Cold war civil rights mary dudziak cold

In 1958, an African-American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing two dollars.

Cold War Civil Rights - Google Books

Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of an embarrassed John Foster Dulles. Soon after the United States' segregated military defeated a racist regime in World War II, American racism was a major concern of U.S. allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Each lynching harmed foreign relations, and "the Negro problem" became a central issue in every administration from Truman to Johnson.


In what may be the best analysis of how international relations affected any domestic issue, Mary Dudziak interprets postwar civil rights as a Cold War feature. She argues that the Cold War helped facilitate key social reforms, including desegregation.

Civil ri cold war civil rights mary dudziak cold5 MEFE