The Black Civil Rights Movement

Author(s): George Burson

Source: OAH Magazine of History , Summer, 1986, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Summer, 1986), pp. 35-
36, 39-40
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American
Historians
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SPECIAL SECTION ON THE
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Black Civil

Rights Movement
Dougherty Co. Courthouse, Albany, GA
by George Burson Photo by Danny Lyon. From Lorraine

This article is part of the Aspen pean culture in America did not dis nority in the country?about twelve
High School curriculum about the criminate only against Indians? percent of the population (28.6 mil
civil rights movement. It attempts to anyone who was different was fair lion people).
present the civil rights movement game. Anti-Catholicism was a strong Yet, as bigoted as Americans can
from a historical perspective by deal factor in the formation of the Repub be, they tend to respond to pleas to
ing with the following questions: 1) lican party in the 1850s and the im alleviate social injustices. Anti
Why were blacks segregated and di migration restriction of the 1920s. Catholicism and anti-Semitism have
senfranchised prior to the movement? Asians were barred from entering the significantly declined in American
2) Why did the movement take place United States in the late 19th and society. Presently, Indians, Asians,
during the 1950s and 1960s? 3) early 20th centuries; during World blacks, and Hispanics have full polit
What were the immediate results of War II, Americans of Japanese de ical rights. The discrimination that
the movement? 4) What is the present scent were put into internment camps still exists is societal (de facto), not
condition of blacks in American soci for no other reason than their race.
legal (de jure). The United States is
ety? Spanish-surnamed people have not unique or more racist than other
To understand the civil rights continually been discriminated countries, but when the black move
movement two things must be kept in against. In the 1960s New York tried ment for equality came about in the
mind. First, the United States' popu to forbid anyone from voting who late 1950s, ingrained racism deeply
lation has always had strong racist could not read English. This action affected not only the enemies of
elements in it. Second, Americans was supposedly aimed at stopping black equality, but also its friends.
generally believe in the creed of corruption, but in reality it was an at The Kennedy and Johnson admin
equality. Those two contradictory tempt to dilute the political power of istrations had to serve constituents
factors constantly played upon each the city's Spanish-speaking popula who were diametrically opposed to
other during the black drive for so tion, which was rapidly growing due each other, urban blacks and whites.
cial, economic, and political equality to increased immigration from the Since World War I blacks had been
and they account for many of the American colony of Puerto Rico. In moving North. They tended to settle
ambiguities in the white response. places like California, where large in urban areas like New York, Chi
American bigotry has often con numbers of Mexican-Americans live cago, Detroit, and Los Angeles that
flicted with American ideals. When in compact districts, the districts are were located in key electoral college
the first Europeans came to the New gerrymandered and politically emas ' 'swing'' states. Thus, their votes
World and met the Indians, they con culated. In 1970, for example, one of counted heavily in national elections.
sidered them different and therefore six Californians was of Mexican ex For example, the black urban vote
inferior. Since the Indians also occu traction. Yet there were no Mexican effectively counterbalanced the white
pied the land that the Europeans cov State Senators, only two assembly southern vote that Truman lost to the
eted they were exterminated or men, and no statewide or federal Dixiecrats in the 1948 election.
forcibly removed from their land and elected representatives. The discrimi As long as the civil rights move
resettled on reservations. nation against blacks is better known ment was confined to the South it
The predominant Northern Euro because they make up the largest mi had, in general, northern white sup

Summer 1986 35

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port. But as northern blacks began to
demand equality through affirmative
soRF ?Kl1 iff Ijl
HOk^BI:?C; V 4^m^aMMi^
4fcjg iiffi^A-^^ t^*^^Bf BBB?li?i ..fi
.:aiyil?^^^iMBMBt;' MBf '
action and school integration as well,
many northern whites began to op
pose the movement. The Republican iil^^Bfl^^^Hp^?^^^Hiy^BH^^I^BEi^^^ I^^BiHHB^^IB^^F?^^^^hP^ ^e
party took advantage of this white
dissatisfaction, which is a significant
reason why it has been able to con
trol the presidency, with the excep
tion of Jimmy Carter, since the 1968
election. (Carter is the exception that
proves the rule: Even though he was
a southerner, more southern whites
voted against him than for him;
enough voted for him to allow him to
carry the South with a combined
black-white vote).
After Reconstruction, legal segre
gation had been instituted in the
South. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
the Supreme Court upheld the consti
tutionality of "separate but equal"
facilities for blacks and whites. Yet Dr. Martin Luther King leads demonstrators from Selma to Montgomery in March
the black facilities were not equal: 1965. From Rabbi Henry Cohen, Justice, Justice (NY: Union of American Hebrew
Blacks had separate schools, water Congregations 1969). Courtesy of the publisher.
fountains, hospital and bus waiting
rooms, and bathrooms (often gasoline War proved that blacks and whites credentials. Mississippi, like most
stations did not have bathrooms for could work together. The Cold War southern states, required a literacy
blacks, and if they did, they were made segregation an embarrassment test to register to vote. And, as the
usually unisex). They were not al to the national government in its fight U.S. Civil Rights Commission re
lowed to swim in the public swim against communism. The movement ported in 1965: 'The quality of edu
ming pools, attend the local movie of blacks from the South, where they cation afforded Negroes has been so
theater (or were segregated in the were disfranchised, to the North, poor that any test of educational skill
balcony), or use the public library. where they could vote, gave them as a prerequisite to voting would nec
Restaurants and motels were for political power. essarily discriminate against them."
whites only. Segregation was total in The NAACP challenged school The Court ordered school districts
the South, but not confined there. segregation in the courts, and in May to integrate with "all deliberate
Las Vegas, Nevada, for example, re of 1954, the Supreme Court in speed." The border states moved to
fused to allow blacks to stay in its Brown v. Board of Education of To ward compliance, but the deep south
hotels or gamble in its casinos. The peka reversed the Plessy decision, resisted bitterly. In 1964, Arkansas,
difference between southern and stating "that in the field of public Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and
northern segregation was legality; if a education, the doctrine of 'separate South Carolina had less than one per
black tried to use a southern public but equal' has no place. The Court cent of their school-age blacks in
facility he had broken the law, not was correct in its statement that school with whites. It took a 1968
just a custom. In the North, segrega "Separate educational facilities are Supreme Court decision before the
tion was preserved through segre inherently unequal." The state of Court finally declared that "all delib
gated housing and social pressure. Mississippi was a prime example. erate speed" meant "at once." Yet,
The National Association for the Although blacks comprised over 50 as late as 1970, over 18 percent of
Advancement of Colored People percent of the school-age population, the South's black children were still
(NAACP), founded by, among oth in the 1960-61 school year the state in segregated schools, and almost 62
ers, W. E. B. Du Bois, had been spent $46 million on white education percent went to schools over half
working for black rights since the versus $26 million for black educa black.
early 1900s. By the 1950s the tion. Nine counties in Mississippi did Using the Brown decision as a ca
NAACP believed that the time was not even have a black high school. talyst, blacks began to work actively
ripe for an all-out attack on segrega As late as 1950, Mississippi em for the right to vote in the South and
tion. Many blacks had gone into ployed over 700 black teachers who the right to use public facilities. Be
World War II with the idea of a had not completed high school. Ten ginning in December of 1955, blacks
4'double V for victory"?victory years after the Brown decision, a under the leadership of Dr. Martin
over the Axis and victory over segre black teacher in Mississippi with a
gation. The successful integration of bachelor's degree made $350 less *S? Continued on p. 39.
the armed forces during the Korean than a white teacher with identical

