Masaryk University
Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature
The African American Civil Rights Movement As a Long Lasting Process of Struggle for Freedom
Bachelor Thesis
Brno 2008
Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D. Hana Marková
I declare that this bachelor thesis is completely my own work and that all information gathered for its compilation is cited in the bibliography. Brno 1st December, 2008 Hana Marková
I gratefully thank my supervisor, Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, for his kind assistance, precious advice and with providing me the useful materials necessary for understanding this complicated topic. Above all, I would like to thank him for his patience and valuable comments. Hana Marková
Annotation:
This thesis deals with the African American Civil Rights Movement not only from the point of view of its most important years from 1955 to 1965, but also explains its first part through slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow laws how American society became divided along the color line; the second part shows how the first half of the twentieth century through the Great Migration, the Great Depression, and both World Wars contributed to the black self awareness, and improvement of their social position; in addition the increasing suffrage movement and the beginning of the Cold War along with Brown v. Board of Education laid the foundation for the spreading of the movement; the third part analyses the movement itself and is divided into four sub parts according to the means that movement applied – boycotts, sit ins, freedom rides and marches; the thesis concludes with the years 1964 and 1965 when the Civil and Voting Rights Acts were passed. Key words: African Americans, civil rights movement, slavery, Jim Crow laws, suffrage, boycotts, sit ins, freedom rides, marches, NAACP, SNCC, SCLC 1 Contents
Contents ...... 1
Introduction ...... 3
1. How it happened ...... 6 1.1 Enslavement...... 6 1.1.1 Conditions of Slavery ...... 6 1.1.2 Naturalization Act ...... 7 1.1.3 Abolition of Slavery ...... 7 1.1.4 Summary ...... 9 1.2 Freedom or Non Freedom ...... 10 1.2.1 Black Codes and Reconstruction ...... 10 1.2.2 Summary ...... 11 1.2.3 Jim Crow Laws ...... 12 1.2.4 Life under Jim Crow ...... 13 1.2.5 Summary ...... 15 1.3 Resistance at the Turn of Century ...... 16 1.3.1 Lynching and Race Riots ...... 16 1.3.2 Foundation of the NAACP ...... 17 1.3.3 Summary ...... 18
2. Precursors of the Movement ...... 20 2.1 Defenseless Blacks and the Defense of Democracy ...... 20 2.1.1 The Great Migration ...... 20 2.1.2 Consequences of the First World War ...... 22 2.1.3 Summary ...... 24 2.2 Improvements in Hard Times ...... 25 2.2.1 Period of Growth and the Great Depression ...... 25 2.2.2 An Emerging Power to Change the Status Quo ...... 26 2.2.3 Summary ...... 27 2.3 The Second World War ...... 28 2.3.1 Perception of the War and the Segregated Army ...... 28 2.3.2 The March on Washington Movement ...... 29 2.3.3 The South during the War, Bloody Riots, and the NAACP ...... 30 2.3.4 Summary ...... 31 2.4 The Final Steps toward the Movement ...... 33 2.4.1 Suffrage ...... 33 2.4.2 The Cold War as an Ally to the CRM and Support from Truman ...... 35 2.4.3 Summary ...... 37 2.5 Prelude to the Movement ...... 38 2.5.1 The Main Focus of Attention at Mid century ...... 38 2.5.2 Brown v. Board of education ...... 39 2.5.3 Summary ...... 41
3. The Civil Rights Movement ...... 42 3.1 The Start of the Movement ...... 42 3.1.1 The Murder of Emmett Till ...... 42 3.1.2 Rosa Parks’ refusal ...... 43 3.1.3 The Explanation of the Movement ...... 44 3.1.4 The Means of the Movement ...... 45 2 3.2 Not Only Boycotts of the 1950s ...... 48 3.2.1 The Montgomery Bus Boycott ...... 48 3.2.2 Formation of the SCLC ...... 50 3.2.3 The Civil Rights Acts of the 1950s ...... 52 3.2.4 Crisis in Little Rock ...... 53 3.2.5 Summary ...... 54 3.3 The Sit-in Movement ...... 56 3.3.1 The Sit in Movement in Greensboro ...... 56 3.3.2 Spreading of the Sit ins and Formation of the SNCC ...... 57 3.3.3 Summary ...... 59 3.4 Freedom Rides and Freedom Votes ...... 60 3.4.1 The Freedom Rides ...... 60 3.4.2 Voter Registration Drives ...... 62 3.4.3 Summary ...... 63 3.5 Marches ...... 65 3.5.1 The Failure in Albany ...... 65 3.5.2 Hard Victory in Birmingham ...... 66 3.5.3 The March on Washington ...... 68 3.5.4 Summary ...... 69 3.6 On the Eve of Victory ...... 71 3.6.2 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...... 72 3.6.3 The Final Battle for Civil Rights in Selma ...... 73 3.6.4 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ...... 74 3.6.5 Summary ...... 75
Conclusion ...... 76 Bibliography ...... 79 List of Abbreviations ...... 81
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Introduction
The American history lessons I received during my second year of study given by Mr. Janík came as a shock regarding my perception of the United States as I had previously envisioned it. Mr. Janík’s lessons changed my view and stimulated my increasing interest in American history. The classic could say not everything is how it seems to be. The most powerful and most democratic country in the world unmasked its darker sides and sins which in many cases resulted in the red colour of blood. Segregation, Brown v. Board of Education, sit ins, marches, the Little Rock Nine and many other expressions were new to me but all connected with a name, the only known to me, that of Martin Luther King, Jr. My motivation for writing a thesis on this topic was stimulated by the fact that it is not possible to find information on it in any Czech History or English cultural books intended for elementary education. Our attitude today in the Czech Republic, in relation to our aims concerning cooperation with the west and our dependence on American trade, along with the expanding opportunities to travel there, convinces many it would be a pity not to be acquainted with this part of American history. Thus the decision to compose this thesis concerning the African American Civil Rights Movement entered my head. From the beginning, my imagination was concentrated on how to write this thesis to fulfil the needs of English teachers at Czech elementary schools. Reviewing the history of the United States had resulted in the recognition that the Civil Rights Movement had not been restricted to some ten or fifteen years. Creation of this thesis concerning only those years could not answer troubling questions: Why had only non violence been used, and not other more direct actions such as revolution to obtain civil rights? Why had African Americans waited till the mid twentieth century to take action? Why was it such a big problem to assimilate them, since this was the twentieth century and not the Middle Ages? This thesis creates a guide for English teachers who might be interested in American history from a different point of view. It can offer reasons and explanations for the mass Civil Rights Movement of the twentieth century as well as the movement itself. There is little argument that the United States developed the greatest economy in the world. Nonetheless, it is necessary to provide our students with a chance to see that the history of the United States had not always been smooth and without mistakes. It is further necessary to show our students the facts that the picture of America which is 4 offered to us on television depicting happy teenagers and their middle class families, both white and black, living in the same districts, visiting each other, and spending time together is in many cases inaccurate. A picture of what the United States desires to be but is quintessentially not, since a large portion of the country’s history had been more characterised by injustice, slavery and segregation rather than equality, freedom for all and justice. The time to fulfil the dream concerning American society with equal conditions for all has been too short for the time being. Freedom – the word encompasses our rights, liberty and free will. We cannot imagine the restrictions of the rights we practice every day. Freedom of movement, choice and will is the second nature for us, and it is unimaginable that it could be otherwise. Try to imagine that you cannot choose which school you want your children to attend, or that you have to be careful about which restaurant you visit and, ironically, that you must obey signs as to where you can sit on a bus or when seeing a doctor. If you desire to change the situation through elections, you cannot because you are disenfranchised. It is tempting to say that such practices were in effect long ago, but it is not true. Go back fifty or sixty years in the United States, and imagine being born as the child of a black woman and your life would be full of restrictions, humiliation and lack of freedom. How could this occur in a country that has always been a symbol of unlimited opportunities for all, a democracy which defended the rights of oppressed nations throughout the world? The explanation lies in American history and this thesis hopes to prove it. What is the American dream? It should include ideals based on equality for all, the same opportunities for all and if you work hard, you can succeed at whatever you wish. This has not always been the case. It all started quite innocently. Africans who were originally brought to the New World like trade goods were not accepted as equal to whites and often not considered as human beings with needs, feelings and the same intelligence. It seemed that they were good only for hard labor. This perception of blacks was accepted as fact and became engrained as time passed. The possibility to live their own lives remained for Africans a mere dream that could not possibly be fulfilled. Since several white generations grew up in an environment where the possession of slaves was the same as having farm animals, it comes as no surprise that changing the deep seated opinions about blacks would be neither easy nor possible in the following one hundred years after the abolition of slavery. 5 The first part of this thesis reviews this era of American history – back to the original settlements of the New World and early slavery, along with the beginnings of racism and inequality between whites and blacks. Furthermore it explains abolition of slavery and the subsequent development of Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws as a consequence of Southern discontent with the freedom gained by black slaves. This part is further directed at African American’s dissatisfaction with their unequal position, dating from the beginning of the twentieth century and explains why blacks could not fight for their rights during these years. The second part of this thesis attempts to explain why the movement did not gain momentum until the mid fifties. The Great Migration and the Great Depression whose consequences paradoxically improved the economic position of African Americans, along with the Second World War are some, but not all, of the precursors to the Civil Rights Movement. In relation to this period, the thesis will try to demonstrate the reasons why the later Civil rights movement was based on non violent tactics and civil disobedience and not on open defiance. This parts of the thesis further deals with the ten years previous to the outbreak of the movement that were strongly influenced by increasing numbers of black voters and by the change of attitude to civil rights at the federal level. In addition, this thesis indicates how the resistance of African Americans became more organized and directed at specific targets and shows how cooperation by local branches on grassroots level with parent organizations was essential for the movement. The case of Brown v. Board of Education represented a turning point that persuaded African Americans to belief that the time for obtaining actual freedom was approaching. The final part of this thesis starts with two events considered as the beginning of the movement along with the explanation of the movement and the means applied to gain success. Further, in individual chapters these means are shown in action and the advances of the movements are described. This part concludes with the two Acts of 1964 and 1965. 6 1. How it happened
1.1 Enslavement
1.1.1 Conditions of Slavery
From the earliest beginnings, the conditions of Africans on the American continent were not comparable to white servants. Africans were considered by Europeans to be stronger workers and provided more skilful help on plantations than white servants who often escaped due to the miserable conditions of servitude. Many Africans were brought to America after 1619 and by the end of the seventeenth century there were more indentured black servants than white. At first black and white servants worked, played and intermarried. With the increasing number of Africans, however, being brought to the colonies as slaves, poor white servants started to feel that Africans were stealing their jobs. Besides, quite a large number of servants survived their period of indenture and later demanded land from planters once it had ended. Planters recognized that the situation of indentured servitude was untenable and their conviction of dividing black slaves from white servants was encouraged by the Bacon rebellion in 1676 when white servants and black slaves allied and fought against wealthy planters (Race Timeline). The seventeenth century can be traced as the origin of hatred and racism by whites toward blacks. Race and racism had been unknown to the world thus far. The black colour of slaves’ skins determined their lives. How do I know that you are a slave? You are black. Efforts which appeared in the colonial laws issued between 1639 and 1682 altered the position of blacks from servitude to racial slavery. These laws forbade inter marriages between whites and blacks and excluded African slaves from governmental protection. White servants took advantage of their skin color in order to gain new job opportunities and were granted more freedoms. To be black meant to be a slave and slaves worked all the time, not only shift work like white servants. White planters saw the advantage in having black slaves because it coincided with the property right to own the slaves’ children as well (Colonial laws). The year 1705 sealed the Africans’ fate. The Virginia General Assembly issued a declaration that was soon adopted by other colonies: 7 All servants imported and brought into the Country . . . who were not Christians in their native Country . . . shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion . . . shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resists his master . . . correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction . . . the master shall be free of all punishment . . . as if such accident never happened. (Virginia’s Slave Codes) With this declaration, Africans and their offspring lost all hope of freedom. Their masters could not be held accountable for the violence they perpetrated on blacks, including death, and what was worse, Negroes were condemned to be no more than the property of their masters and their lives were in the hands of planters.
1.1.2 Naturalization Act
The year 1705 legalized the notion that slaves were their master’s property. Another turning point came in the year 1790, in the form of Naturalization Act that stated that black slaves were not equal human beings within the United States. Racism became legal with the Act because it declared that “a free white person . . . shall be considered as a citizen of the United States” (Statutes). Non citizenship made it impossible for black people to own property, to vote, to bring suit or to testify in court (Race Timeline). Thinking about this statement leads to the conclusion that though this country is a symbol of freedom and equality it limited certain people from the beginning. Blacks were regarded as inferior to their white masters who were convinced that slavery was the best solution for them.
1.1.3 Abolition of Slavery
The south which was very rich in fertile soil and contained large farms and huge plantations could not imagine how it could be possible to manage them without slave labor. Fortunately not all whites in the United States had the same opinion toward blacks. The north was more temperate, and the farms there were of a more familiar type. Their owners were not dependent on black labor. They were against slavery both for moral, economic and religious reasons. Slaves could be treated like animals, i.e. could 8 be killed if they did not perform well, or could be sold. Moreover, a newborn black baby became the automatic property of its parents’ white master. The American Anti Slavery Society was formed in Philadelphia in 1833 and within two years several hundred of their branches were established throughout the free states. Their goal to abolish slavery did not go unnoticed. Nearly the entire South defended slavery as a necessary good and attempted to prove through scientific and biblical arguments that Negroes were inferior to whites and therefore destined to be slaves (Race Timeline). Since one half of the country was pro slavery, and the other half was anti slavery, a conflict was inevitable. This conflict was personified in the character of Abraham Lincoln. He was against slavery and was a proponent of abolition. In the elections of 1860, he won the presidency. The Southerners threatened to secede from the United States, one of the reasons being that they feared the abolition of slavery in case of Lincoln’s election which indeed happened (O’Callaghan 1990: 48). The following four years resulted in the bloodiest conflict in American history. What started as a fight for preserving the Union, later transformed into a black struggle for the abolition of slavery which was partially achieved by Abraham Lincoln in 1862. On the 22nd of September he issued a preliminary proclamation which contained “that on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free” (qtd. in Franklin and Moss 1994: 617). The President proclaimed freedom not only for more than three fourths of the slaves in the United States, but also issued instructions for the executive government to maintain the freedom of these citizens. Furthermore, the right to work for reasonable wages was established as well as the possibility to be accepted into the American army (Franklin and Moss 1994: 618). Though it appeared a victory, it was not. More than 800,000 people in the border states remained slaves and the newly acquired status of others resulted neither political nor economic freedom. The aim of the Emancipation Proclamation was to aid in the rebellions taking place in many states during the Civil War. Besides, it also gave hope to all slaves that better days would come after the war, and moreover that America could be free for all (ibid.: 208). After the war’s conclusion the President proposed the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which in effect initiated the permanent abolition of 9 slavery in all states. The Amendment was adopted on the 6th of December, 1865 (ibid.: 218).
