Lecture 15: Roll, Jordan, Roll

The Civil Rights Movement Proper

Roll, Jordan, Roll

The lecture focuses on the civil rights movement, particularly the Black freedom movement during the 1950s and 1960s.
The title "Roll, Jordan, Roll" connects the civil rights movement to the historical struggles of African Americans for freedom, similar to the Israelites' exodus from Egypt led by Moses.
"Roll Jordan Roll" is a spiritual that originated in enslaved African American communities connecting Moses’ struggle to the struggle of Africans and later African Americans in the United States.
Music played a critical role in sustaining the movement.
The civil rights movement is viewed as a "second reconstruction," aiming to fulfill the promises of the original reconstruction era in the late 1860s and early 1870s.
The image of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine black students who desegregated Little Rock High School in 1957, illustrates the hostility faced by African Americans who challenged racial segregation.
National guardsmen were present to protect the students, highlighting the need for federal intervention.
Eckford's experience was described as a perilous walk, with bystanders potentially posing a threat of lynching.
An elderly white woman helped Eckford into a taxi, possibly saving her from further abuse.
The ordinary people in the crowd displayed the hatred and white supremacy inherited from their ancestors.

Focus Questions

What were the two principal phases of the civil rights movement?
What strategies did the leaders and participants in the black freedom struggle employ in their fight against racial discrimination?
How did the leaders of the civil rights movement use media, television, music, film to further their cause?
Finally, the legacy of the civil rights movement, its successes, its limitations, and even some of its failures.

The Ongoing Struggle

The Black civil rights movement started long before the 1950s and continues to this day.
Leaders like Martin Luther King, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael built upon the work of earlier figures like Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and A. Philip Randolph.
The nonviolent aspect of the civil rights movement gained strength from white Americans, especially college students, but the black community was the core of the movement.

Two Phases of the Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement can generally be broken into two phases from 1954 to 1968.
First Phase (1954-1965):
- Focused on dismantling the legal framework of Jim Crow.
- Aimed to eliminate barriers to voting and end segregation in public and private accommodations.
- Culminated in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Second Phase (1964-1968):
- Addressed entrenched forms of discrimination, such as housing discrimination, the wage gap, job opportunities, police brutality, and de facto segregation.
- Employed more militant approaches to achieve these goals.

The Reality of Segregation

Black and white children lived in separate worlds in the North, South, and West.
In the West, white and Japanese Americans, as well as whites and Mexican Americans, lived in separate worlds.
The concept of "separate but equal" from the Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896) was meant to ensure dignity for both communities, but it never materialized in reality.
Segregation was not just economic and political but also psychological, constantly reinforcing the idea of black inferiority.
Black individuals faced inferior schools, separate churches, and humiliating experiences in public spaces like movie theaters.
In 1947, the Mexican American community challenged segregated schools in California.
The military was desegregated by executive order in 1948.

Legal Strategies of the NAACP

Legal strategists in the NAACP, such as Thurgood Marshall, used these cases to build a legal strategy to challenge black segregation.
Marshall aimed to demonstrate the psychological impact of segregation, especially on children.
He used a study by sociologist Kenneth Clark, in which black and white children preferred white dolls, showing the internalization of racism and segregation from an early age.
Interactions between whites and blacks emphasized separation and avoidance of physical contact or direct eye contact.
Leroi Lillard stole a sip from a water fountain marked "white" and told his mom it tasted the same highlighting the absurdity of the system.

Murder of Emmett Till (1955)

The murder of Emmett Till in 1955 significantly fueled the civil rights movement.
Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi.
His mother, Mamie Till Bradley, warned him about interacting with white people in the South, particularly white women.
Till bragged about having a white girlfriend and allegedly asked a white store owner, Carol Bryant, for a date.
Roy Bryant (Carol's husband) and his brother abducted, beat, and murdered Till, throwing his body in the Tallahatchie River.
Mamie Till Bradley chose to have an open-casket funeral and allowed Jet Magazine and the Chicago Defender to publish images of Till's body.
Till's death highlighted the constant threat of violence black Americans faced, especially in the South.