36 Magazine of History

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 ions. Griffith seemed puzzled by all also be an ideal time for showing
the controversy even though Presi Griffith's movie. Black protests and ?fa Continued from p. 36.
dent Woodrow Wilson remarked of white reactions in the fifties, sixties,
the film after a private White House and seventies cannot be ignored, Luther King, Jr., boycotted the
screening, "It was like writing his whether discussing the place of Montgomery, Alabama segregated
tory with lightening, and my one re blacks in the armed forces; Brown bus system. When the boycott suc
gret is that it is all so terribly true" vs. the Board of Education; the ceeded, King went on to lead other
(Griffith, 37). Montgomery bus boycott and the rise attacks on segregation and, until his
In the mid-1950s and 1960s, dur of Martin Luther King, Jr.; civil April 1968 assassination, he was the
ing what historian C. Vann Wood rights under Truman, Eisenhower, movement's most influential spokes
ward has termed "the second man.
and Kennedy; or the progress of
Reconstruction," blacks were still blacks since the passage of the Civil After the election of John F. Ken
stuggling against many of the nega Rights Act of 1964. Showing and nedy, the movement picked up mo
tive stereotypes that had maligned analyzing Birth of a Nation can be an mentum, and as black discontent
and plagued them since the 1870s. effective way to show the beliefs un grew (Kennedy's rhetoric for black
Hollywood movies that used blacks derlying white opposition to black rights far outpaced his actions), there
as character actors preserved and ac struggles for equality and civil rights was a comparable increase in South
tually strengthened racist characteri in the post-war era. How could any ern resistance. The Civil Rights
zations, especially in the 1930s and one who saw blacks through Grif Commission reported in 1963 that,
1940s. Stepin Fetchit, Mant?n More fith's eyes take seriously their 4'Citizens of the United States have
land, and Willie Best were three of demands to be treated with dignity been shot, set upon by vicious dogs,
the many actors, used mainly for and respect? beaten and otherwise terrorized be
comic relief, who portrayed blacks as Many students find it difficult to cause they sought to vote." Less dra
white audiences perceived them. sit through Birth of a Nation, which matic than violence, but even more
Blacks were rarely shown simply as is three hours and five minutes long effective, was economic intimidation.
human beings with the dignity and and requires four class periods to Since most jobs in the South were
failings, strengths and weaknesses of show, because it has no sound at all. controlled by whites, it was easy for
the white movie-goers who saw them In this world of portable tape players southern racists to ensure that blacks
on the screen. and stereo television, many viewers who attempted to register to vote or
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, do not consider silence golden. One were active in the desegregation
with the Black Power movement and simple solution is to obtain long movement lost their jobs.
other activist groups urging black playing recordings or cassette tapes In August of 1963 a quarter of a
pride, Hollywood turned to the oppo of music by ragtime composers such million blacks and whites marched
site pole and showed blacks as cool as Scott Joplin, Tom Turpin, and on Washington to demand black
heroes and sexual supermen. Critics James Scott from a public library or equality. After the death of Kennedy,
both black and white claimed that record store. This is the kind of mu Johnson helped to pass both the 1964
productions such as Superfly, Shaft, sic that was played by a theater pian Civil Rights Act that forbade dis
and The Legend of Nigger Charlie ist or organist when the silents were crimination in public accommoda
simply exchanged one stereotype for in vogue. Even though the records or tions and the 1965 Voting Rights Act
another, and although the new image cassettes may not be perfectly syn which ensured blacks the right to
was preferable to the old one, as a chronized with the action on the vote. In 1964 the 24th Amendment
portrait of a people it was equally screen, playing the music will make to the Constitution made the poll tax
untrue. Only occasionally did films the story a more exciting experience illegal. Legal discrimination had
such as the The Defiant Ones, Soun for those who have never before seen ended in the United States, but eco
der, and In the Heat of the Night a full-length silent feature. So dim nomic and social discrimination con
portray blacks as believable human the lights, load the VCR and prepare tinued.
beings. to use an old film in a new way. The introduction of chemical weed
The Birth of a Nation has great po List of Sources killers in the early 1950s permitted
tential as a classroom tool for under the economical use of tractors and
Crowther, Bosley. The Great Films:
standing black social and cultural Fifty Years of Motion Pictures. mechanical cotton pickers on south
history (Gianetti, 67). Screening the NY: Putnam, 1967. ern plantations. Southern black hand
film would be valuable when discus labor was no longer needed and mil
Franklin, Joe. Classics of the Silent
sing historical interpretations of the Screen. NY: The Citadel Press, lions of uneducated, unskilled blacks
Reconstruction period or when study 1959. were thrown off the plantations and
ing white attitudes during the Pro Gianetti, Louis, Masters of the Amer many of them moved North, replac
gressive Era, when the film was ican Cinema. Englewood Cliffs, ing whites, who were moving out of
produced and first shown in movie NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981. the cities into the suburbs, as the oc
theaters. Units on the Cold War pe Griffith, Richard and Arthur Mayer. cupants of the inner cities. In the
riod or on modern American history, The Movies. NY: Simon and 1950s segregation still existed in the
which usually deal with the civil Schuster, 1970. Clfe North and the black ghetto was verti
rights movement in some way, would cally integrated. Blacks of all classes