1.1.4 Summary
Although Africans were not considered as slaves from the beginning on the American continent, it can be said that their indentured servitude and enslavement had lasted almost 250 years. It was more than adequate time for building certain social structure and dividing society into unequal classes of whites and blacks. Young whites of the 1870s had never met blacks who would not have been slaves. Nor their parents or grandparents would remember it. Blacks were slaves. That was the fact of life. Now they were free. They needed jobs, wages, and a place to live. They had the same rights and needs of white citizens who were horrified by such changes. It sounded to them as if someone told you in front of a prison: Can you see all these useless thieves and dirty murderers? They are free now, and you must accept that they are your equals. Could you accept it? Let’s suppose not. The same occurred in the South. Former slaves were still black, and continued to be considered inferior and unequal. Most blacks were still dependant on white planters, and to live independently after so many years of enslavement was difficult for them. In addition, the South had been defeated. The South was angry and full of hatred. The following years demonstrated how whites managed to exploit their feeling of supremacy in their favor. 10
1.2 Freedom or Non Freedom
1.2.1 Black Codes and Reconstruction
Andrew Johnson became President after the death of Abraham Lincoln and recognized that it was necessary to reunite the South with the rest of the nation. His aim was to gain Southern loyalty and to offer them control over their own affairs. Nonetheless, Southern preferences were clear. White citizens were resolved to do whatever was necessary to keep former black slaves away from everything that was considered to be white only, and to keep them in their position of inferiority (O’Callaghan 1990: 54). In accordance with these opinions, the Southern states passed laws known as the Black Codes, which preserved the black inferiority and white supremacy. Blacks would remain without property, education and legal protection. In addition, blacks were denied the right to vote, could not be jury members nor give evidence against a white man. This course of action caused indignation in the North where the United State Congress decided in 1866, in spite of the President’s objections, to pass a Civil Rights Act providing full civil rights for all people born in the United States (Davis). In addition, the Freedmen’s Bureau organization was established, which compelled Southerners to allow blacks to exercise their rights. As a next step, Congress introduced the 14th Amendment to the Constitution confirming the full rights of citizenship on African Americans, including the right to vote. It stated: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (Constitution) The southern states refused to accept the amendment which compelled the North in March, 1867 to pass the Reconstruction Act. The South was placed under military rule, and their state governments were dismissed and replaced with reconstruction governments. This action should have improved the situation of blacks in the South, but 11 in effect exacerbated a wave of hatred and racism against blacks. Neither the encouragement of industry nor schooling for black and white children could pacify the southerners. They were utterly resolute in keeping blacks from their rights and employed radical ways of threatening, murdering and lynching with the aim to prevent blacks from asserting their rights (Davis). The Ku Klux Klan became the most extreme and feared secret society of that time. Wearing white sheets and burning wooden crosses in front of their victim’s houses became symbols of the organization. Intimidation, violence and fear tactics became common in the South and when, in 1877 federal troops were withdrawn to the north, whites again assumed control in all southern states. The fate of blacks was sealed. Although they were freed and enslavement was abolished by law, to be black still meant being a second class citizen who was limited in his rights. Nor did the 15th Amendment, passed on the 30th of March, 1870 which forbade restricting of the right to vote due to race, color or condition of former servitude could improve the situation of blacks (ibid.).
1.2.2 Summary
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 (Constitution) and thus nullified black non citizenship declared by the Naturalization Act. Ten years of reconstruction governments enabled blacks to start living as equal citizens with whites. Moreover, the 15th Amendment guaranteed blacks their right to vote. Those ten years, along with the cruel tactics of some whites that were spreading throughout the South were of too short a period for blacks to build up their self awareness and self esteem. Before they actually realized that they were free and recognized the possibility of equality with whites, they had been relegated to the bottom of American society. White supremacy in the South was so strong that it caused Northern withdrawal and left African Americans to their fate. White supremacy soon comprehended how to subjugate blacks in defiance of the 14th and 15th Amendments. Segregation laws played a pivotal role for them. Despite reconstruction, the ratification of the 14th Amendment became a crucial point in the fight of the later Civil Rights Movement. Moreover, it was a shining moment in American history which later led to full equality for all its citizens. 12
1.2.3 Jim Crow Laws
The end of the nineteenth century for blacks was characterized by segregation and racial separation which became more prominent under the so called Jim Crow laws that individual Southern states passed. Segregated parks, hospitals, public transport, schools, restaurants, theatres and other venues provided whites with safety and protection from contact with blacks. The term Jim Crow is unclear, but it may have its origin with a white man from the 1830s who covered his face with charcoal and performed in a show depicting a silly and illiterate Negro man (Davis). The humiliation and inferior position which such a performance symbolized for blacks is comparable with what they were exposed to under the restrictive laws of the nineteenth century. The Jim Crow Laws were believed to be legalized in 1890 when disfranchisement provisions appeared in the state Constitution of Mississippi but their origins can be traced back to individual southern states much earlier. Between 1870 and 1884 eleven southern states legally banned interracial marriages. This attitude openly expressed the opinion of whites concerning their supremacy over blacks and galvanized their efforts in maintaining their racial purity. Prior to 1888, segregated schools for black and white children were established and bans on blacks attending white schools and vice versa were passed. A further step was taken in public transportation, namely that railroad cars were separated for black and white passengers. The efforts put forth by whites in segregating restaurants, hotels, theatres, parks, and even cemeteries was not surprising. The intention of white Southerners was to avoid as much as possible their black fellow citizens (ibid.). All efforts were covered by the phrase separate but equal . In 1896, the Supreme Court heard Plessy v. Fergusson and separate but equal segregation became the law of the land (ibid.). Southern states considered the decision as their victory and began with legal segregation. Harvard Sitkoff mentions that Atlanta passed a law that forbade blacks and whites from visiting the municipal zoo at the same time, while Mississippi insisted on separated taxicabs, and Oklahoma segregated its telephone booths. Florida and North Carolina did not permit white students to use textbooks that had been touched by black students (1993: 5). Sitkoff further states that “there was one hospital bed available for every 139 American whites in the 1920s, but only one for every 1,941 13 blacks” (ibid.: 6). Governmental action ensured that African Americans were kept at the bottom of the society. Not only sharing of public facilities with blacks represented a threat for white citizens. Their concern over the possible increasing power base of black people caused them to establish poll taxes and literacy tests, along with requiring them to understand selected portions of the state constitution. White primaries, where “only whites could vote in the Democratic Party primary contests” (Davis), and the grandfather clause were also used to manipulate potential black voters. These actions had the active support of the KKK and were widespread. Southern states recorded decline of nearly fifty percent registered voters which continued until the Voting Rights act of 1965 (ibid.). Sitkoff reports for instance, that “black voter registration plummeted 96 percent in Louisiana between 1896 and 1900” (1993: 5). In a similar manner the number of black voters fell in Alabama so around 3,500 and in Mississippi fewer than a thousand. For comparison, the adult black population of these two states was more than 300,000 each (ibid.). The 14th and 15th Amendments should have ensured the citizenship of African Americans with no restrictions due to race or color concerning the right to vote. Two Civil Rights Acts enacted in 1866 and 1875 should have guaranteed civil rights to all persons born in the United States and equal rights for blacks in public places. Finally, three Enforcement Acts of the early 1870s directed against racial discrimination and cruel behavior on the part of whites against blacks should have added further protection (Davis).
1.2.4 Life under Jim Crow
Meeting a black man or woman in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century presented the same picture. They would neither look into the face of a white citizen nor start speaking first. They would give a white man space on the pavement when passing. Black boys were taught not to touch, even by accident, a white woman. African Americans comprehended that they would neither be served in a shop first nor be addressed by whites with Mister, Misses or Miss . They were used to hearing the words boy, girl, uncle, auntie and most often nigger . White Americans considered them inferior, uneducated and lazy (Davis). 14 Society at the end of the nineteenth century offered very little to blacks yet they still managed to exploit it in their own favor. The situation helped lead to the establishment of black ghettos. If they had not been wanted in the white society, they created their own communities and social places. Various self help associations such as social clubs, lodges or volunteer fire departments were organized in many cities and they provided places to escape from the white world. In addition blacks could live here in dignity and without rejection. Other places where they could express their black independence and resistance to Jim Crow included all black colleges whose foundations were encouraged by mainly white philanthropists in the North (ibid.). African Americans enjoyed their freedoms for a short decade but it was again curtailed after 1877. Ten years of Reconstruction, when they could exercise their rights, were still living in black souls and they had not stopped thinking of ways to get them back. With a good education African Americans could rise from the bottom of society and improve their situation. Yet the journey to equality was long because they could not openly resist the violent tactics of whites. Peaceful, quiet and patient behavior had to be practiced so as not to irritate whites too much. They could not display their actual characters and their real feelings had to be hidden. Churches that they built for themselves became an essential place where they could express their feelings and combat the white man’s unjust behavior through their songs and stories. Religion provided hope, an escape, provided recognition and gave power. Moreover, the most impoverished blacks were accepted there and were provided with help. Religion rendered relief to black souls as well as satisfying the material needs of its members. Sick and elderly people were treated in congregations, and others could expect assistance when seeking jobs. Religion became a synonym for solidarity, added to group cohesion, improved self respect and underscored black history and its own traditions (ibid.). As mentioned above, churches brought African Americans together. It was no surprise that besides black churches shops and services designed to serve black people began to develop as well. Stores, restaurants, banks, insurance companies, barber and beauty shops, funeral parlors and law offices provided a base for emerging black neighborhoods. By 1900 American society was divided between black and white citizens with their separate places to live, work, visit or enjoy. Still, differences remained between the South and North. Preachers and leaders of black neighborhoods 15 in the North could more openly challenge the system and encourage black social feeling. By contrast, southern blacks could not speak openly because, as already stated, it could have had disastrous consequences for them (ibid.).
1.2.5 Summary
Could African Americans have fought for their rights? Could they have defended their freedoms? As mentioned above, laws were on their side but there was no one who would enforce their compliance. Southern states’ governments consisted of whites who were themselves interested in persecuting blacks, and the federal government did not feel like involving itself in the situation. If there were no suitors, then there was no need for judging or intervention. Constant persecution by whites, along with the terror tactics of the KKK, including lynching murders kept blacks on the defensive. The increasing number of laws against blacks only caused the situation to deteriorate. The fact that whites underestimated blacks was their mistake. African Americans were not silly people without dignity. It was true that before they gained their freedom, whites had deprived them of it. Thirty years of living under Jim Crow, however, provided blacks with time to review the course of their lives and to realize that Abraham Lincoln had desired a different future for them than what they were receiving. African Americans wanted to exercise their self confidence and they longed for equality and an appreciation for their work. The desire to nurture their children in a society which would fulfill the words freedom and equality was strong, but it had to remain buried deep in their souls. Blacks had never experienced anything else than refusals and humiliation. They were painfully aware of almost certain death in case of showing defiance against Jim Crow. The fact that there was no one who would punish or judge whites for their racial hatred and connected behavior, only convinced them of the correctness of their actions. Tactics practiced by the KKK verged on extreme insolence and, as described below, along with whites’ mob violence contributed to the emergence of black self awareness as well as to forming of the first organizations to defend black rights and freedoms. 16
1.3 Resistance at the Turn of Century
1.3.1 Lynching and Race Riots
Nearly everything a black man did in the street could be considered as a crime against a white man or a woman. The predominated opinion of whites in the South and the Midwest was that lynched or murdered Negroes either violated or raped a white woman or robbed a white man. Often the victims of mob justice, the perception of crossing an imaginary color line became crucial in the lives of African Americans. The real causes for their deaths could be different, such as walking down a street with a head held high, talking back instead of being quiet, or being successful in the same business as a white man in the neighborhood. Moreover, to have a relationship with a white woman, even if affection was returned, could result in death (Davis). The last sixteen years of the nineteenth century recorded approximately 2,500 people being lynched, most being African Americans, for various reasons and alleged offenses as described above. Between 1900 and 1915 over a thousand cases of lynched black men were recorded (Sitkoff 1993: 5). When the incidence of lynching began to slightly decrease, cases of mob race riots became more frequent. Neither men, women, nor even children of any age could feel safe in their homes and cities. White Americans were impatient for trial decisions and often took the law into their hands and attacked blacks. Blacks could rightly fear being hanged, shot or burned in their houses. It would be mistaken, however, to think that the rioters were punished. African Americans called for justice but no one listened to them. The riots started first in the South, including Statesboro, Georgia in 1904, followed by Lebanon Junction, Kentucky and Atlanta in 1906. Northern riots occurred in connection with black migration into cities, for example Philadelphia, when the hostility of white Northerners erupted. Other cities, namely Syracuse in Ohio and several towns in Indiana forbade blacks to settle within their boundaries entirely (Franklin and Moss 1994: 312 315).
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1.3.2 Foundation of the NAACP
The turn of the century brought two contradictory attitudes into play. The first was represented in the personality of Booker T. Washington who was born into slavery. He exhibited moderate views concerning segregation. He was horrified by the race riots spreading both in the South and North and he counseled black people that “the best course to pursue in regard to civil rights is to let it alone; let it alone and it will settle itself. The only answer to it is for colored men to be patient, to make themselves competent, to do good work, to give no occasion against us” (qtd. in Sitkoff 1993: 7). He saw in this approach the only way to avoid the violence and rage of white mobs. The second attitude demonstrated much more openly against segregation. W.E.B Du Bois, the leader of this line of thinking, insisted on the right to vote for blacks, openly defied Jim Crow and encouraged educated talented people into leading the masses (Davis). With the help of Du Bois, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, abbrev. NAACP, was founded during 1909 and 1910. Despite its relatively few successes in the first two decades of its existence, it later became the essential core of the Civil Rights Movement. Its goal was aimed at ending segregation, ensuring equal education both for white and black children and providing enfranchisement to all African Americans based on the 14th and the 15th Amendments. Early first branches were formed, first in Chicago and in two years in nine other cities. By 1921, more than four hundreds branches existed all over the United States. They worked at the local level and cooperated with the parent organization (Franklin and Moss 1994: 318 320). The first success for the NAACP came in 1915 in the case of Guinn v. United States when they reversed Oklahoma’s and Maryland’s grandfather clause. The clause enabled poor and uneducated whites who could not ballot because of the poll tax or pass literacy tests to become registered voters. The condition was based on the fact that if a male had been entitled to vote prior to a certain date, in Louisiana for example the year 1867, then his sons and grandsons were free from meeting other requirements. The aim of the clause was clear. As no blacks were entitled to vote prior to this date, the exception could be applied only to whites (Davis). Another major victory came in 1917 in the case of Buchanan v. Warley when Louisville’s covenants concerning the 18 segregation of blacks from certain districts of the city were cancelled (Franklin and Moss 1994: 318 319). Rather than solving individual cases the NAACP focused its aim on helping African Americans who might become victims of lynching. The Association pushed for the Federal anti lynching bill, which had never been passed, in spite of three attempts by the House of Representatives in 1922, 1937, and 1940. These bills unfortunately never made it through the Senate. In addition, the Association solved various cases of discrimination, such as the lower salaries paid to black public school teachers, alleged crimes committed, the exclusion of blacks from juries, and defended black civil liberties (ibid.). In the 1930s, their work became more focused on desegregating schools. Harvard Sitkoff reports in his book that “the eleven Southern states in 1916 spent an average of $10.32 per white public school student, and only $2.89 per black pupil” (1993: 6). Lower courts were forced to rule on the unequal conditions of segregated schools and other forms of discrimination represented by Jim Crow. The NAACP demanded either the same conditions for blacks and whites or the abandonment of Jim Crow. The 1930s were the years of the Great Depression and equalizing black facilities to white ones presented problems. In the following twenty years the NAACP engaged in legal processes aimed at individual states, counties, or municipalities who were increasingly required to abrogate Jim Crow (Davis).
