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The Eisenhower Administration |
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In 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commanding general of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, was elected president of the United States. A Republican, Eisenhower followed Roosevelt's and Truman's example of using the powers of the presidency to further the cause of black civil rights.
One achievement of President Eisenhower in the civil rights field was the appointment of Earl Warrento be chief justice of the United States. Eisenhower had promised Warren the first vacancy on the Supreme Court but had not expected that vacancy to be the chief justiceship. Nonetheless, when Chief Justice Fred Vinson died of a heart attack, Eisenhower named Warren, the Republican governor of California, to lead the high court.
The appointment of Warren as chief justice of the United States is significant because of Warren's subsequent leadership in the Supreme Court's unanimous decision to declare racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas). Although many scholars pointed out that Eisenhower later expressed regrets about appointing Warren and questioned the wisdom of integrating public education in the segregationist South, the fact remains that Eisenhower appointed the chief justice of the Supreme Court who produced the Brown decision.
Almost as important as the appointment of Earl Warren to the Supreme Court was Eisenhower's decision to allow his attorney general, Herbert Brownell, to argue the case against racial segregation before the Supreme Court. Although Eisenhower separated himself publicly from Brownell's arguments supporting public school integration, in private he helped Brownell write his opinion.
Having the attorney general, or an assistant attorney general, be the strong administration spokesperson for civil rights was an Eisenhower trait that was continued by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in the 1960s. As Eisenhower relied on Brownell (and his successor, William Rogers) in the civil rights area, President Kennedy relied on his attorney general - his brother Robert Kennedy - to be the "front person" on civil rights. Following President Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson placed equally heavy and public civil rights responsibilities on Deputy Attorney General (later Attorney General) Nicholas Katzenbach.
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