In the next Chapter Two Chapters ,he looks at the two extremes of the responses to the conception and practice of black inequality, protest and accommodation, he illustrates two Black Americans who epitomized to two diverging conceptions of how the society should be organized, Ida .B Wells and Booker .T. Washington.
Chapter 2 is dedicated to the work and protest of the colored Journalist Ida B. Wells and her campaign against Lynching, he also address's the formation of women's clubs and groups of colored descent, and the raising of international awareness of the inhumanities of lynching in Southern America. Fairclough described her campaign against lynching as the starting point in the modern civil rights struggle, the beginnings of the first organized fight against the concept of white supremacy.
The chapter describes the harsh realities of lynching as a method of justice and the general apathy and unofficial acceptance as a method of justice in the southern states.. He makes clear to mention that it was accepted by both the people and the officials as a method of justice and the detention of perpetrators were never forthcoming, despite the fact that many of the perpetrators were boastful of their deeds.
The ideological justification of lynching was the fact that the black man was savage brute, it was justification for deny blacks the vote, discrimination. In the workplace, discrimination in their ability to be juries and it expresses the need for strict segregation by stressing black sexuality and the awful consequences of social equality, which was seen as the rape of white women and the hand's of black men.
He points out that during the 1880's the black organisations, did little more that denounce the process of lynching, and their responses were cautious and apologetic. It was Ida B.Wells an outspoken Journalist who challenged the idea of lynching as a justification of rape, even denying that lynching was a form of justice against rape but it was a method of terror and inhumanity to surpress the economic progress of the black man because of the fears of economic displacement, if the black man advanced.
Wells started her journalism career as an unpaid contributor to a local black newspaper. Soon she was expanding her base by selling articles to newspapers such as the, 'the American Baptist', 'The Indianapolis world,' 'the Kansas City dispatch' and the 'New York Freedman'. In 1889, she became part owner and editor of the Memphis free speech. Wells openly depicted the idea of Black men raping white women but put for the few of a consensual sexual act between the two parties in once of her article. The south retaliated, threatening to hang the writer of the article. Her two business partners fled and she moved to the North to avoid retribution. Her migration to the north allowed her galvanize the artrocies of lynching and there she gained support for her movement against the inhumane method of lynching.
In 1895, she published a Red Record that investigated the circumstances surrounded the occurrence of lynching and he was revealed that only 1/3 of the lynching cases in the south there was ever a justification of rape, this emphasized her point of the brutality of the process and lackluster justification.
She was pivotal in raising international awareness of the inhumanities against lynching .Her 1893 trip to London helped to gained disapproval for the brutality of the process and embarrassed the united states on the international stage. Her most important allies emerged in the 1890's with the formation of black women’s clubs and in1896 the National association of colored women was formed. By 1900 the NACW had 18,000 members in 300 local clubs. She was directly involved in the formation of the Women's Loyal Union. These clubs supported Wells attack on lynching echoing her denial that rape was either a justification or a cause .In raisin the subject of interracial sex Wells challenged the stereotype of the depraved, lubricious Negro.Wells made an enormous contribution to the, modern civil rights struggle he impact was felt and her arousal of international attention helped in the process of the decline of lynching.
By 1985 Booker T. Washington ,emerged giving his famous Atlanta Compromise speech which crystallized the trend towards accommodation, he urged blacks to abandon agitation and for new settlement was proposed between the races a settlement of accommodation. Booker T. Washington was a living refutation of White Americas degrading image of the black man. His unflagging efforts to mend the rift between the black man and the white earned a reputation as a statesman as well as an education and by the time of his death in 1915 he was the most powerful black leader in America.
Washington preached the ideology of economic cooperation and offered two concessions .The first was the admission that radical reconstruction had been a mistake believing that blacks had started from the top instead of at the bottom and had devoted too much energy to politics neglecting the skills of habit and industry. The second concession to white assurance was the fact that blacks were not looking for social equality and many white saw this an endorsement to racial segregation.
Though challenged and critiqued Washington put forth a positive program for economic cooperation .He urged blacks to stay in the south concentrate on working hard rather than agitating for their rights and cultivate friendly relations with the white southerners. Washington’s Atlanta comprise ushered in a new era of race relations but as the 19th century gave way to the 20th century and the position of blacks did not improve he was criticized by a small but influential group that later from the NAACP. They claimed that the Atlanta compromise was not a compromise at all but blacks made all the concessions and whites made nothing. The compromise seemed more to illustrate and emphasize the fact of white supremacy.
