Michael Furgiuele
HIST 604 – Review of Mary Dudziak’s Cold War Civil Rights
March 1, 2005
In her book, Cold War Civil Rights, Mary Dudziak commented on the role of Cold War politics in securing civil rights. However, in addition, she provided a comprehensive review of the international reaction to the graphic images of violence and injustice surfacing throughout the United States. Moreover, she identified the role of the media in supporting civil rights and forcing political administrations into taking an active role in defending America’s position as the ‘Leader of the Free World’. In addition, Dudziak commented on the use of propaganda by the United States to reinforce policy advancements while containing those who did not project the positive image of international policies. Together these themes provided a unique and convincing perspective on the civil rights movement within the realm of international importance.
Following World War II, American found itself gripped in a struggle for dominance against communism. Truman understood that “the communist threat now perceived in global, apocalyptic terms, scrutiny of how domestic policies affected the struggle against world communism became a priority” (Dudziak 2000, p.27). In addition to dealing with the threat of communism, America had to deal with their international reputation.
Dudziak provided extensive evidence of world opinion in support of the civil rights movement. A Chinese paper wrote, “If the United States wasn’t to “lead” the world, it must have a kind of moral superiority” (Dudziak 2000, p.33). Indian newspapers graphically depicted “Negro youth, worn out by hard labour and tortured by man’s inhumanity to man” (Dudziak 2000, p.35). In the 1957 crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, newspapers throughout the world projected images of the students, the armed guards and defiant citizens. The Soviet press indicated that “When Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas openly defied the government of the United States…he handed to the Communists the handsomest gift they could possible have received” (Dudziak 2000, p.125). The media heralded successes in civil rights while failures led countries to seek the intervention of the United Nations to end the violence and injustice.
America responded to public opinion by accentuating positive advancements and stifling the negative rhetoric of ‘un-American’ practices (Dudziak 2000). The United States had to act or “if the nation could not eradicate the conditions that gave rise to foreign criticism, it could at least place them “in context”. It could weave them into a story that led ultimately to the conclusion that, in spite of it all, American was a great nation” (Dudziak 2000, p.46). Dudziak identified the various methods of propaganda America used to enrich their position in world opinion. The United States Information Agency (USIA) developed literature to redefine the view of American racial issues. The 1955 Supreme Court decision in the matter of Brown vs. the Board of Education, showed American democracy in progress. Immediate reaction was appealing and “the State Department and USIA wasted no time in making use of it” (Dudziak 2000, p.107).
Conversely, while the State Department used various means to spread their campaign of acceptance and reconciliation, others defied the governments attempt to cover-up the racial situation merely to save the reputation of the United States in the world court of public opinion.
Mary Dudziak’s book provided a new component in the exploration of the civil rights movement. This fresh perspective on civil rights when analyzed in connection with other sources, provide an understanding of the whole scope of the civil rights movement. While Dudziak stresses Cold War politics as a catalyst for change, she also provides an in-depth review of how the media and international opinion – outside of the scope of Cold War policies – had on the civil rights movement.