How far were the forces opposed to civil rights responsible for the failure of the civil rights movement in the 1960s?

When King made the move to the North during the mid-1960s he was met by strong opposition to the civil rights movement which was partly due to his anonymity to Northern Americans. Some of the opposition came from state governments in the North, for example when King tried to tackle the problem of segregation in housing in Chicago, he was met by strong opposition from not only the residents, but mayor Richard Daley as well. Despite Daley openly condemning discrimination against black Americans in employment, “he had done little about their appalling housing conditions”. One of the reasons for his unwillingness to help was because “he did not want to alienate his white working class voters”. This made it difficult for the civil rights movement to progress in improving the standard of living for black Americans as the state governments were reluctant to implement change.

The media had a huge influence over how the civil rights movements were portrayed and coverage of the riots in Watts and the other 3 cities led to negative opinions forming about black protesters, leading to the loss of white sympathy for the civil rights movement, another opposing force. This was highly important as white benefactors supplied funding for a number of the civil rights groups. For example, the SNCC received 95% of its funding from white members therefore when the white members left the group, it limited severely limited the progress of SNCC.

President Johnson could be seen as another opposing force towards the civil rights movement. Although he undoubtedly supported black civil rights, he did little to improve the social and economic problems faced by black Americans despite his idea for the ‘Great Society’. Both presidents Johnson and Kennedy made important advances with civil rights politically but the problems faced in the North were much more difficult to deal with as the discrimination faced by black people was found in employment and housing. The vast majority of the black population in certain states were confined to the ghettos. Although the opposing forces towards the civil rights movement were considerably responsible for a lot of the failures during the 1960s, there were other important factors which possibly held more responsibility towards the failings of the civil rights movement.

The Vietnam War had a huge impact on the advancement of black civil rights as, primarily, it diverted attention and resources away from the movement. The disproportionate number of black people being drafted into the army to fight reflected the social and economic problems present in America at the time. $21 billion was spent on the war, money which could have been used to provide better education, housing and wages for black people. When King spoke out against the war it not only “heightened tensions between himself and the NAACP”, but ruined his relations with President Johnson. The war created tensions between civil rights groups as they had divided opinions on whether Americans should be fighting in Vietnam or not. The rising tensions between groups such as the SCLC, NAACP, SNCC and CORE were another factor contributing towards the failures of the civil rights movement during the 1960s.

During the 1960s the ideology of peaceful protesting had been replaced by that of black power, groups that once followed the ‘turn the other cheek’ principle introduced by Martin Luther King had decided to reject non-violence and radicalise their group. White members were excluded as certain groups such as SNCC decided that they preferred the separatist ideas promoted firstly by Marcus Garvey in the early 20th century, adopted by the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X later on. They protested their constitutional ‘right to bear arms’ and this could be seen when the Black Panthers engaged in their ‘Patrol the Pigs’ campaign. These new tactics proved to be detrimental to the civil rights movement according to Vivienne Sanders: “ The rectitude of King’s philosophy of working with whites was demonstrated when CORE and SNCC precipitated their self-destruction by expelling whites during 1966-67”. This point relates back to the statistics previously mentioned as white benefactors had a lot of power over the funding of civil rights groups therefore the loss of white sympathy was destructive to the cause.

Although the tensions within the civil rights movement were proven to have a negative effect, there were some positive outcomes: The NUL’s Whitney Young proclaimed that “every time Malcolm X or Carmichael criticised the NUL it became easier to work with white politicians”. This gave the NUL a better reputation as they were seen as a more respectable organisation.

In conclusion both the opposing forces alongside other factors such as the Vietnam War and the tensions within the civil rights movement were responsible for the failures of the civil rights movement during the 1960s. The opposition that civil rights groups faced meant that it was difficult to get funding and relations with the federal government worsened. However factors such as the Vietnam war meant that huge amounts of money that could have contributed to improving living conditions of black Americans were wasted, and tensions between groups led to ideas of separatism and in turn gave black activists a poor reputation.

Ultimately, the social and economic problems faced by America combined with the Vietnam War meant that black Americans were not provided with enough money for acceptable housing or education. Despite pressure from all of the civil rights groups, it was difficult to enforce this sort of change as people were not prepared to invest in improving civil rights for black Americans, which led to many failures of civil rights groups during the 60s.