This programme focuses on the American Civil Rights Movement – the political, social and legal struggle by Black Americans to gain full citizenship rights and to achieve racial equality. It started as a challenge to the US policy of segregation – the laws and customs that separated blacks and whites – and to racial discrimination in housing, education and the economy, including job opportunities.

Segregation

This policy was used by the whites to control blacks after slavery was abolished in the 1860s. The segregation laws were also called 'Jim Crow' laws. Jim Crow was a fictional character from the 1830s who represented many of the negative stereotypes of blacks – an old, crippled black slave. Segregation separated blacks and whites as much as possible. Blacks had separate schools, transport, restaurants and parks. Black facilities were poorly funded and, therefore, not as good as those for whites. This was despite the fact that from 1896, segregation in the law was supposed to be a policy of 'separate but equal'.

For example, see:

Extract 3 (2.13)

Sequence of shots of signs for 'coloured' and white only premises, for example, schools, restaurants, as part of American segregation.

Segregation also included denying full citizenship to blacks – they did not have equal voting rights with whites. Voting rights were denied by introducing criteria or requirements that blacks had to meet before they could vote. These included:

• Literacy test: this disqualified many blacks who were unable to get a good education;
• Property ownership: this disqualified many blacks who lived in poverty after slavery;
• Poll tax: most blacks were too poor to pay it.

The denial of voting rights was a fundamental obstacle to achieving other social and economic rights. This undermined the black community's ability to challenge segregation and discrimination. Because black people could not vote, they could not get political power. Without political power, they could not stop segregation and discrimination.

In the southern states of the United States, the situation was worse than in the north. Until 1910, the majority of the black population lived in the south. Before the Second World War very few black people lived in the west. In addition, within the north, black people suffered from a higher degree of economic discrimination than in the south because they were competing for jobs with European immigrants, who were usually white.

During the First World War, however, black people began migrating in large numbers from the south to the north and this migration continued until the 1950s. Whereas blacks in the south had lived largely in rural areas, in the north they settled in the cities. This greatly increased their real and potential political power. They voted for politicians who supported civil rights.

American Civil Rights Movement

The movement used a range of tactics such as protest marches, boycotts and passive resistance to challenge segregation. Although the Civil Rights Movement is usually seen as starting in the1950s, with the Alabama bus boycott, blacks had been fighting segregation and discrimination since the19th century. The National Afro-American League was started in 1890; the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in1909. The NAACP focused its energies on legal challenges to segregation and, in particular, by showing that 'separate but equal' was not a reality (not put into practice). The NAACP did win some legal victories against segregation but was not able to make the practice of lynching illegal during the 1920s and 1930s.

1930s Depression

The Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States made the situation worse for blacks and in response they increased their fight against discrimination. For example, the 'Don't Buy Where You Can't Work' campaign was directed against white businesses who refused to hire black workers. It was also during the 1930s that black people started to organise school boycotts to protest against discrimination of children and schools.

There were important shifts in the attitude and role of the American government during this period. Under President Roosevelt, the federal judiciary began to focus on the rights of the individual rather than that of big business, and to open federal jobs to blacks. Roosevelt appointed judges who favoured black rights and in1938, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Missouri had to provide a public law school for blacks just as it had done for whites. This was an important challenge to segregation and the 'separate but equal' ruling.

Extract 4 (2.40)

We Work Again (1937)

This extract is from a government film made to promote the Federal Works Agency which provided work for black people who had been hit hard by the economic depression of the 1930s. The tone of the film is optimistic but, in fact, the situation for black people in terms of employment was much worse at the end of the 1930s than it was for white people.

US soldiers and the Double V campaign

Extract 5 (3.40)

Sequence of shots of black American soldiers showing segregation and the 'Double V' campaign.

The double V campaign was instigated during the war and symbolised the fight for victory over fascism in Europe and over racism at home.

