Civil Rights Movement Flashcards
1
Q
Contradiction
A
New Deal liberalism, the gov could be interventionalist than they would intervene in the civil rights.
Cold war, huge struggle with Soviet Union, any group that is a minority and can be labelled unamerican has trouble with the event of the Cold War, but on the other hand the war is when America has to show it’s the leader of the Freeworld, but how can you show that when half your population is suffering from Racism.
To understand all these developments we need to go back to the 1930s is what historians say.
2
Q
New Deal, labour and Civil Rights
A
- The 1930s are the starting point for cross-racial labour movement
- Government doing something about racial discrimination, FEPC Government agency to ban discrimination in employment
- Electoral shifts, the ND coalition. AA are an important part of this coalition. End of ND we have progress in Civil Rights, there opposition to this such as conservatives using racial antagonism to stop the labour movement.
- Alliance of labour militancy and civil rights activism.
- Big backlash in 50s, huge impact on the American south
• 1930s: labour unrest and militancy and new alliances across the colour line
• more substantial civil rights progress towards end of New Deal and during WWII (e.g. FEPC)
• New Deal legislation & rise of organised labour is opposed by conservatives throughout the 1930s who use anti-communism to drive a wedge between radical and moderate labour unions after WWII
3
Q
Red-baiting and civil rights
A
- Martin Luther King is religious civil rights leader, he is red-baited, portrayed as a communist which is dubious.
- Shows how easy It is to be seen as unamerican if you question the social order in the south.
- Social equality between the races
- Problem for wide liberals, dampens the enthusiasm to support civil rights without being labelled communists. They don’t want to become targets - red-baiters.
- Southerners use national security for their own purposes
- NWACP, becomes very concerned about communism and its convention in 50s voluntarily purges itself of communist and leftist members. Good example of people trying to avoid the accusation that they are communist supervisors. NWACP becomes prominent civil rights organisation during the Civil War
- Race relations in states becomes national importance, in cold war the US and USSR are fighting for the loyalty of these new nations
- Issues on equal protection under the law and the right to vote becomes an issue when portraying the US as a model for these new nations
4
Q
America’s ‘race problem’ seen through the Soviet eyes
A
- The SU are aware of this, and use propaganda to promote themselves with ‘Under capitalism - under socialism’ Under Soviet umbrella the racial minorities are treated with respect, in regard to the US racial violence
- AA activists are aware of the Soviet Challenge, using it to their advantage and forcing the federal gov to act. AA are becoming experienced at drawing media attention, such as Langston Hughes an AA writer in 1946, ‘the US cannot show kindness to its own citizens’
- Secretary of state, Jean ? writing at the same time that he recognises the discrimination against minorities is affecting their relations with other nations.
5
Q
Domestic anticommunism and civil rights
A
- Picked up by historians, who suggested that Perhaps the most profound effect of the anticommunist fever, and also the one most difficult to measure, was the divorcing of the civil rights agenda from the labour-left agenda. (…) [A]s the economic radicalism of the New Deal order faded away, the scope of racial equality narrowed. Few questioned the established economic order in the 1950s, and as a result, existing structural inequalities persisted and became in some respects even more pronounced.’
- Fairclough ‘economic radicalism fades away and the scope of racial equality narrows..’
6
Q
Structural racism
A
- Very clear structural disadvantage on the labour markets
- Segregation and economic disadvantage were the key issues for blacks. Always whites over blacks. This was enforced in every part of life, restaurants, schools, hospitals, cinemas etc. Jim Crow constantly invades the South.
• Poverty: 1960: 50% black families below the poverty line of $3,000 for family of 4; median income 55% that of whites; 15% held managerial jobs (44% whites).
• Segregation: A system of enforced racial separation characterized the Jim Crow South - schools, hospitals, public transportation, public accommodations.
• Disfranchisement: As late as 1964 only 40% southern blacks eligible to vote (32% Louisiana, 20% Alabama, 6% Mississippi). Poll tax, literacy tests
7
Q
Tactics: Litigation
A
- Litigation, using the law to get what you want in the civil rights. Particularly appealing in 40s and 50s in the anti-communist time.
- Brown declares segregation is inherently unconstitutional, doesn’t hold up to reality and you are creating inherent inequalities which is against the constitution. People resist this and the governor of Alkonsal (?) encourages more violence in high school to prevent the peace integration of black and white pupils.
- Brown also shows that litigation alone is not enough to end Jim Crow as they have the huge resistance
• Use the law to chip away at, then undermine, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and its doctrine of “separate but equal”
• NAACP lawyer, Thurgood Marshall led a number of important legal attacks on Jim Crow segregation
8
Q
Tactics: Direct Action
A
- This tactic then emerges as Litigation was not enough to tackle Jim Crow
- Rosa Parks, non-direct violent action, Rosa refuses to give up her seat to a white man and is arrested with violating city laws, this small act of defiance sets in motion a series of events.
