Eisenhower had been in office for over two years by the time this story appeared. The story was prompted by a report issued by Val J. Washington, a politically successful and influential African-American. Washington was
director of minorities for the Republican National Committee. Washington had sent him a copy of a report praising the record of the present Administration on racial issues and saying the Eisenhower approach on civil rights had been “one of action - not words.”
During the 1952 election, Eisenhower had explained the goals he would pursue as president: he would desegregate and integrate the military, the federal government, and the District of Columbia, including schools and public accommodations.
Despite fierce resistance from Democratic Party leaders like Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy, Ike accomplished those objectives. In addition, he appointed Blacks to important federal posts.
It was during Eisenhower’s administration that, for the first time ever, an African-American was part of a presidential cabinet meeting.
Val Washington had written an assessment of Ike’s achievements during those first two years:
The report, which said the Republican Party has fulfilled its 1952 campaign promises on civil rights, and the President’s acknowledgement, were made public by the Republican National Committee.As part of the report, Washington had identified fourteen promises made by Eisenhower regarding civil rights issues during the 1952 campaign.
He said with the recent appointment of E. Frederic Morrow, a Negro, to a post in the executive office of the President, the 14-point program of campaign promises to minorities has been fulfilled.
Morrow was the first Black appointed to an executive-level post inside the White House. Morrow’s work was at such a high level that he oversaw Nelson Rockefeller. In 1955, it was truly a novel idea that an African-American would be in a supervisory position over a member of the wealthy and influential Rockefeller family. But that’s the way Ike thought it should be.
The report not only summarized what Eisenhower had accomplished, but hinted at what lay ahead:
The report laid stress on the ending of segregation in the Nation’s Capital, elimination of “bias and Jim Crow” in Federal departments and agencies, appointment of Negroes to important Federal positions, strengthening of the civil rights section in the Justice Department which prosecutes violations of civil rights law, and enforcement of the non-discriminatory clauses of the Taft-Hartley Act.When Ike took office, he found that there were a number of civil rights regulations which already existed, but which had not been enforced. In addition to the Taft-Hartley Act, there were laws banning segregation in the District of Columbia, and Executive Order 9981. He simply began implementing regulations which were already on the books.
Moving forward, Eisenhower would carry out the changes required by the famous Brown vs. Board of Education decision, also in 1955. This would ultimately result in the tumultuous confrontation in which Ike used federal troops. Orval Faubus and the Democratic Party were blocking Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Ike obtained admission into the school for nine students, the famous “Little Rock Nine,” by using soldiers to protect the students and secure their entrance into the school.
Fearlessly, Eisenhower pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, through Congress, against angry hostility from Senators Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy.
Although civil rights leaders were praising Ike’s work in 1955, they were overjoyed to see that he would advance even farther in the cause of civil rights in the subsequent years.
