COLD WAR, TELEVISION, AND CIVIL RIGHTS

The Civil Rights movement in the 1960's would have failed had it not been for two factors: the Cold War and television. Television gave the world a disgusting vision of racial oppression in the USA, and the Cold War made that perception an unacceptable burden in America's competition with the Soviet Union and China. Without the Cold War and television, Jim Crow might still be alive and kicking.

Racial segregation had endured for generations. Were champions such as Martin Luther King more capable than the leaders of previous decades? Were the attitudes of the American public that much more enlightened? The most likely explanation why the dream of equal rights under the law was achieved at that particular time was that finally America was made to feel the weight of world opinion. At a time when the United States was locked in what was felt to be a struggle for survival with the Communism, this glaring blemish on American society had to be excised.

During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet Union and China were focusing on racism in their anti-American propaganda. This, of course, was not done to benefit African Americans, but rather for geopolitical effect, particularly in Asia and Africa, where East and West competed for influence. The State Department could send Louis Armstrong on goodwill tours, but that hardly made up for the fact that when African leaders visited the United States they might find themselves unable to rent hotel rooms. In the very capital of the United States, "the land of the free," until the 1954 Supreme Court decision against school segregation you would be breaking the law to educate black and white children together.

Television made American racism an issue of worldwide concern. Flickering, black-and-white images of Ku Klux Klan rallies, rural and urban poverty, and oppressive, brutal law enforcement soon became prime components of the American image abroad. The Civil Rights Movement drew interest on a nearly global scale largely because of TV news footage of the violent reaction against it. The Communists needed only to point out current events in America to make a convincing case that they held the moral high ground. Many nations found it difficult to accept the leadership and guidance of a country which ignored its own problems, preaching democracy while subjugating all non-white people. Despite the shortcomings of their own systems, the Soviets and Chinese were able to win considerable influence in developing nations because of the unsavory images emanating from America.

Television, of course, also brought the vile reality of racial oppression into the homes of white Americans. This built a domestic constituency for radical change that extended beyond the black community itself, so much so that many white people found themselves involved in the struggle, if not in deed then at least in spirit.

Without television the world may have never appreciated the heinous aspects of American society, and without the Cold War the nation's leadership would not have cared. If Josef Stalin had been a good guy, we might be still be riding the back of the bus.