is orders. Eisenhower, the general,
moved with decisiveness and sent troops into Little Rock to enforce the
law. Although Eisenhower himself had said that men's hearts could not be
changed by legislation, he diligently fulfilled his functions as the head
of the Executive Branch of the government. Surprisingly enough, it was
also under his administration that Congress passed the first Civil Rights
Act since 1875. Although the bill was rather weak, it was an admission
that the Federal government had an obligation to guarantee civil rights
to individual citizens and to act on their behalf when state and local
governments did not. This was a reversal of the traditional "hands off"
position.

It cannot be stated with certainty that these events were merely
calculated responses to the changing world situation, but the Cold War
and the emergence of an independent Africa were nevertheless realities
which could not be overlooked. Ghana had gained its status as an
independent nation. It had also sought and gained admission to the United
Nations in 1957, and in that same year, opened an embassy in Washington.
African diplomats, traveling through the United States, were outraged
whenever they were confronted by humiliations which were the consequence
of segregation. Communist leaders, at the same time, took great pleasure
in pointing out to these Africans the mistreatments of Afro-Americans
within the United States. Although many Southern whites continued to
insist that their freedom to maintain a separate society apart from that
of the blacks was an essential part of democracy as they understood it,
most Americans found legal segregation to be embarrassing in the face of
America's claim to the democratic leadership of the world. Afro-Americans
exploited the situation in order to involve the Federal Government in
their desegregation campaign.

The Civil Rights Movement

On December 1, 1955, an obscure black woman, Mrs. Rosa Parks, was riding
home on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. As the bus gradually filled up with
passengers, a white man demanded that she give him her seat and that she
stand near the rear of the bus. Mrs. Parks, who did not have the
reputation of being a troublemaker or a revolutionary, said that she was
tired and that her feet were tired. The white man protested to the bus
driver. When the driver also demanded that she move, she refused. Then,
the driver summoned a policeman, and Mrs. Parks was arrested.