The Trial and Aftermath

The perpetrators, Roy Bryant and JW Milam, were tried by an all-white jury and acquitted in about an hour.
Till's grand uncle, Moses Wright, testified against them.
The men later admitted to the murder but faced no repercussions.
Carol Bryant remains unrepentant about her role.
Till's murder served as a catalyst for African American activists.
Raises the question of what all of us would be capable of in an environment that from day one emphasized your superiority and the inferiority of others who look differently around you.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Before Till's death, the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall successfully challenged segregation in schools.
The Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, especially in schools.
In 1955, the court ordered schools to desegregate with "all deliberate speed."
Test cases to desegregate schools in the South included figures like Elizabeth Eckford and the Little Rock Nine.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery bus boycott addressed segregation in public accommodations.
Segregated busing symbolized the indignity of Jim Crow.
Rosa Parks, an NAACP secretary trained in nonviolent direct action, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, leading to her arrest and sparking the boycott.
Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a leader during the boycott.
African Americans boycotted the Montgomery public transportation system for almost a year, significantly impacting the city's revenue.
The peaceful boycott, despite facing violent opposition, garnered sympathy for the cause.
In November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

The success of the Montgomery boycott encouraged the expansion of the civil rights movement.
King formed the SCLC, a coalition of black churches throughout the South, to devise a nonviolent strategy of direct action.
Nonviolence was intended to gain sympathy and prevent authorities from using violence against protesters.

Sit-Ins and SNCC

By 1960, the movement shifted towards desegregating lunch counters and other public establishments.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), composed mainly of black and white college students, played a key role.
Four black students from Greensboro, North Carolina, initiated a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter, refusing to leave when denied service.
Sit-ins spread across the South, targeting restaurants and movie theaters.
Activists dressed well and maintained a peaceful demeanor to contrast with the violence they faced.
The media played a crucial role in publicizing these events, bringing the horrors of Jim Crow to national attention.
Tactics used were borrowed from earlier activists like Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau.

Massive Resistance and Freedom Rides

White communities in the South organized "massive resistance" to court-ordered desegregation, often led by white citizens' councils.
The Freedom Rides of 1961 aimed to challenge massive resistance to the desegregation of interstate buses.
Black and white college students boarded buses in the North and rode them into the Deep South, facing violence and threats.
The Freedom Rides led Attorney General Robert Kennedy to send federal marshals to protect the riders.
In the fall of 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission required the integration of all interstate travel facilities.

Birmingham Campaign (1963)

The SCLC, led by Martin Luther King Jr., organized nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, to challenge segregation.
The Birmingham campaign included economic boycotts, sit-ins, and pickets.
Protesters, including children and the elderly, were met with violence from police chief Bull Connor, who used dogs and industrial water hoses against them.
Television coverage of the violence generated outrage among moderate whites and prompted John F. Kennedy to support civil rights legislation.

March on Washington (1963)

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom underscored the link between civil equality and economic opportunity.
King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Two weeks later, a bombing at Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killed four little girls.
Kennedy's assassination underscored the need for action.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment based on race, religion, ethnicity, and sex.
It did not guarantee voting rights.

Freedom Summer (1964)

Freedom Summer was organized to register African Americans to vote in the Deep South.
Activists faced violence, and three core activists went missing and were later found dead.

March on Selma (1965) and Voting Rights Act

The March on Selma aimed to bring attention to the continued denial of voting rights to black Americans.
Marchers were met with violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Images of the violence were broadcast nationally, prompting President Lyndon Johnson to support voting rights legislation.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited literacy tests and poll taxes and authorized federal intervention to register voters.
Black voter participation in the South increased significantly.

