History is Power! Lecture: The Civil Rights Movement (Marches & Protests)

History is Power: The Civil Rights Movement

 

Welcome back to robinlofton.com where we are remembering history and we’re making history!  Today, we are continuing with next part of our History is Power Lecture series.  Today’s lecture is about Civil Rights but let’s back up for a moment for those who are just joining us or to refresh our memory.

 

Remember, we began by asking why it is important to know African American history. I think that the legendary Jackie Robinson answered that question by encouraging us to believe in fairy tales. Remember on his first day playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he almost could not believe it because he thought that an African American might not ever play in the major leagues and he thought that he would never be the first to do so.  But they did and he was the first. So, he says that he believes in fairy tales…that fairy tales do come true because it happened to him. At the end of the first lecture, we concluded that if it could happen to him, then it can happen to you, too. We learn history for inspiration, insight, the success stories, the struggles, and the knowledge that nothing can stop you, but you.

 

In the second History is Power! lecture called “Coming to America,” we studied how the ancestors of most African Americans came to America. We discussed the terrible and violent institution of slavery and how it affected our families, culture and traditions. We also discussed the movement to abolish slavery.  The great orator, author, and abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave us insight into how slaves were deprived of the most basic rights and dignity and how, even at an early age, he knew that this was indecent and wrong. We also heard from a former librarian of congress who reminded us that “trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.” 

Slavery is one part of African American history and, we can choose to feel pride and strength that our ancestors fought, struggled, and endured so that we could live and thrive. 

 

So far, in our history is power lecture series, we have learned to believe in fairy tales and that we must never

plant cut flowers.

 

I hope that you will listen to those previous lectures if you have not done so already or just feel free to listen to them again if you need a review or a bit of inspiration. And please leave your comments, experiences, or questions about these topics. We have a great community at robinlofton.com and everyone is welcome.

 

So, what’s next?

 

The fight for freedom (abolition of slavery) was the first step.  The next step was the struggle for equality.  So, here is where we examine the Civil Rights Movement. By the way, in the first lecture, I said that we would examine roughly 400 years of African American history (from the time when the first Black person arrived in the American colonies to the present day). I’m sure that some of you made a heavy sigh and thought that this would be a long and tedious series. But—surprise, surprise!—we have already completed about 350 years of African American history! 

 

I’m sure that most people—young and old—have some knowledge of the civil rights movement. That’s great! But I’m going to try to expand the modern (or understood) notion of civil rights and the African American struggle for equality. It has not been an easy road; it has been a road with bumps, twists, and turns but it was always headed in the same direction: equality. The road was lined with hardships, disappointment, struggle, and violence but it was the road that needed to be taken.  

Following the abolition of slavery in (what year? Great! 1865), African Americans worked to establish a strong foundation for themselves and their families.  Yes, it’s true that some former slaves left the United States and moved back to Africa. However, most former slaves had been in the United States for generations and therefore chose to stay. Also, it was a land of great opportunity and resources.

 

Still, even though slavery was abolished, Blacks were still not considered equal in the eyes of the law or the eyes of their fellow Americans.  Remember that many people who opposed slavery did not envision Whites and Blacks as living together in peaceful harmony. And they did not want Blacks to have rights equal to white Americans, including the right to vote, receive an education or full citizenship rights.  Blacks were considered lower-class citizens.  You see, freedom was just the first step, it was a huge and essential step, but it was just the beginning.

 

But you might be asking now: why did people wait until the 1960s to start fighting for equality?

                                                                         

Great question. My answer:  They didn’t wait.

 

African Americans and others started fighting for civil rights immediately after the abolition of slavery. (In fact, one might well argue that abolition was the first fight for civil rights!) Who were these people or groups fighting for civil rights?

 

There were so many that they can’t all be named here, but I do want to name a few. Some names might be familiar—I hope they’re familiar--but they might not typically be associated with civil rights. Others might be completely new—and that’s okay too—we’re here to learn.

 

 

National Negro Convention. Founded in 1830, the very first National Negro Convention met for five days in Philadelphia to “devise ways and means for bettering of our condition,” and to fight oppression and promote universal education. This is very interesting because slavery was still legal at that time (1830) and yet these free African Americans were pursuing ways to improve the Black condition in the United States. Following abolition of slavery, the conventions focused on voting rights, fair employment, education, citizenship rights, and the repeal of laws that discriminated against African Americans.  This was an early version—or a precursor—to the modern civil rights movement.

 

Have you heard of Ida B. Wells?

 

Born in 1862, Ida B. Wells was a courageous and bold civil rights leader, a hardworking editor, and a passionate speaker and writer.  She fought against the practice of lynching. In this way, Ida B. Wells analyzed the reasons and effects of lynching with depth and insight.  She founded a newspaper and wrote a groundbreaking book about lynching called: Southern Horrors: Lynching Law in All Its Phases, which was the first real research done on that terrible practice.  Ida B. Wells concluded that armed resistance was the only defense against lynching. 

 

She was also a suffragette and worked hard for the rights of mothers in the workplace.  A little known fact about her was that she was the first African American to win monetary damages in court.  Just a quick story about it: On a trip to Ohio in 1885, Ida B. Wells was told to give up her seat on a train and move to the smoking car. She refused and was physically dragged by three men to a car for “colored” people. She later sued and was awarded $500. However, the appeals court reversed the decision. That doesn’t matter; she was bold enough to stand up to the injustice and to fight in the courts.  Ida B. Wells was a strong leader in the early movement for civil rights—for African Americans and for women.

 

Carter G. Woodson. Is his name familiar? He founded Black History Month. Let’s back up. Born in 1875, Dr. Woodson was the son of former slaves.  He was always interested in learning and, in 1912, he became the second Black person to receive a doctorate from Harvard University. (WEB Dubois was the first.) His focus was on African American history. He wanted people to recognize the contributions of African Americans but realized that this was never taught or even acknowledged. He started National Negro Week in 1926. This was later expanded to the entire month of February. He also founded the Association of African American Life and History, which is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. He wrote more than a dozen books, most notably the iconic Mis-education of the Negro, which is still relevant and useful even today. His contributions and continuous commitment to teaching and spreading African American history and culture in the United States have made these subjects essential parts of educational curricula throughout the country. For this reason, he is known as the father of Black History.  He was certainly one of the important leaders in the early civil rights movement.

 

Another icon in education was Mary MacLeod Bethune who was super-charged to make sure every child received an education. She founded an innovative school for African American girls. The girls worked hard in this school, which opened at 5:30 every day and closed at 9:00 every night. And Mary Macleod Bethune taught there every day. She eventually founded Bethune-Cookman University.  In 1935, Mary Macleod Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women, which was the first organization focused on the rights and needs of black women. She tirelessly fought for equality in education, voting rights, and for equal rights for women in the armed forces.

 

Writers also helped to propel the early civil rights movement—often by helping us to see our world in a new and different way. Richard Wright wrote Black Boy in 1945, which compared and critiqued the black experience in the North and South. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison illustrated the social and intellectual issues facing African Americans in the early 20th century. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin took a unique approach to comparing the lives and experiences of blacks and whites in the Deep South in the 1950s.  And we can never forget one of the most important books in American literature, Their Eyes were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston who bravely told her story with beauty, wit and wisdom. That book changed everyone who read it.

 

But it was not until the 1950s that the modern civil rights movement took form and leadership.  Some people say that one event in particular started the civil rights movement: the lynching of young Emmett Till in August 1955.  In fact, this terrible event brought national awareness to the horrors of lynching (words from Ida B. Wells). And the fact that it happened to a child (Emmett was only 14 years old) made it particularly reprehensible. Lynchings were occurring at an alarming rate for over a century. Remember this is what Ida B. Wells was fighting for so long.

 

Other injustices and degradations were occurring on a regular and consistent basis.  An organized movement was nearly inevitable. As Blacks moved away from the gripping oppression and violence of the Southern states and became educated, organized and more financially stable, the movement toward civil rights evolved.

