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Week 15: Civil Rights & Black Radicalism — Transcript

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0:01Hello everybody and welcome back. Last
0:04week we looked at the early civil rights
0:06movement as it developed from those
0:08seeds of organization towards uh
0:10movements of mass mobilization. We saw
0:13the emergence of leaders like Ella Baker
0:16and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who
0:19despite having different opinions on the
0:20approach to civil rights activism helped
0:23to bring about very important new
0:25organizations such as the SCC or the
0:29Southern Christian Leadership
0:30Conference. Um and this massive
0:32expansion of activism against continued
0:35and systemic discrimination in the
0:38workplace, politics, in housing, and
0:40elsewhere pushed these organiz these
0:43organizers to uh march on Washington for
0:47jobs and freedom in 1963, which is where
0:50we left off with the civil rights
0:52movement reaching over 250,000
0:55participants at a single event meant to
0:58call out social, economic, and political
1:00injustice. ices. Today we will continue
1:03with our narrative of the civil rights
1:05movement as it grew through the 60s and
1:0770s splintering off into different
1:10approaches and into new phases.
1:14By the early 1960s, even as major
1:17legislative victories like the Civil
1:18Rights Act of 1964 were won, many
1:22African-Americans remained trapped in
1:24poverty, subjected to police brutality,
1:27and excluded from meaningful political
1:30and economic participation.
1:33This disconnect between these civil
1:35rights victories and the daily lived
1:38experiences of black Americans combined
1:41with ongoing global decolonization
1:44movements. These all set the stage for a
1:47new phase of the black freedom struggle,
1:49the rise of black power.
1:52So, let's begin with our case study for
1:54today. As the traditional civil rights
1:58movement increasingly faced the limits
2:00of non-violent protest and gradual legal
2:03reforms, a new and more radical figure
2:06rose to prominence, Malcolm X,
2:10born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska
2:12in 1925. Malcolm's family was active in
2:16the United Negro Improvement
2:18Association, which was the Black
2:20Nationalist Movement founded by Marcus
2:23Garvey, who we investigated earlier in
2:25the semester.
2:26But Malcolm's childhood would be marked
2:29by tragedy as his father died in an
2:32alleged accident and his mother was
2:34institutionalized to an asylum. Malcolm
2:38and his siblings were separated and
2:40placed into foster homes. And Malcolm
2:43was told by his teachers growing up that
2:45it would be unrealistic for him to
2:47aspire to higher education due to his
2:49race. And he withdrew from formal
2:52schooling and was eventually arrested
2:55for petty burglary. And while in prison,
2:59he became involved with a religious
3:01group named the Nation of Islam, which
3:04was a group committed to black
3:06nationalism and the African diaspora.
3:10And as a result of this experience,
3:13where others spoke of integration within
3:16the civil rights movement, Malcolm X
3:18spoke of black nationalism,
3:21where others sought acceptance within
3:23American institutions, Malcolm X called
3:25for self-determination and pride and
3:28these international alliances.
3:32His critiques and his vision profoundly
3:34shaped the black power movement, which
3:36would dominate the late 1960s. So as I
3:40said, Malcolm X rose to prominence uh
3:43because of his connections with the
3:44Nation of Islam where he would become a
3:46minister and this combined these ideas
3:49of black nationalism with Muslim
3:51religious teachings.
3:53However, by 1964, Malcolm X had become
3:56disillusioned with the Nation of Islam
3:59due to their political neutrality,
4:01causing Malcolm to break away from the
4:03organization and to found the
4:05Organization of Afroamerican Unity or
4:08the O AU,
4:10which was a secular group designed to
4:13address black economic development to
4:16promote black political participation
4:18within and without outside of the
4:20mainstream American institutions.
4:23All of which strengthened Malcolm X's
4:25push for those international alliances
4:28with African and Asian nations.
4:33Malcolm X believed that the fight for
4:35African-American freedom had to be
4:37elevated beyond civil rights to an
4:40argument of human rights.
4:43Civil rights, he argued, confined black
4:46grievances within an American framework
4:48which had been controlled by white
4:50elites. Human rights claims, by
4:53contrast, could be taken to the United
4:56Nations and supported by those newly
4:59independent African and Asian nations.
5:03And at one of these organizations, um,
5:05at the 1964 Cairo conference of the
5:09Organization of African Unity, Malcolm X
5:12declared, quote, "Our problem is not an
5:15American problem. It is a human
5:18problem."