Black soldiers made up about one-eighth of the army during the Second Word War. During the war, most blacks experienced segregation. Compared to their fellow whites, fewer blacks saw active combat in the Second World War than in the First World War. Also, fewer blacks had equal opportunities to work in the war industries. In October 1939, the American War Office allowed men of mixed race to become officers but black troops continued to be commanded by white officers.

As in Britain, the American government used propaganda to try and get the support of all the population for the war effort. American wartime propaganda stressed the democratic ideal (all equal, all together in one society) to try and make all Americans feel patriotic. Documentary scriptwriter, Eric Knight, said documentary film was the best way to spread this message because of its large audience and apparent 'truth'. (Source: 'It's everybody's war', Journal of Popular Film and Television, Summer 1994, Vol. 22, Issue 2.)

For example, see:

Extract 6 (4.07)

'Teamwork' (1945-6)

This extract from an American military propaganda film shows black and white soldiers fighting side by side. It had two purposes:

• To counter German propaganda that exploited American racism.
• To increase patriotism by showing how important blacks were to the American war effort.

The film stresses loyalty and unity in a similar way to British films of the same period (see 'Empire').

American documentaries made during the war failed completely to show native American soldiers. This was despite the fact that 25,000 of them fought in the war – over one-third of all able-bodied males between 18 and 50 in the native American population.

The Second World War did also lead to important developments within the struggle for equality for black people. The fight against fascism in Europe gave a global context to the struggle against racism and fascism at home, and underlined the legitimacy and morality of these struggles. In addition, the war had shown the patriotism of the black population to the majority white population. Black soldiers came home with higher expectations than when they had left.

In 1948, President Truman ordered the desegregation of the armed forces.

Little Rock, Arkansas

After the Second World War, the NAACP focused their attention on segregation within education. If blacks were denied a good education, then discrimination at work was harder to address. In 1954, an important victory was achieved when the US Supreme Court ruled in the Brown v Board of Education case that segregation at school was unconstitutional. Changing the law, however, did not lead to a change in attitudes in many parts of America. White racists in the south set up the White Citizens Council and a strategy of non-compliance (disobedience) to the constitution. Teachers who favoured desegregation were sacked and public schools that desegregated were boycotted. Very few schools in the south desegregated following the Brown v Board of Education ruling.

Extract 8 (6.08)

News footage from Little Rock, Arkansas where the Governor refused to allow black students to the High School in 1957.

In 1957, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Governor refused to allow nine black students to Central High School. President Eisenhower sent in 1000 paratroopers to restore order and ensure that the students were able to enter the school safely. The event received wide media coverage and highlighted the issues of desegregation to many Americans and other countries. For example, the following is from British Movietonenews.

Extract 9 (6.28)

Trouble in Little Rock (1957)

This extract shows the scenes outside the school as black students try to enter the under police guard and white parents try to prevent them.

Desegregating schools did not, however, lead to full integration. Most areas were racially segregated in their housing and this led to 'black' and 'white' schools. Some areas tried 'bussing' black students to 'white' schools in an attempt to make integration happen.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began when Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. The boycott was very successful: 50,000 blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, supported it and after a year achieved their goal – the desegregation of the bus system.

Martin Luther King

The boycott had been directed by the Montgomery Improvement Association led by a young Baptist minister, Martin Luther King. King preached Christian values of brotherhood and passive resistance. This made him acceptable to some whites as well as blacks and, in the opinion of many, harder to resist. Passive resistance and direct action included marches, demonstrations and boycotts.

Extract 10 (8.16)

Footage of Martin Luther King who used non-violent protest to confront white racism.

In 1963 King helped to organise the March on Washington – held to put pressure on the government to pass civil rights legislation. More than 200,000 marched and heard King make his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech, where he talked about his vision for a truly democratic America.

For example see

Extract 11 (8.43)

March on Washington (1963)

Extract from a US news programme about the rally on civil rights in Washington DC in 1963, where Martin Luther King made his 'I Have a Dream' speech.

