Richard Nixon and Civil Rights
Richard Nixon may have had his flaws, but when it came to the issue of civil rights, he was considered to be quite progressive.
For example, when Nixon was Vice President, he was assigned the task of guiding President Dwight Eisenhower's Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress. Nixon preceded this with a trip to Africa on behalf of Eisenhower. On his return, he tried to steer the Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress, but the bill was weakened in the Senate, and civil rights leaders were divided over whether Eisenhower should sign it. Nixon advised the President to sign the bill, and Eisenhower ended up taking that advice.
In 1960 Nixon ran for President against John F. Kennedy. The election saw a lot of southern anger over the fact that both candidates took strong pro-civil rights stances. Kennedy's campaign took advantage of an opening when Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil-rights leader, was arrested in Georgia while leading a civil rights march. Nixon refused to become involved in the incident, but Kennedy placed calls to local political authorities to get King released from jail, and he also called King's father and wife. As a result, King's father endorsed Kennedy, and he received much favorable publicity in the black community. On election day, Kennedy won the black vote in most areas by wide margins, and this may have provided his margin of victory in states such as New Jersey, South Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri.
Eight years later when Nixon was elected President, the nation was experiencing the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South. Nixon tried to find a middle way between segregationists in the south like Alabama Governor George Wallace, and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites. Nixon hoped to gain support from the south in the 1972 election, so he wanted to put the issue of desegregation behind him before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Spiro Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to integrate local schools. Although Agnew was the figurehead, most of it was done by Labor Secretary George Shultz. Federal aid and a meeting with President Nixon were offered as rewards for compliant committees. By September 1970, fewer than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools.
But by 1971, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the busing of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon was personally opposed to busing, but enforced court orders requiring its use.
In addition to desegregating public schools, Nixon implemented something called the Philadelphia Plan in 1970, which was the first significant federal affirmative action program. He also endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause after his election. Despite this criticism, Nixon appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had.
Nixon's administration quickly became overtaken with issues like Vietnam and later the Watergate scandal. Many right wing Republicans were critical of Nixon not because of Watergate, but because they saw him as too liberal. Perhaps a more accurate assessment was made by his biographer, Herbert Parmet, who wrote "Nixon's role was to steer the Republican party along a middle course, somewhere between the competitive impulses of the Rockefellers, the Goldwaters, and the Reagans."
For example, when Nixon was Vice President, he was assigned the task of guiding President Dwight Eisenhower's Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress. Nixon preceded this with a trip to Africa on behalf of Eisenhower. On his return, he tried to steer the Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress, but the bill was weakened in the Senate, and civil rights leaders were divided over whether Eisenhower should sign it. Nixon advised the President to sign the bill, and Eisenhower ended up taking that advice.
In 1960 Nixon ran for President against John F. Kennedy. The election saw a lot of southern anger over the fact that both candidates took strong pro-civil rights stances. Kennedy's campaign took advantage of an opening when Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil-rights leader, was arrested in Georgia while leading a civil rights march. Nixon refused to become involved in the incident, but Kennedy placed calls to local political authorities to get King released from jail, and he also called King's father and wife. As a result, King's father endorsed Kennedy, and he received much favorable publicity in the black community. On election day, Kennedy won the black vote in most areas by wide margins, and this may have provided his margin of victory in states such as New Jersey, South Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri.
Eight years later when Nixon was elected President, the nation was experiencing the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South. Nixon tried to find a middle way between segregationists in the south like Alabama Governor George Wallace, and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites. Nixon hoped to gain support from the south in the 1972 election, so he wanted to put the issue of desegregation behind him before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Spiro Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to integrate local schools. Although Agnew was the figurehead, most of it was done by Labor Secretary George Shultz. Federal aid and a meeting with President Nixon were offered as rewards for compliant committees. By September 1970, fewer than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools.
But by 1971, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the busing of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon was personally opposed to busing, but enforced court orders requiring its use.
In addition to desegregating public schools, Nixon implemented something called the Philadelphia Plan in 1970, which was the first significant federal affirmative action program. He also endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause after his election. Despite this criticism, Nixon appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had.
Nixon's administration quickly became overtaken with issues like Vietnam and later the Watergate scandal. Many right wing Republicans were critical of Nixon not because of Watergate, but because they saw him as too liberal. Perhaps a more accurate assessment was made by his biographer, Herbert Parmet, who wrote "Nixon's role was to steer the Republican party along a middle course, somewhere between the competitive impulses of the Rockefellers, the Goldwaters, and the Reagans."