5:19So his internationalist perspective
5:22connected black Americans to a global
5:25anti-colonial movement, further
5:28distancing Malcolm's ideas from
5:30traditional integrationist civil rights
5:33bulls.
5:36So his ideology was rooted in black
5:39nationalism, the belief that
5:41African-Americans constituted a distinct
5:44people whose survival and prosperity
5:47depended upon self-reliance.
5:50And this was drawing from long
5:52traditions of black self-help. Malcolm X
5:55encouraged African-Americans to build
5:58their own hospitals, their own schools,
6:00their own businesses, and he urged black
6:03communities to pull together their
6:05resources and create a self- sustaining
6:08economy that that that did not rely on
6:11the white systems of uh economic and
6:15social oppression.
6:18Unlike leaders such as Martin Luther
6:20King Jr., Malcolm dismissed nonviolent
6:24direct action as ultimately inadequate
6:28and perhaps humiliating.
6:31He saw nonviolence as submission,
6:34arguing that oppressors would never
6:36voluntarily relinquish power. He was uh
6:40famous for claiming that quote,
6:41"Revolution is never based on begging
6:44somebody for an integrated cup of
6:47coffee. revolutions are based upon
6:50bloodshed.
6:52His militant stance deeply resonated
6:55with uh younger activists who were
6:57frustrated with the slow pace of change
7:00even after victories like the Civil
7:02Rights Act of 1964, which we'll talk
7:05more about later in this lecture.
7:08With this ideology, Malcolm X also fell
7:11into a belief of male superiority within
7:15the black power movement.
7:17He claimed for instance that men should
7:20respect their women. However, at the
7:22same time he proposed that men should
7:25control um black women in order to gain
7:29their respect and that women were by
7:32their nature fragile and weak. These
7:35arguments of male superiority coming out
7:37of the black power movement which we'll
7:40expand upon more later in the lecture.
7:42but while at the same time taking steps
7:44to dispel pop culture standards of
7:47beauty as having been associated with
7:50white American women. Um arguing that
7:52black women and black men could also
7:55reach these standards of beauty.
7:59On February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X was
8:03assassinated by members of the Nation of
8:05Islam, ending his life, but unleashing
8:08his ideas even more powerfully across
8:11the Black Freedom Movement. His radical
8:15critiques of American racism, his
8:17demands for dignity and independence,
8:20his call for black pride became
8:23foundational to the emerging black power
8:26movement, offering a bold alternative
8:30uh to the mainstream civil rights
8:32movement. So his insistence on
8:35self-determination, on racial pride, on
8:38international solidarity and armed
8:41self-defense, all of these transformed
8:44the ideological landscape of black
8:46America.
8:49Now I want us to take a half step back.
8:54After the March on Washington, there was
8:56immense pressure from Washington DC to
8:59act and they did. President Lyndon B.
9:03Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of
9:051964, which legally outlawed
9:08discrimination in public accommodations
9:11and in employment, especially through
9:14what are called Title 7 provisions,
9:16which outlawed bias in hiring based on
9:20race, religion, sex, or national origin.
9:23And I do not want to understate this
9:25law. Its passage was one of the most
9:28important pieces of civil rights
9:30legislation since reconstruction.
9:33However, the act did little to address
9:36problems like police brutality or
9:38economic inequality or housing
9:40segregation, issues which deeply
9:43affected the day-to-day lives of black
9:45Americans.
9:47And by 1964, despite these legal
9:50victories, African-Americans remained
9:53twice as likely to be unemployed as
9:55whites and continue to experience state
9:58sanctioned violence. So many activists
10:02realized that simply being integrated
10:05into American society did not guarantee
10:08justice or freedom. Broader systemic
10:12change would be needed in their view.
10:15And those international developments,
10:17particularly the independence of new
10:20African nations, bolstered a global
10:24consciousness among black Americans,
10:27encouraging them to look beyond white
10:29America for inspiration and for
10:32solidarity.
10:35So across the country, different groups
10:37in this period will emerge, each
10:39embodying uh different aspects of the
10:42evolving black power philosophy.
10:45One such movement was the Cambridge
10:46Nonviolent Action Committee or CNAC
10:50which was founded in 1962 in Cambridge,
10:53Maryland.
10:55While initially focused on desegregating
10:58public accommodations, the CNAC quickly
11:01expanded to economic demands to jobs,
11:05public housing, and fair treatment uh in
11:08and outside of the courts.
