The Civil Rights Movement: Ordinary Men and Women

DISCLAIMER: For classroom usage/educational purposes only. The content of this blog does not reflect the university as a whole. This blog contains the research efforts of UCI students taking the 2014-2015 Politics of Protest course. Although we intend to use this platform as a means to host our work, you are more than welcome to reblog and comment on our findings. Our prompt:Describe what it was like for ordinary men and women to get involved in the civil rights movement. Why did they do it? How did it change them? Navigate Click Here for the Introduction Remarks on Ordinary Men and Women of the Movement Freedom Rides Freedom Summer CORE Members Students SNCC Church Members Jewish Activists List of Sources and References 2

[politicsofprotest15]

We know beyond dispute that women were frequently the dominant force in the movement.

I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, Charles M. Payne 

[politicsofprotest15]

"It's repression when black Americans are excluded from first-class citizenship..."

Thomas M. Armstrong was a Freedom Rider from the state ofMississippi, who initially attended mass meetings held in black churchesbecause he “knew something extraordinary was happening.” In his book, Autobiography of a Freedom Rider, ThomasArmstrong takes readers on a trajectory oriented around his involvement in thecivil rights movement. Beginning with attending mass meetings out of interest,Armstrong mentions that these spaces gave him the chance to “turn [his] thoughts and feelings about the need to improve conditions for Blacks in Mississippi toward a specific action,” explaining how his involvements would require him to “confront the laws under which my worldview was formed” resulting in a “personal transformation so dynamic that neither I, nor Mississippi, would ever be the same again” (Armstrong 68).

Armstrong, along with many, underwent specific training and workshop sessions, including “citizenship training,” a method conducted in black churches used to mobilize people in the struggle where citizens were required to recruit thousands of people for Poll Tax marches; strategy sessions, held in the houses of famous organizers and his peers and colleagues; and training for nonviolent direct action, which was a strategy pioneered by members of CORE and a higher-level commitment that was required in becoming a Freedom Rider. CORE was comprised of activists that traveled from Washington DC and rode South, recruiting and training ordinary men and women, mostly college students, clergy men, and labor leaders that interested in joining the Freedom Rides with the intent of ending racial segregation in interstate travel, despite the Supreme Court’s declaration of unconstitutional violations in segregation laws, and to raise pressures to end segregation in the South.

In the passage below, Armstrong depicts the systematic and institutional ostracism experienced by black folks across the country, sparking his desire to fight for improved conditions for people in the state of Mississippi:

Repression, not violence, was directed against me. It’s repression when schools are not equal, when blacks cannot live in places they can afford. It’s repression when blacks can’t get loans and jobs to purchase homes and businesses, when blacks are the last hired and the first fired. It’s repression when blacks can’t get proper medical care. It’s repression when black Americans are excluded from first-class citizenship.

Throughout the remainder of his book, Armstrong writes of his time at Parchman Penitentiary, where many Freedom Riders ended up during the movement, and after his release, where he continues to work for SNCC and CORE in organizing protests, voter registration drives, and police protection for Freedom Riders. In the passage below, Armstrong illustrates how the movement has changed many civil rights activists, despite their unrelenting desire for social justice:

After the tour of struggle over civil rights, which was not unlike active duty on the front lines of war, many activists, including myself, returned to our communities withdrawn, introverted, and depressed, because we felt that freedom had not been achieved. Most of us were wounded in one way or another by these experiences, but were offered little, if any, support for the wellbeing of our physical and emotional health… thus, our problems remained unchecked and untreated…. The task of being involved in the movement indeed took a toll on many of us.

Armstrong, Thomas M, Natalie Bell. An Autobiography of a Freedom Rider, Health Communications, Inc. 2011. Print.

[politicsofprotest15]

"You have the Freedom to Vote" - Men and Women in the Civil Rights Movement during Freedom Summer. 

