Lecture 20: Civil Rights & Social Movements

Political Participation Factors

● Group cohesion linked to political participation

● Perceived discrimination (individual and group level)

● Degree of closeness to group's ideas

Linked fate

Mechanism converting group consciousness into political cohesion

Group membership

Objective - are you part of a group?

Group identification

Subjective psychological importance/connection

Group consciousness

Members view group status as politically relevant, often due to marginalization

Intersectionality

Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw—describes how Black women experience multiple oppressions (gender, race) simultaneously that interact to create unique experiences beyond simple addition

First Wave Feminism

Focus: Suffrage (right to vote)

Second Wave Feminism

● Emphasized equal rights

● Addressed de facto and de jure (legal) inequalities

● Issues: domesticity, workplace equality, equal pay, abortion

● Criticism: Dominated by white women, accused of racism

Third Wave Feminism

● Intellectual emphasis on anti-essentialism

● Black feminism/womanism

● Intersectionality and standpoint feminism

● Focus on identity and lived experience

● Recognition of linked and overlapping forms of oppression

● More diffuse popular movement (Anita Hill, riot grrrl)

Fourth Wave Feminism

● #MeToo and Time's Up movements

● Debatable whether we're currently in this wave

Historical Context of Racism in America

● Race science flourished post-founding to reconcile rhetorical commitment to equality with material commitment to inequality (slavery)

● Racist practices have always been challenged

Post-Civil Rights Era

● Maintained through structural/rule-of-law racism

● Implicit bias

● Dog-whistle racism under multiculturalism rhetoric

● Trump post-2016: Made overt racism more mainstream

SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

● Group-centered leadership and grassroots organizing

● Local leadership development: "let the people decide”

● Bottom-up democracy: Consensus-based decisions, organizers as facilitators

● Long-term community organizing: Years-long presence before campaigns

● Meeting people where they are: Started with locally-identified issues

● Participatory education: "Strong people don't need strong leaders" - citizenship schools empowered people

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

● Charismatic, top-down leadership: Relied on moral authority of leaders

● Campaign-based approach: Targeted cities (Birmingham, Selma, Chicago)

● Nonviolent direct action as spectacle: Provoked violent responses for media attention and federal intervention

● Church-centered organizing: Used Black churches for infrastructure

● Legislative focus: Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965

● Shorter timelines: Built momentum quickly, then moved on

Contemporary Civil Rights Movement Characteristics

● Driven by social media and hashtags vs. traditional marches

● Broader agenda: racial justice, LGBTQ issues, immigration reform

● Focuses on systemic discrimination and implicit bias vs. overt bigotry

● Led by young, relatively unknown activists

● Rejects centralized leadership (distances from figures like Al Sharpton)

● Grassroots approach aligned with Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker