It's not like Eisenhower was particularly progressive on civil rights anyway. He privately opposed Brown and did little to expand voting rights. Even dragged his feet during the Little Rock Crisis to the extent that Louis Armstrong of all people was saying he had "no guts" and was "two-faced"!
Stevenson certainly would have done more on civil rights had he been elected.
I guess that’s why Adam Clayton Powell bucked his own party and endorsed Eisenhower in 1956. Personally, based on what each candidate said about civil rights during the campaigns of 1952 and 1956, I can only conclude that Stevenson was far more cowardly on the issue than Eisenhower.
Eisenhower publicly opposed Truman's desegregation of the military in 1952! Campaigns are one thing. If you watch the 1960 debates it's ironic to watch Nixon repeatedly attacking Kennedy for being weak on civil rights because he picked LBJ as his running mate. Anyway what I said above stands, Eisenhower was not progressive on civil rights and did what he did for political expediency. Indeed he considered appointing Earl Warren the biggest mistake of his presidency.