1.3.3 Summary
Blacks experienced each and every day of their lives the injustice of living in the United States. Entrenched opinions on blacks’ inferiority from the times of slavery had blinded whites’ consideration for equality that should have been based on the same freedoms for all and not being judged by the mere color of skin. Increasing numbers of lynching and mob violence could not permit blacks to stay calm. Even an animal that is beaten and treated badly would stand up against its master. African Americans were not slaves any more, and the turn of the century showed that they realized this. Many of them studied at black colleges, and others were anxious to do whatever was possible to change their inferior status. There was, 19 however, great fear. Fear of being lynched or killed by a white mob did not allow individual blacks to defy the system. The foundation of the NAACP was an important milestone in African American history. The NAACP neither represented an extreme violent organization nor encouraged violent actions. Leaders of individual branches comprehended that the way to bring change lied in the laws; hence their main interests were put in legal processes. Cooperation by grassroots forces operating at the local level with the parent organization functioning at the national level became in the following years a typical and vital feature of the civil rights movement. For the time being, however, the organized leadership remained the crucial point that was missing. It needed time to mature. Before the movement could expand, it needed time for planning, to gather courage, to obtain enough followers and wait till the time was ripe to expand. 20 2. Precursors of the Movement
Everything that occurred in the United States during the twentieth century could be considered as significant events that contributed to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The years of enslavement, along with the following Jim Crow laws pervaded much of American history. Whites were masters who governed and determined the lives of American citizens. Blacks were considered inferior, unequal and were held at the bottom of society. They could not expect that white Americans would grant them freedoms by their own accord. Blacks knew that the laws were on the side of whites who inherited hatred for them, passed from generation to generation. Much had to be done before white America was prepared to accept changes in the status of African Americans. The events of the twentieth century helped foster this change. The Great Migration of the 1920s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Second World War, increasing empowerment of black suffrage, and the beginning of the Cold War were significant events before the movement could erupt in all its power.
2.1 Defenseless Blacks and the Defense of Democracy
2.1.1 The Great Migration
At the end of the nineteenth century, more than ninety percent of African Americans lived in the Southern states and their conditions there were generally much worse than those in the North. The system of sharecropping that had spread throughout the South required blacks to work in the fields, often resulting in an uncertain future and, of course, debts in case of poor crops. Between 1890 and 1910, nearly 200,000 sharecroppers fled to the North, while others returned to Africa (Sitkoff 1993: 6). Black women played an important role during this period of upheaval. Their dreams were far from the reality they were experiencing. Days spent in the fields displaced their roles as wives and mothers, forcing them to spend their nights cooking, cleaning or washing. Gone were their ambitions to live on family farms where they would care their husbands and children. Many of them, being widows or single mothers left the rural areas and moved to southern cities. Tens of thousands exploited the postwar situation and escaped to the north where they accepted jobs as domestics. In 21 most cases the responsibility for earning a living rested with women who could more easily earn money. Boys who were forced from their early childhood to work in the fields lacked education, while jobs in industry were often staffed with white immigrants (Davis). By 1900 black women were generally better educated because they were more likely to finish grade school than black men. They often worked for white families, both in the North and the South and giving encouragement to each other raised their spirits. Black women founded clubs for mutual help where they openly defied the lynching of black men, encouraged suffrage for women and higher education for both sexes. They felt less threatened by the terrorist practices of white mobs due to their gender. In addition, most black teachers were women which enabled them to defend their blackness, to become leaders, to express pride in themselves and to teach youngsters about their own self awareness (ibid.). As mentioned above, the end of the nineteenth century witnessed the first migration of blacks which continued after 1916. Floods and natural disasters were not the only reason for this. European migration to the United States was restricted which offered new job opportunities for African Americans. Another reason was the labor shortage experienced during the War along with the persistent anger and rage of Southerners which added to the exodus of blacks moving North. The years from 1916 till 1919 are known as the Great Migration when over half a million blacks fled the South. Similarly, another million left the South during the 1920s. African Americans hoped to find a more tolerant society than existed in the South (ibid.). The North represented for them “The Promised Land” as Nicholas Lemann entitled his book but here they encountered segregation and discrimination as well. Here, they were similarly exploited in education, housing and job opportunities as they had been in the South. Moreover, Northerners did not feel disposed to accept such an influx of African Americans into their cities and lives (ibid.). While the NAACP, with the cooperation of the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes were helping blacks to adjust to the mainstream of American life, the migration was plagued by race riots induced by white mobs (Franklin and Moss 1994: 320 321). 22
2.1.2 Consequences of the First World War
Going to Europe and fighting for peace in pursuit of democracy meant much for African Americans. In a real sense they saw it as a chance to achieve democracy for themselves as well. President Wilson considered the war as a chance “to make the world safe for democracy, the war to end all wars” (qtd. in O’Callaghan 1990: 90). Those on the home front had opportunities to work in truck, automobile and ammunition productions, to help with food conservation or in the meat packing industry. The labor shortage during the war opened doors to African Americans in various jobs including iron and steel production, or coal mines in Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The United States was dependant on black laborers who believed that their indispensability during the war would improve their postwar position. The Great Migration that was connected with the war, however, stymied black expectations. The expansion of race clashes both in the South and the North led the President to make a strong public statement against lynching and mob violence. Meanwhile, Germany invoked racial incidents to discourage black soldiers from fighting for something they did not have at home. It had, however, no effect on black American soldiers who supported the war enthusiastically encouraged by a belief in their own better tomorrows (Franklin and Moss 1994: 339 345). At the end of the war, African American troops were welcomed in Northern U.S. cities like heroes and celebrations of their bravery in Europe filled the streets. Unfortunately it did not last long. Black soldiers and citizens expected new freedoms in their homeland whereas the rest of the United States desired to return to the prewar order and not to accept change. In the South, the Ku Klux Klan again revived and refused to give first class citizenship to blacks. During the first year after the war, more than seventy black soldiers were lynched by mob violence and fourteen Negroes were publicly burned. Southern and South Western states symbolized the everyday fear of blacks for their lives once again. More than two hundred incidents involving Klan practices were recorded in twenty seven states within ten months. It was not only the burning of wooden crosses in front of houses that terrified blacks. In Texas, Negroes were forced to work in fields picking cotton for ridiculous wages. This was a new tactic used by the Klan. Northern blacks were alarmed too, because of new Klan cells being established there. The year 1919 was especially bloody. Race riots were at their peak 23 and from June to the end of the year twenty five outbreaks of racial violence disturbed the lives of Americans. James Weldon Johnson named it the Red Summer because it was a period of strong violent conflicts that the American nation had rarely ever witnessed. The opportunities for jobs were diminished after the war and segregation in urban cities continued (ibid: 346 349). When African Americans realized that everything was returning to the old orders, they showed the most resolute resistance they could in their inferior position. Their willingness to defend themselves was the strongest in their history and the riots of that year could be compared to a war. It affected the whole country, from South to North and from East to West. Fighting and dying in self defense were typical features of riots that started in Longview, Texas and continued in Chicago that became a destination for the black migration. Chicago had the biggest settlement of blacks who were entering white neighborhoods which resulted in a month of terror there. Franklin and Moss comment that “thirty eight people had been killed, including 15 whites and 23 blacks; of the 537 injured, 178 were white and 342 were black. There is no record of the racial identity of the remaining 17. More than 1,000 families, mostly black, were homeless as a result of the burnings and general destruction of property” (ibid.: 351). For several weeks riots occurred in other states, including Knoxville, Tennessee; Omaha, Nebraska; and Elaine, Arkansas. White Americans attributed the black willingness to fight back to influences caused by war, and their goal was to maintain the black status quo where it was. All riots were judged by white juries, white policemen operated in the streets, and white governments decided the fate of black lives. Disillusionment, despair and helplessness settled in black souls and the only things they had were their utterances of criticism. African Americans comprehended that if they desired change, they needed better organization, planning and political power (ibid.: 349 352). 24
2.1.3 Summary
The Great Migration was very important for the later Civil Rights Movement because it meant a shift from rural to urban areas for thousands of African Americans. Despite the same poor conditions in cities, blacks could gain a better education and jobs there. Black ghettos and neighborhoods in cities were quite large and provided more convenient places where African Americans could gather, plan and organize their struggle as opposed to rural areas. Women’s involvement in the Great Migration can be recognized as a beginning of their later influence in the movement. With better education and easier access to jobs, their self confidence rose. Their desire to offer their children a better future encouraged them to fight. Women represented a large number of the NAACP membership, and their courage was not less than those of men. During the First World War, African Americans for the first time in their history had equal footing with whites. Of course, this equality was based on separate but equal, but in the name of the United States they could defend democracy for others. Consequently, they expected that it could bring a change for them too. The disappointment that came after the war’s conclusion strongly affected them. The war had increased black self awareness and self respect. On the other hand, the way they chose to defend their new self confidence revealed that it was necessary to search for alternative means. Race riots accompanied by property damage, injuries and deaths, by both whites and blacks directed hatred towards blacks instead of gaining sympathizers. 25
2.2 Improvements in Hard Times
2.2.1 Period of Growth and the Great Depression
Despite spreading race riots throughout the country following the war, blacks successfully integrated themselves into various branches of industry. They worked in automobile, glass, clothing, food and tobacco industries, and in paper and bag companies. Others earned their living in transportation and communication. The years after the war were considered years of growth, prosperity, and economic boom and no one noticed that the prosperity was distributed unevenly. Textile and shoe industries, shipbuilding and coal mines were in decline. Thousands of African Americans were without jobs in the middle of the 1920s which was explained away as a common and expected element of a technological age (Franklin and Moss 1994: 383 384). In the South, black farmers suffered from poverty and bad conditions. Moreover, their crops were destroyed by boll weevils. This natural disaster was so severe that many farms were abandoned, and both black and white rents were dismissed. In fact, the Great Depression had already begun for them. In actual fact, the beginning of the Great Depression is dated to the crash on Wall Street in 1929. Banks failed, mines and various businesses were closed and employees in domestic jobs, personal services and agriculture were dismissed (ibid.). The Depression deprived nearly eight million people of their jobs by 1931. Pessimism among Americans prevailed, and not only for the reasons of lost jobs, homes or the inability to buy basic goods such as food and clothing. Americans in particular were sorely disappointed with the inactivity of President Hoover and the government. By 1932, twelve million people were unemployed and over 100,000 businesses were closed. More and more Americans became dependant on charity, often standing hours in so called breadlines for a bowl of soup or free bread (O’Callaghan 1990: 98). African Americans bore the situation much worse. To their great disappointment, even in such hard times for all Americans they still remained segregated, discriminated against and not receiving the same relief as whites. Blacks were excluded from some soup kitchens which were reserved for whites. In addition, whites sometimes receive up to $6 more in monthly aid than blacks. That was the final proof for African Americans that there would never be democracy in the full sense of 26 the word without political change, and in the following years they turned their attention toward their policy more than ever before (Franklin and Moss 1994: 383 384).
2.2.2 An Emerging Power to Change the Status Quo
Despite the same poor conditions suffered by blacks in the North and South, Northern Negroes were not entirely defenseless against the injustices of municipalities and governments, because their right to vote had not been curtailed as severely as in the Southern states. The possibility to alter their status quo through political action lay in the hands of black Northern voters. In 1928, for the first time in the century an African American Congressman was elected. The Republican Oscar De Priest became a symbol for all black Americans in the United States and a sign of hope. His presence in Congress provided blacks with new courage. In 1934 he was replaced by Arthur W. Mitchell who became the first African American to be elected to the United State Congress as a Democrat. By that time Negroes rated the same importance as white voters and politicians had to be wary of what they expressed in their opinions on race, employment, foreign policy, etc. since it influenced not only white voters but black voters as well. After 1932, black legislators were elected more frequently than ever in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. In these states, they could use their influence in decisions concerning black citizens. Nevertheless, this successful situation was limited only to Northern states (Franklin and Moss 1994: 384 401). An increasing interest by blacks in politics could be seen in their monitoring of statements by individual Congressmen, distinguishing those who opposed full citizenship for blacks or in other ways supported restriction of their rights. Such politicians were considered enemies and the black power base was strong enough to remove them from their positions in elections by voting as a block. At first they fought against those who obstructed the federal Anti lynching bill in the Senate, and also to judges of the Supreme Court who expressed antagonism towards blacks. Time and again they helped to defeat such Congressmen and judges in elections (ibid.). During the Great Depression African Americans turned their indignation against President Hoover who was ineffectual in solving the enduring economic crisis in the 27 country and in addition supported the lily white Republican movement spreading through the South since 1928. With their contribution in the elections of 1932, Hoover was defeated by Franklin Roosevelt who obtained strong black support in part due to his physical handicap but above all due to the strength that he employed in tackling problems. He displayed an understanding for the problems of ordinary people and he was resolved to help the country and its inhabitants. His New Deal provided millions of people with useful work in jobs that were beneficial for the communities they were living in. The New Deal also helped people with housing, provided better living conditions, stimulated industries, and improved conditions in agriculture (ibid.). Notwithstanding the great impact of the New Deal, actual improvement in the unemployment rate came in 1939. By that year, ten million people were still without jobs. With the beginning of the Second World War, American factories were filled with workers producing weapons for countries fighting Hitler. By 1941, when the United States entered the war, unemployment had entirely disappeared (O’Callaghan 1990: 103).
2.2.3 Summary
The Great Depression during its first years touched nearly all Americans’ lives. As it continued, blacks comprehended that even such a crisis could not change the white approach towards them. Separate but equal was functioning the same way as usual, and relief supplies were divided unevenly between whites and blacks. Despite this, Roosevelt’s New Deal ensured improving of social and economic conditions for most Americans, including blacks. During the hard times of the Great Depression, African Americans completely understood that if they desired equality, it had to be given to them by law. If laws were to be changed, political influence would be a necessity. More than ever before blacks realized how vital their suffrage was. Only Northern blacks could go to the polls. Victories that they had won were not breathtaking, but contributed to the belief that change in the United States was attainable, and became an inspiration for other African Americans. It brought hope to Southern blacks whose situation was much more desperate. Paradoxically, the period of Great Depression enabled blacks to rise from the bottom of the heap and strengthen their self awareness of being on the same level in American society as whites. 28
2.3 The Second World War
2.3.1 Perception of the War and the Segregated Army
The Second World War proved to be an important catalyst for the expansion of the Civil Rights Movement. Blacks quickly condemned the horrible practises of Hitler, fascism, and the violence committed towards non Aryan races. Moreover, they realized that a fascist victory would have ended everything they had accomplished thus far. Conversely, Hitler’s defeat would allow them to focus on their struggle for civil rights. African Americans who would eagerly take part in the war and fight for the rights of the oppressed now had to focus their efforts on their own rights. The doctrine separate but equal still applied even in the army and blacks fought to remove and replace it with a more equal approach in the American forces. Many blacks had problems enlisting in some white only areas such as Tennessee and if accepted, they could serve only in subordinate positions such as aids to medical officers or chaplains. In a similar way, the Marines and the Army Air Corps excluded blacks from recruitment completely (Steven 1991: 2 7). President Roosevelt was afraid of white soldiers’ reactions in the case of abolishment of segregation in the army. Not wanting to provoke riots and white discontent, he passed in 1940 the Selective Service Act that forbade discrimination in the drafting and training of men but still preserved a black and white army. Blacks were outraged by the decision. With the war in progress they could see how segregation negatively influenced service of both white and black Americans. For instance, in 1942 a black army private was shot while in the custody by white patrolmen. He was under arrest for refusing to vacate his seat on a bus which was reserved for whites only. In addition, the Red Cross association prevented the mixing of white and black donations to blood banks (ibid.). The Navy championed the egalitarian approach of integration of blacks and served as a starting point for opposition against segregation. White and black soldiers spent much time together, were in permanent contact and thus stopped insisting on purposeless segregation (ibid.: 20). Franklin and Moss mention that “approximately 165,000 served in the navy, 5,000 in the Coast Guard, and 17,000 in the Marine Corps” (1994: 438). Even the Army Air corps allowed the enlistment of black soldiers who 29 could be trained as pilots. At the end of the war, nearly six hundred of them flew aircraft. More than four thousand black women were admitted to the Women’s Army Corps. Moreover, the end of the war witnessed for the first time black and white troops fighting side by side on German soil (ibid.: 439 442).