According to Fairclough, Washington strategies for black process rested upon his Tuskegee Institute and the idea it represented. It arrived in Alabama in 1881 and was administered only by black persons. In creating, a wholly black operated schools; Washington was making a powerful statement of racial equality. It was proud symbol of hope to Blacks Africans and West Indians.
Fairclough in his fourth chapter describes the Rise Of The NAACP; this organisation spearheaded the black struggle for equality and became one of the most influential organisations of reform in American history. On May 31st 1909 a array of eminent American gathered in New York city to attend the National Conference on the Negro and they denounced the growing oppression and brutality that blacks were enduring.
The men and women who formed the NAACP were typical of the Progressive era (1980-1917) .The whites within the organisation were affluent old stock American, protestant, socialist, they lived in the big cites and many were descended from the abolitionist movement. The blacks were also well educated and of relatively high economic standing. Howe ever Fairclough indicates that those who formed the movement differed from the conventional progressives who had little interest in Black America.
The NACCP ideology was a rejection of total racism, they believed in the equality of all humanity beyond the lines of color. The moved repudiated Booker T. Washington’s claim of advancement through accommodation and there was a call for agitation against oppression. The conference insisted on a strict adherence to the constitution and equality.
However Fairclough concludes that the NAACP was and unbalanced and uneasy relationship between whites and blacks. Whites were well represented on the 30-member board but the three essential positions of prominence were held by whites. This made it uneasy in the eyes of it s critics but it was W.E Bois presence and support of the movement that aided their credibility as an organization geared toward the advancement of Black America.
W.E Bois was a well educated Colored defender of Black equality versed in the arts he was an ardent critic of Booker T. Washington’s accommodation program. . He believed that true emancipation would not come along through economic striving alone. DuBois idea of the talented tenth as a cultured broadminded leadership, that would fight for equal rights .His views were in direct opposite to Washington as he believed that no amount of economic wealth could counter the loss of education or the right to vote.
The Niagara Movement formed in 1905 was the first collective attempt by African Americans to demand full citizenship rights in the 20th century. However Fairclough saw this movement as failing to be a beckon of black protest as it also demonstrated the flaws that accompanies DuBois's leadership in the fact that its roots were in the Northern States and was ill trusted by black southerners.
Fairclough attributes the race riot of 1906, which took place in Atlanta, as an important, mark in the failure of the Niagara movement as it demoralized the Atlanta leadership and gave Washington a platform on which to reassert his influence in the black community. The failure of the Niagara movement allowed for the progression of the NAACP and DuBois as it spokesman.
The NAACP pursued a line of aggressive litigation. Fairclough illustrated the fire of the movement, and the increased support of the movement that was demonstrated by the increase in the number of members. In 1916 the membership stood at 8,785 with 8 branches spread throughout the north and south. Fairclough claimed that the death of Booker T.Washington opened up a vacuum that was filled by the NAACP,but this did not mean unity as a number of blacks especially in the south were reluctant to the issue of open agitation.
Fairclough deals with The Impact Of The First World War on the community of blacks in Chapter 5. As it inspired blacks with hopes that this war would end white supremacy as the civil war had ended slavery. The great war, according to Fairclough had a number of effects on Black America .The first and was most notable was the great Migration to the Northern States he attributed this to the economic opportunities created by the outbreak of the war, industries that had previously excluded blacks, opened their doors to them during the great war.
Fairclough makes the important point that though Economic opportunity may have been a pull factor in this migration politics played and influential role as he attributes this to the fact of decades of oppression in the Southern States.He also notes that the war present a renewed effort at agitation, due to the racial segregation in the military. This led to more militant attitudes, as the blacks became more resentful to racial discrimination at home so were the whites in their determination to blacks repressed. The migration resulted in a vicious backlash by white America as they saw the black movement as a threat to their economic security. On July 2nd 1917 in Houston, a brutal race riot insured that left 40 blacks dead and eight whites dead, this illustrated the intensity of the tension in the migration process.
