The narrative of the Civil Rights movement as it is written in today’s elementary, middle, and high school text books paints a mythical picture of a monolithic movement. This narrative implies a sort of cohesiveness in the strategy of the movement by only highlighting the works of Dr. Martin Luther King or the courage of Rosa Parks. The reality is that the Civil Rights Movement had a host of contrasting ideologies, many personas, and crucial events that are neglected in ‘Civil Rights’ chapter of our American history textbooks. One of the contrasts often forgotten in the Civil Rights narrative is the generational differences of the Black community, during the movement. The plurality of the Civil Rights Movement can begin to be examined with a study of the contrasting positions between older and younger African-Americans.
All generations have distinctions that separate them from other generations, distinctions that create the ‘generational gap’. Technology, historical events, prominent public figures and other pastimes all work together to create this gap between generations. Just as I have heard stories from my father about the Vietnam conflict, the greatness of Walter Payton, and the time his father brought a record player home, my son will hear stories from me about September 11th, the majestic of Michael Jordan, and when ipods first hit the market. The ‘back-in-the-day’ stories of parents and children living during the Civil Rights Movement involved more paramount contrasts. Anne Moody’s mother never thought of her daughter attending school with white children, nor would Mose Wright, Emmett Till’s grandfather, ever think an interracial relationship possible in society were a boy is killed just for whistling at a white woman. No period in American history has witnessed a greater generational gap then that of the Black community during the Civil Rights Movement. As these racial norms, traditions, and taboos began to change with the evolution of the movement, the Black community’s generational gap became more apparent.
Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, presents a perfect opportunity to begin examining the older/younger generational contrast. Moody’s relationship with her mother illustrates the differences between the aspirations, strategies, and visions of the two generations. The frustration that Moody expresses for her mother is quite possibly the root of the difference between what I will label as the pre-movement and movement generations. Moody’s resentment grows out of her desire to blaze her own trail, one that did not involve the agricultural life of her parents. In describing her dislike for farming, Moody expresses this desire clearly.
So whenever Mama started one of her long lectures on the pleasures of farming, I would drown her out with my thoughts of Mrs. Claiborne and all the traveling she had done and the people she had met. Mrs. Claiborne had told me how smart I was and how much I could do if I just had the chance. I knew if I got involved in farming, I’d be just like Mama and the rest of them, and that I would never get that chance.
-Moody 90
It is natural for any growing youth to want to leave the home of their parents and spread their wings in society. In the case of Moody, and many youth of the movement generation, spreading your wings not only meant leaving the home but also establishing a new, better standard of living. For Moody, the life of agriculture that her mother’s family shared was not acceptable, nor was the racism that accompanied it.
“I’d be just like Mama and the rest of them…” It is interesting to examine what this statement entails. To be like the “rest of them” meant to be confined to limits of southern Black life. Toosweet’s (Anne’s Mother) life is representative of many of the lives of the pre-movement generation. This generation was confined by the racism that plagued America, which created asinine social norms. The most absurd and noticeable social norm was Jim Crow. Every single facet of life was limited by the walls of this plague. Job opportunities for women were limited to domestic duties. For men, if there was work available, was limited to the fields. Black men could be lynched for looking at a white woman, while many wealthy white men had sexual relationships with their Black hired help. Black people stepped off the sidewalk when whites were on the path. Financial stability was made impossible due to sharecropping, and other racist economic practices. It is imperative to note that these atrocities were considered norms. For many of the pre-movement generation, a good life was accomplished by working within the limits of these restrictive norms and staying away from conflicts with whites.
Coming of Age in Mississippi is unique because its setting is within the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, between the 1940’s and 1960’s. This period highlighted the reality of Black life by showing the opposite sides of the spectrum, from poor rural African Americans to middleclass urban African Americans. American society did not accept Blacks as full citizens, but northern life was more optimistic than southern life. Many southern youth, like Moody, decided that they were not to going accept southern social norms. The Civil Rights Movement provided the opportunity to not be like the “rest of them”. Moody’s generation eradicated many of the social limitations that the pre-movement generation suffered from. This time period saw African Americans migrate north in unprecedented numbers. These individuals became first generation college graduates and first time members of the middleclass. It was this generation that took the more radical stance toward achieving social equality (Gates and West, vii-xvii). It should be noted that one could be born between 1940 and 1960 but still suffer from the pre-movement ideology. Anne was born into the pre-movement philosophy but with the help of teachers and her own strong will, she became exposed to more desirable ideals. Similarly one could be born within the pre-movement generation and still have a radical movement stance towards social equality. Fredrick Douglas and W.E.B DuBois are examples.
