Civil Rights and the Cold War

I had never before thought of the Civil Rights movement as related to the Cold War. In the Brown as a Cold War Case article, it states "Cold War concerns provided a motive beyond equality itself for the federal government including the president and the courts, to act on civil rights when it did" (34). In this article there is also the idea that because of the Cold War the worlds eyes were focused on the US which made all racial decisions have more of an impact. This is a very interesting idea. It's one that could probably be explored further. It made me wonder what the true driving factors behind the court decision were.
In Who Is The Real Ambassador, Von Eschen brings up the idea that the Korean war made American policy makers afraid fear that racism would lead people to the Soviet Union. Because of this people such as Paul Robeson were greatly feared. The article goes on to say how the State Department desperately wanted to fix the perception of American when it came to racism. I really enjoyed this new idea, perhaps because it brought something new to the table.