Civil rights movement began due to WWII: for WWII ~1E6 black southerners moved to northern cities for factory jobs, 43 northern/western cities had black population double, biracial unity developed in unions, black voters began switching from Republican to Democrat during New Deal, Truman admins created President’s Committee on Civil Rights 1946, 1947 report To Secure These Rights recommended permanent civil rights division of Justice Dept, voting rights protection, antilynching laws, anti-segregated-housing laws. Truman publicly endorsed but introduced no legislation. Truman had to balance black voters in key northern states with white southern Democrats, 1948 Jul Truman banned armed forces discrimination, liberals forced DNC to support civil rights that summer leading southerners to nominate Strom Thurmond (SC Governor) on States’ Right ticket. Truman barely beat Dewey w 70% northern black vote.

During WWII NAACP grew by order of magnitude, working- and middle-class urban black people most of new members, ran vote registration drives, anti-segregation (housing/employment) lobbying, Thurgood Marshall ran Legal Defense and Education which won SCOTUS Morgan v. Virginia ruling banning segregation on interstate buses. Other rulings: no all-white primaries, no segregating housing covenants, no excluding blacks from law/graduate school. However, rulings often unenforced. 1947 Freedom Ride of black and white activists went thru Upper South, sponsored by Fellowship of Reconciliation (Christian pacifists) and offshoot Congress Of Racial Equality. In NC multiple riders arrested and sentenced to 30 days hard labor for not leaving bus.

1947 Jackie Robinson won rookie of the year in MLB team Brooklyn Dodgers, 1950 UN diplomat Ralph Bunche won Nobel Peace Prize for 1948 Arab-Israeli Truce (later refused to be undersecretary of state b/c of DC segregation laws). Swing and Jazz developed by black musicians, most profits went to white bands/musicians, Bebop developed in part to reduce IP infringement via increased complexity.

South remained segregated, little change since Plessy v Ferguson,