There was clear military segregation Fairclough draws reference to the fact that 80% of the blacks were assigned to labor battalions and comprised of 1/3 of the armies pick and shovel workers. He attributes this to the militancy in America on their return the bitterness of their discrimination changed the political landscape and transformed black aspirations .This militancy was captured by Jamaican born Marcus Garvey leader and founder of the UNIA The Universal Negro Improvement Association. The powers of DuBois and Garvey helped to translate black agitation internally into an international affair.
In the Post World War scenario the NAACP began to grow in the southern states, The militancy manifested itself in the formation of labor unions and organized protest. The climate of the period after the Great War was tense. The backlash was even tenser Fairclough describes the read summer of 1919 to emphasis this point in the racial tension within society. As it exploded in violence and lychying to both north and south. During this period as well, the Interracial Cooperation, committee was formed to end racial violence and facilitate corporation.
The sixth chapter entailed Marcus Garvey and the UNIA reflects on the creation of a mass movement, the first of it kind integrating black America. It was a nationalist movement of international dimensions. Garveyism was built upon the idea of the superiority of the black race dismissing notions of black inferiority. Gravy a fiery orator was able to enthrall mass support for the concept of Africa for the Africans. Fairclough accounts the rapidity of the rise of Garveyism to the death of Booker T Washington and the UNIA ability to showcase the strength of an all black organisation, as the NAACP had failed because of it white membership.
Garvey embraced the idea of Racial Segregation am advocated separatism, he advocated racial purity, and he advocated the accomodationist philosophy of Washington. This in move was discredited his legitimacy, the failure of the black Starline and the Libya movement all helped in the disintegration of the movement of Garveyism. He also attributes the changing direction of the Garvey philosophy as one of the major reasons for the failure of the movement, the most erroneous action on the part of Garvey according to Fairclough was the fact that he admitted to holding secret talks in Atlanta with the imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan this was viewed as an act of betrayal by the black community to the idea of black nationalism. This new program adopted by the Garvey movement was attacked vigorously. In addition, the anti Garvey movement was launched comprised of members of the NAACP and other official. They attempted to discredit Garvey's character and 1927 he was deported to Jamaica on the basis of Mail Fraud. Fairclough makes pains to portray the movement as a mass movement of international proportions demonstrating the fact that the movement was spreading throughout the world and the British empires concern with the movement as they viewed it as a threat to the status quo within their own colonies
Chapter 7 The Radical Thirties attempts to capture the radicalism that sweep across America during the great depression that country face in the 1930's. The chapter captures the sprit of the Swelling tensions and the rise of communist as an avenue for social and economic redress. Fairclough attributes he rise of the Communism as a ideology of change to the Scottsboro affair he uses this a means of illustrating the rise of the party as a deliverer of justice and their ability to fight for a cause and their willingness to take on the cause of the black population. He also indicated the growing faction between the NAACP ad the Communist party during this period again indicating the spilt in the movement of the black population. He views the communist party as being an avenue of change especially when both white and black America where suffering immense economic hardship. He puts forth the view that the NAAACP was an inadequate organisation during this period of economic distress as they failed to realize the climate of the nation and their emphasis of civil rights created a vacuum that the communist was able to fill with them advocating of bettering the economic conditions of the working class.
The 1930's saw mass action on the part of blacks through labor unions. The most powerful example according to Fairclough was the autonomous action taken by the Brotherhood Of Sleeping Car Porters. In 1935, the BSCP signed a contract with the Pullman Company who was very antiunion, gaining substantial benefits for their member. Under the leadership of Phillip Randolph the BSCP was able to make of one of the most triumph conclusions to one of the longest negotiating process and in the this action they gained one of the most important recognition in the American Labor Movement they were the first Black organisation to gain recognition to by the American Labor Movement .Its victory embodied a contradiction between means and ends and bedeviled the struggle for equality.
The formation of the National Negro Congress and their attempted Mass March on Washington inn 1941 allowed for the Executive Order 8802 which allowed for the elimination of discrimination of blacks in defense industries and government agencies. The order was an affirmative commitment to racial equality by the government of the United States.
However by 1945 the radicalism associated with the communist ideology had run it course as the cold war action characterized by the Mc Cathyerism commemece. Therefore eliminating the communist Ideology as an alternative to change.
