1African American Movement1900-2000Pamela OliverSociology 220The Big PictureHistorical Overview• 1880-1920 Racism strong, legal status of blacks declines, black resistance is present but fails. • 1920-1954 Black capacities and resources gradually increase, moderate progress• 1954 – 1965 Civil Rights Era. Legal segregation is dismantled. Huge confrontation. “The Second American Revolution.”• 1965-1980 Some consolidation of black gains after battles over implementation + “white backlash”• 1980s-2000. Black political influence erodes. Improvement for black middle class + decline for black lower class.Integrationist vs. Separatist Impulses• Integrationist = Races should mix, minorities should intermingle with majority, everyone should be treated the same (egalitarian) • Assimilationist = Minorities should adopt majority culture, blend into the larger groupVS• Separatist = Races should be separate, minorities should keep in their own groups• Nationalist (in this context)= Minorities should have separate culture, distinct political baseThe Conservative/Radical Dimension• This is not the same as radical or militant vs. moderate or conservative• Accommodationist = cooperating with the dominant group• Moderate/Reformist= seeking change while not challenging those in power• Radical/ Militant = seeking larger changes in a confrontational, aggressive manner• Revolutionary= seeking to overthrow the present system, by violence if necessaryBlack Integrationists & SeparatistsMarcus GarveyMalcolm XLouis FarrakhanM. L. King, Jr.W.E.B. DuboisA. Philip RandolphRadical/ MilitantBooker T. Washington, some churchestoday's "black conservatives"Accommoda-tionistTerrorists?Class RevolutionRevolutionaryAfrocentrism?Urban LeagueNAACPReformistSeparatist/ NationalistAssimilationist/ Integrationist2Black Mobilization in the Dark Years 1880-1930Some Early Leaders• 1895-1915. Booker T. WashingtonAccommodationist self-improvement• W.E.B. DuBois. T. Thomas Fortune. MilitantIntegrationism. (But some cultural nationalist impulses.) Founds Niagra Movement 1905, then NAACP, 1909 NAACP = National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.• Ida B. Wells-Barnett Anti-lynching campaign. Demonstrates that lynching is a political tool. Inflammatory rhetoric.1920-1940 1• 1919 Bloody race riots in many cities, whites attacking and killing blacks. • 1920s NAACP under James Weldon Johnson begins the concerted campaign of lawsuits to chip away at segregation, – begin the path towards Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). – Early victories provide resources that increase black education.• 1916-1925 Marcus Garvey. Back to Africa. Militant separatist, black capitalist. Black religious icons.1920-1940 –2-• 1920s - 1940s. A. Philip Randolph. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Strong black union, political platform.• 1920s - 1930s Blacks shift voting patterns, become potential swing voters. – From “knee-jerk Republicans” (holdover from 19thcentury, Republicans anti-slavery, Lincoln freed the slaves) to willing to vote for whomever supports them and their issues. • 1936 Blacks play a key role in Roosevelt’s New Deal Coalition. Become significant political players.1940-1960• 1941 threatened March on Washington, led by Randolph. Called off when FDR agrees to ban racial discrimination in war industries.• 1942-1945 World War II. Political watershed• 1945-1960. Post-war politics. Communism and anti-Communism. “Hearts and Minds” Anti-colonialism, independence for African nations. US racial policies become international embarrassment.What Changed between 1880 and 1960?Major source: Doug McAdam. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency. University of Chicago Press, 1982.)3The Great Migration: Rural South to Urban North & South• 1890 Blacks are 90% rural, 90% southern. No political leverage. Economically dependent. Illiterate. Threat of numbers in southern areas leads to extreme measures to keep them suppressed.• Between 1900 and 1960 Blacks Move• South to North. From 90% southern in 1900 to 60% in 1960. • Rural to Urban. Southern blacks: from 9% urban in 1890 and 34% in 1930 to 58% in 1960. The 40% of blacks in the north are virtually all urban.Consequences of urbanization• Voting in North. Swing votes, parts of political machines. Black Congressmen elected.• Less daily domination. More able to gather, talk politically without white oversight. Positive consequence of physical segregation.• Able to support independent black professionals(ministers, morticians, barbers & hairdressers). Economic independence=political independence.• Rising education, rising incomes, rising political awareness• Black newspapers, magazines, news sources.Organizational Infrastructure Grows• Black Churches. Larger, can support full-time ministers. Autonomous Organizations, meeting places they control themselves. Social gospel movement = role of church in society.• Black colleges. Lawsuits force the equal part of separate but equal. Obtain white money. Massive growth in educated youth. Students economically independent of whites• NAACP is a white-dominated organization at the national level, but a black grassroots organization at the local level mobilized to support & defend blacks.Rising Political Influence• 1865-1920 those blacks who could vote were staunchly Republican (the anti-slavery party, Lincoln freed the slaves). But after 1880, Republicans do nothing for black rights• In 1920s, NAACP and others urge blacks to vote for whatever party will support black rights, proportion voting Democrat goes up• In 1930s, blacks are part of Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition, get some benefits; Eleanor Roosevelt supports more stronglyRising Education• Growth in black education & black colleges a direct result of NAACP litigation in the 1920s and 1930s • Court cases forced the “equal” in “separate but equal”• Southern states had to pay for black education to defend segregation (but blacks still lagged way behind whites)• These lawsuits also laid the groundwork for 1954 Brown vs. Board of EducationHope• Major basis of mobilization is the belief that change is possible “cognitive liberation” (McAdam)• Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 gave black people hope that change was possible, that the government would intervene.• Blacks more positive about
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