THE EFFECT OF THE COLD WAR ON THE
AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
ADAM THOMAS

In the aftermath of the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of AfricanAmericans kicked off their combat boots only to find that the freedoms they fought
for in Europe were now denied them at home, and thus the foundation was laid for
the civil rights related upheavals that shook America in the 1950s and 60s.
Internationally, the United States found itself competing against the Soviet Union
for the hearts and minds of newly decolonized people across Africa and Asia. These
nations watched as the United States denied basic civil liberties to its own minority
citizens. This paper explores how the United States’ need to gain the favour of these
nations played a role in shaping civil rights reform during the early years of the
Cold War.

The superpower standoff at the heart of the Cold War affected nearly every nation
in the world. Each side sought to bolster its position at the expense of the other by
gaining the favour of Third World countries, many of which had just escaped the
grip of colonialism. 1 The anti-imperialist rhetoric of the Soviet Union inclined
some newly decolonized nations to drift towards the Soviet camp. To combat Soviet
influence in the Third World, the United States positioned itself as a champion of
freedom, democracy, and human rights. This stance, and the international
reputation of the US as a whole, was damaged by America’s domestic oppression
of its own minority citizens. As civil rights were increasingly understood as a Cold
War issue, America’s need to protect its image abroad opened up avenues for civil
rights activists to gain institutional support for reform.
The United States’ long history of racism began to occupy more space in the
Although today the term “Third World” is viewed as derogatory, within the context of the Cold
War it was used to categorize nations that were not firmly aligned with either the Western or
Eastern blocs.
1

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American collective conscience after the Second World War. After all,
approximately 405 000 Americans had just given their lives in a titanic struggle to
liberate the people of Europe and Asia from oppressive regimes. 2 Though combat
roles were mostly denied to them, approximately 350 000 African-Americans
served overseas in the U.S. military in all-black segregated units. 3 Many fought
under the impression that victory against fascism in Europe would coincide with a
victory at home against racism. 4
Upon demobilization, African-American veterans discovered that their hopes for
equality were unfounded, and in some regions they faced even greater oppression
than they had before the war. In many instances, skilled labour positions given to
black workers during the war were now denied them in order to open up positions
for white veterans. 5 The GI Bill, designed to help educate, house, and employ
veterans, had exploitable loopholes used to deny black veterans access to its full
benefits. 6 Black veterans who were able to improve their situation with their due
benefits were sometimes met with resistance from racist whites; in one instance,
two black veterans were lynched in Georgia for starting successful farms with their
GI money. 7 The growing discontent towards societal and institutional racism,
coupled with a new found sense of black unity formed during the war, inspired
increased demands for civil reform just as Cold War battle lines were being drawn.
The problem of racism in America was not unknown on the international stage, and
the Soviet Union attempted to use it for propaganda purposes at every opportunity.
In line with Marxist values, there was, at least according to its constitution, no
racism in the Soviet Union. 8 With their legally enshrined equality in place to bolster
their argument, the Soviets were able to use American domestic racism to undercut
American rhetoric concerning liberty and democracy. 9 Domestically, the Soviets
pushed the narrative of the working-class black man being exploited and kept down
by America’s white capitalist elite, fueling Soviet perceptions of America as a
U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs. America’s Wars. Washington, DC: Office of Public
Affairs, 2016.
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/
3
Clayborne Carson. “African Americans At War.” In The Oxford Companion to the Second World
War, ed. I.C.B. Dear and M.R.D. Foot (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 6.
4
Mary L. Dudziak. “Desegregation as a Cold War Imperative.” Stanford Law Review 41, no. 1,
(1988): 72. www.jstor.org/stable/1228836.
5
Hilary Herbold. "Never a Level Playing Field: Blacks and the GI Bill." The Journal of Blacks in
Higher Education, no. 6 (1994): 105. doi:10.2307/2962479.
6
Ibid, 105.
7
Ibid.
8
Maxim Matusevich. "Black in the U.S.S.R." Transition, no. 100 (2008): 56.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20542541.
9
Renee Romano. "Moving Beyond “The Movement That Changed the World”: Bringing the
History of the Cold War into Civil Rights Museums." The Public Historian 31, no. 2 (2009): 35.
doi:10.1525/tph.2009.31.2.32.
2

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prosperous nation where the wealth was only accessible to a privileged few. 10
Abroad, they used this to undermine the United States’ standing in newly
decolonized nations in Africa and Asia whose people were forming and
rediscovering their own national and racial identities. 11 Within America itself, the
Soviets gained influence by declaring support for left-leaning civil rights
organizations. 12
Soviet propaganda concerning American racism was often exaggerated but rarely
fabricated. American newspapers often printed openly racist articles, giving the
Soviets all the proof they needed to declare America an immensely unequal
society. 13 In the early 1950s, the focus on American racism was so prevalent in
Soviet propaganda that the U.S. State Department estimated that nearly half of
Soviet propaganda focused on race. 14
From the onset of tensions, American politicians understood the damage that
America’s race issue had on its international reputation. As early as 1946, Acting
Secretary of State Dean Acheson wrote:
An atmosphere of suspicion and resentment in a country over the way a
minority is being treated in the United States is a formidable obstacle to
the development of mutual understanding and trust between the two
countries. We will have better international relations when these reasons
for suspicion and resentment have been removed. 15