[politicsofprotest15]

Daisy Bates, one of only two women to speak at the March on Washington in 1963. In a 142-word speech giving tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom, she called on marchers to “join hands…until we are free.” (Source)

[politicsofprotest15]

Women and their "invisible" rhetorical leadership in the Civil Rights Movement

Why we hear more about men than women in the civil rights movement, why women joined, and how this affected them:

More women overall joined the movement than men

Specifically, white women were more involved and outspoken than white men, having created and participated in groups such as: The Fellowship of the Concerned (FOC), the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL), etc (Houcke)

Appealed to white women who were "educated, progressive, typically middle-class, and religiously affiliated white southern women" (Houck)

These women were interested in ending lynching and criminal justice

Women didn't speak because their roles were limited by a gender hierarchy and the sexism of the black church (Payne), although it was no secret that women were very active in the movement

Evident by lack of representation and ability to speak at the March on Washington, which angered many women (Thompson)

Men were the one who spoke, while the women of the movement were the organizers 

Women took on daily, less "glamorous" movement work that were fractious and dangerous

Almost all speeches and movement meetings organized by female leaders were not documented nor recorded

Women who participated in the movement risked the lives of their family (such as husbands or sons) who were often chosen as the target of violence

Click here for list of sources.

[politicsofprotest15]

Why Less Black and White Men Joined the Civil Rights Movement

Men suffered more physical violence than women for speaking out and taking action. 

"As much as Negro womens(sic) are precious, men could be in much more danger. If my husband had gone through or attempted 1/3 of what I've gone through he would have already been dead."

"The only people who are safe in the South are women-- white and negro." -- Thurgood Marshall to Federal judge Constance Baker Motley

Men never served as domestics for wealthy families, and had no paternalistic connection or "nostalgia" as women did.

They did not benefit from the "mother instinct"

Men would receive violent physical punishment or torture as a result of their "crimes".

[politicsofprotest15]

List of Sources and References

Remarks on Ordinary Men and Women of the Civil Rights Movement:

Houck, Davis W., and David E. Dixon. Women and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 2009. Print.

Valk, Anne M., and Leslie Brown. Living with Jim Crow: African American Women and Memories of the Segregated South. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print.

Thompson, Krissah. "Women - Nearly Left off March on Washington Program - Speaking up Now." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.

Eaddy, Jotaka L. "Women, a Constant Force in the Fight for Democracy."EBONY News & Views. EBONY, 26 Aug. 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.

Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle. Berkeley: U of California, 1995. Print.

CORE, Students, Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer:

Armstrong, Thomas M, Natalie Bell. An Autobiography of a Freedom Rider, Health Communications, Inc. 2011. Print.

“Notes from a Nonviolent Training Session (1963).” Civil Rights Movement Veterans. Bruce Hartford. Web. 2004.

Arsenault, Raymond, Carol Ruth Silver, and Claude Liggins. Freedom Rider Diary, The University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Print.

Morris, Aldon D. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. The Free Press, 1984. Print.

Strain, Christopher B. Pure Fire: Self-defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era. Athens: U of Georgia, 2005. Print.

Freedom on My Mind. Dir. Connie Field and Marilyn Mulford. Perf. Robert Parris Moses, Victoria Gray Adams, Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Marshall Ganz, Heather Booth, Pam Allen. California Newsreel, 1994. DVD.

Freedom Summer, SNCC

Martha Prescod Norman Noonan Oral History Interview Conducted by John Dittmer in Cockeysville, Maryland, 2013-03-18. Dir. John Dittmer. Perf. Martha Prescod Norman Noonan. | Library of Congress. Civil Rights History Project, (U.S.), 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. 

Killian, Lewis M. "Organization, Rationality and Spontaneity in the Civil Rights Movement." American Sociological Review 49.6 (1984): 770-83. Print.

Greenberg, Cheryl L. "Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Martha Prescod Norman." Crmvet, Web. 02 Feb. 2015.

Jewish Women

Booth, Heather. "Sharing Stories Inspiring Change." The Feminist Revolution. Jewish Women's Archive. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.

[politicsofprotest15]

Workshops in Nonviolence

During mass meetings, church and community members, alongwith other ordinary men and women in the civil rights movement, were subjectedto workshops and training sessions in nonviolence prior to implementing methodsof direct action. These tactics and strategies aimed at nonviolently creating disruptions in the economy and society, allowed folks to organize together in masses to boycott and fight against the tripartite system of domination.

In his notes taken from a nonviolent training session, Bruce Hartford, involved with both CORE and the Non-Violent Action Committee in the past, illustrates the types of role playing scenarios folks involved in the civil rights movement participated in during the 1960s. The document begins with an introduction to the nonviolence approach, where facilitators ask participants the importance and aspects of nonviolence, and progresses through dialogues about specific situations and techniques in dealing with them.