Images of the Civil Rights Movement

Bombing of the Freedom Ride bus in Anniston, Alabama.
Violent repression of peaceful protesters in Birmingham, AL with fire hoses and dogs.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Justice.
The murders of three CORE activists in Mississippi during Freedom Summer.
Violent repression of peaceful protesters in Selma, AL at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Divisions within the Civil Rights Movement

Malcolm X criticized the "American dream" and advocated for black separatism.
Northern urban African Americans wanted reconstruction, not integration.
John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson were sympathetic but hesitant allies of the movement and consistently needed to be prodded.
Legal segregation ended but the civil rights movement was never popular with the majority of white Americans even at its apex.

Limitations and New Challenges

Economic inequalities persisted for many African Americans, even after legal gains were made.
Black communities in the North and West faced issues such as economic inequality, ghettoization, and police brutality.
The civil rights movement then addresses economic inequalities in jobs, housing, and land.
After 1966, there was black power and the Black Panther Party.

Black Separatism and Malcolm X

The Nation of Islam advocated for black separatism, believing that white Americans would never accept black Americans.
Malcolm X rejected integration and advocated for armed self-defense.
If I'm slapped, I'm not turning the other cheek I'm balling up my fist.
Called America to be radically reconstructed and overthrown.

Later Years of Martin Luther King, Jr

Martin Luther King and the SCLC also increasingly saw the impact of structural inequality.
Race riots occurred in major northern and western cities from 1965 to 1968.
The Watts riots followed the killing of a black driver by a white police officer.
Martin Luther King participated in the Watts protests and called the focus on nonviolence as insufficient to create structural change.
Watts is also perceived as a turning point in which the white moderates started turning against the civil rights movement.

Changing Strategies of the Civil Rights Movement

After 1966, the civil rights movement firmly entered a new phase attacking economic inequalities in jobs, and land with Stokely Carmichael.
Stokely Carmichael had began in SNCC and said what we gotta start saying is black power.
Carmichael and SNCC formally expelled white activists in 1966.
Black power meant cultural pride in black expression, language customs, tradition, and religion.

The Black Panther Party

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale led the Black Panther Party, advocating for armed self-defense and urban renewal.
The Black Panther Party cultivated a revolutionary image to appeal to young black men.
The Black Panther Party also organized free lunches for black schoolchildren, had job drives, job fairs, and a host of things that were designed to benefit Black communities in urban cities in the North and the West.

End of the Civil Rights Movement

Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership weakened, nonviolence stopped working and MLK loses allies when he starts to criticize the Vietnam war.
Nonviolence isn't working when we still have police shooting us, when we still have when we're still discriminated in jobs, when we still have, you know, whites berating us in public accommodations.
MLK MLK also loses a lot of traction with his allies in Washington when he starts to criticize the Vietnam War and as he starts to criticize major tenants of American capitalism through his poor people's campaign, which focused on in keeping with his larger vision was more of a color blind kind of integrated campaign to advocate for better rights, working rights for working class folks.
MLK is assassinated in April 1968.

The Role of Media and Popular Culture

The civil rights movement utilized new mediums of communication, such as television, to broadcast the horrors of Jim Crow.
Integrationist messages began to emerge in Hollywood films by the 1960s.
Sidney Poitier starred in films like No Way Out and Look Who's Coming to Dinner, portraying roles that challenged racial stereotypes.
Music offered a way for people to persist in the face of brutal violence and setbacks from white people and drew on spiritual's, gospels, and folk music.
Lyrics emphasized communalism, hope, and persistence, like roll Jordan roll and ain't gonna let nobody turn me around.
By the late 1960s, integrated images had begun to fill a critical void in the media of the time period.
The addition of Franklin to the Peanuts cartoon was one step in human dignity.
Charlie Brown and Franklin meet on the beach and sleepover showcasing an intimate relationship.

Legacy and Ongoing Struggle

The civil rights movement ended legal segregation and discrimination, fulfilling some promises from Reconstruction.
However, it failed to achieve true equality for African Americans.
New forms of discrimination replaced old ones, as seen in movements like Black Lives Matter.
Challenges persist in housing, economic disparities, police brutality, and education outcomes.
Black activists continue to fight these entrenched forms of racism.