What is Citizenship? What is Justice? (1900s to Present)
The period of the 1900s will be focused on not only individual figures, but the convergence of ideals and messages of the movement from these figures. We will address the question “What are Justice and Citizenship?” This question will be the focus of many of our discussions of these figures and their connectedness. We will also discuss: “What impact did Education have on these individuals?” and “How do we define social equity, equality and justice?” While this era of the 1900s was filled with so many events, there has been an over-simplification of this era, distorting Civil Rights Movement.88 Jim Crow Segregation Laws of 1896 made violence an early theme of the 1900s.89 I will be teaching about these figures in order to connect them to the events and milestones of this time period.
W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington: Fighting to be Educated and Respected
During this time of racial tension in the early 1900s, two very prominent writers and educated African American men were W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington. There began to be differing ideologies during Reconstruction on how African Americans would achieve true equality.90 Both men were highly educated and they motivated people to take part in fighting to obtain an education and equality.91 There were major differences in the thinking of these two men, in terms of how African American dignity and equality should be achieved for all, not only the prominent. Writing in 1903, W. E. B. Dubois stated, “easily the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T. Washington”.92 This is a highlight of how the two men differed in their outlook and their means of attaining goals and milestones for African Americans, although both should be taught in history.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was a man dedicated to furthering his own education and making a place for others to achieve their own.93 Washington was extremely successful in terms of education and accomplishments, he was not however, overly dedicated to challenging white supremacy or racial violence within his writings as much his other counterparts of the era and viewed this practice as extreme.94 “The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremist folly…”.95 One of the most striking experiences while learning about African American studies is to read Up from Slavery, Washington’s autobiography. The reader follows Washington’s journey to receive an education and his creation of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and the foundation of the National Negro Business League.96 The narrative is shocking in many ways as it is forgiving of white people, even those who had enslaved him, and seemed to be more condemning of African Americans.97 He would even go so far, as to idolize figures such as George Washington.98 Booker T. Washington, a famous school developer, educator; also “cultivated white approval”.99 It is important to teach historical figures through primary sources to convey their personage and accomplishments. It is also important to teach others during the era, who had differing outlooks, opinions and ideologies; it is important to teach about someone such as W.E.B Du Bois.
W.E.B. Du Bois
“William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar”.100 This information from an article by the NAACP, outlines and details the accomplishments and life of Du Bois. He was a Harvard graduate and one of the founders of the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).101 Although Dubois published many books, his writing in The Souls of Black Folk is stunningly beautiful. Throughout the book which is a collection of essays, Du Bois illustrates the pain of African American people, with almost musical writing, and the entire story is packed with truth about the systematic racial oppression enacted upon African American people in the United States since its colonization.102 It is important to teach this as a part of the unit, to add perspective to these people in history who all are connected across the centuries. Du Bois exuded a sense of dignity in the face of constant opposition and doubt. The NAACP states: “Du Bois was the founder and editor of the NAACP magazine: The Crisis”.103Not only would he work and write for the NAACP, but Du Bois was a professor, wrote novels, official documents and was involved in global affairs.104 Dubois was involved in Pan-Africanism, socialism and traveled as a leader and was responsible for organizing meetings of congress internationally.105 Du Bois lived a truly remarkable life. “Du Bois died in Ghana on Aug. 27, 1963, on the eve of the civil rights march in Washington, D.C.”.106 Teaching about figures such as Du Bois, is vital as he illustrated the African American experience and provides with connections to many individuals, activist groups and integral parts of the whole movement.
Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was the predecessor of the modern-day protestor.107 Teaching about her life story gives us important links to Elizabeth Jennings and Rosa Parks. According to a women’s history article about her life by Alisha Norwood, Wells had many run-ins with people in power and fought back almost every time.108 She sued a company that owned a train-car for forcibly removing her from a train-car, for which she had the documented proof she should be able to go on.109 Wells went on to start the anti-lynching campaign and awareness,110 that we are sadly still discussing as if it is new today in 2020. The story of Wells is highlighted by opposition to oppression, and links to many other influential figures who fought back in a similar way.
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA: The Rise of Black Nationalism
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was the leader of the Black Nationalist movement, who would add a key dimension of this era.111 The "Back to Africa” movement was built upon the idea that if African Americans could not achieve freedom and equality in the United States among “white” Americans, the best option was to go back to the land their ancestors had been stolen from.112 “Born in Jamaica…he founded his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) there in 1914; two years later, he brought it to the United States”.113 Garvey lived to promote African American pride and dignity, with his legacy eventually leading to inspiring the Black Power Movement of the 1907s.114 It is important to teach about Garvey in order to showcase the ideology of Black Nationalism and its context, and all the methods implemented to achieve freedom, equality and prosperity.