One component of the notes includes dissecting the purpose, formation, logistics, and reactions of a sit-in:

E. Sit-Ins        1. Purpose. Publicity, Disruption, force arrests & costs thereof.        2. Formations. Line, double-line, circle, mass, advantages/disadvantages.        3. Logistics. Assemble elsewhere, -> go to, -> sit. Designated spokesman & leaflettes. Observers/photogs if arrests expected. Supplies. Signs       4. Attacks. Being kicked & stepped on. Stuff being poured over head. Being hit. Being stabbed in back with pens, forks, etc. Being pulled out of line. Arrests.       5. Arm locks. Pros & cons of arm-locking. Right way & wrong way to lock-arms. How not to get your fingers dislocated.     *** Practice. Role-playing both sides. Pouring. Stepping over & on, kicking, pummeling. Drag apart. Singing.

From this, readers can grasp the dialogue and communication among members in organizing for a sit-in, how to form one, and the potential violent reactions of the sit-in tactic. Other tactic and scenarios mentioned in this document include picket lines, defending against a physical attack, arrests, and marches, each depicting an example of how men and women involved in the civil rights movement are subjected to roleplay as practice, which includes hitting, kicking, jumping on each other, and more.

“Notes from a Nonviolent Training Session (1963).” Civil Rights Movement Veterans. Bruce Hartford. Web. 2004.

[politicsofprotest15]

Freedom Rides, the "most direct 'direct action' that has been attempted on the Civil Rights front..."

CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, was an organizationfounded in 1942, which implemented the “daring campaign[s]”, known as the Freedom Rides. Freedom Riders were comprised of small bands of activists that were, as Carol Ruth Silver mentions, “united in their commitment to nonviolent direct action and the ideals of freedom, justice, and equality” and were “unrelenting and impatient in their call for change” (Arsenault xvi).

In the book, Freedom Rider Diary, the notes and diary entries of Carol Ruth Silver and a photo essay by Claude A. Liggins, both Freedom Riders and activists of the civil rights movement, were compiled, illustrating to audiences how these folks initially got involved in the movement, why they got involved, as well as what their involvement in fighting for social justice and challenging white supremacy in the United States entailed.

The book begins with the life of Carol Ruth Silver, a white, Jewish woman who wanted to join the Freedom Rides to fight against the tripartite system oriented around the oppression of black folks in the name of white supremacy. Silver, among many, took part in Freedom Rides because it seemed to be the “most direct ‘direct action’ that has yet been attempted on the civil rights front” and because they “hit the heart of the segregationist South” (Silver 10). Silver writes of her travels from Chicago to the South, soon arriving at the offices of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where she met with other students to receive “formal training in the tactics ad practices of nonviolence and lots of informal advice and counseling from the students who had experienced it” (Silver 21).

In one passage, Silver depicts the intimidation and violence that many civil rights activists face on their Freedom Rides, where many of their lives are put at stake:

Inside, our reception committee consisted of more police, all of them white, all armed, all looking terribly serious…. The whole thing, the elaborate preparations, the guns, the deadly serious police, contrasted sharply with the almost holiday-like, victorious mood in which we had been riding on our bust, traveling through the South, based simply on the fact that we had not been met by a white mob with clubs, at least not yet.

This passage, along with many of her diary entries, presents Silver’s experiences as an arrested, prosecuted, and then imprisoned Freedom Rider, acknowledging the “truths about a few flaws in the country” in the process.

Claude Albert Liggins, and black, male Freedom Rider, briefly expresses his experiences in the latter portion of the book, mentioning that his life in his segregated hometown sparked resentment against the discrimination and racism in the South. Liggins was a student from Los Angeles City College recruited by CORE, among many, who traveled to New Orleans, received nonviolence training, and got involved in the Freedom Rides.

Arsenault, Raymond, Carol Ruth Silver, and Claude Liggins. Freedom Rider Diary, The University Press of Mississippi, 2014. Print.

[politicsofprotest15]

The Church as an Institutional Center for the Civil Rights Movement

Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL

Throughout his book, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement:Black Communities Organizing for Change, Aldon D. Morris writes of the crucial role of the church as an institutional center of the civil rights movement. Not only did it aid in financing and organizing actions throughout Southern communities, the church was also a place that members could feel “at home”, where solidarity, community, and inclusion were cultivated amongst black folks. Churches were where many mass meetings were held, including the Holt Street Baptist Church pictured above, where the first meeting of the MontgomeryImprovement Association was held. Ordinary members of the movement and the church were attracted to these meetings by black church leaders, where they became acquainted with the workshops, demands, and strategies of the civil rights movement.