2.3.2 The March on Washington Movement
On the eve of the Second World War, African Americans were disappointed both by the segregated military and the lack of employment opportunities. In response to the President’s Act, A. Philip Randolph, the militant trade union leader, organized in June 1941 the March on Washington Movement, abbrev. MOWM. The goal of this march was to desegregate the American army and to eliminate discrimination in employment. His movement obtained support from the NAACP, but rather than mobilizing middle class reformers Randolph invited masses of black people to participate. It is estimated that the march numbered between 75,000 and 100,000 participants (Steven 1991: 8 13). The President responded by establishing the Fair Employment Practise Committee. Not having the power of enforcement, it could only rely on publicity and the appeal to moral conscience when investigating discrimination. The unemployment of blacks was at a high of eleven percent in 1940. Their hopes in obtaining better jobs were thwarted by endless queues where whites were always attended to first with their requests for jobs (ibid.). On the other hand, black employment indeed rose by over one million because of great the outflow of men from the military and union membership doubled. They even received jobs where they had earlier been refused. Black hiring at shipyards rose from 6,000 to 14,000 and in aircraft plants from zero to 5,000. Despite the fact that African Americans still worked in lower paid jobs and their incomes were half of whites, their economic conditions were improved and provided blacks with hope for the future. Moreover the MOWM roused black pride and by including the black masses of ordinary people, it foreshadowed the successful tactics of protest in the later Civil Rights Movement (ibid.). 30
2.3.3 The South during the War, Bloody Riots, and the NAACP
The South also recorded great changes during the 1940s. Agriculture became more mechanized, especially with tractors, and this caused large job losses for both white and black farm workers. Forced to search for jobs in different trades, 750,000 blacks left rural areas and moved to southern cities which offered a wider social setting for racial solidarity and where political and economic emancipation could be pursued (Steven 1991: 19). Besides southern towns, many blacks moved to northern cities, namely Detroit. By 1943 50,000 southern blacks and another 500,000 whites had arrived there. While searching for jobs, blacks encountered resistance from whites, substandard living conditions, high infant mortality and a high rate of tuberculosis. Demands for relief led to further conflicts. Civil rights leaders became severely anxious following a bloody race riot at an amusement park on the 20th of June, 1943 where “thirty four people had been killed, seven hundred injured, and $2 million in property destroyed” (ibid.: 10). By the end of the year 241 cases of racial violence erupted in forty seven other cities. The NAACP appealed to black people to fight for their rights but to do it through non violence. Black leaders emphasized the importance of the civil rights struggle in the courts, legislatures and ballot boxes. During the war, the NAACP solved many cases of lynching and other forms of violence both at home and in the army. In addition, they fought against segregation on public buses, unequal educational facilities and demanded an end to poll tax restrictions. From 1940 till 1946 the NAACP membership increased from 50,000 to 450,000 (ibid.: 9 10). The NAACP initiated lawsuits against white Democratic primaries held in the South. The year 1944 brought great success. On the fourth attempt the Supreme Court overruled Smith v. Allwright which concerned white Democratic primaries in the South. This decision paved the way to voter registrations for hundreds of thousands of blacks. This decision by the Supreme Court ruled that “where a primary was an integral part of the electoral process . . . blacks were entitled to the protection of the 15th Amendment, which sheltered their right to vote from racial discrimination” (ibid.: 16). Their success stemmed from cooperation between the NAACP on the national level and with grassroots forces. This increase in cooperation became a more common feature of the growing civil rights struggle. Still, the poll tax and literacy tests remained. Despite of 31 that black voter registration in Texas rose from three percent in 1940 to twelve percent in 1947 (ibid.: 13 17). The work of the NAACP was supported during the war by the newly founded organization known as the Congress of Racial Equality, founded in 1942, abbrev. CORE. It originated in black activism and was more openly oriented towards taking direct action. Membership was open to both blacks and whites who believed that direct action could bring immediate resolution to racist problems. Founded in Chicago by pacifists, CORE remained faithful to the principles of non violence. The membership organized numerous sit ins and picketing campaigns in the North aimed at the desegregation of public accommodations. Their unusual techniques led to the desegregation of restaurants and movie theatres in Detroit, Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago. They also had success with restaurants in Washington, D.C., but to a lesser extent (ibid.: 9 10).
2.3.4 Summary
Fighting for these victories resulted in successes both abroad and on the home front. Firstly, the war provided opportunities to test new protest tactics, such as sit ins or picketing which were successful in desegregating restaurants in several Northern cities. The newly formed organization CORE constituted a possible way on how to achieve changes. The fact that it was established by pacifists who refused to take part in violent race riots and preferred the non violent actions of sit ins and picketing became an inspiration for others. Their approach coincided with appeals of NAACP leaders to avoid violence, although their means differed. Moreover, CORE also welcomed whites who were willing to support equal rights for blacks. Similarly, the MOWM showed that mass actions such as marches could bring success as well. Conversely, race clashes during 1943 confirmed again that open combat would bring only disappointment, injuries and death with no positive effect for future. Secondly, the argument for segregation in the American military was weakened. The Supreme Court decision that ended white Democratic primaries in the South along with wartime migration into urban areas helped blacks to improve their economic conditions and employment opportunities. Finally, participation in the war itself contributed to the growth of black militancy. Black self perception had been changed by 32 the war. This self awareness as being equal with white men rose to such an extent that they refused to be only the servants of whites. Blacks comprehended that they shared full equality with white Americans and that acquiring first class citizenship depended on the right to vote. The war provided black people with courage, pride and the resolution to stand up for themselves. In subsequent years, blacks would use the right to vote as a tool for the struggle against racial prejudices and to solidify their civil rights.
33
2.4 The Final Steps toward the Movement
2.4.1 Suffrage
The majority of black soldiers returned home as heroes, and did not want to return to the prewar order. They were determined to exploit their gains. War veterans were exempted from poll taxes which allowed them to register to vote and many of them did so. Buoyed with the abolishment of the white Democratic primaries, dozens of NAACP branches in the South established schools where blacks were taught how to fill in registration forms properly and how to answer typical officers’ questions. Within a decade, over one million southern blacks became newly registered voters, a number four times greater than in 1944 (Steven 1991: 26 29). To persuade people who had been historically marginalized on the American continent, and who were not accustomed to participating in the affairs of their homeland was not always easy. The peoples resolve, however, was bolstered by the belief that the right time to reach full citizenship had arrived and was too strong to be discouraged. One such soldier is cited by Steven: “Now that the war has been won, the most difficult job ahead of us is to win the peace at home. ‘Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice’ which may be obtained, first, by becoming a citizen and registered voter. If you become a registered voter we may be able to win the peace” (qtd in ibid.: 22). Black leaders agreed. They believed that if most Negroes started to vote, Jim Crow would be endangered and finally destroyed. The efforts of the NAACP were also supported by voter registration drives in cooperation with civic, religious or fraternal organizations. The enrollment of new black voters under their influence was especially successful in Atlanta where they attracted 18,000 voters in four months. Such leagues targeted blacks who were not members of the NAACP or were out of its sphere of influence. With their help black representatives were elected to the city council in Winston Salem, North Carolina as well as into the city councils of Richmond in 1948 and Nashville in 1951 (ibid.: 26 27). Voter drives were bolstered throughout Dixie, as the Southern states were known, by the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, abbrev. SCHW founded in 1938. They considered themselves more action oriented and secured a larger following 34 which was essential for recruitment. Ministers preached about the importance of exploiting the right to vote and counseled black people to go to the polls. One of these ministers was the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. who personified a model for his son. As assistant secretary of the NAACP, Roy Wilkins, said: “The issue of civil rights is politics. If we are to win the fight for civil rights we must use our political strength” (qtd. in ibid.: 26). The more African Americans who requested to be registered, the less willing southern officials were to oblige. Misleading forms and absurd literacy tests that were different for blacks and whites appeared throughout the South. Even uneducated poor whites could pass them, but not qualified intelligent blacks. The worst situation was in Mississippi where literacy tests were accompanied by a poll tax and persisting white primaries despite its abolishment. Mississippi functioned as a closed society where blacks were kept at the bottom of the social strata with entirely unequal education, housing, and employment opportunities. In 1944, only 2,500 black adults managed to register out of 350,000 possible black voters. Despite the gloomy situation, blacks were encouraged with the successes of blacks in other states and in the decade after the war’s end 20,000 new black voters were added to registration lists. (ibid.: 22 28). Still the migration from the South into northern and western cities continued because many African Americans opted to leave the vicious circle of endless racial hatred rather than endure it. Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland provided safe havens where the restrictions to become a registered voter were not so stringent, and the political influence of blacks increased in these cities. Time and again, blacks played an essential role in close elections. With their contribution, many racially orientated whites failed in their candidacies (Franklin and Moss 1994: 465). Cities also provided a larger access to education, economic opportunities, and cultural institutions in contrast to rural areas where blacks remained more isolated, uneducated and dependant on whites. White Americans took for granted that their streets were paved, or that they were provided with police and fire protection. They did not think about regular sanitation disposal and had free access to recreational institutions (Steven 1991: 42 43). Many African Americans used their electoral power to improve the above mentioned basic public services. If they became members on ruling white councils, they strove to improve their social and materials conditions. In 35 other words they considered the importance of the struggle not only as a tool to eliminate racial differences but also class ones. Africans Americans were encouraged by both major and minor successes. With the slowly increasing number of black voters, more and more blacks were elected to judgeships, boards of education, or city councils. For example, by 1956 there were approximately forty of them in the North and South. The year 1954 brought blacks an unprecedented victory. For the first time in history, African Americans sent three representatives concurrently to Congress, namely Adam Clayton Powell from New York, William Dawson from Illinois, and Charles C. Diggs, Jr. from Detroit. Moreover, in 1964 Congress simultaneously had as many as six African American members (Franklin and Moss 1994: 466).
2.4.2 The Cold War as an Ally to the CRM and Support from Truman
The work of the NAACP was divided after the war into two spheres. In the South its branches helped to remove the obstacles preventing blacks from registration while in the North leaders pushed the federal government for improvements in civil rights. They fought for a fair employment policy and better conditions in housing and education. It can be said that the NAACP transformed itself after the war from a protest organization to a more action oriented one (Sitkoff 1993: 18). President Truman also contributed to the growing movement to resolve the delicate question of civil rights. As far as international affairs and the beginning of the Cold War were concerned, if the United States planned to wholly condemn communist ideology and openly come out against Russia, it could not allow itself to become an easy target in a counterattack. The question of civil rights was America’s weak link. The country that proclaimed democracy and freedom as its symbols and birthright had to deal with the fact that most of its black citizens were considered inferior, lived in unequal conditions of education, housing and employment and could not go to the polls. The President’s Committee on Civil Rights was aware of this and warned in 1947: “An American diplomat cannot argue for free elections in foreign lands without meeting the challenge that in sections of America qualified voters do not have access to the polls” (qtd in Steven 1991: 34). Japan was the first to publicly reveal the white racist tactics of violence and lynching in order to show the United States’ hypocrisy and to obtain the 36 loyalty of non whites in China, India, and Latin America. In addition, Russia passed on this propaganda to the people of Africa and Asia (Sitkof 1993: 16). Not only decisions concerning the United States’ foreign policy influenced President Truman. On hearing that uniformed black soldiers on their journeys home across the South were being murdered and having heard of the bloodshed in Columbia, Tennessee the President decided to act. He was disturbed by the threats of violence that whites used against blacks who wished to exercise their newly gained freedom. An interracial committee that was appointed by the President had one goal – to identify and analyze the root causes of inequality in America and to propose possible improvements. In the fall of 1947 President Truman was presented with the final report To Secure These Rights which recommended the abolishment of poll tax and any other obstacles blocking black advancement. Further desegregation of the military, in interstate transportation, and government should also be accomplished. The report concluded that the situation would require federal intervention. White politicians in the South were shocked by the report. Since southern support in the upcoming elections of 1948 was crucial regarding Cold War issues, the President decided to deal with the recommendations of the report cautiously (Steven 1991: 33 34). That year another committee designated by the President suggested equal and integrated higher education for all and called for the abandonment of Jim Crow tactics practiced at schools. The third released report that year, Freedom to Serve suggested ways to achieve an integrated military. President Truman was determined to provide at least some solutions. He issued an executive order that guaranteed fair employment in the federal service for all. He explained his decision by stating that “the principles on which our Government is based require a policy of fair employment throughout the Federal establishment without discrimination because of race, color, religion, or national origin” (qtd. in Franklin and Moss 1994: 462). Moreover, in 1949 the army began to implement the second executive order issued in 1948 to integrate members into all positions regardless of race or color. The navy and air force also complied (ibid.). In contrast to efforts on the federal level, a Gallup Poll conducted in March, 1948 found the opinions of most Americans, fifty six percent, did not sympathize with the President’s views regarding the changes in civil rights policies (Steven 1991: 39 40). 37
2.4.3 Summary
Increasing number of blacks who registered to vote after the war alarmed many whites, especially in the South. Many blacks had moved from rural areas to urban districts since the beginning of the century. Many of them studied and became well educated. More and more of them became members of the NAACP, or CORE. The crusade for voter enrollment of blacks throughout the South indicated that the struggles on local level were becoming more closely connected with those on the national level. African Americans began to realize that the key to success was to be found in collective effort. Their self confidence and belief became stronger with every victory they achieved. They elected the first black representatives and played an important role in some close elections. On the other hand, they had to counter white resistance that was still strong. Large numbers of white Americans were exhausted by the war and their only wish was to return to the lives they led prior to the war. For many it was too soon to embrace such fundamental changes that would radically transform their society. It may have happened that African Americans would be suppressed as after the First World War. White strength was extremely powerful and, in the name of the entrenched traditions, resolute to do whatever was necessary to maintain the status quo. Federal policy, however, was not on their side. Cold War issues forced the President to act in favour of equal civil rights for all. The time when the United States should become the actual symbol of democracy and unlimited opportunities for all was on the horizon. 38
2.5 Prelude to the Movement
2.5.1 The Main Focus of Attention at Mid-century
As the middle of the century approached, the efforts of African Americans in the northern states turned to the desegregation of education, housing and employment where separate but unequal prevailed. The blacks in the South supported them with demands for equal segregation as well. It was widely believed that if the doctrine of separate but equal was fulfilled, it would lead to the dismantling of Jim Crow. This opinion stemmed from the fact that it would be too expensive to maintain segregation rather than provide equal conditions. They triumphed in 1950 when the Supreme Court decided that the segregation of blacks in dining cars on interstate transportation would result in extra expenses for interstate commerce and therefore nullified it. The second verdict of that year stated that if a state chose not to fund schools for blacks, then it would not be permitted to segregate blacks from whites in a joint school (Sitkoff 1993: 17 18). The desegregation of public housing was the next sphere where African Americans applied their pressure. In 1950, for instance, “there were 177 local housing projects open to families of all races and creeds” (Franklin and Moss 1994: 463). Nine states and eight cities went even further by requiring desegregation in all public housing. Fair employment policies backed by the President opened new opportunities in fields previously closed to blacks, including the aircraft, electronics, automotive, and chemical industries. When A. Philip Randolph and William Townsend, both African Americans, became vice presidents of merged unions, it promised an increase in equal employment opportunities as well. By 1956, sixteen states and thirty six cities established committees that would inspect companies awarded government contracts to ensure that discrimination and segregation practices were not occurring (ibid.: 463, 472). During this period, Washington, D.C. played a pivotal role in desegregation. Hotels began to accept blacks, followed by theatres and cinemas. Access to all public parks, playgrounds and swimming pools was opened to all city residents. The year 1953 saw the desegregation of restaurants. Finally, after the Supreme Court decision concerning the desegregation of the educational system, President Eisenhower 39 recommended these changes as a model for the rest of the United States (ibid.: 464 465). On the other hand, African Americans did not obtain these victories easily. In Washington, D.C., for instance, whites slowed the integration of fire departments. Some whites threatened to quit work if blacks were employed. Other groups of segregationists threatened blacks with physical violence and some registrars continued to exclude blacks from voting. Their reasoning being that the Constitution was insufficiently understood by African Americans (ibid.: 467). Other groups countered the rising number of blacks in cities by leaving, thus reducing the number of jobs available. Franklin and Moss state that “of the fifteen million blacks in the United States in 1950 about fifty two percent were living in metropolitan areas” (ibid.: 470).
