Student Question
Why did a civil rights movement emerge in the South in the 1950s-60s? What were its philosophy, tactics, accomplishments, and legacies?
Quick answer:
Grassroots civil rights movements began in the South to pressure businesses and public leaders to enact desegregation as ordered by the federal courts. Several organizations organized movements that involved direct non-violent action. National news coverage of their protests put added pressure on public leaders and business owners.
In the years after World War II, grassroots civil rights movements began throughout much of the United States, particularly in the south. These movements took off during the 1950s and continued throughout the 1960s. Many Black Americans had felt that their contributions in the war would help them find recognition as American citizens. Serving overseas exposed many Black Americans to societies that did not live under systems of racial apartheid.
They hoped to bring some of what they experienced overseas home with them. They were sorely disappointed. Returning Black veterans found that they faced the same discrimination that they had before the war. In fact, sometimes it was even worse. Many white Americans saw Black men in uniform as being overly proud and that they needed to "be put back in their place." When returning veterans were attacked, such Isaac Woodard who was severely beaten while still in uniform, it...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
became clear to many Black Americans that the fight for racial justice needed to be taken up in earnest.
Some civil rights tactics involved court actions. However, throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, when southern authorities refused to comply with court orders to desegregate, grassroots movements became more widespread. Massive protests, marches, and boycotts, led by groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), raised awareness of the continued injustices and put pressure on private businesses and politicians.
These movements often relied on tactics of civil disobedience and awareness campaigns. This includes the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956, the Freedom Rides of 1961, and the March on Washington in 1963, in addition to countless smaller events. While the success of grassroots direct action varied, national media coverage allowed it to gain attention throughout the country. Eventually, many businesses began desegregating. With added political pressure, legislative changes were made as well. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was largely influenced by the March on Washington the previous year.
What were the Civil Rights Movement's main tactics, philosophy, and accomplishments?
The movement for civil rights was always more divided and diverse than popularly portrayed. That said, the mainstream of the movement adopted the tactics and the philosophy of nonviolent direct action in pursuit of the destruction of segregation in the South and then the implementation of voting rights. In showdowns throughout the South, civil rights campaigners protested by violating segregation laws and doing so publicly. These tactics bore fruit in places like Montgomery, Greensboro, Nashville, and dozens of other Southern towns that integrated under public pressure.
Simultaneously with these developments, civil rights leaders pursued a series of lawsuits, beginning with the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, that sought decisions that would strike down segregation and other discriminatory laws that flagrantly violated the Constitution. Some civil rights campaigns—most famously the Freedom Rides—were intended to test the will of the federal government to enforce these decisions.
These tactics achieved broad success precisely because they put pressure on national politicians, including Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, to act. The brutal tactics of white supremacists in such places as Birmingham and Selma shifted public opinion in favor of the protests, a development that helped spur the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
After these victories, the movement turned to the even more difficult task of confronting the economic woes of African American communities across the country. It was not so much that the movement changed its approach to these issues as that new, more strident voices rose to the forefront, confronting such issues as police violence, structural poverty, and housing inequality.
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) popularized the phrase "Black Power" to encapsulate the aims of African American men and women in the mid-to-late Sixties. Other activists, including the Black Panthers, echoed Carmichael's calls for open resistance to white supremacy, even to the point of violence. The national news media stressed their supposed rejection of the peaceful tactics associated with Martin Luther King, but in many ways the commitment to community organizing embodied by these leaders had its roots in Black resistance since Reconstruction.
References