Although the South failed to stop Truman from trying to create equal rights, it can be argued that Truman himself was responsible for the failures of civil rights campaigns. His report “To secure these rights” managed to highlight the problems facing African Americans, but it failed to actually create any solutions for the problem. Furthermore his FEPC was underfunded and like “to secure these rights” could force industries to make changes. This is again due to the south’s opposition which prevented Truman making any real changes other than to highlight the inequality. Therefore this shows that Truman himself could have led to the civil rights failures, as while he committed himself to the campaign he allowed southern opposition get in the way of his reforms. This in turn meant that the reforms he did manage to introduce weren’t comprehensive enough to deal with the inequality between African Americans and white people such as his flawed FEPC.
Another reason for the failure of the civil rights campaigns was the ineffective methods of protest. There are limited examples of picketing. In 1947 NAACP’s supporters picketed in New Orleans in front of department stores for refusing to allow African Americans trying on hats. However the protests were small and their lack of organisation led to little change. This caused the civil rights campaigns to fail as what few protests there were lacked the staying power to demand real change. Therefore this made it very easy for the people being criticised to ignore African Americans demands as there was no continual pressure for changes in civil rights to be made. Furthermore the problem of few pickets was made worse by the closing down of NAACPs offices in the south. This caused more failures for the civil rights campaign’s as the NAACP who had organised the New Orleans protest were now unable to organize any protests at all.
The most ineffective method of protest was that of COREs journey of reconciliation. White citizens sat in black areas and vice versa showed that the decision of 1946 Morgan V Virginia banning segregation on interstate busses was not being carried out. While the protest highlighted that while African Americans had de jure rights they didn’t enjoy them in practise. However on the other hand this could be responsible for the failures of civil rights campaigns as like NAACPs protests it failed to force southern states to actually make desegregation on interstate busses a de facto change.
Legal factors were also an important cause for the failures of the civil rights campaigns. While African Americans had progressed with the help of the NAACP these only amounted to de jure victories. Plessey V Ferguson had been overturned by the supreme court saying that separate but equal was against the constitution, yet it was still being practised throughout America, especially in the racist south. This was a major cause for failure in the civil rights campaigns, as despite African Americans being given more rights they didn’t actually get to enjoy them. Even though the changes were legal southern states failed to implement them and African Americans who did try to enjoy them such as COREs protesters were just arrested. This meant that African Americans were still in the same position facing segregation as they had been before the supreme courts overruling.
Opposition from the south also made legal changes such as 1954 Brown V Board of education fail to help the civil rights campaign. The Supreme Court decided that segregation in schools was wrong as while the court had previously argued that separate but equal was ok, yet students were not receiving an equal education. Yet in 1957 the governor Faubus of little Rock had the National Guard block nine black students from entering Central High because he didn’t want to integrate the schools. President Eisenhower heard of this and sent Federal Troops to protect the nine black students. The little rock campaign clearly shows how legal factors caused failures in the civil rights campaign. The fact that legal changes weren’t made de facto allowed the south to continue to oppose desegregation. Like with the political factors, although the south couldn’t prevent African Americans from gaining civil rights, they made it extremely difficult for black people to enjoy them.
The civil rights campaigns also failed because of the widespread nature of discrimination. The KKK, a white supremacy group was widely supported in the south by citizens and law enforcement. In the case of Emmett Till, a 14 year old black boy who was brutally assaulted and murdered for flirting with a white woman the police failed to prosecuted his murder. This caused civil rights to fail as the racist group the KKK instilled terror within the African American community, who wouldn’t even try to enjoy similar rights as white people for fear of being attacked or lynched, since black citizens realised they would get no protection from the police.
Furthermore racial etiquette still remained firmly in the south. This meant that African Americans were unable to vote in the south due to the grandfather clause and Literacy testing. While this was less of a limit on the civil rights campaign than the KKK was, it was still important. This is because while the Supreme Court said all citizens get a vote, the south still found ways to prevent African Americans from getting this right as another method to keep black people as second class citizens. Again African Americans were still only experiencing de jure victories because of discrimination despite it being illegal.
To conclude I believe that opposition from politicians was the most important reason for the failures of the civil rights campaigns between 1945 - 1955. This is because despite not being able to prevent African Americans from gaining civil rights they did manage to limit it greatly. In the Brown case, despite the supreme court deeming segregation in schools against the constitution, southern politicians such as Governor Faubus still refused to implement desegregation, only then giving black citizens rights when the federal army was called in. Furthermore southern politicians in congress made sure policies advancing civil rights didn’t get through, and therefore the ones that were put in place didn’t go far enough to deal with the inequality throughout America. However Legal factors such as de jure victories not being made into de facto changes also severely hindered the civil rights campaign. This is because although African Americans were finally been granted the same rights as white people by the Supreme Court, they were still unable to enjoy them. The racist south, where discrimination was widespread found ways such as the grandfather clause and literacy tests keep black people as second class citizens as opposed to equals. This when paired with racist groups such as the KKK kept African Americans down through terror making black citizens less likely to campaign for their rights as seen in the lack of protests during 1945 – 1955.