Civil Rights Act of 1957 - Aftermath

Aftermath

Although passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 seemed to indicate a growing federal commitment to the cause of civil rights, the legislation was limited. Because of the ways in which it had been changed, the government had difficulty enforcing it. By 1960, black voting had increased 3%. Passage of the bill showed the willingness of national leaders to support, to varying degrees, the cause of civil rights.

At the time, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was 28 and a developing leader in the civil rights movement; he spoke out against white supremacists. Segregationists had burned African-American churches, centers of education and organizing related to voter registration, and physically attacked African Americans, including women, who were activists. King sent a telegram to President Eisenhower to make a speech to the South, asking him to use “the weight of your great office to point out to the people of the South the moral nature of the problem.” Eisenhower responded, "I don’t know what another speech would do about the thing right now.”

Disappointed, King sent another telegram to the President, stating that Eisenhower's comments were “a profound disappointment to the millions of Americans of goodwill, north and south, who earnestly are looking to you for leadership and guidance in this period of inevitable social change.” He tried to set up a meeting with President Eisenhower, but was given a meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon, which lasted two hours. Nixon was reported to have been impressed with King and told the president that he might enjoy meeting with him in the future.