While the civil rights movement is often understood through particular individuals and events, it was actually a very complex movement, with a range of organizations representing particular perspectives on how best to pursue a common goal – the end of racial segregation and the advancement of Black rights.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP), founded in 1909.
The NAACP emerged after a race riot in Illinois in 1908 and was based in the northern United States, where segregation laws had mainly been abolished by the mid-20th century, but where racism still limited the rights of Blacks. Among its founders were many individuals who were prominent in social justice causes. The organization worked on the legal front, using the courts to challenge the laws of segregation, and was sometimes less enthusiastic about the tactics of direct action that involved civil disobedience and sent protesters to prison. The NAACP still exists today: its mission then and now is to “ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States and eliminate race prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.”1
Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942.
CORE was the main advocate of nonviolence as an ideology and a strategy. Its leaders were drawn to Thoreau and Gandhi’s principles of noncooperation with unjust laws. Among its founders were several Conscientious Objectors of the Second World War, including George Houser (who you met in the film “The Good War” in Module 5), and James Farmer. A lesser-known leader, who worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr., was Bayard Rustin.
Bayard Rustin
(1912-1987)
Leffler, 1963
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) is an interesting character in this movement. He isn’t highlighted much, perhaps because he was openly gay in a very homophobic era. He was raised in one of the Historic Peace Churches (Quaker) and was imprisoned for close to three years during the Second World War because he refused to do alternative service. Before that, in 1942, he went to California to protect the property of Japanese-Americans who were in internment prisons. He travelled to India on several occasions to learn about Gandhi’s philosophy and to support the independence movement there. Rustin has been called the ‘American Gandhi’ and some suggest that he was responsible for drawing King towards nonviolence, convincing him that arrests and jailing were opportunities, not obstacles. And that suffering showed the truth of the movement’s goals. Rustin was later active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and is a good example of how some individuals carried their principles and actions across numerous peace movements.
CORE organized the famous Freedom Rides, that tested racial segregation in travel, and many other nonviolent boycotts and acts of civil disobedience.
In 1964, three of CORE’s civil rights workers were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan while advocating for voting rights, events chronicled in the film Mississippi Burning.
CORE still exists today, working to end racism in many parts of the world.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2018
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), founded in 1957.
The SCLC was most closely associated with the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and was explicitly religious in its message. It emerged after the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 with the goal of coordinating nonviolent resistance throughout the southern states. The SCLC had an umbrella function, uniting and giving counsel to localized anti-segregation actions. The SCLC exists today, its focus being “to educate youth and adults in the areas of personal responsibility, leadership potential, and community service; to ensure economic justice and civil rights and to eradicate racism wherever it exists.”2
"The SNCC Project: A Year by Year History 1960-1970," 2015
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), founded in 1960.
As its name indicates, SNCC was comprised of students, and tended to be more radical in its approach, yet insisted on nonviolent tactics. SNCC led the lunch counter sit-ins in the early 1960s and was closely involved with the March on Washington in 1963. Many SNCC activists also participated in protesting the American war in Vietnam, arguing that many young Black soldiers were losing their lives in the war, yet were without many of the rights held by whites. Unlike the above organizations, SNCC ceased to exist in the mid-1970s.
The above organizations all promoted non-violent direct action as the desirable approach to effect change. However, there were individuals and groups who were militant and allowed for violent protest against racial segregation. Most notable among those rejecting the nonviolent approach is Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. Since they accepted the use of violence as a means towards social change, we won’t categorize them as peace movements (perhaps you differ).
Text References
- “Nation’s Premier Civil Rights Organization – Founding Group,” NAACP, accessed December 10, 2019, https://www.naacp.org/nations-premier-civil-rights-organization/.
- “About Us,” South Christian Leadership Conference, accessed December 10, 2019, https://nationalsclc.org/about/.
Image References
NAACP, "NAACP logo," NAACP, 2020, https://www.naacp.org/.
CORE, "CORE logo," 2014, CORE, http://www.core-online.org/.
Warren Leffler, "Bayard Rustin," Wikimedia Commons, August 27, 1963, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BayardRustinAug1963-LibraryOfCongress_crop.jpg.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, "Southern Christian Leadership Conference logo," Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2018, https://nationalsclc.org/.
"The SNCC Project: A Year by Year History 1960-1970," Mapping American Social Movements Through the 20th Century, 2015, http://depts.washington.edu/moves/SNCC_project.shtml.