The end of World War II brought some temporary joy to the United States and many other nations across the globe. Nevertheless, such a joy barely lasted as tension among its wartime ally, the Soviet Union, escalated to what is now known as the Cold War. The United States envisioned Soviet expansion as a threat to freedom and thus democracy due to the authoritarian and inhumane tendencies of Stalin's regime. While the United States aimed to spread democracy and freedom around the world during the Cold War, this paper will argue that the American government had in place several oppressive laws—Jim Crow—and treatments that restricted African Americans from enjoying civil liberties and the democratic system that the United States was trying to implement overseas.