2.5.2 Brown v. Board of education
As already stated, desegregation of the educational system seemed to African Americans a likely starting point for ending Jim Crow tactics. In 1953, the White House welcomed Dwight D. Eisenhower as the new President. His intent was to support the civil rights movement and approve civil rights legislation proposed by President Truman, but his pace was a bit slow. He considered southern politicians reasonable enough to be aware of the necessity of obeying federal laws. On the other hand, he remained willing to provide them with time to reconcile themselves to the fact of gradual African American liberation and to relinquish humiliating racial practices. Steven expressed it in one masterful sentence: “Gradualism rather than speed characterized his approach” (1991: 41). Since 1951, many local branches of the NAACP devoted their energies to eliminating unequal conditions at segregated schools. In 1952, five such cases were heard by the Supreme Court and named after the first case – Brown v. Topeka . Nearly a year and a half passed before the Supreme Court reached the decision whether or not to overrule Plessy v. Fergusson , dating 1896. The decision concluded that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (qtd. in Sitkoff 1993: 22). Segregation was declared unconstitutional, and African Americans looked forward to dismantling Jim Crow in all facets of their lives. 40 Very soon blacks had to awake from their euphoria and accept the fact that to put the law into effect meant changing the hearts and minds of thousands of whites, especially in the South where there was little support for the decision. Only some fifty four weeks later, African Americans observed several hundred schools in the border states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, and West Virginia integrated their classrooms. In the District of Columbia, desegregation of schools was directed by the President and states such as Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wyoming who could exercise options on segregation chose to integrate their schools. More than eighty percent of Southerners refused to accept the decision. Noncompliance by the Southern states caused the Supreme Court did not set a deadline for desegregation which slowed desegregation efforts. In addition, 101 Southern Democratic Congressmen in 1956 signed a Declaration of Constitutional Principles where they agreed to defy desegregation orders, reasoning that the matter was in the hands of individual states and not that of the Supreme Court. The Declaration gained the support of eleven southern states (ibid.: 25 26). Meanwhile, thousands of black parents along with NAACP attorneys filed suits against some two thousand Southern school districts. White juries and officials intentionally prolonged legal proceedings and physically threatened blacks to withdraw their lawsuits. Black children were ignored by white teachers at schools, and their classmates humiliated or attack them. Support for segregationists included pupil placement laws enacted by state legislatures. The laws allowed for segregation not on the basis of race, but for various psychological, moral or health reasons (ibid.: 26 27). In addition, the Ku Klux Klan became involved and gave support to the newly formed White Citizens Councils whose members openly rejected desegregation, using economic reprisals against opponents, and punished teachers who taught mixed classes as well as those who attended them. They also supported the transformation of public schools into private ones (Franklin and Moss 1994: 467). Riots and violent demonstrations broke out across the South each September. The NAACP, in its effort to better the situation of blacks in the South was severely limited in its work by state legislature laws directed at them. The states of Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida struck back at the NAACP for their success in Brown v. Board of Education (Steven 1991: 48 49). The efforts of these states led to the closure of 246 NAACP branches in the South by 1958 (Sitkoff 1993: 27). 41
2.5.3 Summary
The beginning of the 1950s showed African Americans’ resolution to improve their situation. By this time, they fully comprehended that suffrage was the power for changing their lives as far as job opportunities, housing, education and economic conditions were concerned. In the postwar years, CORE registration drives helped to attract the interest of the black masses in policy, whereas the work of the NAACP achieved victories in the courts. The biggest discrepancy persisted in the educational system. Northern blacks were convinced that if the Supreme Court decided in their favor, it would provide them with an avenue for banishing Jim Crow once and for all. Having such a decision would mean obtaining a judicial precedent, which happened. Nevertheless, the achievement of the above mentioned victories had been hard won. Without them, there would not have been any civil rights movement. Resistance from whites stemmed from the entrenched customs and traditions of a racially segregated society. The defiant attitudes of whites against decisions made by state governments as well as the Supreme Court contributed to the conviction of African Americans that change was necessary at the federal level. African Americans experienced a deep disappointment when they understood that without executive power that would be in compliance with the decisions of the Supreme Court, their chance to gain equal integrated education remained poor, especially in the South. 42 3. The Civil Rights Movement
3.1 The Start of the Movement
Considering all that had occurred in the United States during the century leading to African Americans empowerment, including the decision of the Supreme Court that proclaimed the doctrine separate but equal in education unconstitutional, there could not have been a better time for the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement. Long years of resistance, defiance, planning and organization, combined with courage and an awakening dignity and self awareness set the stage for the movement. Therefore it is not true that the movement arose from nothing. It began neither with the murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old black boy in the summer of 1955, nor with the refusal by Rosa Parks to vacant her seat on a public bus to a white man. Let’s take a closer look at these two incidents that crowned the years of waiting for freedom and equality.
3.1.1 The Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was born in 1941 and grew up in Chicago. His cousin’s family was living in Mississippi in the Deep South. In August, 1955 just after his graduation from school he looked forward to paying them a visit and to pick cotton there (Facing History 2006: 15). The visit ended in tragedy. One hot day he and his friends bought some candy at Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. As he left the shop, Emmett said to the white shop assistant bye, baby. It was done on a dare. His friends did not believe that he attended school with whites who he regarded as friends. No southern boy would dare address a white woman first. Emmett did it. Southern racial mores were unknown to Emmett who at fourteen did not realize how different his life was in the North from his cousin’s in the South (ibid.). Four days later Emmett was kidnapped by two white men who came at night to his uncle’s house. The next day the men were arrested, but it was too late. Three days later, Emmett’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River. This was not an isolated event in the South. What Emmett’s mother decided to do was something completely new. On seeing the mutilated body of her son, she said: “. . . there is no way I can tell the world what I see. The world is going to have to look at this” (qtd. in ibid.: 17). At 43 the funeral the casket remained open so that everyone could see tortured body of her son. A week later, the local press published dreadful photos of Emmett’s body which attracted the attention of the country to the continuing violence occurring in the South (ibid.). The trial in September became a sensation, both in a positive and negative sense. Emmett’s great uncle did something unimaginable. While he was on the witness stand, he accused two white men sitting in the courtroom of coming to his house and kidnapping Emmett. Despite this testimony, two days later the jury consisting of twelve white men acquitted both defendants (ibid.). To sum it up, what was important about this case was the attention that it attracted. Thousands of blacks and whites condemned the verdict which only served to convince African Americans that it was time for a change.
3.1.2 Rosa Parks’ refusal
Less than a half year later, on the 1st of December, Rosa Parks was returning home on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. When she was asked by the driver to vacate her seat to a white man, she refused. She was not just an unknown elderly woman tired after her long day at work who decided to defy (Sitkoff 1993: 37 38). Rosa Parks became a member of the NAACP in 1943, and together with her husband had solved numerous cases involving murders, rapes, peonage, and flogging. She had participated in several actions of nonviolent civil disobedience and was aware of its consequences. The murder of Emmett Till acted as a catalyst and motivated her to take action. Later, reflecting on her actions taken on the bus that day, she commented that: “I felt it was just something I had to do” (qtd. in ibid.: 38). When the driver repeated his request she again refused. At the next bus stop she was arrested by the police “for violating the municipal ordinance mandating segregation on publicly owned vehicles” (ibid.: 38). Rosa turned for help to E. D. Nixon, President of the Alabama NAACP who paid a bail to release her from jail. After Parks’ discharge, he contacted Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women’s Political County to discuss the next step. The arrest of Rosa Parks was the spark he had been waiting for in his efforts to involve the black masses in forcing changes on Montgomery. Proposed actions included a one day 44 bus boycott on the day of Rosa Parks’ trial. Nixon telephoned college professors, civic spokesmen, and ministers and asked them to spread the news about the boycott. The Women’s Political County printed thousands of handbills that appealed to black people to support the boycott because next time it could be you who would be arrested. It was no surprise that on that fateful day over ninety percent of blacks did not ride the buses (ibid.: 38 41).
3.1.3 The Explanation of the Movement
The above can be considered as the actual beginning of the movement. Rosa Parks’ refusal provided the spark that leaders of the NAACP were waiting for. Through numerous workshops and nonviolent actions, they comprehended that if they desired change, it could not be done by advocating violence. The racial riots from previous years, such as the Red Summer in 1919 or violent actions during the Second World War were counter productive. On the other hand, when they sought to peacefully negotiate with white councils concerning Jim Crow, they met only with humiliation and refusals. The leaders of the NAACP and CORE realized that what they needed was to attract white sympathizers to their side. The more support they would obtain in their civil rights struggle, the more they could push for the necessary laws to be passed in favor of equal civil rights. While searching for means on how to reach their goal, they found inspiration in Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolence and passive resistance. Long before the Montgomery boycott, blacks had been taught how the strategy of civil disobedience and direct actions functioned and how they should behave in case of being attacked by whites. The NAACP and CORE members were acquainted with the principles of boycotts, sit ins, marches and other forms of demonstrations. Black leaders assumed that direct actions based on principles of non violence could attract the attention of the mass media. Their presumption stemmed from the hypothesis that mass nonviolent direct actions would upset whites who would consider it as impudent behavior that would need to be suppressed. The result would be that blacks would be presented in the mass media victims of white violence. The tension that would be created by such direct actions would force white councils to negotiate. It must be said that not everything had been prepared before the Montgomery boycott. The most typical feature of the Civil Rights Movement was that it consisted of 45 local branches of the NAACP, CORE, the newly formed SCLC, and in later years the SNCC. Masses of black and white people who desired change were the backbone of the movement. Numerous local branches obtained inspiration from and supported each other. There was no centralized leadership; in fact the movement was scattered all over the United States and its power was in its people. There was, however, a man who was considered as the father of the movement. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was at the inception of the Montgomery bus boycott and devoted his life to the movement. You may ask why a minister became the most visible person of the movement instead of a college professor or a politician. As already stated, no matter where blacks lived or moved, churches remained the havens and pivotal places of black neighborhoods. Ministers supported the means of direct non violent actions in unison with Christian love that did not allow violence. Their substantial influence on black fellow citizens helped attract the masses. Gandhi’s nonviolence in connection with Christian love seemed to African Americans as a good base to invoke change. These ideas were excellently interpreted for the masses by Martin Luther King, Jr. who convinced blacks to incorporate these ideas in their lives. He went even further by including Thoreau’s just and unjust laws into the philosophy of the movement. By attracting the mass media along with the attention of the government and the President, black citizens could hope that they finally found the way how to change their status quo.
3.1.4 The Means of the Movement
The movement was built upon non violent direct actions that differed during the years. As already stated, the Montgomery bus boycott can be considered as the beginning of the movement. In Wikipedia a boycott is defined as “a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest, usually of political reasons” (Boycott). As described in the following chapter, the Montgomery boycott consisted of not traveling by local buses and became successful due to the unity of all involved. In subsequent years boycotts were used along with other forms of protests. Sit ins represented a different type of action. Wikipedia defines them as “a form of direct action that involves one or more persons nonviolently occupying an area for a 46 protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change” (Sit in). Sit ins appeared in the movement in 1960 and were performed by students, both black and white. Their goal was to sit at various lunch counters until they would be served. Soon, large numbers of students in many other cities joined them and black adults supported them by boycotting a variety of store chains. Again, their actions invoked a crisis that could not be ignored by white city councils and had to be dealt with, in numerous cases by desegregation of public facilities. The Freedom Riders that entered the movement in 1961 stated their goal clearly. They knew that Southern states would defy the decision of the Supreme Court, therefore they decided to provoke a crisis and thus compel the federal government to act and gain support in putting the decision into effect. They relied on the same course of action as in Little Rock in 1957. Other direct actions used by blacks were marches. Wikipedia defines marches as a part of demonstration that is “a form of activism, usually taking the form of a public gathering of people in a rally or walking in a march. . . to refer to the public display of the common opinion of a group of people” (Demonstration). This thesis describes two marches that occurred in connection with other forms of demonstrations as parts of the liberation movements in Albany and Birmingham. The former took place in Albany, Georgia in 1961 and had negative results for the struggle. The latter occurred in Birmingham in 1963 and is an excellent illustration of King’s tactical planning and how the means of direct actions could be combined in order to reach the goal. It was in Birmingham, when King was jailed and his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” explained the four steps of each nonviolent campaign that are: “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action” (1969: 99). Further, he analyzed the existence of just and unjust laws as they were defined by Thoreau but he extended his ideas: An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal . . . Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statues are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. (King 1969: 103) 47 King appealed to his black fellow citizens to stand up against these unjust laws and accept the consequences that might follow for breaking the law, even an unjust law. Since they wanted to attract public attention, arrested protesters refused bails and were sent to prisons. City jails were overcrowded by blacks, young students and adults who peacefully demonstrated for equal civil rights and were imprisoned. This was the public interest they wanted to arouse. More and more whites sympathized with their struggle. The third march described in this thesis was the famous March on Washington in 1963 that satisfied black demands for equal civil rights. The following chapters show how these means of nonviolent direct actions functioned in the movement itself.
