Civil Rights Decision-Making Tactics and Strategies

The Situation – Segregation and Inequality The year is 1952. President Truman (D) has expressed his support for African-American rights. Incoming president Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) has been less clear about his position. The 1947 report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights found that the segregated structure of American society has failed to provide equal treatment for African-Americans in a host of areas. Truman desegregated the military in 1948 but American society remains deeply segregated, by law (de jure) in the south and in fact (de facto) throughout the nation.

Context:The Long Movement Opposition to segregation dates back to the Reconstruction Era, led by African-American organizations, including the NAACP (founded in 1910 by WEB DuBois). There have been divisions in the movement: Booker T. Washington advocated self-help and vocational training. Washington believed assimilating and fitting into the American culture was the best way for black people to move up in society. WEB Du Bois pressed for full educational opportunities (higher education, preferably liberal arts). Du Bois believed black people should challenge and question whites on all grounds.

Context Civil Rights organizers are operating with limited but expanding resources – financial and institutional. World War Two opened new opportunities for African-Americans – from work to service in the armed forces. The emergence of an educated black middle class has produced more participation in Civil Rights and money. The War also provoked the use of the language of freedom and created a national audience that might be more receptive to arguments about rights and political membership.

Decision-Making Framing: What are the political, economic, geographic and social problems faced by African-Americans in 1952? Results: What goals should Civil Rights organizers pursue? Analogies: What other justice arguments have been successful? Mental Simulation: What strategies, tactics, tools and institutions could and should be used to pursue those goals? Evaluation: What factors account for the success of competing justice claims?

Civil Rights Strategy The Target Goals: End segregation, improve economic position Institutions: schools, courts, public accommodations, transportation, politics, economics Geography: South/North, national/local, urban/rural The Tactics (PEGS) Institutional Organization (NAACP, churches, colleges) Type of Action (Legal, legislation, boycott, direct action, petition, voter registration, march) The Appeal Framing your message: Control the story for 3rd parties Use the media to show the true ugly nature of segregation The gap between shared ideals and reality

P: The Legal Strategy NAACP Criminal Cases Black people as defendants Black people and Civil Rights advocates as victims (Emmett Till) School integration cases (Brown as one in a long line of cases)

P: Enforcement Strategy Federalism, the Courts and the Presidency Brown II The Little Rock Nine 1957 James Meredith and ‘Ole Miss 1962 Busing (1970s)

E: The Economic Strategy Churches SCLC Montgomery Boycott Fundraising and Black Middle Class http://www.biography.com/video.do?name=historicalfigures&bcpid=1740037434&bclid=1612721931&bctid=2767837001

P: The Legislative Strategy Federal Anti-Lynching Laws Civil Rights Acts 1957, 1964, 1968 Voting Rights Act 1965 24th Amendment Marches, Speeches

The Direct Action Strategy Colleges, Universities Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Sit-ins Freedom Riders

Black Nationalism and the Armed Self-Defense Strategy Malcolm X Stokely Carmichael Black Panthers

Civil Rights Primary Source Jigsaw Values and Themes Analysis Comparison – Consider Target, Tactic and Appeal Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education King, I Have A Dream King, Letter From a Birmingham Jail Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet Black Panther Party Platform