Retrospect, in some cases, serves to clarify historical issues and occurences, or further obfuscate their impact on contemporary history. Such is the case regarding the Civil Rights Movement, between the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. In The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement – Black Communities Organizing for Change, Aldon Morris argues that “The word that best expresses the spirit of this period is confrontation,” rejecting the commonly perceived notion that peace was the initial goal. Most people view this tumultuous period of re-negotiating black Americans rights, as one rife with marches alone. There actually existed somewhat of a game-plan to the black community’s dissatisfaction with how white America – as the dominant socio-political structural power – had been mistreating them. The Civil Rights Movement between the 1950s and 1960s rapidly grew to mark the duality of historically based inequities, and although it coincided with the hippies’ peace-and-freedom movement, not much equality has changed for black people in the contemporary United States’ landscape.
Common sense informs one, by a simple cursory glance into current-news events, that unarmed black people have seemed to be getting murdered in the streets by law enforcement officers, without impunity on too many ocassions. These incidents have garnered numerous worldwide headlines. Many dread violence will escalate during the ensuing Trump President administration. Several components of the dissatisfaction among black Americans, today referred to oftentimes as African-Americans, revolved around discrimination in every sphere of human functionality. These areas of labor, education, and fairness in housing practices were widespread. During the 1950s and 1960s police forces frequently terrorized the black community, using brutality, while victims had no recourse in the courts since they were mostly governed by white supremacists, in the face of judges and juries alike. The reason the complaints and conflicts between black citizens and the dominant political establishment, had to do with an overarching inequality as a result of the historical position of the free-labor and racist system of slavery.
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However, another thing to keep in mind, is actually very critical. The complete separation of blacks from whites, was legalized, in a commonly known set of rules known as Jim Crow. This signified separate schools, separate water fountains, separate restaurants, and strangely enough – separate grave burial grounds. The main thrust of the movement concerned fair labor practices and seeking social rights to be able to be integrated, and do things such as patronize white restaurants and businesses, which discriminated blacks being served at.
The movement seemed to take shape from a perspective of how to battle labor inequities. Flug noted that labor organizations’ input, had a huge impetus to the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, wherein groups such as the “Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) – were making demands on organized labor,” which had from a de facto perspective, barred blacks from fair participation. Thus, the movement evolved over time from disgruntled feelings and emotions in recognition that black people had no effective way to progress, and participate in the what has been viewed as the greatest capitalist opportunity in the world, although their forbears essentially had built the economic foundation of the country. Prior to taking to the streets in outright physical marching, numerous legal filings of discrimination were implemented, yet with the lack of impending results, by 1965 “the experience of a full decade of such demands and union responses had generated an intense debate,” inside the movement itself. Perhaps the different mixes of some approaches to the problem, by African-Americans, could be symbolized in the rhetoric of two of the most prolific orators of the time: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
As tensions mounted towards the culmination of the movement, the famous March on Washington, DC, looking back it is possible to re-evaluate the catalyst which drove the momentum. During the same time-frame, the hippies were protesting the Vietnam War, and promulgating a peace movement while advocating freedom in sex and drugs. This parallel outbreak may have stifled the Civil Rights Movement from being effective, in terms of its growth. Over time it came to represent social integration, which clearly has not worked well until today. The competing ideas of America’s primarily white, radical youth, were perhaps seen as more of a threat to the dominate society than black people’s demands. If you really think about it, black Americans held no military power at the governmental level, nor could force civil-rights legislation to be enforced. Mainly, political alliances moved towards the Democratic party loyalties. In fact, Doug McAdam argues that the movement strongly linked to partisan politics so intensely , which “pushed the national Democratic and Republican parties sharply to the left and right, respectively,” thus, perhaps in an unintended consequence black Americans became key to future elections.
Due to the competing ideas and political alliances, it was learned that the Civil Rights Movement focus on social acception among whites, could not be legislated, and forthcoming ‘bills’ to call for labor/health/education rights proved ineffective since all other groups jumped on the band wagon. In other words, women’s rights, gays, Asians, Hispanics, and every other non-black group were given all the ‘set-asides’ exclusively designed for black people. Therefore, inequality issues have not changed much for black Americans, and there is not much stopping Trump from instigating fake laws deeming the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement as a terrorist group. Meanwhile, white students on elite college campuses can riot-at-will with not much commentary in mainstream media, and Dylann Roof never receive the moniker of a terrorist. Tensions and conflicts are likely to continue, as black Americans still unnaturally represent the nation’s most bottom underclass.