It is not my intent to imply that the pre-movement generation was comfortable with American racism. It was a combination of racial conditioning and violent white resistance that made radical change so scary for many African-Americans of both the pre-movement and movement generations. Traditions like Jim Crow became part of the subconscious of many African-Americans, but having just a few citizenship rights was better than having none at all. This subconscious created an inferiority complex in many African Americans and caused many of them to be cautious with the struggle for social equality. For it seemed that the agitation of the movement could result in the loss of the little progress that the Black community had gained since the abolition of slavery. The pre-movement generation had to be fearful of the Civil Rights Movement because of the threat it posed to their minimal comfort.
Racial conditioning and white resistance would explain why Toosweet frowned on her daughter’s participation in the movement. She had a family to take care of in one the most racist communities in the country and her options were more limited compared to her daughter’s. Whites made it known that participation in the movement would have its consequences. The sheriff of Anne’s hometown was one of those people.
She said the sheriff had been by, telling her I was messing around with that NAACP group. She said he told her if I didn’t stop it, I could not come back there anymore. He said that they didn’t need any of those NAACP people messing around in Centreville.
-Moody 285
Many students of the Civil Rights Movement, including myself, have been quick to condemn Blacks, like Anne’s Mother, that were not fully supportive of the movement. It should be noted that for many African-Americans the decision to support the movement was a life or death decision and it would be hypocritical to criticize anyone that chose not to fully support the radical movement in order to survive.
Fear was the cause of the struggles of Freedom Summer of 1964 but the racial conditioning that created an inferior subconscious in the pre-movement generation also played a role. Freedom Summer was an attempt, by civil rights groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), to get African-Americans to register vote in the most racist part of the country. This one summer is relevant because it brought pre-movement and movement generations face to face with one another. It should be noted that this project was an attempt, and the success or failure of it is debatable. The project was hindered because not everyone cooperated and not everyone was pleased with these northern groups disturbing the ‘southern way of life.’ Many whites were angry with the project because of racial ignorance, but even some African-Americans had a problem with these young northerners bringing unwanted attention to the Black community. Because of the former sentiment the Freedom Summer project had to be run by young students. They had no ties to the community, therefore the family survival issue as it affected Anne’s mother, would not be an issue to these young people. In referencing the southern Black community, Robert Moses, the director of SNCC’s presence in Mississippi, describes the main issue of the Freedom Summer project.
The Negro churches could not in general be counted on; the Negro business leaders could also not in general be counted on…and, in general, anybody who had a specific economic tie-in with the white community could not be counted on when the pressure got hot. Therefore, our feeling was that the only way to run this campaign was to begin to build a group of young people who would not be responsible economically to any sector of the white community and who would be able to act as free agents.
-Carson 176
Moses labels the groups that he cannot count on. He names churches, business leaders, and generally anyone that had an economic tie with the white community. These characteristics describe pre-movement generation African-Americans such as Toosweet. These older Blacks could not be counted on in the radical movement because there financial survival largely depended on whites. Finances for movement generation African Americans did not depend so much on whites.
It can be argued that there were two (and possibly more) branches of the Civil Rights Movement. A conservative branch, which included pre-movement African-Americans, that advocated self-reliance and slower racial progress and a radical branch, which included youth of the movement generation, and pushed for immediate and tangible racial progress. Without a doubt the father of the latter branch was Booker T. Washington. Portions of Washington’s ‘accommodationist’ theory seem to be interlaced within the pre-movement ideology. Washington believed in slow racial progress. More specifically he encouraged sacrificing political and civic equality in exchange for economic and educational stability. For many of the pre-movement generation this strategy was not as imposing as the radical Civil Rights movement. In a 1985 speech Washington announced his beliefs to the country. He encouraged Blacks to befriend the southern white man, learn how to prosper by farming land, and not to agitate societal change.
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.
-Washington, Atlanta Compromise Address
Many have said the ‘accommodationist’ ideology to be degrading to the humanity of African-Americans. The truth of this claim is debatable and must be argued by scholars, but surely Washington believed that his strategy would advance the interest of African-Americans. His ideas were not radical, but they were centered on the betterment of Black life, therefore contributing to the movement.
