The Long Civil Rights Movement Lecture

Lecture: The Long Civil Rights Movement Main Points (1) Conventional Story and Why it Matters (2) Flaws in Conventional Story (3) Long Movement (a) Civil Rights Unionism - 1940–1948 (b) Classic Movement in the South - 1955 – 1968 (c) African American Political Renaissance - 1970 The Conventional Narrative (“New Right”) The Southern Movement (1954–1965) succeeds - Christian universalist - Nonviolent - Convinces sympathetic whites in the North and in federal government - Civil Rights Act (1964) & Voting Rights Act (1965) Black Power Movement (1965-1975) fails - North and West - Seperatist, violent - Demands economic equality - Sparks white backlash (Nixon in 1968) Bipartisan Lessons - Possible - De Jure segregation outlawed - Equality of opportunity - Political rights - Impossible - Use government to rid US of De Facto segregation and inequality Flaws in conventional story (1) Timing - Movement begins in late New Deal and goes to 1970s (2) Always about… - Resistance to white supremacy everywhere - Racial and economic justice - De Jure vs. De Facto = false distinction - Racism and economic equality reinforce one another US Racial Hierarchy - mid 20th century South - Politics - Jim crow - segregation - laws - Poll tax, literacy test - One party control - Economy - Racialized labor market - Sharecroppers and domestics US Racial Hierarchy - two track welfare state South - SSI, Unemployment and fair labor standards Act - Exempt agricultural and domestic workers - Housing Act 1937 (subsidies) - “High risk declining neighborhoods redlined” - Demands “homogeneous neighborhoods” - White suburbanization Politics of Two track welfare state - Southern democrats control congress - Uncompetitive elections → incumbent victory → seniority → control - Blocks Civil rights and Social Democracy - Southern Democrats/Bus Republican coalition - No civil rights ←→ limit labor rights and social democracy Civil Rights Unionism 1940 – 1950 Black unions - 500,000 members - A. Philip Randolph - Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters - Becomes the leading civil rights union leader in the US - Civil rights and social democracy need each other Randolph creates coalition of: - CIO radicals, Black unions, and new deal progressives Goals - Link civil rights and social democracy - Break southern oligarchy - Build southern unions and mobilize voters - Extend universal policy and civil rights Civil Rights Unionism success 1941 – Fair Employment practices committee - Bans discrimination in federal agencies, military contractors, and unions 1944 – Campaign against discrmination in military - 18,000 madison square garden (Randolph) - 1948 Truman Executive Order 1944 – Supreme Court overturns all white primaries - Black voter register and equalization of teachers pay in some states Resistance to CR unionism Business and southern segregationist coalition - Strategy: anticommunism in early 40s - Target: labor law Taft Hartley Act – 1947 - Leaders and unions support of CR dismissed by CIO - Narrow CIO to white men and manufacturing Southern Movement Fighting De Jure discrmination is a strategic response to The taft hartley coalition 1. Focus on segregationist laws 2. Ideology: christianity no socialism 3. Organize through churches not unions Late southern movement - returns to economics MLK - civil rights to poverty - 1963 – March on Washington for FREEDOM and JOBS - Poor people's campaign - Links together civil rights and a broader social democratic movement - Guaranteed national income - Assassinated supporting sanitation workers strike in memphis – 1968 - 2 movements move together in the US (and always face resistance) 1970s - Political Revival African American Mayors - Newark, Dayton, East St. Louis, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Oakland, New Orleans, Birmingham, etc. Urban Economic Reform School and workplace desegregation - Charlotte and seattle school success - Desegregation of public sector → resurgence of black unionism White opposition and economic crisis – 1970s and 1980s - Courts and Department of Justice reverse desegregation - Economic crisis and deindustrialization → city tax base declines → white flight - Cities more segregated than before civil rights Conclusion - Long and persistent - Nationwide - Diverse - Social democratic - Links race and economy - Strategy changes with opportunities - Always faces opposition Lecture: Integration and Nonviolent Resistance Main Points Q: What are the guiding principles of the integrationist movement? - MLK on the Moral Imperatives of Integration Q: Why is nonviolent resistance an appropriate tactic for those principles? - MLK and James Lawson Q: Is NVR utopian and naive or practical and successful? MLK on integration US cannot realize its promise without a “revolution in values” - Whites and blacks must learn to care for one another as persons with equal value Christianity provides guiding moral principles - For a movement whose goal is value revolution - For a ‘more perfect union” (unity) in US society Legal Desegregation vs. Integration Political Imperative - goal - for CR Movement = legal desegregation - But law “can’t change hearts, it can only restrain the heartless.” Moral Imperative - goal - of the CR movement = Integration - Because only “interpersonal action” can change values If the movement’s goal is a revolution of values, it must theorize those values 3 Ethical Imperatives for Integration (1) All persons have equal worth (2) Human life demands freedom for all (3) Love is a revolutionary power *most controversial* (1) Worth of Persons All people have equal moral worth endowed by God - Declaration of independence - “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal...and the Pursuit of Happiness.” People are Imperfect, but seek perfection through love - Moral imperative to treat others as end-in-themselves, not means to one’s own ends - “All things...that you want men to do to you, you must likewise do to them.” (Matthew 7:12) - Integration is a path towards perfection because it forgets emotional and spiritual affinities (2) Life Demands Freedom To develop human capacities - not just to get what you want Segregation block human development - Restricts Black life choices and creates deep emotional wounds Legal desegregation removes external restrictions on freedom Only Integration (“interpersonal action”) can free Black Americans from internal restrictions: despair and self doubt (3) Love is a revolutionary power Progress in civilization comes from recognition of mutual dependence - My self worth comes from taking responsibility of others (love) - Basis of “beloved community” Love is a transformative power - For oppressed and oppressor alike “Dark and demonic responses will be removed only as men are possessed by the invisible inner law which etches on their hearts the conviction that all men are brothers and that love is mankind’s most potent weapon for personal and social transformation” Why is Nonviolent Resistance an appropriate means to integration Political: convince sympathetic whites to change laws Moral: transform identities - Oppressed - Build self worth through spiritual mission: NVR teaches how to hate segregation, love segregationist - Oppressor - Build moral conscience to see one’s fate is tied up with fate of the oppressed Utopian? Nashville Lunch Counter Sit-Ins - 1960 Q: How do Sit-ins put MLK’s idea of the transformative power of NVR into practice? Q: Is Christian NVR responsible for success? James Lawson - From labor movement - 1958 - Recruited by MLK - Hired by Fellowship of Reconciliation (labor movements train CR) - A.J. Muste, Highlander Folk School - To Nashville Church - 1959 - Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC, part of the SCLC) - Fisk Theology Department Nashville Sit-Ins, MLK in Action NVR training transforms activist identities Lawson: how to transcend “fight or flight” response to white violence? - Role playing - Prayer - Religious study Learn to “take responsibility for one’s emotions” - Transform rage into righteousness and humiliation into self worth NVR builds beloved community Among student and protestors and black adults - Solidarity, persistence, recruitment, community support Support from some white churches Can NVR transform the oppressor Yes: Activist Diane Nash successfully confronts Mayor Ben West - “Is it right to deny service based solely on race?” Is Moral appeal enough? Downtown Store Boycott - Pressures elite Boycott and moral appeal work together - Moral appeal necessary for success of boycott - Boycott reveals immortality of Jim Crow