Essay: Rethinking the Civil Rights Movement

1, When learning about the civil rights movement children are only exposed to the dominant narrative that has been written in the textbook. Emily Crosby made a statement in the first sentence of The Politics of Writing and Teaching Movement History about her earliest exposure to the movement which was that, “Those early accounts provided a crucial introduction and alternative framework that helped offset the very different, sanitized narrative that has come to dominate textbooks, the popular culture and to many accounts by historians.” Crosby’s first exposure was not through a textbook,  it was informally through community programs and teacher stories. All of which allowed her and other historian writers to challenge what we know as the dominant narrative of the civil right movement.
One of the major interventions of the Civil Rights Movement is that it becomes a national fable of Memorials, Anniversaries and National self-congratulation, yet only recognizing MLK Jr, Rosa Parks, and other big named activist rather than local citizens. The dominant narrative seemed to only consolidate its power and that was due to the rise of storytellers (Hall, Dowd Jacquelyn, 1237). Due to the confinement of the narrative of the movement, there have been some major interventions that have challenged that dominant narrative. Emily Crosby argued that self-defense was central to the movement while other historian writers like Sundiata Cha-Jua debated the importance of the local narrative, however, both arguments are overlooked in history.
Another major intervention that challenged the dominant narrative of the civil rights movement was the chronology of the movement itself. In let the People Decide on Sunflower County, Mississippi, Todd Moye begins his account in the early twentieth century and extends it into the 1980s (10). The chronology here is useful for challenging the master narrative and key to understanding how black people organized before Brown. There was a call for more careful attention to context and for the importance of time and place and Crosby insisted that we expand and refine our understanding of broad spatial and chronological context (12). As it was clear while reading Crosby’s paper that several historian writers had different chronological timelines and most differed from each other.
The historiographical debates that Crosby and Theoharis and Woodard put forward are arguably the most compelling debates that challenge the dominant narrative, as there were only a few oral history collections and first-hand accounts that remain virtually the only published and easily accessible sources that addressed self-defense in the movement (The politics of Movement History, 2). Crosby strongly believed that armed self-defense was central. Nonviolence was consistently preached throughout the movement in the south, however, self-defense was never talked about. In Claiborne county like elsewhere in the south, self-defense and nonviolent protests were looked at as antithetical, while patrons would carry arms with them, they have no motives to harm anyone. There were fake groups and false rumors, and white people were quick to react with policy changes especially when there were real or implied threats that were accompanied by action like shooting back and carrying weapons (4). Crosby points out that these stories came to light when doing research but none of them fit easily into the narrative of the movement as it was presented in the top down literature that focused heavily on MLK and nonviolence. The stories of nonviolent self-defense that Cosby discusses throughout her paper are compelling because it confronts the narrative that it was either nonviolent or fighting back. Rather than thinking about people of color defending themselves.
Sundiata Cha-Jua, Clarence Lang, Komozi Woodward, and Jeanne Theoharis argued that we extend our sense of boundaries and the contour of the movement. That it is important to pay close attention to context and distinguish between the civil rights movement and its antecedents and legacies (11). Each of these scholars is pushing for a change in which the Civil Rights Movement is taught with a heavy emphasis on using the local narratives and looking outside of the narratives that have been popularized.
2.  The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is also known as SNCC grew out of the sit-ins of the 1960s (Payne, 2). Ella Baker founded SNCC with the idea of training teams in techniques of nonviolent resistance with the teams being filled with people who were committed to doing routine preparatory work in their local communities (Payne chapter 3). With the help of Baker, sit-ins would develop into an organization that would lead a more “Vigorous” movement. The young people who formed sncc were a product of a number of political influence, however, Baker being the most significant. With its organizational structure and its ideology of commitment and nonviolence, SNCC was the organization that Baker had been trying to create (Chapter 3).
The SNCC statement of purpose was adopted in the spring of 1960. The statement of purpose affirmed the practice of philosophical and religious nonviolence as their foundation, with the belief that the integration of human endeavors represents the crucial first step. Through nonviolence, love, and peace, reconciliation and justice can become actual possibilities (SNCC statement of purpose). They focused on identifying and developing leadership in local communities, participate in democracy and solve problems collectively. They recruited and trained local staff and organized the citizenship schools to prepare for the voter education project. SNCC initiated the mass-based, disruptive political style and provided philosophical and organizational models and hands-on training for people who would become leaders in the student power movement. It also pressures older civil rights organizations to reconsider their tactics, in this case to tactics of nonviolence that SNCC preached (Payne, chapter 3,18).