Summer 1986 39

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and levels of education and achieve
ment lived there?doctors, lawyers,
teachers, entrepreneurs, persons of
ACTIVE HISTORY
strong religious beliefs, and lower
income groups. Ironically, black

Students work with

gains in integrated housing ended this
situation; the black middle class no
longer lives in the inner city, and the
stable working class is moving out as
rapidly as possible.
Although the majority of blacks
Mariner's Museum to
are doing markedly better than they
were before the civil rights move
ment, one-third are still below the preserve vanishing skills
poverty line. And for a core group of
2-3.5 million chronically poor and al
ienated inner city and southern rural
blacks, conditions seem to be deteri
orating, with no improvement in
sight. by Joseph A. Gutierrez
This underclass at the bottom
seems beyond the reach of existing
social programs, and may be grow
ing. Its plight can be captured by sta
tistics: On a cool day last October, eleven the full range of the students' intel
In 1950, 16% of children born to students from Warwick and Ferguson lectual skills, demanding that they
blacks and other minorities had High Schools in Virginia gathered to use their abilities in science, social
unwed mothers, compared with watch as master boatbuilder Billy studies, and even English (all stu
12.8% of whites. Moore felled a giant loblolly pine dents were required to write journals
In 1955, blacks and other minori tree. The sounds of chain saw and on their experiences). Moore taught
ties had an unemployment rate of broadaxe which accompanied the the students boat construction by the
8.2%, compared with 3.7% for tree-felling marked the beginning of inquiry method of instruction to de
whites. In 1985, black unemploy a unique educational program spon velop the skills of analysis, synthe
ment was 14.9%, compared with sored by Newport News Public sis, and evaluation.
5.9% for whites. For black teenag Schools and The Mariners' Museum. After the tree was felled in Octo
ers the rate was 41.6%, compared Under the watchful eye of Moore and ber, the students returned to their
with 15.9% for white teenagers. his two sons, David and Mark, the regular classrooms until the wood
In 1983, about 46% of all persons students would construct a Chesa was dry in late January, when they
sent to prison were black and most peake Bay deadrise oyster boat. began to report to the Museum on a
of the victims of their crimes were The Chesapeake Bay deadrise daily basis. In addition to their con
black. evolved early in the twentieth century struction work, students spent time in
The black infant mortality rate is in response to the specialized needs the classroom to gain further insights
almost twice that of whites (19.2 of local watermen who use the ves into the Bay and its fishing industry.
deaths per 1,000 live births versus sels for many different types of fish The Museum's Education Department
9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births). ing, including crabbing, oystering, worked with the young boatbuilders
Black median family income in and net fishing. The special char in a series of sessions which pro
1984 was $15,432, compared to a acteristics of the deadrise boat make vided them with information on navi
white median family income of it compatible with the rough weather gation, the evolution of small craft,
$27,686. and shallow water that the watermen and the economic importance of the
The inner city is populated almost of this area often work in. The essen Bay in world trade. The students
exclusively by the most disadvan tial purpose of the Newport News were also introduced to the history of
taged?people outside the main program was to preserve the vanish the Bay and to the concept that form
stream, criminals, families with long ing skills of this traditional method follows function. Each classroom
term spells of poverty and welfare of boat construction, but the students session included a hands-on compo
dependency. The black ghetto is in learned much more than woodwork nent, a gallery exercise using the in
creasingly isolated from mainstream ing and boatbuilding techniques. ternational collections of the
America, creating the danger that a They also became familiar with the museum, and an information sharing
permanent underclass based on race culture and history of the Bay, the activity. These experiences helped
could again develop in American so economic importance of its food re the students gain a wide perspective
ciety. G& sources, and the role of the watermen on the boat they were building.
who fish there. The project exercised The task of construction itself of

40 Magazine of History

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