In the speech, he said:

'I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed; we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.'

Civil Rights Act 1964

The Civil Rights Act was passed in the year following the march and partly because of it. It made segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment and education illegal. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, whereby the use of literacy and other tests to qualify for voter status were not allowed.

See:

Extract 12 (10.56)

Sequence of shots relating to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

It could not, however, stop racist attitudes and violence from occurring.

Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan believed in white supremacy and the use of violence to achieve it. Blacks who challenged the system were beaten and lynched, as were other blacks, simply on account of their colour. The Klan membership and their activities increased after desegregation. Some atrocities, such as the murder of a 14- year-old black boy for allegedly flirting with a white woman, were reported in the press but most were not. In this case, the men accused of his murder were put on trial and acquitted (released).

Images of the Klan are shown in extract 2.

Extract 13 (11.21)

World Tomorrow: 'Black power' (1966)

This extract from Granada Television shows violent confrontations in response to Civil Rights legislation in America. It also includes an interview with a white housewife who is both explicitly and implicitly racist.

After the passing of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, the focus of the movement began to shift towards addressing the poverty of black Americans. Marches and demonstrations were organised against discrimination in housing and employment, and to voice concern about urban living conditions. Significant though it was, the US legislation of the 1960s, like similar legislation in 1960s Britain, could not change racist attitudes by itself.

Not all activists for civil rights agreed with Martin Luther King's aims or his methods. Many of them were frustrated and angry at the limited success of King's non-violent movement. The Black Power Movement, influenced by Stokey Carmichael and Malcolm X (Nation of Islam), was aimed at black separatism rather than integration. They saw themselves as more radical than King and, therefore, more able to tackle effectively the racism of the white population. The American media, on the whole, denounced the Black Power Movement as violent and confrontational.

Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam

Malcolm X was a leader of the black Muslims, who demanded a separate state for black Americans. In a This Week television programme in 1964, supporters of Malcolm X, when asked whether he was teaching race hatred, said:

'He got the peace prize, we got the problem. I don't want the white man to give me medals. If I'm following a general and he's leading me into battle, and the enemy tend to give him rewards, I get suspicious of him.'

Malcolm X advocated the teaching of Islam rather than Christianity, the religion of the white man, because Christianity was a tool of oppression for many black people and strongly associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

Extract 14 (12.02)

Shot of Malcolm X who campaigned for a separate state for black people.

Jesse Jackson was part of the movement to improve, in particular, the economic conditions of black people.

For example, see:

Extract 17 (14.22)

'Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud' (1969)

This extract from the current affairs programme This Week focuses on the 'Operation Breadbasket' – a campaign to try and get customers to buy products from black manufacturers and, therefore, support the black community.

During the extract, Jesse Jackson says the following:

'I think the black community is driving for economic independence, for political independence, for military independence, for social, psychological and religious independence. Which means that we will control our community as do other ethnic groups. I think it might need to be brought out that independence precedes interdependence. The white community is separate but it is separate and independent. The black community is separate but it is separate and dependent.' (See 'Activity' section.)

Black Panther Movement

In 1968, the Black Panther Movement began to push the Black Power message. In violent confrontations with police, several of its leaders were killed. In addition to the extract below, see extract 15.

Extract 19 (16.21)

'Black Panthers' (1970)

In this extract from a San Francisco newsreel, the Black Panthers express their hatred of the police as a symbol of white oppression. Their activities and those of other civil rights activists gave the black American community a new confidence in their power to change their own situation. The black clenched fist shown in extract 21 is a symbol of black pride and black power.

As the last extract points out, at the end of the 20th century, many black Americans still live in poverty and their political representation is significantly disproportionate to their numbers. The Civil Rights Movement achieved a great deal in outlawing segregation and addressing discrimination, but the struggle for equality goes on.