 

 

 

 

This movement happened on two equally important fronts:

 

Passive resistance by group efforts—marches, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, sit-ins and stand-ins.

 

The second front we will cover in the next podcast: Law (new laws like the Civil Rights Act) and landmark Supreme Court cases like Brown v. Board of Education. But those are for the next podcast.

 

Let’s take a quick look at the first two approaches to the fight for equality.

 

Passive Resistance.  This term and approach were made famous by Mahatma Gandhi.  Passive Resistance or Civil Disobedience was used quite effectively in the fight for civil rights in America.  This is probably the “front” that most people remember when thinking of the civil rights movement. And the Southern Christian Leadership Council (the SCLC, founded  in 1957) with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as its first president was at the forefront of this peaceful movement.  It used marches, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, sit-ins and many other “disobedient” actions. 

 

One effective approach involved boycotts.  One of the most effective boycotts took place in Montgomery, Alabama. This was the famous Montgomery Bus boycott, which started on December 5, 1955. This was an immediate response to the arrest of Rosa Parks who had refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. Led by the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association (a precursor to the SCLC), the boycott lasted 381 days. To help with transportation, churches rented cars, station wagons and other vehicles to take people to work, home and school. Carpools became the norm.  The boycott put enormous economic pressure on the Montgomery bus system, which finally agreed to end segregation on its buses. And the U.S. Court of Appeals also invalidated segregation on all buses in Alabama in Browder v. Gayle—we’ll discuss that next time.

 

Boycotts were used throughout the Civil Rights Movement to put economic pressure on companies or stores to change their unfair and unequal rules and practices. They were difficult but effective. The Montgomery bus boycott took the movement to a new level of depth and organization. The modern Civil Rights Movement had begun!

 

Another effective tool used in the modern Civil Rights Movement—made possible with newly-organized efforts and clear goals--were marches and protests.

The March on Washington is one of the most famous marches in US history. It was held on August 28, 1963.  Did you know full name of this march was the March on Washington for jobs and freedom? The march was designed to focus national attention on racial equality and to pressure the president and Congress to pass a Civil Rights law. It was the largest protest march in the country up to that time, with more than 250,000 people (both Black and White) joining the march. It involved entertainers, performances, and speakers of whom the most famous was Dr. King who gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. After the march, civil rights leaders met with a previously reluctant President Kennedy who finally promised to push for anti-discrimination legislation. It was actually President Johnson who signed the Civil Rights Act, but we’ll discuss that next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were many marches that occurred during this period. The last two marches that we’ll discuss today were focused on voting rights in Dallas County, Alabama. No not Texas, but Alabama.  This area was part of what was called the Black Belt.  Many white residents strongly (sometimes violently) resisted voter registration by African Americans in that region. Violence, intimidation and threats were used to prevent blacks from registering to vote. Because of these tactics, only 1 percent of blacks were registered to vote in that Dallas County. Selma was the seat of Dallas County so that was where the marches and protests were focused.

 

The SCLC and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC) that was founded in 1960 with Marion Barry as its first president organized voter registration campaigns and marches in Selma.  There were a series of marches in January and February of 1965. During one of the marches, Jimmy Lee Jackson, who was peacefully participating, was shot and killed by an Alabama State Trooper.

 

On March 7, the SCLC and SNCC organized a march to publicize and protest his killing by the state trooper. This became the infamous bloody Sunday march. Alabama state troopers and local law enforcement officers demanded that the 600 protesters immediately disband. When they refused, the troopers attacked with tear gas, billy clubs, dogs, and hoses. More than 50 marchers were seriously injured or hospitalized. This tragic event was televised and has become an iconic view of the southern response of the civil rights movement. But that was not the end of the story in Selma.

 

Another very important march started two weeks later. It was a 5-day, 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery. The goal was to promote and secure voting rights for African Americans, the passage of a voting rights act. More than 8,000 people participated in this march, which peacefully arrived in Montgomery on March 25. The Voting Rights Act was passed 5 months later. More information on that next time.