48
3.2 Not Only Boycotts of the 1950s
3.2.1 The Montgomery Bus Boycott
There was no substitute for the role of churches and ministers played in the boycott. During the twentieth century, churches and religion had provided a haven where African Americans could feel welcomed. Even if they migrated, blacks could find a new church that offered its members material relief, clubs for young married couples, or day care service for working parents. Young blacks during the 1950s were becoming increasingly impatient with the slow pace of change. To counter this, the church offered more programs to the youth in their religious communities. Various radical groups represented dangerous temptation to youth by advocating violence to change the system. The church became more politically involved and organized alternative nonviolent actions (Franklin and Moss 1994: 473 474). Therefore, it came as no surprise that ministers were elevated to positions of leadership, and were able to attract masses of people to the direct actions. It therefore was accepted without objections when Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was asked to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association, founded on the 5th December, 1955. At first, the employment of more black bus drivers was demanded along with better treatment of black passengers who were still required to sit in the rear of buses (Sitkoff 1993: 40 41). King was young, intelligent, exciting and an excellent orator. In addition, he was a new face in the community, unspoiled and having no personal conflicts with others. Reed cited Ella Baker who stated: “King did not make the movement, the movement made King” (2005: 2 3). That is true but without King’s unique oral ability, the movement’s goals would have been difficult to get across to the masses. Besides, he did not consider himself as a leader of the movement but rather as someone completely devoted to it. King had spent part of his life in the North. When he witnessed how segregation was still functioning in its worst forms in Montgomery, he was determined with all his heart to help bring about a change (Sitkoff 1993: 41 43). During the evening following the one day bus boycott, he gave his first speech to more than five thousand black citizens of Montgomery, in the Holt Street Baptist Church. He exhorted that if they wanted to succeed, their actions must comply with the 49 law and that unity was considered essential. The only weapon they had was their right to protest. “We are impatient for justice but we will protest with love” (qtd. in ibid.: 45) were the words that galvanized the movement. “First and foremost we are American citizens . . . and we are here for our love for democracy . . . and the great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right” (qtd in Facing History 2006: 21 22). King’s speech showed his love for the United States, his belief in the country, government and the Constitution. Further, he emphasized their Christian membership did not permit violence: My friends, don’t let anybody make us feel that we ought to be compared in our actions with the Ku Klux Klan or with the White Citizens’ Councils. There will be no crosses burned at any bus stops in Montgomery. There will be no white persons pulled out of their homes and taken out to some distant road and murdered. There will be nobody among us who will stand up and defy the Constitution of this nation. We only assemble here because of our desire to see right exist . (qtd. in ibid.: 22) His speech was received with enthusiasm and resolution to continue the boycott. What occurred on the fifth December continued on the sixth, seventh and eighth December as well. Since blacks used the public buses the most, their decision not to ride them resulted in empty buses. The boycott continued days, then weeks, then months. Some black women had to walk up to ten kilometers each day, from black neighborhoods to the white houses where they worked. Though physically tired, their souls were filled with hope (Sitkoff 1993: 46 47). At first white municipal authorities refused to believe that blacks would remain unified. Once they saw that blacks were determined, they began to assert their white supremacy and power. Many blacks lost their jobs, while others were threatened with dismissal or arrested for alleged violence. For several days the strength of the movement wavered. When King was arrested for speeding and sent to prison, it reinvigorated the boycott. Blacks demonstrated outside the jail until King was released (ibid.). Nonetheless, King’s arrest was not what persuaded blacks to persevere. After King’s house was dynamited, an outraged black mob armed with weapons and stones was on the verge of open racial violence. With King satisfied that his wife and a child were uninjured he stood in front of the mob and quieted them: “Get rid of your 50 weapons. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. We must love our white brothers no matter what they do to us” (qtd in ibid.: 48). This was the moment that persuaded blacks to follow him. They saw King’s own words in action and they believed. From this moment on, no matter how whites tried to discourage blacks, they could not break their unity. On the 4th of June, the federal court district settled the suits of four black women, thus ending bus segregation. The decision stated that segregation on public buses violates “equal protection of the law clauses of the fourteenth amendment” (qtd. in ibid.: 50). The case was further judged by the Supreme Court. Whites were afraid of the confirmation of above written statement and became even more vengeful. The NAACP was outlawed, fined, and the city council threatened to revoke the license for their car pool business that helped blacks who did not use buses (ibid.: 50 51). On the 13th November, 1956 African Americans could celebrate their victory. The Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the federal court and ended the 381 day long boycott that changed lives of African Americans (ibid.: 51 52). On the 21st of December, 1956 The New York Times wrote: “For the first time in this ‘Cradle of Confederacy’ all the Negroes entered buses through the front door. They sat in the first empty seats they saw, in the front of buses and in the rear. They did not get up to give a white passenger a seat. And whites sat with Negroes” (qtd. in ibid.: 52). It showed that a mass action combined with the unity of all participants could induce the federal government to intervene. Moreover, it meant that change was possible and that it was in the hands of each individual black man or woman. It provided the hope that blacks craved.
3.2.2 Formation of the SCLC
As already stated, no one had foreseen boycott in Montgomery in December of 1955. Yet, it happened. Martin Luther King, Jr. who had been asked to lead the MIA was supported by many black clergymen who came to him for advice when organizing similar boycotts in their towns and cities, namely Tallahassee, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia (Sitkoff 1993: 56). The boycott in Montgomery had unified them, and in 1957 there appeared a new organization with King as president. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 51 abbrev. the SCLC represented a significant turning point in the movement. The North tended to employ legal actions to gain racial equality, while in the South mass demonstrations and nonviolent resistance was used (ibid.). Blacks began to fight for themselves and the church played a requisite role. Christianity supported the nonviolent approach of the movement and provided necessary infrastructure as well. Churches became places of recruitment, meetings, and raising money for the movement. Further, its independent network served as a movement network (Reed 2005: 12). Besides, churches provided a haven from white retaliation where people could talk about injustices or, on the other hand, victories. To talk about it is not all together accurate. They could sing about it. The old black musical tradition melded with their religious belief, providing them with faith and hope. In songs stories were told, hatred was buried, hope was expressed and singing together provided moral support. Songs represented a significant tool to overcome fear. In addition, gospel music had a long tradition, and traditional songs served as a reminder of the horrible conditions, black slaves had to face (Reed 1 2). Such songs, called freedom songs were recognized early on as weapons against racial segregation. For example, “We Shall Overcome” became the movement’s anthem. These songs, however, did not remain only in the churches. Later in the movement, they served as a tool of unity and moral support in the streets during marches and sit ins. In prisons, singing together encouraged protesters to endure and overcome the fear they felt (ibid.). As one of the civil rights workers remembered it: We were singing . . . Somehow, I can’t explain it, through the singing and the sense of solidarity we made a kind of psychological barrier between us and the mob. Somehow we made such a wall of strength that they couldn’t physically push through it to hit us with their sticks. It wasn’t visual, but you could almost see our singing and out unity pushing them back. (ibid.: 25 26).
Music played a significant role in the movement not only because of the above mentioned influence, but also served as a mobilizing tool to attract masses of people. Songs reached out to whites as well, and they crossed the barriers of class, religion, generation and sex (ibid.: 13). 52
3.2.3 The Civil Rights Acts of the 1950s
As already stated, President Eisenhower supported African Americans in their struggle for freedom. Unfortunately, his support was often only verbal, with little action taken. Moreover, he held the view that desegregation is a matter for individual states where the federal government should not intervene. For that reason, he did not comment on the Montgomery bus boycott and remained silent concerning various cases of black helplessness against continuing school segregation. In 1956 for example, Autherine Lucy who had won a federal court case concerning her acceptance to the University of Alabama, had to withdrawal for her own safety. The important fact remained that she became the first black woman to enroll at the University of Alabama. By contrast, the university preserved segregation for the next seven years (Sitkoff 1993: 57). On the other hand, securing equal rights for all American citizens was considered by the President as a proper cause for federal intervention. The right to vote was guaranteed by the fifteenth Amendment, regardless of race or color, and the President planned his campaign for a second term securing on freedoms for African Americans. The fact at the time was that “between 1952 and 1956 only 215,000 additional blacks succeeded in enrolling to vote in the South, leaving seventy five percent without the ballot” (Steven 1991: 49). The President’s attorney general, Herbert Brownell shared the same attitude. After the murders of Emmett Till in 1955, and of two other blacks during their attempt to enroll, he started to work on the Civil Rights Act. The Montgomery bus boycott persuaded him that African Americans were resolute in standing up for their civil rights and first class citizenship. After long negotiations in the Senate only three sections of the proposed Act were approved. They included voting rights litigation, the establishment of a Civil Rights Commission and a Civil Rights Division. Desegregation was excluded from the Act. Some civil rights leaders were disappointed with the Act, but in fact it represented an important legislative precedent for further struggle. These two newly created organizations should have provided for an increase in black voter registration (ibid.: 55 58). Three years passed revealing that the Civil Rights Act could not induce Southern whites to treat blacks as their equals. Only two hundred thousand blacks were added to 53 voter lists during those years, an increase of just three percent. Civil rights leaders and the Commission demanded a new civil rights law. Again, a proposed bill for change was watered down. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 authorized the courts and not federal registrars to appoint legal aid to blacks with difficult franchise cases (ibid.: 63; Sitkoff 33 34). Presidential pressure in support of suffrage was not as effective as African Americans had hoped. Roy Wilkins, the executive director of the NAACP during those years, summed up the President’s approach: “President Eisenhower was a fine general and a good, decent man, but if he had fought World War II the way he fought for civil rights, we would all be speaking German today” (qtd. in ibid.: 51; ibid.: 36).
3.2.4 Crisis in Little Rock
Many Americans in the North did not care about what was happening in the South, but the violence directed at innocent pupils and students including bomb attacks on schools filled them with outrage. People turned to the federal government for solution to defuse the growing tensions in the South. For the first time, President Eisenhower had to use armed federal troops to protect African American students from white mobs, despite his policy of nonintervention regarding desegregation in individual states. This happened in 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas where the Board of Education approved the integration of the Little Rock Central High School. Nine outstanding black students had been chosen to attend an all white school with some two thousand students. Governor Orval E. Faubus, a segregationist, appealed to his supporters to stop the nine black students from entering the school. On the first day called out the National Guard to prevent violence, but in fact its orders were to form a barrier to prevent the students from entering the school. This action was repeated for the next several days and attracted national interest to the case. Tensions in the city were ready to boil over, and race riots threatened (Sitkoff 1993: 28 29). There was no other choice for the President other than to act. In a speech on the crisis he expressed that “mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts” (qtd. in Facing History 2006: 33). Further, he emphasized that the decisions of the Supreme Court were obligatory for all states, no matter what they thought of them. 54 If anyone disregarded these ruling, it was the duty of the President and executive branch to act and ensure compliance (ibid.). Although the Governor withdrew the National Guard, the outraged mob remained. More and more white racists gathered each day in front of the school forcing the President to send federal troops to Little Rock to protect the nine students and maintain order. Armed troops remained in the city for two months, providing the students with protection. For blacks it was a signal that the federal government was on their side and they hoped for further action, which did not come. President Eisenhower did not agree with the forceful desegregation of schools and was against further intervention (Sitkoff 1993: 30 31). As a result, after the crisis passed and people lost interest, the Governor decided to the schools’ closure in Little Rock rather than desegregate them. They remained closed for two years before reopening. The fact was that by 1964 only 123 black children out of seven thousand students could attend desegregated schools in Little Rock (ibid.: 35). The situation throughout the South was similar: “In 1960, only one sixth of one percent of the black students in the South went to a desegregated school. By 1964, just two percent of the black children in the South attended integrated schools, and none at all in two Southern counties involved in the Brown decision” (ibid.: 36).
3.2.5 Summary
The Montgomery bus boycott shifted the civil rights struggle from the North to the South and from extended trials in courts where whites determined the lives of African Americans to the streets and into the hands of the black masses. Each black man or woman could participate in improving his/her future. The NAACP and the SCLC, led by churches organized eager black fellow citizens in their desire for change. In the years 1956 and 1957 blacks believed that their first class citizenship was very close. Their conviction was encouraged by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, although some civil rights leaders intuited that it would bring more disappointment than satisfaction. The events in Little Rock were similarly regarded with caution. On the one hand, there was a fact that the law was on the side of the nine students. White outrage forced the President to intervene, which many blacks comprehended as a good sign for 55 their struggle. On the other hand, civil rights leaders knew that the President supported them, but very slowly and without pressure from white Southerners. The President would act only in extreme cases. No wonder that with the snail’s pace of school desegregation and enduring problems with voter registration that many black people in the South felt disappointed at the beginning of the 1960s. The approach by the government to racial issues remained cautious and the hopes of blacks due to the successes extending from 1954 to 1957 were weakened by the slow progress of the late 1950s. It was necessary to search for new ways to challenge whites, the government and the President and to make strides toward racial equality in the United States.
56
3.3 The Sit-in Movement
3.3.1 The Sit-in Movement in Greensboro
The changing situation in Africa became a new inspiration for African Americans. Ghana’s victory for independence in 1957 influenced other states there and by 1960, twelve African nations had attained independence. Where was the justice in African Americans, living in a free country who could not obtain full freedoms, in contrast to their black brothers in Africa? Black author James Baldwin ridiculed the situation: “All of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee” (qtd. in Sitkoff 1993: 74 75). The impatience of the young was growing. In 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional, many were in their teenage years and hoped to finish their studies at integrated schools. Six years later, only six percent of schools had begun desegregation, and states such as Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina had done nothing. Besides, in 1960 fewer than one in four potential voters could register in the South. In light of this, impatience of young people was justified. They were different from their parents and grandparents. Most of them had grown up in an environment that promised change. They were also better educated, and were adding to the numbers of the black middle class (ibid.: 75 79). Similar to the Montgomery bus boycott, the sit in movement began as the individual action of one man. In this case, four students from the black Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina decided to retaliate against the everyday refusals by whites to serve them in restaurants and lunch counters reserved for whites. They were tired of living in a separate American society (ibid.: 61) On the 1st of February, 1960 Joseph McNeill, Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain and David Richmond entered a downtown Greensboro store, bought some school supplies, then sat at a lunch counter and ordered coffee. They knew the waitress would not serve them because they were black, so they proceeded with their plan. They sat and waited to be served the whole afternoon, until the store closed. When they returned to their campus, several excited students were waiting there to join them the next day (ibid.: 62 63). 57 In accordance with King’s belief of nonviolence and Christian love, they agreed on these rules: “The protesters would remain passive, never raise their voices, never indulge in name calling” (ibid.: 63). On the second day of their protest twenty seven students joined them, and on the third day there were sixty three seats occupied by black students. On the fourth day, three white students joined them and they now occupied all sixty six lunch counter seats. That same day, a nearby department store was also targeted, and by the fifth day over three hundred young people were demonstrating – doing nothing, only sitting and waiting for their coffee (ibid.). The case attracted national attention and on the sixth day city officials decided to negotiate. More than 1,600 students who were involved in the sit in agreed to end the demonstration, although none of them had been served (ibid.: 63 64). By the end of March it was clear that white officials would not abandon the segregated lunch counter policy, and sit ins began again. In April the first arrests appeared. Forty five students were jailed for trespassing and disobeying police officers who asked them to leave. The black community supported the students by not doing their shopping in stores where they were refused to be served which resulted in profits dropping by more than one third. The white council decided to give in. Six months later, blacks in Greensboro could order their cups of coffee at whatever lunch counter they wished (ibid.: 61 64).
