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| Kathmandu, Thursday April 25, 2002 Baishakh 12, 2059. |
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Significance
of American civil rights movement
By DR SHREEDHAR
GAUTAM
By Civil Rights, we
understand powers or privileges guaranted to the individual and protected from arbitrary
removal at the hands of the government or other individuals. The history of Civil Rights
in the US has been primarily a story of search for social and economic equality. This
search has gone on for more than a century and is still on. It began with the Civil Rights
of black citizens, whose subjugation roused the passion of a nation and brought about its
bloodiest conflict, the Civil War. So, Civil War and Civil Rights are taken as
coincidental factors in America.
The history of blacks
in North America began from August 1619. But the actual establishment of a system of slave
labour started only between 1640-1680. Till then blacks were treated as indentured
servants. By 1700, slavery existed practically in all the North American colonies. During
the 1770s and 80s, the American colonists fought for independence from Britain. American
themselves were fighting for self-determination, democracy, equality and recognition of
the natural rights of man. Yet many outspoken advocates of American freedom including,
Thomas Jefferson, lived within a system of slavery. As the US entered its first century of
existence, free slave as well as blacks faced a double struggle. One struggle was for
personal achievements, and the other was to cast off the yoke of slavery that had
oppressed them for centuries.
Against several
tremendous odds, many blacks raised themselves to positions of influence in American
society of that time. Paul Cuffe worked hard to end slavery by organising a friendly
society to help former slaves go to Africa as free people. But other black leaders turned
against the idea of ‘back to Africa’, and opted for all out drive to end slavery
and then gain full equality.
Leaders like Frederick
Douglass encouraged blacks to escape to freedom. Though during the early 1800s people
opposed to slavery provided money and food for fugitives, many of the men and women who
tried to escape from slavery were later either recaptured or put to death.
The process for ending
the slavery system began in April 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War between
free states of the North and slave states of the South. The Civil War exposed many
problems as well as the attitudes of Southerners to Northerners. The Civil War in fact was
the era of emancipation for Negroes. The whole idea of nationhood was evolving during the
Civil War and wherever the union or the Northern Army gained control, slavery, for all
practical purposes, was ended. The next big step in the process took place in January
1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that
slaves in states, at war against the United States were free. Lincoln took the decision
sensing a threat to the unity of America. Lincoln, known for his military genius and
diplomatic acumen, saw the fate of black and unity of America at stake. His bold step has
to be seen in this light. He raised the Nergo issue as a pressure tactic on plantation
lords of the South. Blacks were hardly aware of their right and liberty movement. For them
freedom meant immediate release from the hard labour of cotton fields. White lords had
property right on them. So, they started running away to the North hoping for
emancipation.
Though the proclamation
could not eliminate the slavery, it proved to be a turning point in the struggle against
racism. In the meantime, Lincoln told the Southern states that "there would be no
peace without abolishing slavery." It was in accordance with the plan and strategy of
Lincoln that in 1865, the Congress passed the 13th Amendment which completely abolished
slavery. Another amendment, the 14th, gave the blacks full citizenship rights. For a time,
many hoped that blacks and whites could live together in a state of equality and
tolerance. But local laws and customs were used to deprive blacks of their voting rights.
In most of the former slave states, a system of racial segregation arose and blacks had to
attend separate schools, churches, hopsitals and parks. In fact, slavery in the South was
linked with the socio-political set up existing in those days.
For the southern
landlords, Negroes were the symbol of property. "No slave, no property" was the
slogan raised by them. So, in 1963-64, hundred of landlords fled to interior parts along
with their slaves. North had rapidly expanded industries by 1866 and so it was in need of
cheap labour. The North wanted to liberate the blacks with a view to stopping the
aggressive stand of the Southern states. But rumour spread all over the South that North
had invested money on the liberation of black and they were going to avenge the injustice
of the Southern people. In this backdrop lynching the legal killing of people for real or
imagined crimes-greatly increased. In 1866, the lawmakers passed a Civil Rights Act that
gave the national government some authority over the treatment of blacks by state courts,
especially in the South. While the Congress was passing laws to protect the Civil Rights
of black citizens, the Supreme Court seemed intent on weakening those rights. In 1873, the
Court ruled that the Civil War amendment had not changed the relationship between the
state and national governments. In 1876, the justices crippled congressional attempts to
enforce the rights of blacks. In 1883, the court struck down the public accommodation
section of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, declaring that the national government could
prohibit only government action discriminating against the blacks; private acts of
discrimination or acts of omission by a state were beyond the reach of the national
government.
Once the Supreme Court
nullified the Civil Rights Act of 1875, laws of racial segregation proliferated. Thus, the
Civil War, one of whose goals was to abolish the slavery, could not achieve it perfectly.
Many radical Republicans in the Congress wanted to protect black Civil Rights and to bring
blacks into the mainstream of American life. Their efforts were opposed, among others, by
Andrew Johnson, who was elevated to the Presidency on the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln. Towards the end of the century, the system of segregation and oppression of
blacks grew far more rigid. Most blacks and poor whites lost the right to vote because of
their inability to pay the poll tax.
However, progress did
occur during the difficult years from 1919 to 1950 years. Individual blacks made
breakthrough in education, science, sports, entertaiment, business, engineering, art and
in music. The awakening began in Harlem, a mostly black section of New York City, and it
was known as the Harlem Renaissance. But neither the glory of Harlem Renaissance nor the
achievements of individual artists did much to improve the daily lives of most blacks. The
Civil Right movement in America touched a new height with the arrest of a woman named Rosa
Parks in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to white person on a city bus. Already
denied the right to vote and be represented in government, blacks took this opportunity
for action to end segregation on buses. The National Association for the Advancement of
Coloured People (NAACP) founded in 1909 by both blacks and whites, with the goal of ending
racial discrimination and segregation, took the lead in the campaign for black civil
rights. They asked "Montgomery" blacks to boycott the city buses. Moreover,
black churches also joined in the planning and preparation of the struggle. This is how
Martin Luthar King, Jr, the new pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist church, came into
picture. Several people woundered about the choice, as Dr King was only 27-year old and
had no social experiences at that time. Under the leadership of this young local baptist
minister, blacks organised a boycott of the Montgomery bus company for over a year showing
that non-violent direct action could produce results. It brought blacks from all walks of
life together and also produced a charismatic black leader- Martin Luther King, who could
move millions to action and touch the conscience of the nation. Finally, in November 1956,
the Supreme Court was forced to decide that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.
Moving on from
Montgomery King led direct non-violent actions for Civil Rights, in all parts of the
country, in the South, old barriers of the segregation crumbled, and in the North subtle
form of discrimination in housing and jobs were slowly chipped away. A critical point in
the Civil Rights movement occurred in Augst 1963 when 25,000 people of all races marched
in Washington DC to demand that the nation keep its pledge "jutice for all" in a
moving and dratic speech, Martin Luther King said,"I have a dream that one day on the
red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveholders will be
able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood." Since then the focus of civil
rights activity has shifted to Washington, where the Congress passed laws prohibiting
discriminaation in voting education, employment and public accommodations. The Civil
Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 are taken as the landmarks in the process of
dismantling the legal basis for discrimination.
(To be
concluded)
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