11:10And after violent white backlash, the
11:14CNAC activists abandoned their strict
11:17nonviolence clauses as leaders such as
11:20Gloria Richardson uh came to find these
11:23as inadequate. And Gloria Richardson
11:26would famously declare that a firstass
11:29citizen does not beg for freedom.
11:34While the Civil Rights Act had outlawed
11:37discrimination legally, Richardson's
11:39group showed that community empowerment
11:41and self-defense would become major new
11:43strategies to enforce that legal
11:46desegregation.
11:48And Richardson's uh Cambridge movement
11:51is cited as the birthplace of the black
11:54power movement as her organization uh
11:57came to form protests to pick at
12:00businesses that refuse to hire uh black
12:02people and these protests often turned
12:06violent as one individual claimed that
12:09Cambridge's black people had stopped
12:12extolling the virtues of passive
12:14resistance that guns were carried as a
12:17matter of course and it was understood
12:19that those guns would be used.
12:24Richardson herself recognized the
12:27carrying of weaponry as self-defense,
12:30stating that self-defense may actually
12:32be a deterrent to further violence
12:35and that the government would only
12:38respond to conflicts when they
12:41approached what she called a level of
12:43insurrection.
12:46Gloria Richardson was a tough leader and
12:50a face of a newly emerging wing of the
12:52civil rights movement. One which had
12:55moved beyond those strict nonviolence
12:58beliefs which had been extolled through
13:00the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr.
13:05Another early black power movement came
13:07from the revolutionary action movement
13:09or RAM founded in 1962 in Ohio.
13:14This movement argued that black
13:16Americans had been subjected to internal
13:19colonialism, living in what they called
13:21occupied zones or regions patrolled by
13:25hostile police forces.
13:28Uh Ram called for blackled schools, for
13:32rifle clubs to teach self-defense, for
13:34economic cooperative movements, and for
13:37the establishment of a guerilla army to
13:40defend black communities.
13:44Um, the revolutionary action movement
13:46also connected the black struggle to
13:48those anti-colonial liberation movements
13:51which I've mentioned in Africa, Asia,
13:53Latin America. But Ram was founded with
13:56the idea that black nationalism or the
13:58idea that black people had constituted a
14:01nation within a nation where survival
14:04depended on the exercise of power, the
14:07exercise of black power.
14:10Meanwhile, in Oakland, California, the
14:13Afroamerican Association was also
14:15founded with a focus on pushing forward
14:18African history, uh, supporting black
14:21pride and the impacts of that global
14:24decolonization as those old European
14:26imperial projects were either overthrown
14:29or power returned to those native in
14:32those colonized lands. And this set
14:34important ideological groundwork which
14:37would influence groups like the Black
14:39Panther Party later on. And these groups
14:43were primarily led by young black
14:46college students who had seen the
14:48previous generations cave to those
14:50integrationist politics.
14:54As these ideas caught the wind in their
14:57sales and attention of black leaders
14:59across the nation, publications met the
15:02moment to help popularize these new
15:04ideas of black power and black
15:06nationalism. Journals like Soul Book or
15:09Liberator, Negro Digest, Freedom Ways,
15:12or even the Nation of Islam's own
15:14publication called Muhammad Speaks.
15:17All of these advanced the ideas of black
15:20nationalism across the United States.
15:23and called for more black control,
15:25economic well-being, and to enforce that
15:29through militant political power.
15:33Artistically,
15:34the movement was also met with the Black
15:37Arts Movement, a spiritual sister to the
15:41black power concept, as artists used
15:44their work to project the beauty and
15:46power of black culture. And this
15:49celebration which is pictured here on
15:51the screen of black identity in music,
15:54literature and the arts. This drew
15:56heavily from the movements which came
15:57before paying homage to them. The Harlem
16:00and Chicago Renaissance each met their
16:02own movements uh to artistically depict
16:05the pressures and struggles of the of
16:07the black freedom movement. And this was
16:10no different.
16:12Though there were different forms of
16:14art, these artists understood that black
16:17art was meant to be different from white
16:20art with its own intent, its own
16:23desires, its own reasons for being.
16:29The early black power movement then,
16:31like other civil rights organizations
16:34contemporary in this period, embraced
16:37patriarchal gender norms or a
16:39male-dominated leadership.
16:41Black power and black nationalism had a
16:43common philosophy of gender, which was
16:46that these movements were innately
16:48linked to this idea of the liberation of
16:51black men from racism and the
16:54emasculation of men in that system um
16:57which had oppressed their manhood. The
17:00idea was that black men should not allow
17:04their women to become subjugated by
17:06white systems of segregation and the
17:08violence of white mobs and that black
17:12men should rise to the moment and
17:14protect black women to break from the
17:17bonds of subservience that white society
17:20hoped to perpetuate. So you can see how
17:22this could be um a call to action for
17:26black men who became involved in this
17:28movement. very different from the other
17:31movements which had come before.
