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| Post
War Civil Rights Movement
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The end of the World War II marked the new period in the
history of the US and the civil rights movement. At the same
time, it was an extremely contradictive epoch where the awakening
of civil rights consciousness confronted the strong opposition
from the part of the state and conservative circles.
First of all, it should be pointed out that World War II made
human life and freedom really important notions to the extent
that human rights became the primary concern of the world
community which treated them as the main and universal value.
In fact, it was obvious that the violation of civil rights
was one of the basic cause that led to World War II that was
the greatest tragedy in the world history and the US played
an important role in the struggle for civil rights, freedom
and democracy. On the other hand, the actual situation with
civil rights in the US was still far from ideal, though civil
rights movement had started to grow in power.
One of the main problems of the post war civil rights movement
was the anti-communist policy of the state which threatened
to civil rights of many Americans and undermined the basic
principles of democracy. The fear of the communist threat
was the result of the fact that the USSR became the only real
opponent of the US in the international arena since Germany
as well as Europe at large was ruined by the war.
Naturally, in such circumstances a new wave of social paranoia
and anti-communist movement overwhelmed the whole country.
However, the main ideologist has been changed. At that time
it was McCarthy. He had become well known after 1950 when
he charged that communists infiltrated the American State
Department. Naturally, he suggested to clean it up. Being
a chairman of the Senate’s subcommittee on investigations,
he held hearings to question government officials and others
about suspected communist activities. Later on, this campaign
of persecution and slander became known as McCarthyism. Quite
remarkably that even such a famous person as C. Chaplin, who
sympathized to communist movement, also suffered from such
a policy of the US. Naturally, such a policy resulted in the
development of social tension between representative of different
social classes and followers of different political beliefs.
On the other hand, communist movement also stimulated the
development of civil rights movement since, being oppressed,
American communist could not fail to fight for human rights
and provoked other citizens conscious of civil rights help
them change the existing order.
This period was marked by the great shift in the society that
occurred because of the change of the role of men and women
that was the result of the war. Men that returned from the
war had to adapt to a new peaceful life that had changed.
Furthermore, the role of women had changed as well. The war
forced them to replace men and consequently after the war
there appeared the problem of job places for veterans. Moreover,
the psychology of a new generation was different, more independent
and striving for freedom.
So, the period after the World War II led to the change of
social psychology accompanied by the progressing political
pressure aimed at the communist movement and it resulted in
the development of social paranoia and limitations of certain
civil rights and liberties, particularly political one. As
a result, the major arguments of that epoch concerned the
problem of the campaign launched by the state against its
citizens in the struggle against the communist threat. To
put it more precisely, the main argument was whether the means
are justified by the ends or not, i.e. whether the prevention
of illusionary external threat by means of oppression of civil
rights of American citizens is acceptable or not.
The growing opposition and development of the civil rights
movement in late 1940s and 1950s perfectly demonstrated that
the response of American society was negative and Americans
would rather prefer to protect their civil rights than become
victims of the state that did not respect their civil rights
and threaten to transform in a totalitarian state.
In such a way, the dilemma of the post war US was solved in
favor of civil rights and American society demonstrated that
its civil rights consciousness had been higher than probably
ever before. No wonder that this period was marked by the
rapid progress of civil rights movement aiming at the elimination
of discrimination in American society, especially on the basis
of racial differences. In fact, in this period African Americans
had gained the basic civil rights they had never had before
and the improvement of their civil rights was unprecedented
to the extent that they had got an opportunity to really feel
equal to other members of society. The similar trends could
observed in feminist and other movements that struggled for
civil rights and equal opportunities for all Americans.
Bibliography:
1. Lewis and Patterson, Major Problems in American History.
New York: Random House, 1998.
2. Lewis, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement.
New York: Routledge, 1994.
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