3.3.2 Spreading of the Sit-ins and Formation of the SNCC
Within fourteen days after the beginning of the movement in Greensboro, Northerners expressed their support for the movement by staging various sit ins and other forms of demonstrations in New York, Chicago and Boston. Students had begun a new phase of the black struggle and awakened dignity and self awareness in thousands of black citizens. Money was raised in the North to pay bails for jailed students in the South. Store chains were boycotted in order to cause lunch counter segregation to become a national issue (Sitkoff 1993: 81). It would be mistaken, however, to think that the sit in movements were only about free choice concerning where to eat. Sit ins demonstrated how injustices affected the everyday lives of thousands of African Americans. Soon the protesters turned their attention to other segregated public facilities and new tactics appeared, such as kneel-ins 58 in churches, sleep-ins in hotel lobbies, swim-ins in pools, wade-ins on beaches, read-ins in public libraries, and play-ins in parks (ibid.: 73). Students were determined to reach victory and rather than pay fines they decided to be jailed. Now they understood King’s words: “We’ve got to fill the jails in order to win our civil rights” (qtd. in ibid.: 66). Being in jail, it sometimes proved to be better than being out. Although students wore their best clothes and their behavior did not provoke whites, their presence in white only territories was enough provocation for whites to attack, beat or kick them. Some of them became victims of lynching or practices of the KKK. On the other hand, every arrest initiated a new sit in somewhere else. The more whites tried to suppress the sit ins, the more black students became resolute and the more sit ins spread to other cities (ibid.). Imprisoned students, who had only peacefully sat at lunch counters but were arrested, were in contrast to whites who poured ketchup on them, threw food on them or pushed lighted cigarettes against their backs attracted the attention of the mass media. Police arrested only demonstrators, whereas whites remained free. These actions irritated more and more whites in the North who began to encourage equal civil rights for all American citizens. Whites in the South realized at least, that the Jim Crow policy was starting to be untenable (ibid.). By the end of 1961, two hundred cities started to desegregate their public facilities. Although resistance in the Deep South, where victories remained exceptions to the rule, was strong, sit ins managed to bring change into upper Southern and border states. The movement actually began to dismantle Jim Crow closer to the South (ibid.: 73). As the actions of students became more and more successful, they felt the need to form an organization. They did not desire to be affiliated to the NAACP or the SCLC. At a convention in April, 1960 King and other leaders supported them in their intentions, because the students’ tactics differed from those of the NAACP as well as the SCLC. The tempo of their actions seemed quick for most conservative adults. Young people were enthusiastic, determined and strongly believed that they could change racial prejudices in the United States. They refused slow trials at courts and saw nonviolent actions of civil disobedience as the proper way to achieve racial equality in all aspects of their lives. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, abbrev. SNCC (pronounced snick) was established in October 1960 (ibid.: 83 87). 59
3.3.3 Summary
There was no doubt that at the beginning of the 1960s the civil rights struggle needed new inspiration and energy. Who would be a better choice than the young people growing up in an atmosphere of continuous change? Their youth, boldness, excitement and courage to overcome fear of white resistance and violence were to their advantage. Many black adults who had spent all their lives in inferior positions of racial hatred preserved supporting the legal actions of the NAACP and were reluctant to join the direct actions in the streets. The sit ins added new self confidence and power to the movement. Thousands of blacks and whites joined the struggle for equal civil rights for all. Those who did not support these movements could not avoid them because of the mass media coverage. Television and radio stations broadcasted recordings of continuing demonstrations and various newspapers printed articles and photos high lighting the actions. The struggle for equal civil rights touched the lives of all Americans. At this phase of the movement, it was no longer possible to ignore it. Whether people were for or against it, the issue of first class citizenship for African American was becoming the key question of those days. Since students did not believe that failure was an option, they decided to support even the dangerous actions as the Freedom Rides. Their idealism took a strong hit and they had to keep in mind the SNCC Statement Purpose that stated: “Love is the central motif of nonviolence. Love is the force by which God binds man to himself and man to man. Such love goes to extreme; it remains loving and forgiving even in the midst of hostility” (qtd. in Facing History 2006: 46).
60 3.4 Freedom Rides and Freedom Votes
3.4.1 The Freedom Rides
The freedom rides began in the spring of 1961. From their initial beginning president Kennedy was not excited about them. Although he supported the civil rights struggle, he preferred more peaceful means than the freedom rides. He anticipated that what young people from the SNCC in cooperation with the CORE planned to do would start large riots. He was afraid that the aim of the freedom riders would be to force him to act. His assumption was right. He did not like the idea of repeated federal intervention that would cause conflicts with state governments (Steven 1991: 80 81). After the successful sit ins, black leaders sought a new sphere of interest where they could battle the still strongly segregated South. The decision of the Supreme Court in 1960 that ruled against segregation not only on interstate buses but also in rest rooms, waiting rooms and all terminal accommodations provided them with an opportunity (Sitkoff 1993: 88 89). Both blacks and whites became volunteers for the freedom rides. They decided to travel on interstate buses into the heart of the Deep South and test if the decision of the Supreme Court was being respected there. They expected troubles from whites and wanted by conducting the freedom rides to induce the federal government to act. James Farmer, one of the founders of the CORE remembers the rationale of the freedom rides: Why didn’t the federal government enforce its law? We decided it was because of politics. If we were right in assuming that the federal government did not enforce federal law because of its fear of reprisals from the South, then what we had to do was to make it more dangerous politically for the federal government not to enforce federal law.” (qtd. in Facing History 2006: 50) The first freedom ride began in May, 1961. Thirteen blacks and whites, trained by CORE set off from Washington, D.C. on two buses to Anniston and Birmingham. The closer they got to the Black Belt, the worse the situation became. Outraged mobs were waiting for them at each stop. Though the buses were damaged and freedom riders hurt, they decided to continue. Their journey ended in the two cities where no bus would accept them to travel to Montgomery (Sitkoff 1993: 90 93). 61 The SNCC students were determined to continue. With the words “the ride must not be stopped. If they stop us with violence, the movement is dead.” (qtd. in ibid.), they wanted to finish what the CORE had started. They set off on the journey to Birmingham where they were attacked by the KKK and arrested for violating the local segregation orders (ibid.). Other twenty one students boarded the bus to Montgomery and during their journey were protected by the police. During this time, the freedom rides attracted the attention of the public and the mass media. When they got to Montgomery, there were neither policemen nor buses at the station. Only an outraged mob of more than a thousand people who received permission from the governor for fifteen minutes to show the freedom riders that they were not welcomed there. The picture that was broadcasted by television was horrifying. Young well dressed white and black students were kicked and beaten with baseball bats, and one man was set afire. Some of them were very seriously injured before the police came. This bloodshed became page one news, and not only in the United States. The public condemned the non action of the police and the brutality of white Southerners who defied the law. The President decided to act and promised federal protection to the freedom riders despite his disapproval of such coercion aimed at white Southerners as well as himself (ibid.: 94 96). The President’s Attorney General appealed to freedom riders for a cooling off period but they refused with the words: “We had been cooling off for a hundred years. If we got any cooler, we’d be in a deep freeze” (qtd. in ibid.: 98). Another freedom ride headed to Jackson, Mississippi where the riders were arrested which served as a protection against mob violence. Rather than pay bails, students filled the jails. More and more students became volunteers and traveled across the South. By the end of the summer, there were more than a thousand freedom riders (ibid.: 98 100). The time had become ripe. The crisis that they invoked needed a solution at the federal level. Due to the pressure of the Attorney General, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued on the 22nd of September the order that forbade segregation in interstate transportation. The signs notifying that seating is “without regard to race, color, creed or national origin” (ibid.) had to be placed both in the carriers and the terminals. 62
3.4.2 Voter Registration Drives
After the success of the freedom rides, civil rights leaders found out how to improve the unequal conditions in the South even further. They knew that power counts and that power was suffrage. The SNCC, the CORE, the NAACP, the SCLC and the Urban League joined their efforts in the Voter Education Project, abbrev. VEP. Its main goal was to increase the number of registered voters in the South as well as improve housing and employment (Sitkoff 1993: 106). At first their work was hard and dangerous. They had to go from door to door and persuaded blacks in the Deep South that to exercise their rights was important. Workers helped them to gather courage, overcome fear and accompanied them when they went to register. They had to face attacks from whites who sent them back to the North. They saw blacks kicked, beaten, whipped, and killed but they did not surrender. Their headquarters were dynamited, fire bombed or set afire. White registrars changed registration dates, invited blacks several times, demanding that they pass literacy and understanding tests that were manipulated at will. Those who overcame their fear were in danger of losing their jobs, or being arrested for alleged crimes, denied loans or further extension of their credit (ibid.: 106 111). African Americans in the South were full of fear and the civil rights workers believed that the federal government would protect its citizens if their lives were in danger while trying to register. These years of hard, long and painful work, however, showed that they had been mistaken. The Justice Department expressed its support but was reluctant to intervene. Everything was in the hands of Southern state courts where blacks had only a tiny chance to succeed. Many civil rights activists lost their faith in the justice of the United States while others began to doubt the approach of nonviolence. Yet there were many of them who felt they helped to shift the thinking of black farmers from fear “into freedom of the mind, and it is now theirs for life, even if they should never succeed in their efforts to persuade a semi literate, hostile registrar to put their names on the roll” (qtd. in Steven 1991: 90). For all that, the VEP recorded between April, 1962 and November, 1964 “a jump from 26.8 to 38 percent of the potential black registrants” (ibid.). In hard numbers, it meant some 688,800 blacks. The sad truth remained that this increase had taken place in urban areas of the upper South. In Mississippi where white defiance remained the 63 strongest, “the proportion of black voters rose from 5.3 percent to just 6.7 percent” (ibid.). The situation in Mississippi in 1964 became an inspiration for the SNCC whose members prepared a plan for increasing voter registration there. The action called the Freedom Summer consisted of several projects, including voter registration, white community project, law student project, research project and establishing of forty one freedom schools. The Freedom Summer drew attention because of its interracial character. Hundreds of white college students, especially from the North participated as volunteers, and worked together with civil rights activists and both the black and white citizens of Mississippi (Facing History 2006: 71 73). One of the aims of the project was to uncover white resistance against franchising blacks in this area. Only few people in the North realized how critical the situation was there. As expected, this project provoked white segregationists from the beginning: “At least thirty homes were bombed, thirty five churches burned, eighty persons were beaten, and there were more than thirty shooting incidents, and six known murders” (Sitkoff 1993: 113). One of these cases especially outraged whites. Among the murdered were two white students. In response, the President authorized the FBI to establish a local bureau in Mississippi and solve cases there (Steven 1991: 99). Nevertheless, the Justice Department claimed that it was not possible to protect each black man or woman who would register from beating, murder or arson (ibid.).
3.4.3 Summary
Whereas the freedom rides did not gain support from the President, mainly due to its open provocation of violence, the voter registration drives were strongly approved. Despite that, neither freedom rides nor voter drives had ensured that the President would start to act on equal civil rights at a quicker pace. The Freedom Rides showed how the tactics of black activists developed. Although they realized that they were headed into the arms of outraged white mobs, they did not step back. Of course, most Americans condemned the behavior of the white mobs but, on the other hand, most of them did not sympathize with the freedom rides as much as with the boycotts and the sit ins. No matter what the public thought about them, they were victorious and predetermined the voter drives. 64 Voter registration drives were in a different position. Almost no one knew about them. There was little coverage on the evening news that a house of a black man was fire bombed because he wanted to register. Thousands of everyday black lives remained obscured to both whites and blacks in the North and even the federal government hoped that it would eventually solve itself. Getting involved in policy is a dangerous trap and Washington did not desire to clash with Southern state governments. Hence this can be considered as one of the most difficult battles that the Civil Rights Movement ever fought. It was clear to see how the cooperation at grassroots level was significant and how only group centered leadership was more important than centralized leadership. Each new vote that was added to the rolls became a small victory. It meant that after years of fear another black man or woman found his/her dignity and self confidence. 65
3.5 Marches
The NAACP motto was Free by ’63 . In 1962 black leaders comprehended that despite their many successes, full freedom was not as close as they assumed. The first half of the year 1963 featured increasing numbers of marches, boycotts and other forms of demonstrations. Blacks began to push for their first class citizenship as never before. Another reason was that the year 1963 was celebrated as the centennial anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson commented on the situation in the United States: “Until justice is blind, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact” (qtd. in Franklin and Moss 1994: 502). The facts concerning the successes and victories of the civil rights movement, however, did not speak in favor of an improving situation for African Americans: “By 1963, thirty four African nations had freed themselves from colonial bondage, but more than two thousand school districts remained segregated in the South. Only eight percent of the black children in the South attended class with whites” (Sitkoff 1993: 120). Civil rights leaders foretold that if everything continued this way “it would be the year 2054 before school desegregation became a reality, and it would be the year 2094 before blacks secured equality in job training and employment” (ibid.). Since the demonstrations proved to be effective in their results, including in Montgomery, Greensboro, Georgia and elsewhere, new demonstrations broke out in many cities in the spring of that year. All of them made demands for equal job opportunities, equal housing and education without segregation. Even such cities as Cambridge, Maryland where only peaceful demonstrations took place had to deal now with riots. Vicious behavior by some whites who felt that their time of superiority was approaching to its end escalated the situation (Franklin and Moss 1994: 502 504).
3.5.1 The Failure in Albany
The Albany Movement was the first movement to attempt to desegregate the entire black community. Some activists, however, considered it as a failure. Others said that any defiance against Jim Crow policy enhanced black activism somewhere else and forced white Americans to realize that, even if without success, a segregated society was not acceptable for them any more (Sitkoff 1993: 115 117). 66 The movement began in November, 1961 and ended in the summer 1962. Its goal was to desegregate all public facilities by using sit ins and boycotts along with marches. Hundreds of people peacefully marched day after day toward the City Hall demanding equal civil rights (ibid.). What caused their failure? The Chief of Police Laurie Pritchett studied movements in other cities and he came to the conclusion that only by not advocating violence from the side of police, could Albany remain segregated. His troops protected demonstrators from the attack of white mobs and when arresting members of the movement, he acted cautiously. He was careful not to use too much violence and claimed the arrests were for unauthorized demonstrations. Within the year he jailed over a thousand activists who were placed in various jails around the county. This prevented the city jail from being overfilled. What black activists experienced in the jails can only be surmised. The fact remained that his considered actions did not attract the attention of the mass media nor was federal intervention required. He was the man who managed to keep order and prevent bloodshed (ibid.).
3.5.2 Hard Victory in Birmingham
Martin Luther King, Jr. was aware of the doubts that many blacks had after the failure in Albany. He was afraid of the conversion of his people to the movement of Malcolm X whose approach was more radical. Moreover, what King mainly disapproved of was Malcolm’s belief that white people are enemies and blacks could not live with them in the beloved community. At the end of 1962, King along with the SCLC prepared the liberation plan for the Birmingham movement. (Sitkoff 1993: 118 119). Birmingham, Alabama was considered as the most segregated city in the United States. The reputation of this city was especially due to the character of Eugene T. Bull Connor who defied desegregation by every means that were at his disposal. Sitkoff described the situation in the city as follows: Absolute segregation was the rule – in schools, restaurants, rest rooms, drinking fountains, and department-store fitting rooms. Municipal officials closed down the city parks and playgrounds rather than desegregate them. Birmingham abandoned its professional 67 baseball team rather than allow it to play desegregated clubs in the International League. It even banned a textbook because it had black and white rabbits in it. Although over 40 percent of the population was African-Americans, fewer than ten thousand of the 80,000 registered voters were black. (ibid.: 120) For King it was a challenge to take on the white supremacy of this cradle of white racism. If they succeeded, it would prove that violence was not necessary for change. King developed a plan that began on the 3rd of April, 1963. For three days, the sit ins occurred in Birmingham and black protesters were arrested which attracted the attention of the mass media. On the 6th of April, the marches began. Fifty African Americans marched on City Hall and, as anticipated, Connor had them all arrested. Marches on following days continued with the same results. During this time, everything was recorded by television cameras and broadcasted to all the people in the United States. On the 10th of April, municipal officials banned racial demonstrations. According to King’s plan, another march would be held on the 12th of April. Connor became furious and the police along with dogs arrested nearly a thousand marchers (ibid.: 121 122). Other marches followed, along with boycotts of white merchants. Connor lost his patience and the news broadcasted peaceful marchers being arrested with increasing police brutality. Pictures of dogs barking and trying to bite marchers upset many Americans. King was also jailed and after his release D day arrived (ibid.). The Albany movement changed King’s opinion on the use of some tactics. If it was necessary to obtain white support, he was determined to do it. On the 2nd of May, the national audience watched over a thousand black children, some only six years old, marching from the church on City Hall. Connor, along with the police arrested them all (ibid.: 126). The same situation was to be repeated the following day. Connor lost control of himself in front of television cameras. He ordered the police to isolate half of the children in the church, whereas the other half was being arrested in the opposite park. Furious attack dogs bit several children. Policemen beat and hurt others, which outraged onlookers. They began to defend children and threatened the policemen with stones and bottles. Connor saw his only alternative was to send firemen with high pressure hoses. 68 Unfortunately, they seriously hurt both children and adults, and caused property and tree damage (ibid.: 126 127). The next day brought the same picture. Over two hundred students were arrested and several thousand adults skirmished with the police and threw rocks at them. Connor acted again by sending dogs and high pressure hoses. Photographs of children attacked by snarling dogs, women beaten by police, and old people hurt by hoses appeared on the first pages of the newspapers. Millions of Americans were now involved in the movement and demanded an end to this (ibid.: 127 128). The city council had to negotiate but was not willing to conclude any agreement. Blacks again responded with new massive protests that were suppressed with such police brutality that there did not remain any other way for the city council than to agree with the demands of the protesters. Birmingham became a synonym for unrestrained police brutality and the municipal authorities decided to put an end to the disorder in the city. Moreover, they did not want to risk federal intervention that was hanging over their city (ibid.: 128 131). The movement won its hard and painful battle. Due to King’s excellent timing of individual events, Birmingham now could celebrate “desegregation of lunch counters, rest rooms, fitting rooms and drinking fountains; upgrading and hiring of Negroes on a nondiscriminatory basis throughout the industrial community of Birmingham and the formation of a biracial committee” (qtd. in ibid.).
