1960-1992 'Dream or nightmare?'

Economic and Social problems for Northern Blacks in the 1960s
1. The mass movement of AAs from the North meant that the unskilled jobs (which was all that they could do) were declining in numbers. Automation in the 1950s meant even less jobs. Yet they still kept coming to escape segragation. 1970s: 1/2 of blacks lived out of the South.
  1. With fewer jobs, there was an increase in black discrimination. Great unemployment -> great poverty.
2. The segragation of schools as of location wasn't affected by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and many were still trapped in the vicious cycle of poor education -> poor employment.
Malcolm X 1960-1965
1. Northern blacks weren't benifitted by King's work as he fought for freedom from segragation, whilst in the North the focus was on social problems that the Christian non-violence approach didn't affect.
  1. X focused on the economic and social conditions of the North.
2. By 1960 Malcolm X was a prominent leader who's deprived background and message associated with the poor northern blacks. He felt that they shouldn't beg the white man, like NAACP and SCLC did, but stood for a 'black superiority'.
  1. Like Garvey, he saw AAs as Africans, not Americans, but rejected the 'back to Africa' as it was impractical.
  2. He believed that whites were inherently racist and could never value blacks as equals.
    1. He didn't care of what whites though of him and even ignored praise from whites, as he felt that they really couldn't truly care for blacks.
3. He was a prominent member of the Nation of Islam until 1963, where he left because he spoke on political issues and criticised the leader Elijah Muhammed, who had restricted his civil rights platform.
  1. Elijah Muhammed called for seperate homelands for AAs. But X discovered that he didn't uphold the morals he demanded of his followers. (Corrupt like Garvey?)
    1. Saw no role of women in the movement.
  2. After being dismissed in 1963, X traveled Asia and Africa finding white Muslims, making him begin accepting co-operating with other parts of the civil rights movement, but he was assassinated in 1965 by NoI. His ideas were still influential for years.
4. He rejected the non-violent approach of King, but he didn't advocate violence just self-defence, particularly to protect women.
MLK in 1966-68
1. King began to realise that whites weren't responding to his campaigns and for the civil rights movement to really work, he must adress the social and economic problems in the North, caused by the American political set up.
  1. King's campaign in Chicago 1966: He focused on the de facto segregation in education, employment and housing, but found less black support than in the South, as well as more clever and evasive local officials. The SCLC were pelted by stones and verbally abused. Although highlighting the housing problem, nothing was solved.
  2. If he didn't solve these issues, he knew that the violence and rioting of the period would always undermine his non-violent approach. He began ideals like the Poor People's March in 1968 to protest poverty. However, he always struggled to keep his impatient followers peaceful. -> Following his death, the approach of non-violence died too and all was left was the random violence.
    1. However, this march failed and even offended some of those who had previously been sympathetic to the AA cause, especially since the growing militancy of Black Power had prevented much of America from supporting the civil rights.
2. He never doubted his view of non-violence.
3. SCLC remained after MLK's death, through a climate of militancy and black power, but in the late 70s their confrontational style of campaigning was less effective. The consecutive leaders like Abernathy and Lowery still upheld MLK's values.
The Vietnam War 1950s-1975
1. King spoke out against this in 1967 as it opposed his religious beliefs, but also because it diverted funds and attention away from civil rights, which was seen as possible to be strengthened.
2. This took black civil rights off of the front of magazines, and no major legislation passed during this period besides the 'Fair Housing Act of 1968'
  1. This was that no radical discrimination could be used when selling, renting or mortgaging a property. This was passed as a result of MLK's death in 1968.
Black Power development after X's death
1. Some saw King as a 'tool of the white man' and believed that blacks should be in control of their own destiny.
  1. Many like SNCC and CORE questioned the non-violent approach as it hadn't yet yielded much social and economic progress.
    1. Yet for SCLC supporters, this black power seemed a step backwards, that militancy and violence ruined all that was built up in the movement.
2. Some rejected help from whites altogether, like Stokely Carmichael, who organised the SNCC 1964-1966 and became chair in 1966. He was very extreme toward violence towards white society. He joined the Black Panthers in 1967.
3. 1965-1968 was a period of serious, violent rioting.
4. It had re-asserted the idea of being proudly black, with emphasis on their black culture, rather than intargrate with whites.
  1. Changes what the question of AA civil rights really are.
The Black Panthers 1966
1. Wanted to end the white capitalist control and police brutality. They had economic demands and were influenced by Black Power and Malcolm X.
  1. Violent shoot-outs with the police occurred.
2. They developed a 10 point programme, which demanded for some of the similar demands of the civil rights movement, but also some distinctly radical ones that even bordered on racist feeling towards whites. Like all blacks being exempt of jail and military service.
  1. Highlights how broken the movement was, as they are divided but also because of how members of peaceful groups like SNCC were joining up.
Richard Nixon and Affirmative Action 1968-1974
1. Nixon took a firm line with law and order and hence acted strongly against groups like the Black Panthers.
  1. He did make some civil rights initiatives but nothing really happened in the latter years of his Presidency.
2. Nixon's policy of 'affirmative action' was to ensure that AA had equal opportunities in areas that they were previously discriminated, particularly education and employment. This involved making up for the discrimination in the past too. A 'helping hand' was better than a 'hand out'.
