Cold war and the African American Civil Rights movement are among the most notable events in shaping the politics of the United States in the twentieth century. The United States which believed in the capitalist form of economic system engaged in a struggle with the Soviet Union that supported communism, each political power wanted to influence the nations in the third world to give their support thus leading to the breakout of the cold war. Great ideological struggles between the United States and the Soviet Union to gain power and influence over the emerging nations in the third world led to the strength of the political position of the African American in the United States. The continued struggle and disloyalty of a part of the American citizens during the cold war led to the disintegration which was one of the primary aims of the American Civil Rights Movement. The impact of the Cold War on the movement will be discussed in relation to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee article, the annotation on Roosevelt and Churchill release the Atlantic Charter, Speech in defence of the 1938 Munich agreement, the Stock Market Crash of October 1929, and the Proposal for U.S. aid to reconstruct post-World War II Europe.
The greatest and most significant impact of the cold was experienced when several black people who associated with the local movement became the members and sympathetic to the communists; the rivals of the United States. The Civil Rights Movement was started to facilitate equality among blacks and white. The promotion of segregation that led to discrimination against the minorities made African Americans bitter and supporters of communism as a way of making the American government respond to their demands (Peace in our Time Speech, 1938). The Civil Right Movement was a big challenge for America as it could not succeed in pursuing other nations to join them in spreading and adopting capitalism while a part of the country was really against it. Therefore, it called for the president to fix the challenge as it gave the Soviet Union a competitive advantage over the United States.
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In the 1930s, people like Paul Robeson who was an actor, singer, and at the same time, a great vocalist of the communism started spreading the information about communism among the disenfranchised blacks on the south. The campaigners were in support of promoting civil rights and human dignity that they considered possible through communism. Communists even helped to resolve the issues regarding the two black boys who kissed a white girl on the cheek found it a matter of class than color and race. The minorities in America were made the subject class in terms of their color; thus considered less critical than the whites. African American referred to communism as brotherhood due to the concern of the party on them.
The presence of the black people in the communist party in the United States presented a threat to it as a capitalist superpower. America was afraid of the spread and growth of the communism in the country if the number of African Americans in the party continued to rise. The support and especially from the significant African figures like the Boxer Mohammed Ali during Vietnam was a considerable concern for America. It had to come up with a way to prevent communism from growing as it would have eventually become insured against capitalism (Guzman & Hughes, 1941). For that reason, the government considered it essential to agree with the African Americans concerning their civil rights. Nonetheless, it was still impossible to embrace integration until in 1964 through the Civil Rights Act.
Both the USA and the Soviet Union wanted to dominate the world with their ideologies of the economic systems. Thus the competition of the two superpowers to gain the favor and support of the other nations in the world. In this case, the Soviet Union was able to criticize the argument of the US who were in support of democracy while at the same time mistreating people of color in the country. The Soviet Union used the evidence to gain support from the non-white countries where he told them that America did not respect black people like them. This increased points and loyalty for the US rivalry. In response to the issue, America, which naturally wanted to win the war against the Soviet Union had many of the political leaders in support of the Civil Rights (Stock Market Crash of 1929). They did more than they would have done if the matter were purely a domestic issue. America knew that the continued support of the communist ideology was the most significant struggle as the Black American gave the Soviet Union their support and loyalty.
Lack of fundamental civil rights among the millions of the African American citizens was used as a stick for beating the US. Soviet Union argument was that it was impossible for America to consider itself democratic and urge people to join them while in the real sense it is not practicing the democracy to its people. It was up to the undisputed leaders needed to show commitment and their support for freedom by promoting the Civil Movement before embarking on asking for assistance from other people. If it was right and democratic as it argues, there should be no cases of discrimination in the nation. In America, Black people were treated with less dignity and respect than whites.
For instance, they did not have the right to participate in voting activities to elect the leaders. Segregation was rampant where African Americans were not supposed to interact with the whites thus leading to the discrimination on the whites as a minority community. The establishment of the Civil Rights Movement was a way of the African Americans to fight for their rights. The movement was in support of the prominent leaders like Martin Luther King, and other religious organizations. Student organizations were organized to conduct nonviolent demonstrations against the segregation in America. According to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, integration is the first step towards embracing democracy. African Americans did not believe that the United States could not resolve the matter as the idea to enhance integration had been bounced. The minorities in America understood that lack of support from them would lead to its rival Society Union winning the war. Therefore, America could do all it takes to fulfil or negotiate the demands of non-discriminating individuals. The cold war increased the resistance of the African Americans as they understood how much America needed to win and become the superpower
The United States, through rage information Agency, tried to present a practice narrative on the American race relations to the rest of the world. The union seeks to ensure that the Soviet Union did not get an advantage and spread the propaganda against America by giving people the benefits of democracy as it eases the problem-solving process in the United States. However, this were all not reflected on the treatment of the government to the African American leaders like Paul Robeson and WEB Dubois who were intimidated and their passports confiscated to prevent them from going out of the country to support communism (Roosevelt and Churchill release the Atlantic Charter, 1938). They were threats thus prevented from presenting what they considered their version and state of the relationships between the American races to the international audience. President Kennedy’s primary focus was on the cold war and thus tried against all the odds to ensure that the government had the support of the African Americans due to their significant influence.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act which was in support of the demands presented by the Civil Rights Movement had the most significant impact influence on the general opinion. With the emotional relief and campaign from the USIA, they were able to convince the majority of the people that the democracy had indeed work. Offering the African American citizens the right to vote as they demanded was an indication that American was for the good of all people. Despite the ideology not being in a position change the more significant issue of the economy, the fact that restarting the economic status of the country was not among the promises of the ideology helped it to succeed in appealing them.
Conclusively, the cold war and the civil right movement are among the events that shaped American political history. Cold war, which entails the period of struggle and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union as the superpowers in controlling and influencing other nations accelerated the spirit of the African Americans in fighting for the civil rights and equality. Blacks in America were discriminated and treated with differentiation as compared to whites. In this case, African Americans in the United States needed to provoke America which was desperately in need of controlling the world as capitalist. The support of communism was quite a blow for the United States as the Soviet Union used the race relations to turn other nations against America. America had to option but to put the demands of the Americans as a movement into consideration by allowing them to obtain the voting right as the rest of the white citizens.
References
Guzman, J. P., & Hughes, W. H. (1941). Lynching-Crime. Negro year book: A review of events affecting Negro life , 1946 , 302-319.
Roosevelt and Churchill release the Atlantic Charter. (1941). Digital History. Accessed from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=4076
Peace in our Time Speech given in Defense of the Munich Agreement 1938. Retrieved from https://astro.temple.edu/~rimmerma/peace_in_our_time_speech_given_i.htm
The Twenties in the Contemporary Commentary: Stock Market Crash of 1929: a collected commentary. Accessed from http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/prosperity/text4/colcommentarycrash.pdf
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox. The Making of African American Identity. Accessed from http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/protest/text2/snccstatementofpurpose.pdf