It was mentioned in the introduction that the largest generational gap American history has ever witnessed was that of the Black community during the Civil Rights Movement. For many of the pre-movement generation America was still largely two societies, one being Black, one being white. The latter bound by the ignorance of the former. The movement generation was the first to see the possibilities of a merger of the two societies. Landmark decisions like Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the installment of affirmative action provided the movement generation with opportunities that the pre-movement generation could only wish for. The content of this paper would lead one to assume that the movement ideology blossomed out of no where. To assume this would be to commit another ignorant sin. As I have noted, the reason the movement generation was able to take such a radical stance is because they had the tools to do so. The Civil Rights Movement marked the moment when African Americans felt empowered, educated, and were organized enough to stand up to the United States government. The only circumstance in which this struggle could have taken place any earlier would be if President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation before 1863. Pre-movement African-Americans are not usually remembered in the Civil Rights narrative, but it must be acknowledged that the movement could not have existed without them.
It is ironic that I am writing an essay that attempts to shed the monolithic Civil Rights Movement myth. It should be recognized that while I have briefly observed the generational gap of the Black community during the movement, even I have committed the sin of limiting the scope. I have tailored this essay to show how age difference created a divide in the black community but in most cases age was by no means the only dividing factor. Class, gender, religion, and what area of the country you were born in also played a role in ones ideology. While one would be correct to assert that in general followers of Malcolm X where younger and followers of Martin Luther King tended to be middle-aged, it would also be correct to contend that Malcolm X’s popularity was highest with men in poor urban areas and Dr. King’s popularity was highest in southern middle-classed communities. The Civil Rights narrative limits the plurality of the movement. Many, and likely most, African-Americans found inspiration in both Dr. King and Malcolm X. In labeling the ‘pre-movement’ and ‘movement’ generations I have created distinctions for the general purposes of this essay. It is not to imply that these two generations shared nothing in common, or to impose that there was total disagreement between the two. Broadening the spectrum of the public dialogue regarding the movement is my only intent. Furthermore, we should acknowledge that while the Civil Rights Movement had many platforms, some of which conflicted with one another, togetherness still existed in striving for the goal of racial equality. Today’s Black community could learn from this example.
Works Cited
Carson, Clayborne. “Mississippi: 1961-1962” The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. New York, Penguin Group, 1998
Gates, Henry L. Cornel West. The Future of the Race. New York; Alfred K. Knopf, Inc, 1996
Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York; Bantum Dell, 2004
Washington, Booker T. “Atlanta Compromise Speech” 1985. Accessed Through Oxford African American Studies Center (/www.oxfordaasc.com) 12/7/07.
All generations have distinctions that separate them from other generations, distinctions that create the ‘generational gap’. Technology, historical events, prominent public figures and other pastimes all work together to create this gap between generations. Just as I have heard stories from my father about the Vietnam conflict, the greatness of Walter Payton, and the time his father brought a record player home, my son will hear stories from me about September 11th, the majestic of Michael Jordan, and when ipods first hit the market. The ‘back-in-the-day’ stories of parents and children living during the Civil Rights Movement involved more paramount contrasts. Anne Moody’s mother never thought of her daughter attending school with white children, nor would Mose Wright, Emmett Till’s grandfather, ever think an interracial relationship possible in society were a boy is killed just for whistling at a white woman. No period in American history has witnessed a greater generational gap then that of the Black community during the Civil Rights Movement. As these racial norms, traditions, and taboos began to change with the evolution of the movement, the Black community’s generational gap became more apparent.
Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, presents a perfect opportunity to begin examining the older/younger generational contrast. Moody’s relationship with her mother illustrates the differences between the aspirations, strategies, and visions of the two generations. The frustration that Moody expresses for her mother is quite possibly the root of the difference between what I will label as the pre-movement and movement generations. Moody’s resentment grows out of her desire to blaze her own trail, one that did not involve the agricultural life of her parents. In describing her dislike for farming, Moody expresses this desire clearly.
So whenever Mama started one of her long lectures on the pleasures of farming, I would drown her out with my thoughts of Mrs. Claiborne and all the traveling she had done and the people she had met. Mrs. Claiborne had told me how smart I was and how much I could do if I just had the chance. I knew if I got involved in farming, I’d be just like Mama and the rest of them, and that I would never get that chance.
-Moody 90
It is natural for any growing youth to want to leave the home of their parents and spread their wings in society. In the case of Moody, and many youth of the movement generation, spreading your wings not only meant leaving the home but also establishing a new, better standard of living. For Moody, the life of agriculture that her mother’s family shared was not acceptable, nor was the racism that accompanied it.