 

Sit-ins and stand-ins were another effective and sometimes dangerous approach to challenging unfair store policies that would not allow Blacks to sit or be served at lunch counters. How did sit-ins work?  A group of African Americans would fill all the seats at a lunch counter and ask to be served. The store would refuse to serve them. However, they would remain seated there for hours—usually until the store closed. The protesters (people who were engaged in the sit-in) would be subjected to physical, verbal abuse and threats. Hot coffee would be thrown on them; food, water and other items would be thrown at them.  Many times, the protesters were arrested. They were quickly replaced at the lunch counter by more protesters.

 

These sit-ins took place at stores like Woolworths that refused to serve Black people.  Stand-ins were equally effective against movie theatres that wouldn’t allow African Americans to buy tickets to the movie.  Blacks would stand in line in large numbers and ask to buy tickets. After they were denied, they would get into line again and request a ticket. Eventually, stores and movie theatres changed their policies and started patronizing African Americans but it was a dangerous and difficult time. The brave protesters (who were often high school or college students) were persistent in their pursuit of equal treatment in public facilities.

 

One of the first sit-ins was held in Oklahoma City in 1958 where NAACP Youth Council members sat at the “whites only” restaurant counters. They were served without incident or publicity. But, unfortunately, all sit-ins did not achieve these immediate results or end without violence.

 

The first sit-in movement to achieve widespread results was initiated on February 1, 1960 by four Black students who sought service at a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The sit-in gained momentum and within 10 days had spread to 15 cities in five states. On March 16, the city of San Antonio became the first southern city to integrate its lunch counters as a result of this movement. 

 

Finally, let’s end this section with a brief look at the Freedom rides, which actually began in 1947.  The freedom rides tested segregation in busing and interstate travel. In that year, the rides were testing the implementation of a Supreme Court decision that had prohibited segregated seating on buses travelling among the states. Twelve people were arrested in Virginia and North Carolina but later released. This outcome occurred on other freedom rides through the southern states but they also turned violent in some cases. On May 4, 1960, another interracial group of freedom riders boarded public buses in Washington, DC heading through the south to New Orleans. When they reached Alabama, the violence began. One bus was firebombed in Anniston, Alabama. Another bus was attacked by a mob of whites in front of the sheriff’s office that didn’t provide any protection to the riders. Upon arriving in Montgomery, Alabama, the riders were viciously attacked by hundreds of whites.  President Kennedy sent federal marshals and Governor Patterson declared martial law. After long negotiations between the president and Mississippi senator James Eastland, the freedom riders were arrested in Jackson. More riders arrived and they continued to be arrested. Hundreds of freedom riders were jailed during that summer. In the fall of that year, a final ruling was issued that outlawed segregation in interstate travel.  The freedom riders risked a lot but they eventually won the battle. We all won.

 

There is so much more to say about the marches, boycotts, sit-ins and stand-ins but we’ve covered a lot in this podcast. We have to save something for the next podcast.

 

While the marches and protests were extremely effective, their ultimate goal was to change the laws that permitted unequal treatment and segregation. And the laws did change. Old laws were thrown out and new laws were created.  The Supreme Court was at the front of this legal change.  But groups like the NAACP and the ACLU were the real visionaries of this part of the movement.

 

Remember segregation was still the norm in much of the country. “No Coloreds” and “Whites Only” signs were legal and enforced.  Schools were segregated. Housing was segregated. Resources, jobs, funds, facilities were segregated.  Everything was separate yet it was not equal.

 

In my next podcast, we will how segregation was dismantled through the law and the important players in this critical step towards equality like the NAACP, the Supreme Court, and even the U.S. president or two.

 

I hope that you will join me for that incredibly important and (I promise!) interesting podcast.  The Civil Rights Movement was definitely an exciting time in US history.  It seems like the people at the time were either on their best game or at their most evil. We know how that story ends. Lots of great things happened for the country. But lots of good people also died. It showed that dreams really can come true.

 

Please remember to contact me at robinlofton.com. I want your comments, questions, and thoughts.  And you can also find those books that I mentioned at the online store. They are definitely worth reading, I promise! 

 

See you soon at robinlofton.com where we are remembering history and we’re making it!