17:34But one uh leader of the black power
17:36movement, his name was Stokeley
17:38Carmichael. He's pictured here. He
17:40predicted that this conflict, this
17:43racial conflict would end in a race war
17:46in which black men would have to quote
17:49stand on our feet and die like men. If
17:52that's our only act of manhood, then
17:55godamn it, we're going to die.
17:59This was a very powerful rhetoric that
18:02was being um espoused by these black
18:04leaders
18:06and women within these movements were
18:09pressured to accept those secondary
18:11roles and they often chose not to. But
18:13the pressure was there despite their
18:16leadership through the civil rights
18:18movement uh pushing towards
18:19desegregating schools and founding those
18:22organizations which had led the charge
18:24against oppression.
18:26For many women in the black power
18:28movement, for instance, attempts to take
18:30on jobs might have been met with
18:32hostility and charges of those black
18:35women emasculating black men as the male
18:39supremacist ideology took hold.
18:44By the mid 1960s, the struggle for black
18:48freedom was therefore undergoing
18:50profound changes as deep structural
18:53inequalities remained.
18:56And during the summer of 1964, civil
18:58rights organizations launched what they
19:00called the Mississippi Freedom Summer
19:03Project, which was a massive campaign
19:06aimed at increasing black voter
19:08registration and to provide educational
19:11opportunities through what they called
19:13freedom schools.
19:15And this effort was coordinated by a
19:18group called the Council of Federated
19:20Organizations, COFO,
19:23and they brought in over 1,000
19:25volunteers, many of them actually white
19:28students from the north, and they
19:30brought them into Mississippi, where
19:32black citizens made up 45% of the
19:34population, but only 5% of the
19:38registered voters.
19:40And despite these incredible dangers
19:43that were present for these men, black
19:46Mississippians and their allies built
19:48momentum towards political
19:50participation.
19:53Out of this effort, local activists and
19:56the student nonviolence coordination uh
19:59committee, we've looked at them in the
20:00last few weeks, organizers from these
20:02groups, helped to create the Mississippi
20:06Freedom Democratic Party, the MFDP in
20:10April of 1964.
20:13And this new uh political party
20:16challenged the legitimacy of
20:17Mississippi's all-white Democratic Party
20:20delegation at the upcoming Democratic
20:23National Convention in Atlantic City.
20:27And led by the formidable Fanny Lou HR,
20:31this political party sought to secure
20:33meaningful representation for black
20:35Mississippians who had been
20:37systematically excluded from political
20:39participation.
20:41These leaders faced enormous, enormous
20:45resistance, not only from the
20:47segregationist wing of the Democratic
20:49Party, but also from national civil
20:51rights leaders and white liberals,
20:53including President Lyndon Johnson and
20:56his vice presidential nominee, Hubert
20:58Humphrey.
21:00And despite searing testimony about the
21:04brutal repression which had been faced
21:06by black Mississippians, the MFDP was
21:08offered only two token nonvoting seats
21:12at the convention. In this betrayal at
21:16Atlantic City would mark a turning
21:18point. a turning point as many young
21:21activists disillusioned with liberal
21:24promises began to abandon hopes for
21:27those interracial coalitions in
21:30politics, embracing the more assertive
21:33and independent strategies associated
21:36with the black power movement.
21:41During the same summer as the MFDP's
21:43challenge, new forms of unrest erupted
21:47across America's urban centers.
21:50In July of 1964 in Harlem, New York, the
21:54police shooting of James Powell, who was
21:56a 15-year-old black boy, sparked a mass
22:00uprising.
22:02protests escalated into days of violent
22:05confrontations uh between black
22:08residents and the police as well as the
22:10looting of white-owned businesses.
22:13And while mainstream civil rights
22:15leaders including those from the NAACP
22:18and the student uh at the SCC as these
22:22calmed for uh attempted to calm the
22:26nonviolence,
22:28many black residents increasingly viewed
22:30nonviolence as an inadequate response to
22:34continuous police brutality and economic
22:37deprivations.