The church and its mass meetings, as Morris mentions, were vital in the mobilization of the black community by influencing the “collective power of the masses.” Mass meetings, which had an average of 500-600 members where 98% of them were affiliated with the church, were rotated throughout cities and southern states, allowing church members to exchange ideas and resourses central to the movement.

Though members were attracted to these meetings by influential church leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King, all members were vital roles in the mobilized force for working for civil rights. Each body within these masses was vital to the movement by contributing to significant collective action which brought widespread attention to the movement.

Morris, Aldon D. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. The Free Press, 1984. Print.

[politicsofprotest15]

Introduction - The Face(s) of the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr: The Face of the Civil Rights Movement? 

After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. finally recognized that he had been inescapably chosen as the symbol of the black freedom movement. However, despite being deeply moved by the international attention and praise he received for his work, he would sincerely affirm his belief that the recognition he received should be given to the civil rights movement as a whole. He saw himself as one of the pilots who steered the development and owed much of its successes to those he referred to as "the unknown ground crew," the nameless ordinary men and women of the civil rights movement whose unwritten achievements were critical to the entirety of the movement.

[politicsofprotest15]

Self-Defense as Activism

In his book Pure Fire, Christopher B. Strain lays out the historical context for the racialization of self-defense: He argues that in the case of Blacks, any assertion of self-defense is inherently political and thus a form of activism.

Many scholars have established a pre-1965 (non-violent) and post-1965 (violent) dichotomy which Strain critiques as "perpetuat[ing] a historical double standard regarding the use of violence by black and white Americans (i.e., whites can, blacks cannot)" (4).

Justifiable self-defense also presumes that self-defense is a necessity, that the defendant has no other means of escape from the assailant (6). [Strain gives context to this by looking at anecdotes and accounts of slaves who would assault their masters, often times causing grievous harm if not death in retaliation, emphasis mine.]

Virginia Durr, wife of Clifford Durr, describes in a letter to her friend Clark Foreman describes her husband's client Claudette Colvin:

She was crying all the time, and the policeman hit her with a billy club on her rump and when they got her to the jail the chief or the presiding policeman said all she needed was a good "whupping" but they didn't give it to her. I asked what made her stand her ground and she said "I done paid my dime, they didn't have no RIGHT to move me." Isn't that thrilling to think that one little fifteen year old girl could have the courage to stand up to all that?

Strain, Christopher B. Pure Fire: Self-defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era. Athens: U of Georgia, 2005. Print.

[politicsofprotest15]

Freedom Summer- (SNCC) Martha Prescod Norman

Martha Prescod Norman, a former SNCC member, took part in SNCC campaigns in Mississippi and Alabama. Born into a middle class family, her parents were both activists. In 1962, while at the University of Michigan, Norman was invited to a SNCC meeting- later on she would join the organization. In a 2013 interview with Dr. John Ditmer, a historian and Professor at DePauw University, Norman describes why she joined: “young people were in charge, taking charge of their destiny. That’s what attracted me. We could do something about our own situation. We could actually change things” (http://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0080/).

In a separate article by Lewis M. Killian entitled, “Organization, Rationality and Spontaneity in the Civil Rights Movement,” Killian states that pre-existing structures have a critical influence on the development and course of social movements. He goes on to say that people provide intangible resources. A quote from Martha Prescod Norman best explains this by saying: “One of the things I learned from organizing was how many resources even powerless people have. We didn't have resources of wealth, prestige, political power. Our main resource was faith in ourselves-faith that if we had our souls and bodies we could change the world! (http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095529). 

In a 1988 SNCC conference reunion, Martha Prescod Norman emphasizes the following about SNCC: “we had the good sense as college students to realize that we ought not to struggle just on our campuses but in our communities. And given the variety of communities that we could have entered, we chose to join with those hardest hit by racist oppression. And that we approached these communities in a manner appropriate to their experience with hard struggle.”

