Montgomery Bus Boycott 53Kennedy, John F.(1917–
63): US president who
called civil rights ‘a
moral issue,’ asked for
comprehensive civil rights
legislation, and desegre-
gated the universities of
Mississippi and Alabama.
Civil Rights Act of 1957:
This first civil rights law
since Reconstruction
established the Justice
department’s Civil Rights
Division and a federal
Civil Rights Commission.
US Civil Rights Com-
mission: Established by
the Civil Rights Act of
1957, this federal, bipar-
tisan panel collects and
disseminates information
on civil rights.
Gomillion, Charles
(1900–95): Educator who
successfullychallenged
gerrymandering against
black voters in Tuskegee,
Alabama.
Gerrymandering: The
rearrangement of voting
districts to give unfair
advantage to one party
or race in elections.nearly all-white voting lists, white defendants would likely get off. Vice
president Richard Nixon fought the crippling jury-trial amendment while
Democrat John F. Kennedyof Massachusetts supported the change, which
succeeded. The emasculated measure in the form of the Civil Rights Actwas
passed in September 1957 and established a temporary US Civil Rights
Commissionto monitor, rather than redress, alleged racial complaints. In
addition, the civil rights section of the Justice department was upgraded to a
division that could investigate and litigate allegations against local officials
for impeding voting rights. The measure was so weak that Richard Russell,
an arch-segregationist from Georgia, described it as ‘the sweetest victory in
my twenty-five years as a senator.’ Under the law, only 3 per cent more blacks
registered, leading the NAACP and SCLC to demand more than a ‘phony’
civil rights bill.
One of the earliest complaints to the Civil Rights Commission came from
Charles Gomillionof Tuskegee, Alabama. When blacks made remarkable
gains in registration after World War II, Gomillion testified that the state
redrew an electoral district that zigzagged twenty-eight times to exclude
all but four of the city’s 500 black voters. He also noted that the officials
resisted black registration by hiding behind desks, working slowly, and
arbitrarily failing blacks in the literacy test. Gomillion and his Civic
Association fought back with a devastating boycott against local white
merchants. In 1960, the US Supreme Court struck down the state’s gerry-
mandereddistrict as unconstitutional.
The rising civil rights movement and election-year politics forced the
enactment of a second civil rights act. This 1960 corrective required that
local voter registration records be open to federal inspection and provided
criminal penalties for interfering with the right to vote. Federal courts could
appoint referees when local electoral districts obstructed voter registration.
In the short term, few additional black southerners managed to vote, but
once the legislative logjam was broken, more significant bills would be
enacted.
Eisenhower took important steps to implement desegregation but his
actions were often too little and too late. He failed to use the moral author-
ity of his office on behalf of justice for all. A Civil Rights Commission official
observed that under Eisenhower the rights of blacks had become a ‘White
House orphan.’ This slow pace sparked a dramatic shift in the movement,
with students taking charge.
Civil Rights Act of 1960:
Authorized federal judges
to appoint referees to
help blacks register to
vote and provided crimi-
nal penalties for violence
that obstructs school
desegregation.