“I’d be just like Mama and the rest of them…” It is interesting to examine what this statement entails. To be like the “rest of them” meant to be confined to limits of southern Black life. Toosweet’s (Anne’s Mother) life is representative of many of the lives of the pre-movement generation. This generation was confined by the racism that plagued America, which created asinine social norms. The most absurd and noticeable social norm was Jim Crow. Every single facet of life was limited by the walls of this plague. Job opportunities for women were limited to domestic duties. For men, if there was work available, was limited to the fields. Black men could be lynched for looking at a white woman, while many wealthy white men had sexual relationships with their Black hired help. Black people stepped off the sidewalk when whites were on the path. Financial stability was made impossible due to sharecropping, and other racist economic practices. It is imperative to note that these atrocities were considered norms. For many of the pre-movement generation, a good life was accomplished by working within the limits of these restrictive norms and staying away from conflicts with whites.
Coming of Age in Mississippi is unique because its setting is within the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, between the 1940’s and 1960’s. This period highlighted the reality of Black life by showing the opposite sides of the spectrum, from poor rural African Americans to middleclass urban African Americans. American society did not accept Blacks as full citizens, but northern life was more optimistic than southern life. Many southern youth, like Moody, decided that they were not to going accept southern social norms. The Civil Rights Movement provided the opportunity to not be like the “rest of them”. Moody’s generation eradicated many of the social limitations that the pre-movement generation suffered from. This time period saw African Americans migrate north in unprecedented numbers. These individuals became first generation college graduates and first time members of the middleclass. It was this generation that took the more radical stance toward achieving social equality (Gates and West, vii-xvii). It should be noted that one could be born between 1940 and 1960 but still suffer from the pre-movement ideology. Anne was born into the pre-movement philosophy but with the help of teachers and her own strong will, she became exposed to more desirable ideals. Similarly one could be born within the pre-movement generation and still have a radical movement stance towards social equality. Fredrick Douglas and W.E.B DuBois are examples.
It is not my intent to imply that the pre-movement generation was comfortable with American racism. It was a combination of racial conditioning and violent white resistance that made radical change so scary for many African-Americans of both the pre-movement and movement generations. Traditions like Jim Crow became part of the subconscious of many African-Americans, but having just a few citizenship rights was better than having none at all. This subconscious created an inferiority complex in many African Americans and caused many of them to be cautious with the struggle for social equality. For it seemed that the agitation of the movement could result in the loss of the little progress that the Black community had gained since the abolition of slavery. The pre-movement generation had to be fearful of the Civil Rights Movement because of the threat it posed to their minimal comfort.
Racial conditioning and white resistance would explain why Toosweet frowned on her daughter’s participation in the movement. She had a family to take care of in one the most racist communities in the country and her options were more limited compared to her daughter’s. Whites made it known that participation in the movement would have its consequences. The sheriff of Anne’s hometown was one of those people.
She said the sheriff had been by, telling her I was messing around with that NAACP group. She said he told her if I didn’t stop it, I could not come back there anymore. He said that they didn’t need any of those NAACP people messing around in Centreville.
-Moody 285
Many students of the Civil Rights Movement, including myself, have been quick to condemn Blacks, like Anne’s Mother, that were not fully supportive of the movement. It should be noted that for many African-Americans the decision to support the movement was a life or death decision and it would be hypocritical to criticize anyone that chose not to fully support the radical movement in order to survive.
Fear was the cause of the struggles of Freedom Summer of 1964 but the racial conditioning that created an inferior subconscious in the pre-movement generation also played a role. Freedom Summer was an attempt, by civil rights groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), to get African-Americans to register vote in the most racist part of the country. This one summer is relevant because it brought pre-movement and movement generations face to face with one another. It should be noted that this project was an attempt, and the success or failure of it is debatable. The project was hindered because not everyone cooperated and not everyone was pleased with these northern groups disturbing the ‘southern way of life.’ Many whites were angry with the project because of racial ignorance, but even some African-Americans had a problem with these young northerners bringing unwanted attention to the Black community. Because of the former sentiment the Freedom Summer project had to be run by young students. They had no ties to the community, therefore the family survival issue as it affected Anne’s mother, would not be an issue to these young people. In referencing the southern Black community, Robert Moses, the director of SNCC’s presence in Mississippi, describes the main issue of the Freedom Summer project.