Chapter 8 raises the issue of the black situation in the south between the period 1919-1942. The struggle for racial equality can be chronicled in terms of agitation and protest, courtroom confrontation and non-violent progress. In the segregated south during the heyday of white supremacy, which lasted until about 1950 blacks rarely, challenged whites without indiscriminate brutality as a reaction. Nevertheless, Fairclough describes methods in which blacks adopted to ensure their survival within the confines of white supremacy.
He describes that their freedom was to organize under the banner of Racial Uplift. Behind the walls of segregation, they built parallel institutions, Racial Upliftment represented one step forward, but two steps backward, as they adopted tactics of indirection, and they worked for shortime improvement within their separated world.
Women played and important role in bridging the color lines viewed as less threatening than men they were able to coordinate with white women attempt to instruct reform. At a special meeting in Memphis in 1920 the women’s arm of The Commission On Interracial Cooperation and The Women’s Missionary Council Of The Methodist Church made a genuine landmark in the interracial movement. It represented the idea of cooperation, despite the fact, that the meeting failed to organize any program it represented an ideal. In 1930, a group of 26 women initiated the most significant campaign against racial discrimination. The Association Of Southern Women For The Prevention Of Lynching and by 1941 these women were able to secure 1,355 pledges by white policemen and sheriffs to protect the rights of prisoners.
Fairclough puts forth the view that interracial cooperative movements had always been a poor substitute for political action, as it was viewed an institution geared towards preserving the status quo rather than changing it. He claims that the CIC necessitated in order appeasing southern whites, which was a basic contradiction at the heart of the interracial co-operation movement.
Education, revealed the ambiguities of thee campaign for better schools .The education system was a battle for blacks, black southerners since the commencement of the reconstruction program depended on white philanthropy to fund many of their institutions. However, despite the raise and improvement in education it was scarified at the cost of greater bureaucratic control by southern whites.
However, education was seen as having the long-range effect of nourishing and strengthening the Negro protest, Black schools, and colleges encouraged political awareness by teaching literacy. Education inspired self worth, ambition, and a desire for liberation.
In chapter 9 “The NAACP's Challenge To White Supremacy, 1935-45, Fairclough attempts to put forth the claim that even in the deep south during the zenith of white supremacy, some black southern protests against Jim crow. There was subtle resistance by indirect means and those who agitated openly to racial discrimination.
In this chapter, he attributes the rise of the early civil rights movement to the growth of the NAACP as a mass organization. Many of the NAACP critics viewed the organization as comprising of mainly upper and middle class men and women who were not intouch with the masses but Fairclough skillfully articles that this was necessary as the men and women who led this organization had to be economically independent of whites in order to perpetuate the cause of the movement .the rise of the NAACP was attributed to the growth in labor unions and their integrating into the NAACP, by 1946 there was over 500,000 many of whom had already participated in open agitation under their respective unions.
Fairclough employs the point that the Second World War bought with it employment, and turned the pacific coast into an economic colossus. Again, black America pressed their claim of equal citizenship. However, the attitudes of white America were stringent. The Second World War bought jobs but not equality. The executive order of 1941 was viewed as the greatest victory since the emancipation however the formation of the Fair Employment Practice Committee that was issued was sabotaged by the attitude of racial America, demonstrating that racial tension were paramount during the 1940's. This tension according to Fairclough was not limited to employment practices and industries only .It extended to the military as well, while America portrayed the image of equality during the War it remained highly divided, this resulted in tension and violence within the military ranks. An issue, which escalated during the war, was the segregation issue, and According To Fairclough, the issue loomed large under wartime pressure and the incident of violence was pervasive.
The fight to end their disenfranchisement in the south proved to be the most important struggle in the black fight against inequality. the new deal of the 1930’s demonstrated to the black population the necessity of the right to vote. During World War 2, the campaign to vote paralleled the explosive growth of the NAACP, as black civic leagues agitated for and end to disenfranchisement of the black population.