The SNCC’s organization strategy and philosophy impacted organization tradition at the time of the voter education project. SNCC received five thousand dollars to enlarge the voter registration drive, with the blessings of the Kennedy administration (Payne, Chapter 5, 5). In preparation for the voter education project, SNCC held a workshop, that brought experienced activist from across the south to talk to the young people that had been recruited to participate. At this workshop the young activist recieved plenty of advice but one piece of advice that stood out the most because it aligned with the philosophies of SNCC was, “go to their homes, eat with them, talk the language that they talk, associate with them on a personal level. Then go into your talk about the vote. (Payne, Chapter 5, 6)” Part of snccs philosophy statement talks about love and community and the approach of getting to know the person in which they are trying to get to vote is showing a sense of community and love for the people that they are trying to reach. As the voter registration heated up and SNCC organizers and the people who were trying to vote endured a great deal of pain and violence, they had to have thick skin. A member of the organization pointed out, “violence would lead to more civil rights activity, not less, (Payne Chapter 5, page 16).” SNCC workers and the people that they were trying to reach endured a lot of violence, however, continued to participate in the organizing traditions of nonviolence. The words put forward that violence would only make it worse was in ways the ideas and thoughts that Ella Baker had when she founded SNCC.
SNCC showed that their organization traditions, philosophies and action impacted the greater black freedom struggle. Celebrities and out of town organizers had left their positions to go to an SNCC staff meetings before return to their own projects (Payne Chapter 5, page 22). It was clear that these leaders wanted to learn from SNCC staffers and how they created such an impact. SNCC workers showed courage and persistence awakening response in local residents,  as the organization became deeply rooted in the black community (Payne Chapter 5, Page 23). “Courage displaces fear” according to the SNCC statement of purpose and that’s surely what SNCC did for the great black freedom struggle, displaced fear.  Bob Moses said, “it seemed to be the only way to answer this kind of violence; instead of letting up, pour it on: instead of backing out, to move more people in: instead of giving any signs of fear to show them for once the Negro was not going to turn around and it was not possible to shoot them out, and that if anything was going to happen at all, there was going to be increased activity (Payne Chapter 5, page 16).” This quote is a perfect example of what SNCC did for the greater black freedom struggle, it allowed people to gain courage and continue to fight for rights.
3.  As there were tens of thousands of people who were active in the freedom movement outside of the south, scholars have only looked at the black freedom struggle and the nonviolent movement that was born in the south. Little do scholars and teachers discuss the civil rights movement and how it functioned in the North. The narrative of the civil rights movement continues to have a difference in opinions between south and north, nonviolence and Black power militancy, de facto and de jure segregation and the movement before 1965 and after (Theoharis, 2). But it did not stop people from thinking that the south was the only part of the country that needed the movement to happen. Freedom North by Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard shows that the movement extended far beyond voting rights, linking the struggle for civil rights to economics and reveals the role that media played in discounting the Northern struggles (Theoharis, 5)
Northern segregation operated differently than southern, public spaces like bathrooms, trains, movie theaters etc. were not legally separated for blacks and whites in the north. However, schools, housing, and jobs operated on a strict racial hierarchy where whites were at the top and blacks were on the bottom (Theoharis, 3). The Northern freedom struggle challenged the racial and political economy just like the southern civil rights movement did. However, the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was a disruptive protest is now seen as an inspiring fight for citizenship while New York residents taking over the Lincoln memorial hospital to protest unsanitary conditions are not given moral power (Theoharis, 6). A great deal of the Northern struggles has been discredited in history because the narrative of the struggles in the north was known as self-justifying and even though the north was filled with dysfunction it was often discredited because theories and policies blamed them for their condition. The southern narrative focuses on gaining voting rights while the northern struggle focused on the broad political challenge.
From the south to the north unequal schooling was a crucial battle during the black freedom struggle. School desegregation and inequality showed that the North was not that far behind the southern movement. With the particular way that Northern struggle operated northern activist had to prove that segregation actually existed. Scholars marginalized the schooling battle displaying it as a movement against busing to protect neighborhoods schools, so it became nearly impossible to understand what it was like to be a teenager going to school in Boston (Theoharis, 126). With the northern struggle for educational equality being constantly discredited it did not stop parents from emerging in response to the poor conditions.