Despite Acheson’s attitude, the government attempted to keep America’s racial
policies from becoming an embarrassment by downplaying the problem at
international conferences.
In the early days of the United Nations, the NAACP, with full support of the Soviet
Union, petitioned for the poor treatment of African Americans to be investigated as
a human rights issue. 16 Both Republicans and Democrats framed race as a domestic
affair as they sought to keep the UN from influencing domestic policy. Even
Konstantin Valentinovich Avromov. “Soviet America: Popular Responses to the United States in
Post-World War II Soviet Union.” PhD diss., University of Kansas, 2012. 58.
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/10286
11
Mark Newman. "Civil Rights and Human Rights." Reviews in American History 32, no. 2
(2004): 248. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30031843.
12
Newman, "Civil Rights and Human Rights," 249.
13
Avromov, “Soviet America,” 59.
14
John David Skrentny. "The Effect of the Cold War on African-American Civil Rights: America
and the World Audience, 1945-1968." Theory and Society 27, no. 2 (1998): 245.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/657868.
15
Skrentny, “The Effect of the Cold War on African-American Civil Rights,” 247.
16
Mary L. Dudziak. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.
(Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000). 45.
10

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President Harry Truman and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, both considered
allies of the NAACP, endeavored to keep the UN at a distance. 17
This did not mean, however, that Truman ignored the link between foreign affairs
and civil rights. A 1947 report released by a presidential committee on civil rights,
To Secure These Rights, stated that U.S. foreign policy was designed to “make the
United States an enormous, positive influence for peace and progress throughout
the world . . . But our domestic civil rights shortcomings are a serious obstacle.” 18
As a result of the report, Truman superseded Congress and issued two executive
orders: one desegregated the U.S. military and the other desegregated the federal
workforce. Though domestic pressures and the work of civil rights organizations
were the primary drivers for reform, it was now apparent that civil-rights was a
Cold War issue.
Opportunities opened up for minority Americans as more politicians began viewing
civil rights through the lens of the Cold War. In an effort spearheaded by the State
Department, a growing number of African Americans began to be hired into
government positions. There was a desire to appoint African Americans to foreign
embassies, especially in countries with a majority black population. 19 By 1953,
there were sixty African Americans and seven Asian Americans working for the
State Department internationally. 20 By appointing non-whites to government
offices around the world, the State Department hoped to make America appear
more equal on the world stage. Well intentioned as these measures were, they were
not enough to slow the race-based Soviet propaganda being trumpeted to the world.
International opinion on American racism took on an increased importance as a
wave of decolonization began sweeping the world. In the zero-sum politics of the
Cold War era, both blocs deemed it necessary to gain influence with newly
independent nations at the expense of the other. Public opinion in the Third World
was highly critical of American racial policy. Supreme Court Justice William
Douglas recognized that India considered the treatment of non-whites by other
nations as an important factor in India’s foreign relations.” 21 In Pakistan, he was
informed that the Soviet Union was viewed more favourably because the United
States was not seen as an advocate for social justice. 22 The connection between civil
rights and foreign public opinion was apparent in Douglas’ mind when he
Newman, "Civil Rights and Human Rights," 248.
President’s Committee on Civil Rights. “A Program of Action: The Committee’s
Recommendations,” in To Secure These Rights (1947),146.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/to-secure-these-rights#139
19
Skrentny, “The Effect of the Cold War on African-American Civil Rights,” 248.
20
Ibid.
21
Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 105.
22
Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 105.
17
18