Ella Baker and Mary Mcleod Bethune: Women of the NAACP
Ella Baker (1903-1986) was an influential leader and member inside the NAACP, the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Council) and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) during her life.115 Baker was an impactful leader connected to and leading various groups during the Civil Rights movement. She carried experience and leadership rivaling many other Civil Rights leaders. According to an article from the Ella Baker Center, Baker was involved in the dismantling of Jim Crow laws through bus boycott’s and running campaigns for voting.116 Not only was Baker involved in leadership positions in the NAACP, and worked with the SCLC, but Baker left to foster student activism for the Civil Rights movement.117 Baker was the coordinator of a meeting for the Greensboro sit-in leaders in 1960, which was the foundation for SNCC as an organization.118 Baker did not always have the recognition she deserved, as she was not seen as capable of being in a position of leadership by people like Martin Luther King Jr….119 She and King had issues as she had more experience within movements and yet she was not consulted due to his views regarding women and the movement.120 This would not stop Baker, as she would go on to leave a strong legacy of African American women within the Civil Rights movement and their impact.121
Mary Mcleod Bethune (1875-1955) was another member of the NAACP who would be become the Vice President, and who was largely overlooked.122 She is connected with the other African American women of her past and future, who would continue as a major organizing force behind much of the Civil Rights movement. She became the leader of many women’s groups, including the National Council of Negro Women.123 She was politically influential and educationally impactful as she went on to establish an HBCU, as well as having major influence as a part of what was nicknamed, the United States president’s “Black Cabinet”.124 Her leadership ties and connection were strong, making her even more influential. Baker and Bethune were just two examples, of women who completely built, ran and changed so much of the movement and the organizations within it during this era. Their exhausting and influential work will be forever remembered as it shaped the United States as we know it.
The Truth about Rosa Parks
It is often conveyed that Rosa Parks was the first African American woman who happened to be on a bus one day in 1950 and refused to give up her seat.125 This narrative of the story of the Civil Rights leader is simply untrue on multiple accounts; not only was the bus boycott that day not a random act, but it was in fact planned along with many other protests by the NAACP that Parks was a member and secretary leader of.126 Parks is often displayed as unintentional, and a promoter of only non-violence; this is also historically inaccurate, as she was raised knowing the teachings of Marcus Garvey and others involved with the Black Power movement.127 “She called Malcolm X her personal hero”.128 The truth about Rosa Parks is, she was strong and fought back defiantly against injustice systematically.
Malcolm X: The Fight for Dignity
I can think of no one who embodied African American pride more than Malcolm X. No one has quite moved me in the way Malcolm X has in learning about him. Malcolm Little (1925 to 1965), who would later become Malcolm X and eventually El Malik Al Shabazz,129 became the most prominent figure of Black Nationalism of this era.130 Malcolm X grew up in the middle of racial violence and oppression in the Midwest, where his father, a supporter of Marcus Garvey and Black Nationalism, was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, and his mother was institutionalized.131 Malcolm X was involved in drugs and other activities in the inner city of Boston.132 He served time in prison and from relationships built within, would go on to join the National of Islam, and would become one its most prominent leaders.133 He would dedicate much of his life to the Nation and moved to Harlem in 1954 where he quickly became a leader to the people.134 In Peniel Joseph’s biographical analysis entitled: The Sword and the Shield, he states “…radical black dignity, marked him as a prophetic visionary in the eyes of a global black community and as a dangerous subversive to the American government”.135 Malcolm X would later separate from the Nation due to internal conflict and differing views about conduct and would travel to Africa on a pilgrimage for his Islamic faith.136 Malcolm X was murdered during a speech in New York in 1965, after multiple threats and FBI surveillance.137
Changing the Narrative: Malcolm X
The narrative of Malcolm X in historical education has been distorted in several ways. The most prominent narratives falsified during my own education were that Malcolm X was a violent individual, that he did not collaborate with other Civil Rights leaders and refused to work with them. This narrative does not give truth or integrity to the political, philosophical and personal journey he took as a leader or his complexity of character. It is important to address these false claims with biographical information: first, Malcolm X did not display to be a violent individual as a leader; in fact, he joined the Nation of Islam which taught self-discipline and self- defense.138 Malcolm X’s true philosophy was: African Americans would need to achieve dignity, self-sufficiency and equality “…By any means necessary”.139 In other words, he could see the violence, oppression and that justice would not be achieved by waiting and suffering. To address the second: Malcolm X criticized leaders and non-violent opposition,140 but would go on in his career to work with people like Martin Luther King Jr., as he went through some slight modifications to his ideals after separating from the NOI.141 Joseph notes: “…Malcolm X’s sophisticated understanding of the growing areas of political convergence between himself and King remained largely ignored by the public”.142 Teaching Malcolm X with truth is vital to telling the truth about the African American Freedom Struggle and the Civil Rights Movement.
