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Historical Sites
Web Guide Monthly magazine
The US Civil Rights Movement
The Internet is an ideal medium for teaching history. Sound, image, and video files give the past an authenticity that is hard to realize through text alone. Moreover, the Web's hypertext function allows designers to present historical themes in an integrated, multi-dimension context that the linear high school textbook can't match. I always enjoy telling surfers about great history websites, including this piece on the civil rights movement.
The US Civil Rights Movement (1998)
The US Civil Rights Movement is commonly regarded as the struggle of black Americans to gain equality in American society. It certainly was that, but the movement also created unforeseen, broader changes in society. Companies, for example, that had routinely hired only from the "right" families began to hire people from all social strata. In the 1970s, taking their cue from civil rights activists, feminists opened employment doors for women as well. All Americans, in both minute and mammoth ways, share the dramatic legacy of the civil rights movement.
The Movement obviously has a special meaning and poignancy for black Americans. Historians recognize that it didn't spring up spontaneously in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when civil rights activism was most prominent. Rather, it was a culmination of a 100-year process. The struggle for civil rights began when it became obvious that the freeing of slaves and the passage of the 14th Amendment would not guarantee black Americans equality.
Early in the century, the black scholar WE B DuBois, Jr. wrote "on a Dickensian scale" about the plight of black Americans. DuBois was instrumental in fostering the Niagara Movement, which was established by a group of black scholars and leaders to discuss civil rights and eventually led to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. While his name still evokes controversy because of his communist leanings, DuBois's achievements as a thinker and activist are undeniable. The WE B DuBois Virtual University (http://members.tripod.com/-DuBois/biog.html) has long essays about this great leader, as well as announcements of DuBois conferences, an extended bibliography, and related articles and features.
While civil rights activity proceeded fitfully through the first half of the century, it picked up momentum with President Truman's decision to integrate the military in 1948. The struggle for black equality took a giant leap forward in 1954, when the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The African-American History site (http://www.watson.org/-lisa/blackhistory) has a useful discussion of both cases, as well as a series of other articles about the movement.
A year later in 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. This single action sparked a series of events that resulted in widespread bus boycotts in the South and helped ignite large demonstrations and potent activism in the 1960s. Parks has sometimes been portrayed as a simple, unsophisticated woman, but she had worked for the NAACP and with the Montgomery Voters League. Her fascinating story is found at the Celebrating Women's History Rosa Parks Page (http://www.gale.com/gale/cwh/parksr.html).
The Montgomery boycotts also propelled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the front ranks of civil rights leaders. In 1957, King and other black ministers launched the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which provided much of the direction of the movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. King took the initiative and organized mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 and the March on Washington DC later that year. These protests eventually culminated in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965, King led the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, part of Project Alabama which was in part responsible for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. site (http:// www.stanford.edu/group/king/) reviews these events and archives King's papers.
Despite its many victories, the Civil Rights Movement is not merely a story of smooth progress made by a united group of black activists. King had severe critics and strong challenges to his leadership. In the late 1950s, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which had younger, more militant members than the SCLC, criticized King for his cautious approach. In the mid-1960s, a SNCC member, Stokely Carmichael, inaugurated the Black Power movement and condemned King for what he considered to be King's Uncle Tom approach.
King also had a complex and strained relationship with fellow activist Malcolm X. Wide gulfs certainly separated King and Malcolm X -- notably in religion (Christianity and Islam, respectively) and their overall approach to the struggle for black equality (integration versus separatism). But to simply label King an accommodationist and Malcolm X a militant is to do a disservice to both men. An interesting comparison of the two activists, as well as articles pertaining to the civil rights movement, can be found at the Malcolm X Page (http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/-moritz/malcolm.html).
The Civil Rights Project of Harvard University (http://www.law. harvard.edu/groups/civilrights/) offers information about current activities in civil rights. Most useful is the Resources section, which has about 20 links to civil rights sites, such as those of the NAACP (http://www.naacp.org) and the US Commission on Civil Rights (http://www.usccr.gov).
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