One of American’s most preeminent
Revolutionary historians, Dr. Gordon S. Wood, insists that historical
explanation is “only possible because we today have different perspectives from
those of the historical participants we are writing about. Most new historical
investigations begin with an attempt to understand the historical circumstances
that lie behind a present-day problem or situation. It is not surprising that
our best recent work on the origins and nature of slavery coincided with the
civil rights movement of the 1960s…This is as it should be: the problems and
issues of the present should be the stimulus for our forays into the past.” [1]
Appropriately, Pulitzer Prize winning Diane McWhorter gives us this definition of
segregation, especially in the context of Jim Crow thinking: “a civilization
more peculiar than slavery, from which it had mutated”.
The early sixties were dominated by
Kennedy, Khrushchev, and, of course, Dr. King – and that again was revealed
during the spring 1963 when King decided to march on Birmingham. Public
facilities, businesses, and virtually all things were completely segregated, so
much that officials had removed a book from the library that featured white and
black rabbits.[2] This
violent city was known as “Bombingham” and “Dynamite Hill” by several of the
black community that lived daily with the inability to work in the public
sector and the unfounded deprivation of voting rights. Birmingham had become a
do-or-die test for the civil rights movement, what King had pronounced “the
most segregated city in America.” It was the dreaded destination he had been
hoping to avoid during the seven years since a bus boycott in Montgomery ‘baptized
him’ as the Negro people’s savior – America’s Gandhi, according to Time magazine (like most historians of
the era, McWhorter is using the term ‘Negro’ as a contemporary designation of
respect, to refer to African-Americans). But now the mantra of King’s aides
was, “As Birmingham goes, so goes the South.”[3]
The irony is that King intoned
moral principles to justify nonviolent mass actions that often had the effect
of inviting violent responses from the opposition. His capacity to inspire
blacks and whites of varying backgrounds was unmatched by other leaders and would
be exemplified in the SCLC’s Birmingham campaign. In Birmingham, as in Albany,
Georgia, earlier, the battle against segregation was to continue on a massive
scale.
Birmingham entered the nation’s
headlines in 1963. Birmingham was the largest industrial city in the South and
the “turf of powerful segregationists”. It had experienced 17 unsolved bombings
between 1957 and 1964 and was the scene of Fred Shuttlesworth’s rescue of
Freedom Riders from armed mobs. But now, Shuttlesworth thought the time was ripe
for confrontation. King and his advisors carefully planned the Birmingham
campaign – a contrast to Albany, where they had been brought in as a rescue
effort. Deke DeLoach, one of J. Edgar Hoover’s key lieutenants, accused King of
being a liar as a result of his association with Stanley Levison who was
believed to be a hidden member of the Communist Party in New York. Hoover
quickly concurred, as he had himself once referred to King as “the most
dangerous man in America.” Not only would the FBI not protect King and civil
rights demonstrators; now, under the guise of national security, it did its
best to discredit him and disrupt the movement.[4]
Although the brothers (Jack and
Bobby) maintained considerable popularity among the black population, the
administration’s reluctance to move boldly on civil rights left the movement’s
leaders altogether discouraged. In fact, pens were being mailed to the White
House in an effort to put pressure on President Kennedy to keep his promises to
push bills through legislation in blacks’ favor, later branding these acts as
the ‘Ink for Jack’ campaign. Perhaps Kennedy sensed that some black leaders
were prepared to turn away from the Democratic Party, but whatever the
explanation (and the historical record remains unclear about this), on February
28, the President sent a civil rights message to Congress…”The Constitution is
color blind,” he declared, but “the practices of the country do not always
conform to the principles of the Constitution… Equality before the law has not
always meant equal treatment and opportunity.” [5]
Subsequently, the streets of
Birmingham, with the world watching, soon ran rampant with swinging
nightsticks, snarling police dogs, high-pressure fire hoses, hurled rocks,
broken glass…and Negro blood. Compromises were only met in hopes of a temporary
calm in the wake of the chaotic brutality that forced Kennedy’s hand, with a
Civil Rights Act on the horizon…
Oswald Chambers wrote, “There are
certain things we must not pray about – moods, for instance. Moods never go by
praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical
condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the
moods which arise from a physical condition; never submit to them for a
second.” [6]
This statement, with the influence of Luke 21: 19, “In your patience, possess
ye your souls,” should and must remind readers in pursuit of the truth of the
civil rights movement during the volatile 60’s that only calmer heads prevail. Our
First Amendment right to peacefully assemble should be our priority when we
face adversity, as Dr. King subsequently ‘dreamed’ for this nation, without
zealously disregarding our occupation to submit to civil law. Time, patience,
and love for our neighbor will open the gateway to prevalent times…
[1] Wood,
Gordon S. The Purpose of the Past:
Reflections on the Uses of History. (New York, NY): Penguin Group, Inc.,
2008: 10.
[2] Anderson,
Terry H. The Sixties: Third Edition.
(College Station, TX): Pearson/Longman, 2007: 35.
[3] McWhorter,
Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham,
Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. (New York,
NY): Simon & Schuster, 2001: 21.
[4] Blumberg,
Rhoda Lois. Civil Rights: The 1960s
Freedom Struggle. (Boston, MA): Twayne Publishers, 1984: 112, 115-6.
[5] Rosenberg,
Jonathan and Zachary Karabell. Kennedy,
Johnson, and the Quest for Justice: The Civil Rights Tapes. (New York, NY):
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2003: 85-95.
[6] Chambers,
Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest:
Selections for the Year. (Uhrichsville, OH): Barbour Publishing, Inc.,
1963.
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