Martin Luther King Jr: The Fight for Citizenship
There is almost no one who comes to mind more quickly in thinking about the way the Civil Rights movement has been told, than Martin Luther King Jr. King (1929-1968). King was arguably the most well-known Civil Rights leader of this era and was the president of the SCLC in 1957.143 This young Baptist preacher would go on to become an orator for the entire movement, as well as a leader in many of the most prominent Civil Rights groups of this era.144 King’s work with the SCLC would lead him to Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, where he and the rest of his fellow activists would show the world the true nature of racial oppression and violence taking place in the South.145 “King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile wrote five books as well as numerous articles”.146 King was killed in Memphis Tennessee, where he went to protest with sanitation workers in 1968.147
Changing the Narrative: Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the few Civil Rights leaders taught within the educational system. He is often taught, without Malcolm X; this gives a distorted and one-sided viewpoint to this part of the movement. These men represented what Peniel E. Joseph calls: “The Sword and the Shield” in his joint biographical analysis about the two figures.148 They were battling for the same things, just fulfilling two different aspects of the movement as they went.149 It is frequently taught, that King had a more virtuous outlook and tactics than Malcolm X and is also the justification for teaching his story more frequently; this is simply not the case. In King’s relationships with people like Ella Baker, his ideas about women, became apparent.150 It is also frequently taught that King believed in and promoted only non-violence and non-violent tactics. Martin Luther King Jr.’s non-violent approach and connection with white elites were reasons he became more palatable to people. This is not to say he did not criticize leaders and the U.S. President, which he did regarding the Vietnam War in particular.151 “…efforts to diminish King’s stature were a response to his deepening criticism of the Great Society and, implicitly for the most part, Johnson’s Leadership”.152 Near the end his career, King adopted more radical ideas of achieving equality almost never highlighted.153 When reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail by King, extreme circumstances and prevailing indifference and injustice, would require persistent and even more extreme action.154 It becomes clear that while Martin Luther King Jr. was indeed a prominent and important leader of the Civil Rights Movement, he certainly did not act alone. He also had influential leaders setting up the mic behind the scenes such as Bayard Rustin, who organized the March on Washington where King gave his “I have a Dream Speech”.155 It is vitally important we teach all of the sides of Martin Luther King Jr. to teach truth.
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.: The Uniting of Vision
The narrative 156around Malcolm X and King being challenged by people like Peniel Joseph in his book, is the idea that they were opposites who did not agree on anything and never interacted. “Their political worlds and personal fates converged in a shared passion for global human rights”.157 Near the end of their careers, Malcolm X and King began to think more like each other in many ways and they modified their political views to meet the needs of the changing landscape of the movement.158 “Malcolm X left a legacy of revolutionary politics that, shortly after his death, would galvanize Black Power activists…But his greatest impact may have been on Martin Luther King Jr.”.159 Some events would alter their view of the movement and push them to come together, moving past the barriers of violent vs. non-violent action 160 include: Brown v. Board, Core and Freedom Rides, Birmingham Bombing, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Freedom Summer and Mississippi Burning Murders, March on Selma, Sit-ins and SNCC.161 The shift in ideologies was incredibly apparent in Martin’s Letter from a Birmingham jail, with his newly developing thoughts on the movement after being arrested.162 At this point, King and Malcolm X were being heavily infiltrated by the FBI .163 They would both come to understand the goals of the other and finally converse and converge on political, social, and educational ideals for the movement, before they would both meet an early death by the hands of violence.164 To teach about King or Malcolm X in isolation, and not to their fullest extent, is to do an injustice to the movement. It also allows the “Master Narrative” to prevail.165 We have an obligation to dismantle this and teach the truth.
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), is an important figure in carrying on the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as he worked for so many advancements for African American people through his work with the Justice System.166 Marshall received his education at Howard University after facing adversity in perusing his education and went on to become a lawyer.167 He would take over the legal sector of the NAACP and win multiple cases.168 “Marshall succeeded in having the Supreme Court declare segregated public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)”.169 Marshall would eventually be appointed as a Supreme Court Justice, and he would be the first African American to do so.170
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