To Secure These Rights

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: In what ways can To Secure These Rights be considered a “blueprint” for the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s?
• 2.: What impact did the Great Depression, World War II, and the cold war have on the issue of civil rights during the 1940s and beyond?
• 3.: Examine this document in light of the events surrounding A. Philip Randolph’s “Call to Negro America to March on Washington” in 1941. To what extent did the later document embody views that Randolph and others expressed at that time?
• 4.: Refer to the events surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sweatt v. Painter, issued in 1950. To what extent did the executive branch under President Harry Truman and the judicial branch led by the Supreme Court work hand in hand to dismantle segregation during this period?
• 5.: What impact did To Secure These Rights have on the U.S. political landscape?