The Negro churches could not in general be counted on; the Negro business leaders could also not in general be counted on…and, in general, anybody who had a specific economic tie-in with the white community could not be counted on when the pressure got hot. Therefore, our feeling was that the only way to run this campaign was to begin to build a group of young people who would not be responsible economically to any sector of the white community and who would be able to act as free agents.
-Carson 176
Moses labels the groups that he cannot count on. He names churches, business leaders, and generally anyone that had an economic tie with the white community. These characteristics describe pre-movement generation African-Americans such as Toosweet. These older Blacks could not be counted on in the radical movement because there financial survival largely depended on whites. Finances for movement generation African Americans did not depend so much on whites.
It can be argued that there were two (and possibly more) branches of the Civil Rights Movement. A conservative branch, which included pre-movement African-Americans, that advocated self-reliance and slower racial progress and a radical branch, which included youth of the movement generation, and pushed for immediate and tangible racial progress. Without a doubt the father of the latter branch was Booker T. Washington. Portions of Washington’s ‘accommodationist’ theory seem to be interlaced within the pre-movement ideology. Washington believed in slow racial progress. More specifically he encouraged sacrificing political and civic equality in exchange for economic and educational stability. For many of the pre-movement generation this strategy was not as imposing as the radical Civil Rights movement. In a 1985 speech Washington announced his beliefs to the country. He encouraged Blacks to befriend the southern white man, learn how to prosper by farming land, and not to agitate societal change.
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.
-Washington, Atlanta Compromise Address
Many have said the ‘accommodationist’ ideology to be degrading to the humanity of African-Americans. The truth of this claim is debatable and must be argued by scholars, but surely Washington believed that his strategy would advance the interest of African-Americans. His ideas were not radical, but they were centered on the betterment of Black life, therefore contributing to the movement.
It was mentioned in the introduction that the largest generational gap American history has ever witnessed was that of the Black community during the Civil Rights Movement. For many of the pre-movement generation America was still largely two societies, one being Black, one being white. The latter bound by the ignorance of the former. The movement generation was the first to see the possibilities of a merger of the two societies. Landmark decisions like Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the installment of affirmative action provided the movement generation with opportunities that the pre-movement generation could only wish for. The content of this paper would lead one to assume that the movement ideology blossomed out of no where. To assume this would be to commit another ignorant sin. As I have noted, the reason the movement generation was able to take such a radical stance is because they had the tools to do so. The Civil Rights Movement marked the moment when African Americans felt empowered, educated, and were organized enough to stand up to the United States government. The only circumstance in which this struggle could have taken place any earlier would be if President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation before 1863. Pre-movement African-Americans are not usually remembered in the Civil Rights narrative, but it must be acknowledged that the movement could not have existed without them.
It is ironic that I am writing an essay that attempts to shed the monolithic Civil Rights Movement myth. It should be recognized that while I have briefly observed the generational gap of the Black community during the movement, even I have committed the sin of limiting the scope. I have tailored this essay to show how age difference created a divide in the black community but in most cases age was by no means the only dividing factor. Class, gender, religion, and what area of the country you were born in also played a role in ones ideology. While one would be correct to assert that in general followers of Malcolm X where younger and followers of Martin Luther King tended to be middle-aged, it would also be correct to contend that Malcolm X’s popularity was highest with men in poor urban areas and Dr. King’s popularity was highest in southern middle-classed communities. The Civil Rights narrative limits the plurality of the movement. Many, and likely most, African-Americans found inspiration in both Dr. King and Malcolm X. In labeling the ‘pre-movement’ and ‘movement’ generations I have created distinctions for the general purposes of this essay. It is not to imply that these two generations shared nothing in common, or to impose that there was total disagreement between the two. Broadening the spectrum of the public dialogue regarding the movement is my only intent. Furthermore, we should acknowledge that while the Civil Rights Movement had many platforms, some of which conflicted with one another, togetherness still existed in striving for the goal of racial equality. Today’s Black community could learn from this example.
Works Cited
Carson, Clayborne. “Mississippi: 1961-1962” The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. New York, Penguin Group, 1998
Gates, Henry L. Cornel West. The Future of the Race. New York; Alfred K. Knopf, Inc, 1996
Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York; Bantum Dell, 2004
Washington, Booker T. “Atlanta Compromise Speech” 1985. Accessed Through Oxford African American Studies Center (/www.oxfordaasc.com) 12/7/07.
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