by Edith Critchley
It's 28th August, 1963, in Washington DC. The air feels hot, humid and alive with monumental change. Almost a quarter of a million peaceful protesters have come from all over the US in buses full to the brim of people to be here. The energy in the air is almost palpable. Hymns are sung, hands are raised to the air in praise: for God, for life, for freedom. And in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, a symbol is set: a representation of hundreds of years of repression, from slavery to segregation to sit-ins. A climax to decades of protest and defiance. This is the image that will resonate for generations to come as the pinnacle of the Civil Rights movement, you can feel it in your bones.
And, yet, not one single woman stands with the other civil rights leaders and speaks. Martin Luther King and James Lawson are here, ready to be immortalised. But the stands are void of any of the amazing, impactful women who were equally important in reaching this day.
It is definitely interesting that, despite women's massive contributions to the Civil Rights movements, these efforts have not entered the public psyche (with the possible exception of Rosa Parks, who will be discussed later). Arguably, these black women were left out of the symbolism of the Civil Rights movement because of society's inherent discrimination against black women as a whole. But also from within the movement women were discriminated against: there was a deliberate choice not to let a woman speak at the March on Washington, despite a wealth of women to choose from. Thus, the Civil Rights movement was sealed as a man's movement.
This, however, is far from truth.
One woman essential to the Civil Rights movement as a whole was Ella Baker, born in Virginia at the turn of the century. Baker's fingerprints are all over the fight for civil rights; having been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People until 1946. she was given the essential protest and organisational skills that the NAACP had a habit of giving to all influential figures in the later struggle. After leaving the legal organisation to focus more on mobilising African-Americans, she campaigned against police brutality and ending segregated schooling, eventually becoming one of the only women in a powerful position within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organisation headed by King and responsible for the birth of the Civil Rights movement's peaceful protest in the form of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955; she soon became an executive director.
However, after the bus boycott, the SCLC entered a frustrating few years, where it failed to trigger any new campaigns. But, after an invigoration of the Civil Rights fight due to the student sit-ins in Greensboro, Baker spoke at a meeting of 126 students from 56 colleges across the US, urging them to set up their own youth organisation, claiming (in a slight dig at \King) that "strong people don't need strong leaders". This inspired and motivated the students and by the end of the meeting the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, was formed. Members of SNCC ended up working as the footsoldiers within the Civil Rights movement, participating in countless sit ins across the states. As Baker suggested, the movement had no specific leaders and was also much less male dominated than the SCLC. What is so special about Ella Baker is that she simply didn't wait for the movement to work by itself; she took it by the horns and directed it in a way she saw fit, completely ignoring any restrictions that may have been placed on a black woman at this time. Barbara Ransby, in her biography, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, presents Baker as operating in a political world that was, in many ways, not fully ready for her: "she inserted herself into leadership situations where others thought she simply did not belong. Her unique presence pioneered the way for fuller participation by other women in political organisations, and it reshaped the positions within the movement that they would occupy. At each stage, she nudged the movement in a leftward, inclusive and democratic direction, learning and modifying her own position as she went." It is clear that without Baker's direction the Civil Rights movement would have looked very different to how it eventually did; certainly, SNCC, one of the most impactful peaceful protest organisations, would never have been formed without her almost-40 years of protest experience.
One of the women who joined Baker's SNCC was Diane Nash, a Chicago native who seems to pop in at almost every big protest. Se coordinated the Nashville lunch counter sit ins, where protesters would sit at whites-only counters and refuse to leave unless they were served, risked her life during the Freedom Rides, and helped during the Selma voting rights campaign. Although Diane did experience some notoriety for her work (see the multiple pictures of her with big Civil Rights names like Malcolm X), many women worked tirelessly in the background of campaigns: for example, Jo Ann Robinson, an English professor, who on the eve of the Montgomery bus boycott, rallied a team of a hundred women to produce over 50,000 handwritten leaflet and posters almost overnight to rally support from the black community.
Although Rosa Parks remained a symbol of the bus boycott, Robinson was behind its organisation and promotion. Daisy Bates is another of these background heroes, who, after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that segregation within schools was 'separate but not equal', took on the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, by organising a group of nine black students to enroll at Little Rock High School, supporting them by arranging transport and helping them to fight the bullying they endured while working there.