The NACCP had always litigation as a mechanism of redress against the inequality in American society. He deemed this as the second emancipation of the black population to the work of Charles.H.Houston and Thurgood Marshall and their litigation proceedings against racial equality. The NAACP was careful not to attack the constitutionality of segregation because of the consequence of losing. As it might reaffirm the Plessy, v. Ferguson, separate but equal precedent. However, they attempted to attack the Jim Crow at the most vulnerable point that was public education but comparing the state of white school those of blacks, the NAACP was able to attack the inequalities in public education. The landmark litigation of Smith V Allright in 1941 ruled that white primacy constituted illegal discrimination this resulted in a mass of black registration to the polls but the white attitude prevailed and it was not until another 20 years that black Southerners would secure their rights to vote.
Chapter 10 entitled One Step Forward Two Steps Back, puts for the view that the period after the First World War there was a steady advance for the black southerner. They benefited from improvements in education as well as after the Smith v. Allright case; there was an increase in voter registration. By 1952, the electorate in the south consisted of 1 million black voters. He claims that after 1950, economic, political and ideological changes were reordering southern society and eroding the foundation of white domination. Economically the south was being transformed in industrial, urban center which gnawed at the system of equality he also claims that they was a change in the realm of philosophy as white supremacy had become and anachronism.
He put forth the vie that the Cold War, had forced the federal government to confront racism as a national issue, and president Truman and the supreme court gradually set in place a new national policy. As the president set up a committee on civil rights and the Supreme Court made the landmark ruling of the Brown V. Board Of Education case. On may 19,1954 the supreme court ruled hat in the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. This set a precedent for and integration process in the education system. Nevertheless, in realty the NAACP who negotiated this victory against white supremacy realized that his was a fight to be implemented. The whites organized themselves in Citizen's Councils to reject the civil rights movement .The result was that schools remained separated. However the Brown decision was a landmark in the civil rights movement it destroyed the legal basis for separation.
Chapter 11 describes The Non Violent Rebellion 1955-60 and its impact on the civil rights movement .He prescribes the Montgomery Bus boycott of 1955-1956 as the most unified attempted at solidarity, it represent the will of the masses to reject the institution of segregation. The boycott according to Fairclough was a logical extension of the developing black freedom struggle and a historical break through. The protest called fort the courteous treatment of black passenger, the elimination of the back to rear seating for colored persons and the employment of black bus drivers on routes that went through predominately black neighborhoods. The black community revealed tremendous resilience in the Boycott. The MIA took a decision to challenge the segregation laws in court. In addition, in 1956 it was ruled that city state and bus segregation laws were unconstitutional and on 20th June 1956 when the order became effective black passenger sat where they wanted. The Montgomery bus boycott was a physiological turning point in the battle for civil rights.
Martin Luther King Jr. had rose to the relms of the MIA movement during the boycott and his presence cultivated, a new union between black churches and the civil rights movement. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference filled he vacuum of the NAACP when had ceased all operations in Alabama after the Boycott incident, they were and indigenous southern movement and it emphasis and base was the black church. The basic idea was simple the SCLC would promote mass action throughout the south and attack segregation and disenfranchisement across the south.
The student sit ins of the 1960's represented a new phase in the civil rights movement according to Fairclough. It developed as a regional based activities and were more confrontational with segregation. Students physically challenged the Jim Crow using their bodies I the way of segregation. The sit in movement made a massive dent in the structure of segregation. In the Deep South, crushed by violence and arrest they failed to integrate the counters. However, in the upper south and in the rim south states of Florida and Texas they proved effective. The disruption caused by the sit ins and the consumer effects of boycotts hurt the dime of the stores an their resistance dwindled and by March 19, 1960 San Antonio Texas became the first city to integrate their lunch counters, Nashville did so in May and by the end of 1960 over 80 cities and towns agreed to serve blacks.
On April 15-17, 1960, the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee was formed (SNCC) Like the SCLC, SNCC believed that confrontation, and direct action not litigation was the best way forward for the civil rights movement. The King as leader of the SCLC had established himself as the black leader of the south and the SNCC had established itself as the cutting edge of the civil rights movement.
Chapter 12 describes the civil rights movement during the years 1960 to 63, Fairclough concentrates on the Kennedy's administration program towards black, the freedom rides of the early 60's and the SNCC voter registration campaign in southern Mississippi which was viewed as the helm of white supremacy. According to Fairclough white supremacy as a formal system collapsed with suddenness between 1960 and 1965 that it vied by many that the civil rights movement was pushing against an open door. Yet, before 1963 it appeared that the civil rights movement was not going always in the face of white supremacy.