During this conference, Norman also points out how history often overlooks local activism in favor of civil rights organizations and names such as Martin Luther King Jr. She states the following: “When you see these mass meetings and demonstrations, voter registration efforts, remember [that] nobody had to come. What we cannot do is tell or understand this history without recognizing that southern Black folk played an activist role in initiating and carrying out the civil rights struggle…if we posit a passive community then the prime movers in the struggle do become King or the group of activist civil rights organizations, SNCC, CORE, and SCLC. Presently, that's essentially the way histories of the struggle are being written. Then we miss all the local activism that preceded our efforts, and a lot of that was youth-based; and we also miss all the activities that took place in the hundreds of communities that were not initiated by civil rights organizations” (http://www.crmvet.org/comm/prescodm.htm).

Martha Prescod Norman is currently a teacher of History; She is the co-editor of Hands on the Freedom Fall: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, a collection of 52 women's personal accounts of the Civil Rights Movement.

[politicsofprotest15]

Heather Booth (Jewish Civil Rights activist) and activist initiation analysis (MFDP)

Grassroots Social Action - Lessons in People Power Movements by Willie, Ridini, and Willard

Chapter 9 - The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party - Analysis: Initiation, Legitimation, and Implementation

I chose this particular section because it talks about 3 stages that a group of ordinary individuals go through in order to establish a legitimate organization (in this case the MFDP). The first stage, as the author notes, is the initiation stage, which happens at the community level.

“In the first, initiation stage, there is a ‘convergence of interests....Common goals and methods for their achievement must be developed...and the proposed action must be identified’” (Willie 141).

The initiation stage took place at the community level (ordinary working blacks). In class, we discussed how SNCC voter registration activists dressed. They dressed very differently to try and get local individuals to register to vote because if they dressed like the locals then the locals would identify with them more. This was the “initiation” stage.

As noted, the quote from the book states “Common goals and methods for achievement must be developed” (Willie 141). These common goals were developed in part because the locals were able to identify with the organizers, as stated above. If they could not identify with them, chances are the MFDP would not be able to make it to stage II (legitimation).

“In addition, getting blacks in the local community to support the efforts of the MFDP was difficult due to the threat of extreme violence, economic reprisal, and existing divisions within the black community” (Willie 141).

Despite this, the initiation stage still managed to attract enough ordinary blacks to make it to phase 2.

Heather Booth - Jewish Civil Rights voter registration activist

Official Statement - “I grew up in a family that had good social values, reflected in our Jewish heritage, culture, and history. When I was growing up, at one point I wanted to be a rabbi, but was told (at that time) women couldn’t be rabbis. I went to Israel when I graduated from high school in 1963, and the experience of Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum) had a transforming effect on me: I promised myself that in the face of injustice I would struggle for justice” (http://jwa.org/feminism/booth-heather).

So, she is basically saying visiting the Holocaust museum made her want to become a force against injustice, hence why she began to participate in the Civil Rights Movement (particularly SNCC voter registration efforts in Mississippi).

Further down the page, she notes that originally, her activist origins started with anti-war protests on a college campus.

Although a personal notable story, Booth is more known for her activist participation in the area of women’s movements. She is the founder of JANE (a powerful group focusing on pro-choice in the abortion debate).

Booth also knew Fanny Hamer. Here is a photo of her playing guitar for Hamer:

[politicsofprotest15]

[politicsofprotest15]

Freedom Summer - Endensha Ida Mae Holland

Prior to her involvement in politics, Holland would "turn tricks" in order to earn money. During Freedom Summer, she approached a worker and attempted to solicit him. As a result, she was taken to the SNCC headquarters where she saw Black women working as office assistants and typists. "The movement said to me I was somebody," she recalled years later. [ x ]

In her interview in the documentary Freedom on My Mind, Holland recounts an anecdote about how when the white college students came from the north, she was shocked that one of them addressed her as "ma'am". Never before had she been regard as a "ma'am" and thus as an equal. For her, the movement was very empowering and made her realize her own worth.

Her later achievements included obtaining a BA in African American Studies, a masters in American Studies, a PhD from the University of Minnesota, and the status of emeritus professor of theater. A prolific playwright, her works include [ x ] :

Fanny Lou (1984)

Prairie Women (1984)

Requiem for a Snake (1980)

Freedom on My Mind. Dir. Connie Field and Marilyn Mulford. Perf. Robert Parris Moses, Victoria Gray Adams, Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Marshall Ganz, Heather Booth, Pam Allen. California Newsreel, 1994. DVD.