: Through this notice the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is segregating public lands for the Samantha Solar project right-of-way application from appropriation under the public land laws, including the Mining Law, but not the Mineral Leasing or Material Sales Acts, for a period ...