3.5.3 The March on Washington
President Kennedy did not wait for the results of increasing demonstrations. With eased tensions in the Cold War, he could concentrate more on domestic affairs. He was aware that it was necessary to strengthen the voting rights of African Americans and in February proposed special recommendations to Congress. When he saw the demonstrations reaching their peak, especially in Birmingham, he submitted in June a broadened civil rights program. Several days before, he had spoken to the American people: “We face . . . a moral crisis as a country and as a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is time to act in the Congress, in your state and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our everyday lives” (qtd. in ibid.: 504 69 505). In his speech he attempted to touch tough hearts of all Americans whose attitudes were still bounded with the entrenched customs of a segregated society: If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public; if he cannot send his children to the best public school available; if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him; if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? (qtd. in Sitkoff 1993: 146; qtd. in Facing History 2006: 59) The bill was deliberated in Congress all summer. Meanwhile, civil rights leaders of the SNCC, the SCLC, the NAACP, the CORE, the National Council of Churches, the National Urban League and others joined together and planned the most massive march in history. Since all the organizations differed from each other, their understanding of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms differed as well. Some wanted to express support for the civil rights bill, while others saw the march as an opportunity to criticize it. The leaders themselves were surprised by the tremendous support from various civic, religious and labor groups that participated (Franklin and Moss 1994: 505 506). On the 28th of August, 1963 more than 200,000 blacks and whites from almost every state convened at the Washington Monument. From there they marched peacefully to the Lincoln Memorial where individual civil rights leaders gave their speeches. Among them was King who delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech. The civil rights leaders were then welcomed by the President who expressed his support for equal civil rights along with the concern that filibusters in Congress could bury the bill (ibid.: 506 507).
3.5.4 Summary
Marches seldom occurred alone. More often than not, they served as a part of the plan for the desegregation of public facilities in cities. They filled the streets, tied up traffic and their participants challenged city councils to act. Demonstrators were singing and through marches they expressed discontent with their lives. Marches were actions that attracted attention because they were not limited to one place. People were 70 constantly moving, met other citizens of the city and the number of demonstrators often increased. The fact that the police generally suppressed them violently ensured the marches popularity in the media. The more demonstrators participated, the greater crisis they caused. The sad truth remained that one clever Police Chief developed a strategy that caused the failure in Albany. Besides, he provided the recipe for maintaining segregation in other cities. Many African Americans doubted the nonviolent tactics that failed in Albany. Martin Luther King, Jr. searched for a new opportunity to prove that it made sense to use nonviolence. As described above, the Birmingham movement was a hard victory but it fulfilled its purpose. It was the first time in history when blacks managed to win such a great victory in the Deep South. Birmingham involved even the poorest blacks who were willing to devote all their time to the movement. Furthermore, it changed the hearts of millions of white Americans who began to support full freedom for all citizens. On the other hand, the strong resistance of segregationists, as powerful as ever, made many blacks impatient and they called for immediate freedom. Moreover, the clashes with the police during the Birmingham demonstrations showed how close blacks got to the violence. It was high time to solve the unequal position of blacks at the federal level. The year 1963 was generally full of marches and other forms of demonstrations. Black citizens were knocking on the door for full freedom and they eagerly waited for the civil rights law. Such pressure that was created that year could be ignored by neither the President nor Congress. Filibusters in Congress, however, indicated that the bill would not be passed. First excitement after the March on Washington was replaced by disappointment and disillusionment. 71
3.6 On the Eve of Victory
The victory in Birmingham, with its reputation as the most segregated city in the United States, encouraged thousands of African Americans. They wanted freedom and they wanted it now. There was the threat that blacks could turn to violence if their nonviolent demands were ignored. During the three months after the Birmingham movement, eight hundred boycotts, marches and sit ins occurred in two hundred cities and towns throughout the South. More than 20,000 protesters were arrested, and at least ten were killed. About 80,000 disenfranchised blacks demonstrated for their right to vote. Northern blacks supported their fellows in the South and the number of demonstrations there was comparable to those in the South (Sitkoff 1993: 137 138). Many Southern white leaders were willing to agree. Some fifty Southern and border cities began with desegregation of public facilities, biracial commissions were established, the first black policemen were hired, African Americans were allowed to be registered, and their children were accepted to white schools (ibid.). Not everywhere, however, were white leaders willing to retreat. From southwest Georgia to the Louisiana delta, whites were determined to defend white supremacy by all possible means. Murders, bombing, and arson were just some forms of their resistance. A high level terror and brutality settled in this area where churches that were not bombed were the exceptions. The situation escalated with the murder of Medgar Evers, the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi which brought on new demonstrations. Three months later, four black girls aging from ten to fourteen, died during the bombing of a church in Birmingham. A sixteen year old black boy was shot in the back whereas on another day a thirteen year old black was shot to death on his bike by white teenagers (ibid.: 138 140). Blacks and whites in the North were alarmed and called for the Civil Rights Act. Surveys confirmed that most Americans supported equal housing, jobs, voting rights, desegregated schools and public facilities (ibid.). Before African Americans could rejoice at the passing of the Act, they had been exposed to cruel discouragements. After the murders of black children and the repeated postponement of the Civil Rights Bill, they had to watch a large number of pro segregationists who succeed in the November elections. On the 22nd of November president Kennedy was assassinated. 72 The end of the year was approaching but African Americans had not yet realized full freedom (Franklin and Moss 1994: 507).
3.6.2 The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The new President, Lyndon B. Johnson, strongly supported the passing of the Civil Right Bill and pushed Congress to enact it. On the 24th of January, 1964 the 24th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. It outlawed the requirement of the poll tax in national elections. Soon after, the House of Representatives passed the Civil Rights Bill and the Senate did not block its passing with filibusters and approved the law (Franklin and Moss 1994: 507). The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in public accommodation. It gave the attorney general the power to protect citizens against discrimination in public facilities, housing and voting. A federal Community Relations Service was founded which would help with cases of individuals and communities concerning civil rights problems. The Act further established a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The United States Office of Education was authorized to provide financial and technical aid with the school desegregation (ibid.: 508). This Act was the most comprehensive law that ever appeared in the United States as far as equal rights of its citizens were concerned. No one, however, expected everything to be problem free. There was the law, but on the other hand there were entrenched ideas about races and their inequality in the United States. Blacks were excited and pushed for equality which caused problems and riots in many places. As anticipated, the worst situation remained in the Deep South, especially in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia. Despite the law, whites refused to comply and changed public facilities to private institutions. The KKK marched in the streets and promised to maintain a segregated society and publicly supported the white city councils. The strongest opposition persisted in preventing blacks from registering to vote (ibid.: 508 509). At that time, the SNCC started the project known as the Mississippi Freedom Summer, as described in chapter 3.4.2. It revealed that the desegregation of public places would be acceptable for the South but would not provide blacks with a franchise. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood this would be the final battle in their pursuit of freedom. 73
3.6.3 The Final Battle for Civil Rights in Selma
In Alabama seventy seven percent of eligible voters remained disenfranchised. “Only 335 blacks out of a total population of 15,000” (Steven 1991: 105) were registered in Dallas County with Selma at its centre. Since the earliest days, Selma was considered by whites as their capital of the Confederacy, Black Belt, and white supremacy. James G. Clark, the Dallas county sheriff had much in common with Bull’ s tactics of police brutality and oppression of blacks (ibid.: 107). If King wanted to appeal to the federal government to intervene, he had to do it cautiously. He relied on the mass media and support of other Americans. He was aware of strained relations between whites and blacks in Selma and was afraid of bloodshed. King just came back from Oslo, Norway where he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and strongly felt that the removal of obstructions in voter registration would liberate the Deep South (ibid.: 105 108). Fortunately, King could count on the support of the President. With the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the President lost white support in the Southern States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. He expected that blacks with full voting rights would support his party instead of white supremacists. Moreover, he also believed that African Americans with full rights could more easily attain advancement by themselves (ibid.). The movement for suffrage began in 1965. During January and February the SCLC initiated numerous marches to the courthouse demanding registration. This situation had not lasted long before Clark lost his patience. Despite the warnings of moderate whites who were afraid of negative publicity, he ordered the first arrests (ibid.: 110 111). Neighboring Perry County supported the Selma protesters with rallies and marches. In mid February, a young man was shot while helping his mother who was being beaten by state troops. This action outraged the local activists and they planned the fifty mile long march from Selma to Montgomery. On Sunday, the 7th of March, 600 protesters set off on the journey. They were, however, stopped on the Edmund Pettus Bridge where state troopers along with Clark’s posse attacked them with tear gas, kicked, beat and injured many of them. The rest of the marchers were chased back to 74 town. This terror attracted the national attention of the public and secured the federal intervention that King needed (ibid.: 111 112). The President ordered the march to go ahead, and the new one was scheduled on the 21st of March. The protesters were under federal protection which deterred white violence. The march which originally started with some 300 demonstrators numbered on its final day approximately 50,000 black and white people from all over the United States (Franklin and Moss 1994: 510).
3.6.4 The Voting Rights Act of 1965
As mentioned above, the President supported the struggle for suffrage. During the crisis in Alabama, he acted as quickly as he could and proposed to Congress the voting rights bill. Congress passed it without filibusters and the Senate did the same. By August, 1965 it became the law. The Gallup Poll that spring recorded that “76 percent of the nation favored a voting rights bill; in the South surprising 49 percent of the sample indicated approval compared with 37 percent in opposition” (Steven 1991: 115). The Act forbade any discriminatory practices which prevented voting, including literacy tests and others that were demanded especially by the southern states. The only condition to become a registered voter would remain citizenship. The attorney general got the power to supervise such states or counties that were considered to be preventing blacks from voting. Federal registrars could be sent into states such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and twenty six counties in North Carolina, Alaska, along with scattered counties in Arizona, Idaho and Hawaii. If any of these states jurisdictions would implement changes in voting, it had to be done with the approval of the attorney general (Franklin and Moss 1994: 510 511). By the end of the year, nearly 250,000 new African Americans added their names to the rolls (ibid.). The most significant change was recorded in the Deep South: “In Mississippi black registration leaped from 6.7 percent in 1964 to 59.4 in 1968 . . . In Alabama jumped from 23 percent to 53 percent. In Dallas County . . . from less than 1,000 to over 8,500 within months after the suffrage law took effect” (Steven 1991: 116). 75
3.6.5 Summary
The years from 1963 to 1965 brought many improvements to the lives of African Americans. As described above, these freedoms would not have happened without their effort. The fact that more and more African Americans became involved in the civil rights movement finally caused white segregationists to surrender. Their hatred and aggressive behavior toward blacks caused millions of Americans to support the black protesters, marchers and demonstrators. Both the presidents during those years understood that race did not have any place in a democratic country and actively supported full freedom for blacks. Passage of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts meant not only legislative change for the lives of African Americans, but, above all, insured the effectiveness of the law. Desegregation of public facilities, housing, and employment secured the first victory. Suffrage without obstacles ensured the second victory. Yet the struggle could not be considered finished. Desegregation of schools was a long lasting process. To improve standards of black living concerning housing and employment took much time as well. But with the support of the laws, African Americans could consider their struggle for equality and freedom as essentially accomplished. 76 Conclusion
When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; … when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” – then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over. (King 1969: 102) The above cited passage from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” can be considered as history now. In the 1950s, however, it represented the sad reality of the everyday lives of millions of African Americans in the United States. This thesis searched for the explanations as to why the reality was such. The United States of America means for many people the ideals of freedom, unlimited opportunities, a world power and country that helps others in need. Do you think that my opinion has changed during the writing of this thesis? I must answer no. Comprehending its history does not necessarily condemn the behavior of white Americans but strives to understand this behavior. If we want to better understand, we must return to the early settlement of America in the seventeenth century. Slavery was a fact of life in those days. This period lasted for several generations and contributed to the entrenched perception of blacks. These opinions could not be changed overnight, especially in the South. Whites there believed in the inferiority of blacks, and the influence of Washington was far away. Since there was no one who would demand the compliance with the law ensuring equal rights for all American citizens, whites put themselves first before sharing their lives with black uneducated citizens. The Black Codes and consequent Jim Crow laws were the results of their endeavor. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States was divided along a color line. What was worse was the appalling treatment that blacks experienced in the South. It could not have ended otherwise without blacks fighting for their rights. The thesis describes this lengthy period of time before the movement could expand and what 77 needed to happen in the twentieth century before the time for freedom was ripe. During this period, blacks re discovered their self awareness and self esteem, established numerous civil rights organizations and associations and engaged in various protest tactics. Their struggle during this period was, for most Americans, invisible. It awoke black unity, collectiveness and brought them together. The first half of the twentieth century provided them with time to understand important facts. First, as Martin Luther King expressed: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” (1969: 101). They comprehended that individuals meant nothing but together they could change the United States. Secondly, there was no way to secure these goals through violence. The fact that African Americans found inspiration in the church and Gandhi saved many lives: “If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood” (King 1969: 107). Yet the verbs such as to fight, to battle, to combat, to vie for civil rights are the proper words for the struggle. The Civil Rights Movement was a war. It was a war where innocent people died in the same way as people die in a war. They were determined to achieve full freedom, justice and equality and these were aims that were worth dying for. Reed described bare facts of being involved in the movement as follows: Virtually everyone who took up the civil rights cause in the South, black or white, was essentially put under threat of death. They could expect to lose their jobs, be beaten many times, have their homes fire-bombed or fired on in drive-by shootings, have threats made against the lives of their children and other relatives. If these acts of intimidation did not work, and for most they did not, then the next level was assassination. The list of those who died for the civil rights cause is a long one. (2005: 25) They chose nonviolent direct actions such as boycotts, sit ins, marches and others to provoke crises that would force the federal government to change their status at the federal level. In most cases, they relied on the support of white Americans and the mass media. On the other hand, they realized that support would come only if they were attacked by the police or by outraged white mobs. For this reason, I do not condemn the behavior of white Americans. They defended their America, their dreams and their 78 lives. They understand now that the cruel and violent tactics that were applied by them had nothing in common with a civilized society, but it mirrored a more than three hundred year old entrenched approach regarding blacks. Fortunately, the United States could not defy the inevitable changes that were brought in the twentieth century. It could no longer be tolerated that the country representing the symbol of democracy throughout the world would deny its own citizens their basic rights. The United States managed to change its outlook. It was not reached through laws but, first and foremost, through its people. White Americans proved what was believed impossible could, in fact become true. At last, they admitted to blacks first class citizenship and inured themselves to the fact that living with them in one society where race does not have any place is correct. The fact, that the United States elected its first black President goes to show the immense changes the souls and minds of the American people have undergone since the Civil and Voting Rights Acts. More than three hundred years of humiliation, inequality and injustice were buried in less than fifty years. 79
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