  1. It was controversial, even amongst civil rights campaigners as it 'violated their principle of equality'.
    1. Nixon also hoped for trade unions to become divided, hence weakened, by the topic.
  2. Contractors would set targets for hiring minorities.
  3. Nixon also had a political agenda, hoping to build potential Republican votes.
3. Congress, the Presidency and Supreme Court for once were all supporting one another. 'Griggs v. Duke Power Company 1971' was where supreme court ruled that the intelligence tests that this power company had for employees was unfair to AAs because of their previous educational discrimination.
Desegragation of Schools
1. 'Bussing' was used as a radical way to force the desegragation of schools and by 1972 Southern schools were better integrated than the North!
2. The NAACP took further legal action concerning desegragation
  1. But although high support to begin with, towards the 1974 support began to wane.
    1. Bussing, which was often unpopular, declined, as where it was upheld the whites would move to all-white suburbs and where it wasn't, segragation began to return.
3. Desegragation of higher education was difficult, moany colleges were predominantly black or white. 1971: 1/3 of blacks were in their predominantly black colleges, but 90% in the Southern states.
Presidents
1. Ford (1974-77) continued Nixon's ending of 'bussing' but he did little and 90% of blacks voted for his Democratic rival Carter for the 1976 election, fully turning the political aliiegance of the past years.
2. Carter 1977-81 lacked the popular support to bring change, the economic stability and the support of Supreme Court as to continue civil rights measures.
  1. 1978 University of California v. Baake, was where Supreme Court ruled that the white boy Baake had been denied from the University because of his race.
3. Reagan (1980-89) was famously negative towards civil rights. Reagan opposed the legislation and his actions seen as his attempt at opposing 'affirmative action'. He tended to be opposed of welfare and employment programmes altogether.
  1. During the early 80s, there was an economic slowdown, so his attack on welfare really hit the black community, especially since that in 1980 blacks were the highest recipients of Aid for Families with dependent children, food stamps and housing benifits.
  2. The 1988 Civil Rights Restoration Act: This deemed that all federal funds could only be distributed if the recipients were complying with all aspects of civil rights legislation. Congress was hence very liberal towards civil rights at the end of the period. Reagan even attempted to veto this.
4. Bush 1989-92 was also hard on blacks, he vetoed bills that challenged job discrimination as a means of a 'quota', which later still became law.
Political and Economic Changes
1. The Voting Rights Act created an immediate and dramatic increase in black voters, particularly in the South. The NAACP continued to work on getting black voters registered in states where there were still few. Yet by 1976 it was slightly lower where under 60% of eligible blacks were registered.
2. Following black voting, there was an increase to African Americans being elected into public office in federal and state positions in the South.
  1. These were mostly Democrats, the party that previously had been for 'white supremacy', which now depended on the black vote. The change seems almost so sudden since so recently 'Bull' Connor was a leading member of office.
  2. It was less common in the North and hence could be more difficult. Financial and political constraints were what held them back. There were low turnouts of black votes, suggesting that poorer blacks still were alienated from a political system that offered them nothing.
  3. Majors in large cities had to avoid alienating their white coalition partners and political involvement didn't inheritently produce better conditions for AAs.
3. The NAACP's legal style continued for the rest of the period, however leaders like Hooks in 1977 were questioned to be out of touch of the poor blacks and by 1977 membership dropped to a low of 200,000.
Jesse Jackson in the 1980s
1. In the 1980s he became a leader of the movement, leading back to his support and close relationship with King and SCLC. He even founded his own organisation PUSH to secure thousands of jobs for African Americans in the 1970s.
  1. His Christian styles and presentation were reminiscent of King.
2. He attempted to become the Democrat Presidential nominee twice in 1984 and 1988 as he wished to persuade the disillusioned blacks to have faith in the political system. He aimed to connect the radical black power supporters and the others.
  1. Hoped to unite various races into a coalition called the 'rainbow coalition' alongside the liberal Democrat whites disillusioned by the political system.
  2. He showed the importance of the black vote.
3. He was criticsed for supposedly being a 'throwback' to the old style of black ministers instructing their flock with no choices. Although he did represent a success of a black man reaching a high point, it was later hoped for a proportional respresentation of blacks in politics as a whole. Bill Clinton when running for election in 1992 wanted to make his administration 'look like America'.
Bifurcation of the black Community in the 1980s
1. In the 1980s, the wealthy middle-class blacks were becoming more prosperous and the poor blacks were getting worse. They became un-united like they had been previously as they developed different social and political attitudes.
  1. Cuts in welfare and a growing drug trade seperated the social environments of blacks and no longer did they share the suffering with a group identity.
    1. The wealthier blacks were leaving the ghettoes and hence leaving the poor and uneducated with no-one to articulate their views and problems.
The Rodney King Affair 1991
1. Rodney King was an AA man severely beaten by police when he resisted arrest from drunk driving. This was caught on video and despite this, an all white jury in 1992 freed the policemen from charges of serious assault.
  1. Protest arose through race riots in the city and this showed that rioting was still a threat to law and order from racial grievances, and hence shows that the debates surrounding black civil rights were still passionate in 1992.

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1960-1992 'Dream or nightmare?'

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