- The Montgomery Bus Boycott (Dec 1955- Dec 1956), trade unionists become active and start organising a boycott of the bus system in Alabama was supposed to be a short while but lasts 381 days. Nixon and Robinson (teacher) start this up. The Montgomery calls for complete desegregation of the cities bus systems, which actually happens and the boycott is successful.
9
Q
How important was Montgomery?
A
- AA can actually organise effectively on a community basis, it took a long time but ends in success.
- The emergence of MLK becomes the leader of the Montgomery committee
- MLK is very big on theories of non-direct action
1. Showed that African Americans could organize effectively on a community-wide basis to defeat Jim Crow
2. Emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a national figure
3. Adoption and popularization of nonviolence. Satyagraha (redemptive nonviolence- a way of life)
10
Q
The Freedom Rides
A
- Organised early 1960s
- They are a way of testing the supreme court that segregated transportation is unconstitutional. Have to risk your own personal safety to test this.
- Two buses from Washington to New Orleans, in Alabama one of the buses are firebombed and the interracial people are beaten with metal poles and gets worse as they move on.
- Leads to action from the federal government - Kennedy, to get new legislations for transport
• Organized by CORE, spring 1961
• Tests Interstate transportation facilities
• Violence in Alabama leads to federal intervention
11
Q
The Birmingham Campaign
A
- 1962, direct action campaign, led by MLK and southern Christian leadership conference and King tires to figure out another good place for another bout of direct action and chose Albany in Georgia. King wants confrontation, an outburst of violence so he can make a point but the people are not engaging with that and the local police sort the situation and pay bail to get MLK out of prison.
- Birmingham, 1963 King chooses here as another campaign as it’s a very racist city, its locally known as bombingham as there is white terrorism.
- The SCLC targets the downtown lunch counters and holds marches and conducts boycotts
- King goes to jail and after a wave of protests, Connor finally cracks and he allows his policemen to attack children who are holding a peaceful march by using firehoses and dogs. This creates a big reaction in the media, with photographs. The morality of this situation is clear. This is the point when Kennedy shows his support for a comprehensive civil rights bill.
- Kennedy commits himself to ending segregation in the south
• Precursor: ‘failed’ Albany campaign
• Organized by King’s SCLC in spring, 1963. Targeted segregated downtown
• City notorious for its vicious racism and its commissioner of public safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor
• Result: 1964 Civil Rights Act
12
Q
Selma
A
- Segregation is now outlawed and there is a new focus on the right to vote, for activists Selma is a great place to host another campaign because it shows the extent the extent African Americans have been disenfranchised in the south.
- Captures media and national attention and by this time Kennedy has been assassinated.
- Johnson ends the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the south.
- Federal intervention in voter registration at the county level
- 1965 Voting rights act is very effective and 20% in 1964 to 53% in 1968 of AA are registered to vote
- Mississippi jump from 6% to 60% between 1964-68
• Organized by the SCLC in early 1965
• Targeted voting rights
• Selma renowned for its racism, and local sheriff Jim Clark
• The campaign helped produce the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Concrete results: big increase in voter registrations among black Southerners
13
Q
Black Power
A
- Emergence of black power, by mid 60s, a lot of activists in civil rights movement are questioning the continuing movement to non-violence. Doubts of politics of respectability, is it fruitfal?
- 1966, during demonstration held by SNCC Black power is first heard. It is centred predominantly in urban areas, black power was seen as emerging from Ghettos and over the north to the west. Major break with the civil rights movement (rural south)
• Begins as progressive call for black consciousness in Greenwood, Mississippi, 1966 (Stokely Carmichael, SNCC)
• Evolves into a call for revolution articulated by the Black Panthers in 1968.
• Argued for fundamental alteration of society, rather than reform. - What is Black Power? Idea of armed self-defence, it not enough to be non-violent, it is important to defend yourself which gives the army uniform look. They focused on Black nationalism, cultural nationalism and a movement that is not committed to racial integration. Emphasises racial solidarity and black pride and economic empowerment. Moving away from equality.
• “Trumpeted a militant new race consciousness that placed black identity as the soul of a new radicalism.” (Peniel Joseph)
• Economic justice, black-owned businesses, cultural pride, neighbourhood/community control, autonomy from policing and the state
14
Q
Black Panther Party
A
- Party spreads very quickly, embracing revolutionary aesthetic of the late 60s.
• College friends Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found Black Panther Party in Oakland, California in 1966.
• Starts in response to police brutality.
• Within two years, spreads to numerous cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Omaha, Nebraska; Detroit and New York.
