Eisenhower Waits For Re-Election To Back Supreme Court

[Pat]

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Q&A-19 notes that Brown v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court in 1954 WHEREUPON THERE ENSUED THREE YEARS OF SPECULATION WHETHER PRESIDENT EISENHOWER WOULD ENFORCE THE DECISION!!!

It should not be overlooked that Eisenhower was running for re-election in 1956!!!

And 1954 marked not only the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision, but also the disbandonment of the last all-black military unit in the U.S. Armed Forces – ending one of the segregation policies of Pres. Woodrow Wilson, “Gentleman” from Georgia, who had segregated the U.S. Armed Forces with an Executive Order.

Indeed, although Pres. Truman is often given credit for desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces by Executive Order in 1948, there were by the early 1950’s numerous Executive Orders trying to accomplish that goal and they had all been ineffectual!!!

Indeed, when the Korean War broke out on 6/25/1950, the all-black units were immediately thrown into the front lines to take the brunt of the attacks – much like the Brits, throughout history, treated the Aussies!!!

And no great surprise – the all-black units were short-changed on supplies while being ordered to undertake the most dangerous missions. Indeed, the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment was bombed by the U.S. Air Force – “by mistake” of course, according to the all-white USAF officers responsible.

Only a few months into the war, the all-black 24th Infantry Division had only 12 survivors after heavy fighting, during the last 13 days of which they had no food or water.

Accordingly, it was no wonder that the 12 survivors were forced to retreat.

Thereupon, the white higher-ups ordered the 12 survivors to re-take their former position in a suicide mission.

The highest-ranking person among the 12 survivors was Leon Aaron Gilbert, Jr., who was a highly-decorated World War II veteran with 10 years experience in the Army.

He contended that he never refused to obey the suicide order but had only explained that the order was impossible for the 12 exhausted men who had been starved and de-hydrated for 13 days to implement.

Gilbert was court martialed and given a death sentence on the spot – even though he was medically in a state of shock from 13 days of starvation and de-hydration.

Following Gilbert’s court martial, entire all-black units were court martialed with no comparable action taken against white units that had behaved comparably.

The Court Martial of Leon Aaron Gilbert, Jr., produced intense worldwide protests against American racial discrimination.

Thurgood Marshall, General Counsel of the NAACP, protested that the letters of war correspondents strongly indicated that the convicted soldiers were victims of racial discrimination.

Eisenhower had campaigned for the Presidency in 1952 with the promise of bringing the Korean War to a close. He did so within 6 months of his inauguration, ending the War after a total of 37 months.

However, Eisenhower had not bargained for having to clean up the segregation of the U.S. Armed Forces which had been created by Executive Order of President Woodrow Wilson, “Gentleman” from Georgia, in a cynical move to make the Democratic Party competitive in national politics on the base of “The Solid South” of segregation!!! [Indeed, Woodrow Wilson and FDR also appointed solely segregationists to the U.S. Supreme Court, making the Democratic Party the Party of Segregation until Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights policies caused “The Solid South” to flee to the Republican Party.]

It took Eisenhower another year, until 1954, to clean up the Armed Forces segregation mess and disband the last all-black military unit.

Since he had been forced to face the “Hornet’s Nest” of Woodrow Wilson’s Party of Segregation in order to do so, it is no wonder Eisenhower waited until after his 1956 re-election to tackle school desegregation the following September!!!

And no wonder that there was such wide-spread speculation whether Eisenhower or any of his successors would ever enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision!!!

And no wonder why the services of the 101st Airborne Division were required to integrate the first school on 9/24/1957 following Brown v. Board!!!

After all, this was long before any civil rights marches, any civil rights legislation and any assassinations of civil rights leaders (Martin Luther King was not assassinated until 1968).