History coursework - civil rights PDF

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“Martin Luther King Jr was the most important individual in the advancement of civil rights 1881-1968” How far do you agree? ...

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“Martin Luther King Jr was the most important individual in the advancement of civil rights 1881-1968” How far do you agree? Martin Luther King Jr was certainly not the only individual to have an impact on the advancement of the civil rights movement, however it is widely believed that he was the most influential and therefore most important. Martin Luther King Jr was not only an activist, but a pastor and humanitarian also - the purity and moral values which were central to his actions and character were also the large reason behind his mass supporters. He gained support worldwide from both Blacks and non-Blacks, not just as a result of the positive media towards him and his non-violent views which were shown through his methods, but the support was also reliant on his close relationship with Presidents. This is in agreement with the ‘master narrative’ that ‘no person was more important’ than Martin Luther King1, evidence to support this comes from sources such as his ‘I have a Dream’ speech as well as well credited Historians who argue of his large impact, such as Meier who grants some credit to King. However, this view is contested by the argument that other individuals had a larger role to play, while there is significant evidence which does indeed support such an interpretation, the focus of the period seriously underplays the importance of the roles of other individuals before and after King’s prime. For example, the key roles of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B Du Bois, Ida B Wells and others are largely overlooked due to the heavy focus on King who is most often associated with the civil rights movement. Historians such as Carson have challenged the view that Martin Luther King was the most important individual in the advancement of civil rights and have credited other individuals; from analysing and evaluating King’s role among many other individuals, historians try to recognise the impact of others in the controversial debate of which individual did indeed have the most influence on the advance of the civil rights movement. Carson challenges the view that King was the most important individual as he argues ‘If King had never lived, the black struggle would have followed a course of development similar to the one it did.’2 This is supported by the fact that the civil rights movement existed before and after Martin Luther King did, he did not create it nor was he the sole individual involved in it. Carson highlights that King was carried by the movement as opposed to carrying the movement himself, he argues that King was not essential for advancement to have occurred, ‘without the movement, King would have been an articulate, activist Baptist minister with no holiday named after him’ 3. Historian Tera Hunter’s point of view agrees with this argument as she notes that civil rights protests existed in 1881 when King wasn’t even born. The story of John Burke who, in 1881, was protected from being arrested for knocking a white woman off the sidewalk, by a circle formed around him by angry black women and men. More than 200 followed the officers to the station and complained over ‘false arrest’ and mistreatment from white police, they even petitioned for black police officers to be hired4. This event is proof that Martin Luther King was not the creator of the timeline for the civil rights movement, it existed long before him, and to this extent it is largely debatable as to whether the timeline would follow the same pattern if he did not exist at all. However, Carson argues the advancement would still indeed follow the same pattern as he disregards the ‘King-centric’ idea that the movement was carried by King’s charm and appeal and argues that King was a reluctant leader 5. This can be supported by the fact King was often criticized for allowing supporters to mistrust him whilst he preferred to not be directly involved and to get his hands dirty. Although he travelled to dangerous places for the movement and ignored death threats not to do so, he can still be criticised for the fact that despite the passion and enthusiasm he carried in his speeches, and explaining he was prepared to die for the cause, he avoided Mississippi until 1964. Mississippi was an extremely dangerous place during the civil rights movement due to the harsher nature of it being one of the 1 Badger, Anthony and Ward, Brian eds(1996) The Making of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 2 Carson, C., Charismatic leadership in a Mass Struggle, Journal of American History (Vol.74 No 2) 1987 3 Corrie Goldman, Stanford Historian and Martin Luther King Jr 4 Tera Hunter, 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War’ 5 Ibid

more extreme Southern states. If King truly believed in the movement, he could have become a martyr and died for the cause, putting aside his fear and wary attitude; this supports the argument that Martin Luther King Jr was not the most important individual in the advancement of the civil rights movement. Carson also argues the movement was not reliant on King through the relevance and importance of civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois. Carson pays attention to the impact of Du Bois and the longevity of the NAACP which he founded. Historian Fairclough – referring to Du Bois - stresses that ‘it is hard to do justice to the sparkling brilliance, profound originality, passionate humanity, incredible versatility, and sheer industry of a life that spanned almost 100 years of American history’ 6. The significance and extent to which Du Bois had an impact on the advancement of the civil rights movement can be justified through the importance attributed to Du Bois by the fact he was involved in the formation of the nation’s oldest grassroots-based civil rights organisation. The relevance of this organisation is that they played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement, Du Bois was involved in the production of ‘The Crisis’; this was the NAACP’s magazine published nationwide updating African Americans of political issues and promoting awareness of the struggles7. Du Bois’ endeavours, such as the response to the lynching of Sam Hose (1899) and the race riot of Atlanta (1906), can be referred to as a ‘seamless series of achievements in the triumph or radical protests’ 8. Du Bois’ response to the lynching of Sam Hose was a self-awakening, after the tragic event, he then began to write and petition against legislation that would disenfranchise black people in Georgia. The influence of these article was widespread as the same year, his articles in ‘The Independent’ and ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ were the first of many to be published in national magazines over the next 5 decades. Du Bois’ inspirational articles invigorated a greater sense of racial awareness and consciousness of the horrors Blacks were facing – this roused Blacks into action. Thus, there is sufficient evidence to support Carson’s view that Du Bois was ‘the most significant African American intellectual of the 20 th century…and a preeminent political thinker of the 20th Century’9. Du Bois was responsible for accelerating Black progress, as his moving articles were a decisive factor in the rise of the NAACP, hence the amalgamation and mobilisation of Blacks – which proved to be critical to the successes of the 1950s and 1960s. The role of legalisation was fundamental to the advancement of the movement, without this, progression would have been impossible. This merits the role of certain Presidents, specifically President Johnson who passed some landmark legislation – more than any other President in the history of the United States. President Johnson passed a significant amount of landmark legislation, most notably the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, all of which momentously and infamously advanced the civil rights movement. Although the 1964 Civil Rights Act was introduced by a reluctant, hesitant President Kennedy before he was assassinated – the Act itself was only passed by President Johnson himself shortly after he was sworn in. In his first infamous speech as President addressing congress, Johnson stated “no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honour President Kennedy’s memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long”10. This is a clever tactic on President Johnson’s part as it meant that the American public would be sympathetic towards the death of President Kennedy and by making Kennedy a martyr for the cause and describing the passing of the Civil Rights Act as honouring his death it makes the Act seem more appealing to the public and reduced opposition