According to Fairclough the Kennedy, administration civil rights program was modest in scope. It relied upon executive action to combat racial discrimination within the federal government.
With respect to the freedom rides of 1961, he puts forth the view that that it was the clearest demonstration that the civil rights movement could reap huge dividends by deliberately invoking white violence. Launched by the congress on racial equality on May 4th 1961,the freedom rides challenged segregation in interstate travel. The action of the freedom riders aroused mass opposition by with citizenry as well as law enforcement officials, but the inability of the federal government to stop the freedom riders forced the Kennedy administration to act against it will on the issue. By instructing the Justice department to prod the Interstate Commerce Commission to ban the segregation and discrimination in interstate, travel.
The Mississippi voter program represented a direct challenge to white power and became and intensive program of the entire civil rights movement. Because of the fact that the state had the largest proportions of blacks to whites but still has the smallest black electoral list, proved that their was an extremely white supremacist attitude in the country. The SNCC concentrated their efforts in this area and they viewed that the Kennedy administration had a moral obligation to take action and play a active role, because of the setting up of a federal funded Voter Education Committee in 1962. But according to Fairclough the stark realties of political power was revealed with the governments refusal to aid against the discrimination of the state.
Fairclough also speaks about the Albany movement, which attacked every facet of racial discrimination, demanding fair employment an and end to police brutality. In addition, the desegregation of buses and the public areas. Its board membership, militant tactics, comprehensive goals and alliance of local and outside leadership made the movement the first of its kind, and it profoundly influence the subsequent development of the civil rights movement. The movement stumbled along its way and abused the Civil Rights Movement of its more romantic notions about nonviolence. The movement was faced by federal refusal to intervene and the city of Albany was granted and injunction against all demonstrators.
In Chapter 13 Fairclough deals with 3 major incidents in black history that helped in changing the landscape of the civil rights movement .The first is the Birmingham campaign against segregation, between April 3rd and may 8 th 1963 an attack was launched at the segregationist pollicies of the state. , Protest and mass meetings were held and Martin Luther King as well as 3,300 persons went to jail. On 10th march the city business leaders, with the promise of segregating the stores signed an agreement. Many of the leaders were not satisfied with this move but Birmingham as one of the segregated cities in the south, a little desegregation amount to alot. And the civil rights movement knew that if Birmingham faltered so to would other cities .In a three week period of the Birmingham campaign, campaigns spread across many cities and the justice department recorded that 143 cities had agreed to some for of integration. According to Fairclough Birmingham and its shock waves shattered that sense of normality and it banished the illusion that Southern blacks were docile and apathetic and that they would put up with segregation indefinitely.
The other issue of significance he addresses is the Kennedy administration as the attempts of the passage of the civil rights bill Before the assassination of President Kennedy he lobbied congress for a passage of the civil rights bill but he assassination preempted the passage. It was his Successor President Johnson that passed the bill on July 2 1964, it banned discrimination in employment, federally assisted programs, public facilities and public accommodation .The act empowered the government to initiate law suits to desegregate southern school districts and to without funds from reluctant school bards .It set up an equal opportunities council and created a community relations service to mediate racial problems. According To Fairclough, the bill was a significant milestone but it did not protect citizens from violence of the fact of disenfranchisement.
Fairclough goes on to deal with occurrences in Selma and the voter rights act of 1964, according to Fairclough Selma epitomized the scandal of black disenfranchisement. Out of a population of 15000 blacks, only 335 were registered to vote. The Selma incident revealed the atrocious of white violence against non violent approaches of agitation, many historians have claimed that the tactic employed by the SNCC were not tactics of nonviolence but those of provocation to force changes. Despite the debate, change is what occurred, thousands marched and 3 dead the federal government enacted the voter's right act, which disallowed literacy test and good character requirements in any state or country where less that half the voting age population were registered voters or actually voted in the 1964 presidential elections. The voting act, Fairclough describes as the crowing achievement of the civil rights movement as it enfranchised black southerner and democratized the south ending the era of Jim Crow.
