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Government and Presidents - Coggle Diagram
Government and Presidents
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-Lincoln
Issued Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 which freed all slaves in the Confederacy
Fugitive Slave Act repealed, which meant escaped slaves would no longer need to be returned to their owner
Slavery Abolished by the 13th amendment
this was made law in all states in the U.S and so ALL slaves were abolished
didn't actually believe in equal rights for AAs, only that they didn't deserve to be slaves
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
he was openly against the unequal rights for AAs and even invited Booker T. Washington to dinner in the white house
However he did believe AAs were intellectually inferior to whites
Franklin D Roosevelt (1933-1945)
Issued Executive Order 8802 in 1941 which issued the Fair Employment Practice Committee
and also banned discrimination against AAs in the workplace
FEPC was eventually dissolved in 1946 after funding was cut off by congress
FEPC was initially a failure because the entire defense industry refused to accept it, but was successful in the end since after WW2 AAs held 8% of jobs in defense industry compared to 3% before the war
also 200,000 AAs held government jobs, although they were unskilled and low paying they were still jobs
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/franklin-d-roosevelt-and-race-relations
Harry Truman (1945-1953)
Issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 which ensured equal treatment for AAs in federal jobs
Truman was influenced by the lynchings in south U.S to become president and he addressed the NAACP and made strong public statements on civil rights on behalf of AAs
he endorsed a strong civil rights platform at the 1948 democratic national convention
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/franklin-d-roosevelt-and-race-relations
Dwight D Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Appointed Earl Warren to Chief Justice of Supreme Court in 1953 which allowed for subsequent civil rights progress
court ruling on Brown v Board of Education
used military power to protect AA students attending Little Rock's Central High School
called for passage of civil rights bill 1957 which, despite being watered down by the senate, established the civil rights section of the justice department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote
significant because it kickstarted civil rights legislation and was also the first civil rights act since the 1875 civil righs act
https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/struggle-civil-rights
John F Kennedy (1961-1963)
although reluctant to boost the civil rights too much (due to risk of losing southern support) he still made good progress for the civil rights movement by appointing an unprecedented number of AAs to high-level positions in the administration
spoke out in favour of desegregation in schools
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/civil-rights-movement
To protect students trying to enlist at the university of Alabama, Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard
allowed marshal intervention to protect freedom riders
Addressed the nation on tv in 1963 to address the issues with racial inequalities in U.S
Lyndon B Johnson (1963-1969)
https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/content/CivilRights
worked towards the passage of the civil rights act 1957
very effective in fight to end jim crow laws
he worked tirelessly to pass the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965 which ended jim crow laws and helped allow AAs to vote
Civil Rights Act 1866 guaranteed equal rights for all those under U.S jurisdiction
14th Amendment issued which prohibited states from denying civil rights to anybody without due process of law and also guaranteed citizenship for all those born or neutralized in the U.S