Schools pushed black students into poorly funded, overcrowded and under-equipped schools and community members fought to equalize education (Theoharis, 126). In June of 1974, a federal judge ordered Boston public School systems to begin to desegregate. The school districts were reluctant and very unwilling to desegregate the schools but began a plan to do so. This led to Boston becoming the site of one of the latest, most publicized and most violent battle for school desegregation in history (Theoharis, 126). The emergence of this movement for racial justice included direct action, sit-ins, school boycotts, freedom schools, and civil disobedience. Boston residents continued to fight for education equality and lawmakers would pass bills that seemed to benefit them, like the open enrollment policy but had conditions that forbade bussing children to the open seats. Parents would take this into their own hands and get children to these open seats in any way possible. Which allowed the media to distort the movement that was occurring in Boston.
Just like Boston, Newark was engaging in a Black power movement around education, urban renewal, and police brutality. The Newark racial justice movement emerged in response to these awful conditions that black people faced. After the Newark rebellion, Amiri Baraka made a plea for a different revolution, linking political power to the reordering of urban spaces, until they found a place in the world (Woodard, 297).  With recruiting for conventions and conferences Newark was fighting for racial justice in the North. The North was often blamed for the violence of those who resisted it and that the Northern school desegregation has been seen as disruptive and unnecessary.
4. Rethinking the Civil Rights Movement is key to understanding the different perspectives and the things that are often left out in teaching civil rights history. When we think about the movement our initial thoughts go to the struggles of racial inequality, seldom do we look at the struggles that women of color and not faced during this time. There was a misconception in the media that women were not involved in organizing struggles and only displayed males. However, during the grassroots organizing, women throughout the country played central roles in organizing and pushing groups toward mobilizing (Theoharis, 13). Yet women constantly struggled with issues of gender and female subordination in these groups.
The narrative of the civil rights movement is often told through a “great man” history, even though women regularly appear in the tributes to the movement, a clear sense of their leadership and organizing efforts are often missing (Theoharis 154). In particular movements and groups women were put in the positions of jobs that only females should do, like clerical work and if they were in a position of leadership they had to get a males approval before doing anything. Coretta Scott King, wife of MLK Jr was more than just his wife. She had a long history of activism and at points in her life, she was to often seen but not heard (Theoharis 156). Scott King, like many other females, had to contend with the sexist beliefs on women’s roles, which were to stay home and raise the children. However, when someone told her to step aside and let the males run this she would refuse. A specific critique that she voiced about gendered practices in the civil rights movement was, “Not enough attention has been focused on the roles played by women in the struggle, By and large men have formed the leadership in the civil right struggle but there have been many women in leading roles and many women in the background. Women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement… women have been the ones who have made it possible for the movement to be a mass movement. In Montgomery, it was mostly women who ride the buses because most domestic workers were women. If a boycott is employed women are the ones who must stop buying (Theoharis 165).” Her critique was exemplary because she highlighted how crucial women were in the movement and were diminished by men.
As there were various perspectives on the issue that emerged from organizations and leadership roles, there was also a perspective that took a look at intersectionality and the welfare movement. Johnnie Tillmon had a commitment to the autonomy and self-determination for poor women. She and other welfare rights activist organized to demand economic resources to give poor women control of their lives (Want to start a revolution, page 317). Women who were unable to work and support their kids because it was a single parent household had to go on welfare. Welfare told them what to buy and how much to spend on things, they were shunned out of having male company and often tricked into being sterilized. As Tillmon started the welfare rights movement and welfare recipients elected leadership positions, the middle-class staff who were white men dominated the administration and organization positions (Want to start a revolution, 330). It was a sort of display that showed women that they were being denied of their own self-determination.
Women were constantly controlled and pushed to the back of their own movements. Throughout the civil rights movement, there are many instances where parallels of treatment between black people and women are noticeable (Sex and caste). Johnnie Tillmon discussed that if you were a poor, fat, middle age, black female you were counted as less of a human being (Tillmon, 1972). The notion of intersectionality is key to understanding women in the welfare movement and women in the civil rights movement because being a female already is crippling so if you add another box and in this case race you are immediately pushed to the back. When rethinking the black freedom struggle it is imperative that there is a narrative of the movement that casts women in a supporting role.