Which was worse for the American Democracy at the time of the Cold War...?

it's kind of an apples and oranges comparison don't you think? The treatment of black people in America goes back to before America's independence, even before America's colonization. if you mean the slavery and wars between black people and white people, that goes back before the roman republic even. So it's kind of strange to summarize the civil rights struggle just from 1945 on, but I think that the civil rights movement made incredible steps during those years. It was full of horrible violence, propaganda and fear-mongering but has improved every year with every generation. The cold war with the USSR in those years was heavier on the propaganda and fear-mongering. It was a cold war so it was less violent unless your counting the Korean and vietnam wars (holding back communism) as part of the cold war, then the are even more violent than the civil rights struggle. The cold war has messed up the minds of two or three generations and I think we'll find more troubles that haven't surfaced yet. it taught us to think in "us and Them" that there's an evil empire out there and then it turns out we might just both be evil. it taught us that there's a third world separate from the cold war who should be pitied and need to be absorbed onto our side like some kind of world-wide football draft. but now that the cold war and the world is trying to get green, then maybe the third world was where it's at all along.

So if I have to make an answer, I'd have to weigh them out and say the cold war, but only during those years. Comparing the history of the cold war to the history of the treatment of blacks in America, then there's no contest, the cold war doesn't compare at all.

The perceived threat (not necessarily the real one) was the Communist threat, the "Red Scare". Even some fairly liberal people were sure the Communists were trying to take over. Compare about 1954 with the McCarthy era to the 'Muslim' or "Arab' threat after 9/11. Only a relative few of the millions, perhaps billion Muslims are terrorists, but look at how they were perceived in the days following 9/11, or even to this day.

And of course there was a real military threat from the Soviet Union, but at the same time, often people were more afraid of college students who studied Marxist philosophy than Russian bombers.

The treatment of Black people and bigotry sometimes, although in and of itself a terrible thing, often got tied into the Communist question.

Even in the 1960's, Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King were often called "Communists" or Communist sympathizers. The thing was in the Soviet Union, there were virtually no rights for anybody, so for somebody to be a Civil Wars leader and Communist made little sense, although there were Marxists among the Civil Rights movement at one time or another

Note; By Cold War, I referring mostly to the 1950's and early 60's. The Cold War continued until the end of the SOviet Era in the early 90's, with a revision of sorts during the Reagan years in the early 1980's, but when somebody says "Cold War" and "Communism" I think of pretty much WWII up until about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I thought what was worse was the witch hunts created out of fear and hatred by little men, such as Joe McCarthy, who wanted to be bigger men, and walked over, and crushed many fine people in their quest for fame!

In his cold-war masterpiece, "The Manchurian Candidate" Richard Condon models his senator after McCarthy, and in one scene, has the little man get confused on just how many communist he claims are in the state department. He looks at a bottle of Heinz catsup, and says, "57! There are 57 known communists ..." (Heinz has the number 57 on all of their labels, or did)

Prejudice, segregated public bathrooms, buses, schools, etc., the burnings and lynching of the Ku Klux Klan, had consequences for millions of people in the US, while McCarthy and his hysterics were mainly geared towards the Hollywood community.

On the other hand, the fear of Soviet expansionism was responsible for American involvement in Korea and Viet Nam, plus a disastrous foreign policy in Latin America.

In different ways, both issues generated a negative image for the rest of the world.

there was no communist threat, mccarthy.

and civil rights was something that the U.S. had to allow if they wished to be seen globally as independent and free, especially since the Civil War (for the U.S.) and their status as a world power (for the world).

it would be a complete irony for a nation that is self-declared "free" & "independent" still justify racial segregation; while the whole world watches.