The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

by William I. Hitchcock

The South now spoke with one voice: it would not recognize federal law. A constitutional crisis loomed.67 No wonder, then, that Eisenhower’s advisers were becoming exasperated. However, their anger was not directed at southern white leaders but at black activists. Fred Morrow, despondent, wrote a long and revealing entry in his diary about the atmosphere in the administration. Even Max Rabb, normally a close ally, gave Morrow a “tongue-lashing” about black behavior. After all Eisenhower had done, Rabb asserted, “Negroes had not demonstrated any kind of gratitude,” and most of the responsible officials in the White House had become completely disgusted with the whole matter. He said there was a feeling that “Negroes were being too aggressive in their demands; that an ugliness and surliness in manner was beginning to show through.” What black leaders wanted, Rabb told Morrow, “far exceeded what reasonable white people would grant.” And Rabb was Ike’s chief adviser on minority affairs.