Chapter 14 The Rise And Fall Of The Black Power Movement outlines the rioting and the getto revolution as Fairclough classifies it, it attributes that the notion of black power grew out of distress and oppressed black population in both the north and the south. And the inability of the north blacks to be cultivated into the campaign of non violence that Martin Luther king employed .Segregation and discriminated characterized the northern states thus this period this was by Martin Luther king when the SCLC moved their campaign to Chicago, the campaign in Chicago was revelation to the king as he realized that the civil rights movement had underestimated the depth and tenacity of racism.
In the North Bitterness and disillusionment seemed to rule, the Nation Of Islam under the tenacious publicizing of Malcolm X filled the void that the SCLC could not. Malcolm was a fiery speaker with charisma he was able to capture the mood of north at a time of disillusion providing an alternative. His emphasis on racial pride contradicted with the civil rights movement, as he insisted that black American purged themselves from of the false consciousness they had adopted. He also stressed the African dimension of the American identity and the movement due inspirations from the African nationalist movement. His third contribution was his outspoken advocacy of violence he condemned non-violence as cowardly and ineffective insisting that black people had a right to defend themselves. He insisted that violence had to be central to black liberation. The fourth ingredient according to Fairclough was his popularity and approach to blackmanhood. He presented and exaggerated of the traditional family of women obeying men and men as the protected of black womanhood against white men.
However, as the Civil Rights movement challenged the Jim Crow he became increasingly dissatisfied with the NOI 's apolitical stance. The leader of the NOI, Elijah Muhammad viewed his popularity and ambition with suspicion and on March 8th 1964, Malcolm X quit the organisation. Founding his own church, Muslim Mosque Inc. and his own political group the Organization of Afro American Unity. He assumed a new leadership role modifying his views on violence he advocated acts of violence in corrobation with the act of self-defense and the protection of ones family.According to Fairclough Malcolm X was the key individual in the transformation of African American political thought between 1964-1966,every element of black power was anticipated in his speeches.
Fairclough accredits the SNCC for the rise of the Black Power movement in the United States as the members of the SNCC had become increasingly demoralized by there shortcomings they attempted to adopt a new political strategy. Moreover, they elected Stokely Carmicheal a Trinidadian, to do so. As leader of the recently organized Loendes County Freedom organization, he was more militant in his views, the new look of the SNCC thus abandoned it program of non violence. Carmicheal the term Black Power coined an in June 1966 at the Meredith March in Mississippi.
Black power appealed to the growing sense of blacks; it naturally was a logical extension of the Civil rights movement according to Fairclough. As having achieved legal equality, blacks needed to unite and to organize effectively in order to maximize their political and economic power.
By 1967 financial woos hampered the SNCC but to harness the emotion and the need for change arose a new movement typified as the Black Panther party. Founded in Oakland, California by Huey.P. Newton and Bobby Steal it espoused an elective mixture of black nationalism. The BPP's ten point program combined reformist, revolutionary and nationalist demands. While the, movement helped in cultivating strength and belief in the idea of nationalism and blacks ability to protect themselves by the use of arms. The black Power disintegrated due to FBI interference and the self-indulgent nature of its leaders. According to Fairclough the assassination of martin Luther, King removed the one person who had the capacity to unify the black population and bridge the racial divide.
Fairclough entitled chapter 15 as The Continuing Struggle and in this chapter, he summarized the present day condition of black America and the impact of the civil rights movement of the previous decades. But he maintains that he persistence of racial inequality is existence, he using the points of education and the abilities of blacks to be employed to prove his view, he writes that 13% of blacks in the 1980'd were less likely to obtain managerial and professional occupations. He also indicated the high level of poverty and growth of a black majority underclass to compound his point.
He also speaks about the political vulnerability of black American, with the disintegration of the civil rights organization, the political character of black political strategy disintegrated as they became subdue into the two party alignment. Fairclough puts forth the view that the movements of the civil rights period enhanced the legal position of the black population but there is a new era yet to be hatched as the crisis continues up to 2000.
Fairclough has attempted to analysis and illustrate from the end of postwar Reconstruction in the South to the rise and fall of Black Power, in the book Better Day coming. Adam Fairclough presents a straightforward synthesis of the century-long struggle of black Americans to achieve civil rights and equality in the United States. Throughout, Fairclough presents a judicious interpretation of historical events that balances the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement against the persistence of racial and economic inequalities, that persisted in the Southern and Northern States of the United States of America
