(THE PICKET)—The modern civil rights movement has been hampered by the lack of discussion on economic rights, which stems from the Cold War, a Shepherd University professor said Tuesday, Oct. 6, in a speech.
“What happens in this Cold War era shapes race relations today. I think the civil rights movement we end up with is very limited, it’s very narrow, and it doesn’t include, importantly, economic rights, and that’s because to talk about economic rights means you’re a communist,” said Dr. Julia Sandy, professor of history. “So I think that the more radical and economic part of the civil rights movement gets totally stripped out because of the Cold War, and it has an impact on what we’re going through today.”
Dr. Sandy said race relations were improved by the war effort in the early 1940s.
Though the military was still segregated, the war effort spurred many black Americans to migrate from the rural South to the industrialized North and Midwest.
The federal government tried to paint a rosy picture of American race relations, depicting boxer Joe Louis in military regalia and a caption stating “Private Joe Louis says we’re going to do our part, and we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.”
At the same time, the wheels were set in motion for another union of nations to replace the failed League of Nations of the post-World War I era. Black activists in the United States saw the United Nations as an opportunity to further their cause of civil and political rights. However, the UN’s ability to take the United States to task for racial discrimination was hindered by its own Charter, which forbade itself from intervening in the domestic affairs of member states.
Dr. Sandy also discussed the American racial climate of the mid-20th century in the context of the Cold War. Initially, black activists who argued for economic rights instead of simply civil rights were looked on as suspect, especially among the growing Red Scare and persecution of communists.
Their cause was not helped by the Soviet Union’s support of a 150-page document filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) alleging an anti-democratic climate in the American South that was more of a threat to the United States than the Soviet Union.
Furthering the issue of racism in America affecting its reputation abroad, the landmark 1955 Brown v. Board of Education decision was also framed through a Cold War lens. The Department of Justice admitted after the ruling that America’s reputation as a racist country embarrassed the nation and cast doubt on its status as the moral paragon of the world.
Mike Morris is a staff writer for the Picket. He can be reached at mmorri12@rams.shepherd.edu or on Twitter @adelelcoolj.