6 Fairclough, Adam (2002), Better Day Coming (New York: Penguin Books) 7 Verney, K., To what extent were African Americans the Architects of their own success in the civil rights struggle, 18651980? 8 Dominic J. Capeci Jr. and Jack C. Knight, Reckoning with Violence: W. E. B. Du Bois and the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot

9 Carson, C., Course Introduction and W.E.B. Du Bois http://academicearth.org/lectures/intro-and-web-dubois 10 https://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1994/Transition-to-Johnson/

towards it. The Act has been described as ‘the nation’s benchmark civil rights legislation’ 11, however, President Johnson’s remarkable radical progress expanded beyond the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Shown even further through the momentum needed for tougher voting rights legislation which quickly built due to President Johnson’s continued willpower. After addressing Congress about the disturbing events in Selma, he ensured that legislative action was hasty. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensured the use of literacy tests was suspended for a 5 year period as well as ensuring federal poll watchers were sent and voting registrars to states which had continuous patterns of discrimination towards voting – as well as making obstructing an individual’s right to vote a federal crime 12. Dallek argues that President Johnson was a man with “consuming ambition” and “considerable vision” and lauds President Johnson as “one of the most important historical figures of our time”13. This is evidenced by the fact that it was President Johnson who legalised major changes such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - both of which, were of paramount importance for the advancement of civil rights. This importance can be further stressed by the fact that without legal change implemented, cultural change cannot take place. Speaking of Acts entitling Blacks to political rights and civil rights as President Kennedy did, but failing to put them in place legally, means transgressive behaviour is able to continue – President Johnson ensured this was not able to happen. The significance of Booker T. Washington’s role in the advancement of the civil rights movement has been widely debated – evidenced by the stark differing interpretations of Louis Harlan and Emmett J. Scott and Lyman Beecher Stowe. The controversy of this debate lies in the effectiveness of Washington’s accommodating strategy where he preached that progress for Blacks should be accomplished patiently through education and material prosperity – both earned through hard work, as opposed to violent methods of agitation. On one hand, Harlan argues that the passive ideology to which Washington stood by firmly, limited and delayed the advancement of the civil rights movement, on the other hand, Scott and Stowe argue that Washington’s leadership was a significant factor in advancing the situation of fighting for Black civil rights. Harlan casts Washington in a negative light, arguing ‘the burden of his compromises and accommodations to a repressive system of white supremacy’ 14 led to a deterioration in American race relations during 1900-1920. To some extent this can be supported as the time period was in fact typical of national racism, exhibited in the legalised segregation and disenfranchisement that followed Emancipation. Washington stated ‘You can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen’15, this speech is noteworthy as it Harlan concludes that Washington’s leadership ‘illustrates the impossibility of reforming a system while at the same time accommodating to its institutions and spirit’ 16, which highlights the difficulty of challenging the deep-rooted nature of white racist attitudes. He has received favourable comparisons to Martin Luther King. Meier likens the two leaders in his 1965 article ‘ The Conservative Militant ’ where he states ‘King thus gives white men the feeling that he is their good friend, that he poses no threat to them. It is interesting to note that this was the same feeling that

11

Legal Highlight: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/crc/civil-rights-act-1964.htm

12 John D. Morris, “Johnson Pledges Alabama Action,” 5 February 1965, New York Times: 13 Robert Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 (2003) 14 Harlan, Louis, (1986), Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee (New York: Oxford University Press USA).

15 Booker T. Washington Delivers the 1895 Atlanta Compromise Speech, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/ 16 Harlan, Louis, (1986), Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee (New York: Oxford University Press USA).

white men received from Booker T. Washington.’ Meier highlights how white support was needed for the success of black equality....