The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr., Volume V - The Struggle to Pass the 1957 Civil Rights Act, 1955-1958 (Hardcover)

Volume V of The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr. records the successful effort to pass the 1957 Civil Rights Act: the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875. Prior to the US Supreme Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the NAACP had faced an impenetrable wall of opposition from southerners in Congress. Basing their assertions on the court's 1896 "separate but equal" decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, legislators from the South maintained that their Jim Crow system was nondiscriminatory and thus constitutional. In their view, further civil rights laws were unnecessary. In ruling that legally mandated segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, the Brown decision demolished the southerners' argument. Mitchell then launched the decisive stage of the struggle to pass modern civil rights laws. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first comprehensive lobbying campaign by an organization dedicated to that purpose since Reconstruction. Coming on the heels of the Brown decision, the 1957 law was a turning point in the struggle to accord Black citizens full equality under the Constitution. The act's passage, however, was nearly derailed in the Senate by southern opposition and Senator Strom Thurmond's record-setting filibuster, which lasted more than twenty-four hours. Congress later weakened several provisions of the act but--crucially--it broke a psychological barrier to the legislative enactment of such measures. The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr. is a detailed record of the NAACP leader's success in bringing the legislative branch together with the judicial and executive branches to provide civil rights protections during the twentieth century.

General

Imprint:	Ohio University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr.
Release date:	July 2022
First published:	2021
Authors:	Clarence Mitchell Jr
Editors:	Denton L. Watson
Dimensions:	235 x 155mm (L x W)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	610
ISBN-13:	978-0-8214-2459-9
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Ethnic studies > Black studies Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > General Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Human rights > Civil rights & citizenship Books > Law > Laws of other jurisdictions & general law > Constitutional & administrative law > Citizenship & nationality law > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
LSN:	0-8214-2459-9
Barcode:	9780821424599

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!