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Eisenhower was responsible for the greatest advances in Civil Rights in the past 80 years

I wasn't aware of that, but given what he saw and accomplished in Europe I'm not surprised. I'd be willing to bet that witnessing the end result of the Nazi racial laws influenced his thinking.

"I wasn't aware of that..."

The sad thing is, many people aren't, thanks to our left-wing dominated public education system. Even worse, I've seen revisionism to point were college professors say Ike wasn't in favor of Civil Rights because of his disagreements with Earl Warren. Ike's appointments of Herbert Brownell as his Attorney General and even Earl Warren as Chief Justice, were fundamental to the advancements that Civil Rights undertook during this period. And while Ike and Warren clashed over certain issues, Ike new that the "government" couldn't just force this change on America all at once. Ike knew that if the government proceeded too recklessly, that the Southern segregationists would just abandon public education and turn to private institutions that would continue to segregate. So while he publically separated himself from the Brown vs Board decision, it was his AG that led the charge in that case...with some saying Ike even wrote some of the arguements.

I watched a C-Span roundtable years ago with the very liberal scholar, Blanche Wisen Cooke, who even conceded that Ike's administration was fundamental to the changes in CR. He wasn't only the first president in 80 years to propose new Civil Rights legislaton, he was the first to substantively address affordable housing for blacks. While Truman paid lip-service to integration in the military, Ike made high-ranking officers pay if they didn't integrate. That is also why he issued an Executive Order eliminating any segregation that still existed in the Military, the District of Columbia and in US Government bureaucracy. It was also Ike who was the first president to use federal troops to enforce Brown vs Board in the Little Rock Nine case.

Just as his appointments of Warren and Brownell were significant, so were his appointments of 5 other moderate Republicans to positions in the Federal (Southern) Judiciary that would see Brown V. Board through to its final conslusion...which was desegregation of the South. Unlike the Democrats of their day, Ike practiced what he preached when he appointed Frederic Morrow, the first black, to an executive position on his White House Staff...which included appoitments for others all over government. All of this, along with his support for the '57/'60 CRAs and his creation of the Civil Rights Commission, make Eisenhower one of the true leaders of Civil Rights in America. Unfortunately, you won't hear this in your history or Poli-sci classes.

ping