Finally, Fannie Lou Hamer: a former sharecropper, she was the voice of millions of African-American women. Although she had a hand in the organisation of the SNCC and the Mississippi Freedom Summer, Hamer is most well known for helping set up the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a political party that tried to be recognised as the main Democratic party in Mississippi in 1964 so that they could represent their predominantly black state at the coming national Democratic convention rather than the current party which did not have one person of colour as a member. Although this incident with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party occurred after the March on Washington, it demonstrates something specific, that everyday women had the power to, and did, rally hundreds of protesters.
Hamer, although relatively unknown, should be the symbol of the real Civil Rights movement: a powerful black woman willing to speak up at whatever cost. Hamer herself testified that "nobody's free until everybody's free."
Men like Randolph, King and Lawson were massively impactful during their years of protest and defiance and got formed into the public psyche because of it. It is a massive travesty that the women who worked beside them are not remembered in quite such a heroic light because, just like the men, they challenged tirelessly to secure freedom for themselves, their children, their grandchildren and for all who remained oppressed in the land of the free.
 |
| Fannie Lou Hamer |
And, yet, not one single woman stands with the other civil rights leaders and speaks. Martin Luther King and James Lawson are here, ready to be immortalised. But the stands are void of any of the amazing, impactful women who were equally important in reaching this day.
It is definitely interesting that, despite women's massive contributions to the Civil Rights movements, these efforts have not entered the public psyche (with the possible exception of Rosa Parks, who will be discussed later). Arguably, these black women were left out of the symbolism of the Civil Rights movement because of society's inherent discrimination against black women as a whole. But also from within the movement women were discriminated against: there was a deliberate choice not to let a woman speak at the March on Washington, despite a wealth of women to choose from. Thus, the Civil Rights movement was sealed as a man's movement.
This, however, is far from truth.
 |
| Ella Baker |
However, after the bus boycott, the SCLC entered a frustrating few years, where it failed to trigger any new campaigns. But, after an invigoration of the Civil Rights fight due to the student sit-ins in Greensboro, Baker spoke at a meeting of 126 students from 56 colleges across the US, urging them to set up their own youth organisation, claiming (in a slight dig at \King) that "strong people don't need strong leaders". This inspired and motivated the students and by the end of the meeting the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, was formed. Members of SNCC ended up working as the footsoldiers within the Civil Rights movement, participating in countless sit ins across the states. As Baker suggested, the movement had no specific leaders and was also much less male dominated than the SCLC. What is so special about Ella Baker is that she simply didn't wait for the movement to work by itself; she took it by the horns and directed it in a way she saw fit, completely ignoring any restrictions that may have been placed on a black woman at this time. Barbara Ransby, in her biography, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement, presents Baker as operating in a political world that was, in many ways, not fully ready for her: "she inserted herself into leadership situations where others thought she simply did not belong. Her unique presence pioneered the way for fuller participation by other women in political organisations, and it reshaped the positions within the movement that they would occupy. At each stage, she nudged the movement in a leftward, inclusive and democratic direction, learning and modifying her own position as she went." It is clear that without Baker's direction the Civil Rights movement would have looked very different to how it eventually did; certainly, SNCC, one of the most impactful peaceful protest organisations, would never have been formed without her almost-40 years of protest experience.
 |
| Diane Nash |
Although Rosa Parks remained a symbol of the bus boycott, Robinson was behind its organisation and promotion. Daisy Bates is another of these background heroes, who, after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that segregation within schools was 'separate but not equal', took on the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, by organising a group of nine black students to enroll at Little Rock High School, supporting them by arranging transport and helping them to fight the bullying they endured while working there.
Finally, Fannie Lou Hamer: a former sharecropper, she was the voice of millions of African-American women. Although she had a hand in the organisation of the SNCC and the Mississippi Freedom Summer, Hamer is most well known for helping set up the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a political party that tried to be recognised as the main Democratic party in Mississippi in 1964 so that they could represent their predominantly black state at the coming national Democratic convention rather than the current party which did not have one person of colour as a member. Although this incident with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party occurred after the March on Washington, it demonstrates something specific, that everyday women had the power to, and did, rally hundreds of protesters.
Hamer, although relatively unknown, should be the symbol of the real Civil Rights movement: a powerful black woman willing to speak up at whatever cost. Hamer herself testified that "nobody's free until everybody's free."
Men like Randolph, King and Lawson were massively impactful during their years of protest and defiance and got formed into the public psyche because of it. It is a massive travesty that the women who worked beside them are not remembered in quite such a heroic light because, just like the men, they challenged tirelessly to secure freedom for themselves, their children, their grandchildren and for all who remained oppressed in the land of the free.
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments with names are more likely to be published.