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participated in the Brown v. the Board of Education case in 1954. It was the Brown
case that began to repair America’s prestige in the Third World.
Desegregation, the success of which depended heavily on the legal workers and
activists leading the charge, became a Cold War objective as the world turned its
attention to the issue. In the lead up to the Brown case, segregation in particular
stood out as the race issue that damaged U.S. foreign relations the most. 23 A Justice
Department brief at the start of the case noted that "the existence of discrimination
against minority groups in the United States has an adverse effect upon our relations
with other countries.” 24 Further briefs concluded that the “only reason for
government participation in the case was that segregation harmed U.S. foreign
relations.” 25 During the case, Acheson noted that discrimination "remains a source
of constant embarrassment to this Government in the day-to-day conduct of its
foreign relations; and it jeopardizes the effective maintenance of our moral
leadership of the free and democratic nations of the world.” 26 Foreign newspapers
around the globe indicated that the world was watching the case, and foreign public
opinion was being shaped by the outcome.
The outcome of the Brown case, which declared segregation in public schools as
unconstitutional, was not just a huge step forward for civil rights; it was also a major
propaganda victory for the United States abroad. The West African newspaper
Afrique Nouvelle printed the headline “At last! Whites and Blacks in the United
States on the Same School Benches.” 27 The Indian Hindustan Times declared that
American democracy and prestige was strengthened by the ruling. 28 The U.S. State
Department was eager to publicize the ruling as widely as it could, and reported
immense positive feedback from around the world. In 1956, the department
declared that the ruling was responsible for a sharp decline in international
criticism. 29 The positive feedback from foreign nations had two easily perceptible
effects on American civil rights advancement: civil rights activists now understood
the power of using foreign relations to gain concessions, and the opinion of the
international press mattered. This was made clear in 1957 at Little Rock Central
High School in Arkansas when, in the presence of the international media, the
military was deployed to enforce desegregation, superseding the authority of

Mary L. Dudziak. "Brown as a Cold War Case." The Journal of American History 91, no. 1
(2004): 34. doi:10.2307/3659611.
24
Brian K. Landsberg. “The Federal Government and the Promise of Brown.” Teachers College
Record 96, no. 4 (1995): 628. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/facultyarticles/278/
25
Dudziak, "Brown as a Cold War Case,” 35.
26
Ibid, 34.
27
Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 108.
28
Dudziak, "Brown as a Cold War Case," 35.
29
Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 109.
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Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, who attempted to keep black students out of the
school. 30
After Little Rock, the importance of international opinion could not be ignored. The
1960 election saw competing presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard
Nixon, in an attempt to court black voters, allude to worldwide public opinion as a
necessary reason to support civil rights. 31 Kennedy won that election, but at the
start of his presidency was described by some of his aides as uninterested in civil
rights. 32 His primary concern was winning the Cold War. Civil Rights activists
were able to use this concern to put pressure on Kennedy. An NAACP
memorandum to the president declared that civil rights reform should not be
postponed in pursuit of other domestic or foreign goals, as civil rights were an
inseparable aspect of both. 33
1960 also witnessed seventeen African nations declare independence, exacerbating
the need for America to resolve its race issues for the sake of Cold War supremacy.
Kennedy was very aware that racism in the United States could lead newly
decolonized nations to side with the Soviet Union. 34 Despite the public relations
victory of desegregation, the Soviets continued to focus on American racism, and
several events during Kennedy’s presidency gave them fuel for their propaganda
machine. 35
Kennedy paid close attention to how the foreign press portrayed the ever growing
number of protests taking place across the country. 36 When a series of high profile
embarrassments involving discrimination against African ambassadors at
American restaurants made international headlines, Kennedy was moved to take a
harder stance on civil rights reform. 37 Though he faced opposition from powerful
Southern Democrats, he was able to use the Cold War to leverage support for what
he hoped would be his administration's major contribution to civil rights, the Civil
Rights Act. 38 Kennedy never saw the bill become law. He was assassinated while
trying to drum up support for it in 1963. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, passed
Romano, "Moving Beyond “The Movement That Changed the World,” 36; Kevin Gaines. "The
Civil Rights Movement in World Perspective." OAH Magazine of History 21, no. 1 (2007): 60.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162103.
31
Skrentny, “The Effect of the Cold War on African American Civil Rights,” 261.
32
Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 155.
33
Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 156
34
Romano, "Moving Beyond “The Movement That Changed the World,” 36.
35
Ibid, 36.
36
Ibid.
37
Jed Handelsman Shugerman. “Rights Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions.” Yale Journal of
Law and the Humanities 13, no. 2 (2001): 540.
https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol13/iss2/6/
38
Shugerman, “Rights Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions,” 541.
30

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a refined version of the bill in 1964, and racial tensions exploded as the Civil Rights
Movement reached brand new heights through the 1960s.
The progress made up to the Kennedy assassination laid the foundation for the
major civil rights advancements of the 1960s. The bulk of the successes should,
first and foremost, be accredited to the activists and politicians who worked
tirelessly in the face of aggressive and often violent opposition to make reform
happen. It is important, however, to understand that Cold War politics did have an
influence. The need to combat Soviet propaganda, the influence of foreign public
opinion on American politics, and the need to protect American prestige abroad as
competition with the Soviet Union for the hearts and minds of Third World nations
took on increased importance, all factored into government decisions concerning
civil rights reform. As stated in To Secure These Rights, “the United States is not
so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal is not so inevitable that we can
ignore what the world thinks of us or our [civil rights] record.” 39

39
President’s Committee on Civil Rights, “A Program of Action: The Committee’s
Recommendations,” in To Secure These Rights (1947),148.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN’S AFFAIRS. America’s Wars. Washington, DC:
Office of Public Affairs, 2016. https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/

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