Analyzing the Civil Rights Movement: The Significance of Nonviolent Protest, International Influences, the Media, and Pre-existing Organizations

This essay is an analysis of the success of the mid-20th century civil rights movement in the United States. The civil rights movement was a seminal event in American history and resulted in several legislative victories, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. After a brief overview of segregation and Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S., I will argue that the success of the civil rights movement can be attributed to a combination of factors. One of these factors was the effective strategy of nonviolent protests, in which the American public witnessed the contrasting actions of peaceful protestors and violent local authorities. In addition, political opportunities also played a role in the movement’s success, as during the Cold War the U.S. federal government became increasingly concerned about their international image. Other reasons for the movement’s success include an increased access to television among the American public, and pre-existing black institutions and organizations. The civil rights movement left an important legacy and ensuing social movements have utilized similar framing techniques and strategies.

“It’s Complicated”

In line with the inclusionary dilemma theme of this volume, I examine the Obama administration’s public and private exchanges with Black religious communities. In many ways, Barack Obama’s political experiences highlighted elements of the inclusionary dilemma. On one hand, Black church social networks assisted Obama in establishing a political career in Illinois politics. But this association with Black institutions, particularly Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, would later become a political liability for Obama as he sought support from White voters in the 2008 general election. Thus, Obama’s challenge was to simultaneously appear as an advocate for African American political interests and effectively represent the nation as a whole. Since Black faith communities primarily work to advance Black interests, President Obama’s team may have limited their outreach and public backing of this constituency. At the same time, Obama called for policies with broad appeal among progressives. Using the inclusionary dilemma framework as an analytic lens, this chapter explores the administration’s actions and the political interests of Black Christians. I briefly reflect on the actions of the current US president, Donald Trump, as they relate to religion and politics in Black communities.

Incorporating a Race Salience Subscale Into the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS)

In this study, we examined the internal consistency and structural validity of scores on an expanded version of the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS) consisting of the original six subscales—Assimilation, Miseducation, Self-Hatred, Anti-White, Afrocentricity, and Multiculturalist Inclusive—and a seventh subscale called Race Salience. Participants consisted of two samples of African Americans. Sample 1 had 324 participants, most of whom were students at historically Black institutions, and Sample 2 had 340 students attending a predominantly White institution. CRIS subscale scores, including Race Salience were internally consistent in Sample 1, and an exploratory factor analysis supported the structural validity of the race salience score. A confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the seven-factor structure. Internal consistency and structural validity results were replicated in Sample 2. Future studies should examine other aspects of construct validity on this expanded version of the CRIS, such as convergent and discriminant validity, and the impact of seven subscales on the number and type of racial identity profiles that CRIS scores can yield.

“We Have a Black Professor?” Rejecting African Americans as Disseminators of Knowledge

Black students at predominantly Black institutions (PBIs) often do not perceive Black faculty as disseminators of knowledge. Instead, Black students view Black faculty through a racialized lens, ignoring their positionality as academic experts in positions of power. The purpose of this essay is to examine the troubling impact that this perception has on teaching and learning, to propose culturally relevant teaching as a way forward. First, a distinction must be made between PBIs and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Next, this rejection of Black academics is contextualized in social constructivism and the binary construction of race. Finally, internalized structures of oppression serve as the catalyst for this phenomenon.

Conclusion

This concluding chapter examines the broader implications of this research, both empirical and normative. It discusses the potential for this theoretical framework to further understanding of the political behavior of other social groupings in America. The chapter also considers the framework's applicability to understanding the political homogeneity of localized racial groupings. If the foundational mechanism of political power through unity is that identified by the framework—coracial social ties—then desegregation and the loss of black institutions are a fundamental challenge to the doing of black liberation politics. The chapter discusses what this might mean for the future of black politics. In so doing, it also engages arguments about the harms of coracial policing and weighs how to think about balancing those concerns against the reality that the political unity that has consistently enabled black political power relies on a process of social sanctioning. Finally, the chapter considers the questions future research might answer by engaging and applying this theoretical framework and charts a course for future progress.

Institutional Constraints and the Enforcement of Racialized Social Pressure

This chapter takes up black social institutions as central locations where in-group political norms are defined and propagated. It outlines a basic history of black social institutions, including how their creation was a direct response to the denial of access to white spaces. The importance of these institutions as sites for in-group political discourse and the enforcement of norms are noted. These institutions are places where blacks are reminded of group expectations. Using survey data, the chapter demonstrates the frequency with which blacks Americans interact within black institutions. The analysis shows that black institutions continue to be centers for daily engagement, reinforcing black social ties. The chapter then turns to another lab-in-the-field experiment to directly test the power of black institutions to facilitate racialized social constraint.

Anchoring Our Communities Through Service

Black communities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities are linked through shared history and purpose in the United States. Founded to provide Black citizens with a mechanism for education and social mobility, HBCUs continue to play a critical role in the shaping of Black communities throughout the country. At this critical juncture in the histories of Black Americans and Black institutions, it is critical to examine the role that HBCUs can continue to play in addressing the needs of Black people and Black communities. In this chapter, readers will engage in a dialogue with the author regarding the ways in which HBCUs can aid Black communities despite other phenomena occurring in society, such as gentrification, mass incarceration, and school systems that routinely disengage Black students.

“Shakespeare for All Times and Peoples”: Shakespeare at Spelman College and the Atlanta University Center

In this paper I explore what it means to require Shakespeare at a historically black college by looking at Adrienne Herndon's 1906 essay “Shakespeare at Atlanta University” and W. E. B. Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk. Despite the frequent association of Shakespeare requirements with a conservative agenda, both Herndon and Du Bois imagine possibilities for powerful politics in the performance and study of Shakespeare. Reading these two texts together suggests that teaching, studying, and performing Shakespeare might still be powerful politics at black institutions.