Re : " In the US, for example, that existence was one factor that forced JFK and after him LBJ to make concessions to the rebellion of black people in the South. In other words, U.S. capitalism had to take on a more “progressive” face."
Predates their Presidencies. * " Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy ( https://muse.jhu.edu/book/61888 ) ," by Mary L. Dudziak. "In 1958, an African-American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing two dollars. 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 rights activists gained tremendous advantage as the government sought to polish its international image. But improving the nation's reputation did not always require real change. This focus on image rather than substance--combined with constraints on McCarthy-era political activism and the triumph of law-and-order rhetoric--limited the nature and extent of progress." A useful supplement to her book , " White Supremacy Confronted: U.S. Imperialism and Anti-Communism vs. the Liberation of Southern Africa from Rhodes to Mandela ( https://www.intpubnyc.com/browse/white-supremacy-confronted-u-s-imperialism-vs-the-liberation-of-southern-africa-from-rhodes-to-mandela/ ) ," by Gerald Horne on the constraints exacted upon civil rights organizations by Cold War anti-communist imperatives and pressures. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#28628): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/28628 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/103959826/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