22:39and demonstrations expanded beyond
22:42Harlem and soon escalated into what
22:44historians describe as the first wave of
22:46urban uprisings. A pattern which would
22:49repeat itself uh at the Watts riots in
22:52Los Angeles in 1965, in Detroit in 1967
22:56and in New York 1967 as well. And the
23:00Watts riots, for example, were fueled by
23:03those longstanding racial tensions and
23:06police brutality and lasted for six
23:08days, resulting in over uh 1,000
23:12injuries, extensive property damage, and
23:1534 deaths. So, these are massive uh
23:19movements, massive expressions of anger.
23:23And these events made it clear that much
23:25of black America was no longer simply
23:28demanding integration into white
23:30dominated institutions.
23:32Rather, many were calling for power for
23:36dignity, protection, and immediate
23:39material improvements in housing,
23:41policing, employment, and control of
23:44one's own community.
23:48Despite the escalating violence and
23:51these ongoing frustrations, the movement
23:54achieved an important legislative
23:56victory with the passage of the Voting
23:59Rights Act of 1965.
24:02The national outrage following Bloody
24:04Sunday when peaceful black marchers were
24:07brutally attacked by police while
24:09attempting to cross the Edmund Pettis
24:12Bridge in Selma, Alabama. at Selma Al
24:16Alabama helped pressure Congress into
24:19action. Though I should note that it
24:21only very narrowly passed the Senate
24:24only by a single vote.
24:26And the Voting Rights Act outlawed
24:29literacy tests, prohibited
24:31discriminatory practices at polling
24:33stations, and authorized federal
24:35examiners to protect black voter
24:37registration efforts in the South.
24:40However,
24:42even with the passage of this major uh
24:45law, a growing number of activists felt
24:48that appealing to the white conscience
24:51and to pursue legal reforms alone would
24:54not be sufficient to dismantle systemic
24:57racism
24:59within key civil rights organizations.
25:02We saw this change reflected in changes
25:05of leadership at the student
25:07non-violence coordination committee. For
25:09instance, the more radical Stokeley
25:11Carmichael replaced John Lewis as
25:13chairman and similar replacements of
25:16leadership from integrationist politics
25:19to more militant forms of organization
25:22were also seen in other groups um across
25:26the United States.
25:29This growing spirit of assertiveness
25:32culminated dramatically in the summer of
25:341966
25:36during the March against fear originally
25:39initiated by activist James Meredith.
25:42And its primary goal was to promote
25:45black voter registration and to
25:47challenge the pervasive fear and racism
25:50faced by African-Americans in
25:52Mississippi, especially after the
25:54passage of the Voting Rights Act.
25:57But after James Meredith was was shot by
26:01a white supremacist, civil rights
26:03leaders including Martin Luther King
26:05Jr., SNCC organiza uh organizers and
26:09others joined the march to complete it
26:12for him. And it was here that Stokeley
26:15Carmichael, the new chairman of the
26:17SNCC,
26:19electrified the crowd with a defiant new
26:22slogan as the chant black power made its
26:25way across the crowd and symbolized the
26:28black freedom movement reaching the
26:31mainstream
26:35later that year. And inspired by this
26:37new philosophy, two college students
26:40from Oakland, California, their names
26:42Huey Newton and Bobby Seal, founded the
26:45Black Panther Party for self-defense.
26:49Panthers embodied many of the principles
26:51of black power, emphasizing armed
26:54self-defense against police brutality,
26:57arguing for community self-sufficiency
27:00and for radical economic and political
27:03transformations.
27:05and their 10-point program demanded not
27:08merely integration, but full employment.
27:11It demanded decent housing, education
27:14that exposed the true history of black
27:16Americans and an end to police
27:18brutality.
27:22The next phase of this movement would
27:25focus on achieving especially economic
27:28justice with strategies ranging from
27:31demands for fair employment to calls for
27:34government intervention through
27:36affirmative action. And President Lyndon
27:38Johnson positioned himself as a champion
27:41of civil rights and social reform.
27:45Having played a central role in the
27:47passage of the civil rights act of 1964,
27:50Johnson also laged an ambitious war on
27:54poverty as part of what he called his
27:56great society programs.
27:59And in 1964, Johnson signed the Economic
28:04Opportunity Act um which created
28:07initiatives like the JobCore, Head
28:09Start, and Volunteers in Service to
28:12America or Vista.
28:15All of these being programs aimed to
28:18provide economic opportunities for
28:20disadvantaged Americans, including
28:23African-Americans who had been
28:25historically excluded from stable
28:27employment and education and government
28:30relief programs like earlier during the
28:32New Deal where black Americans were
28:33systematically shut out from those forms
28:36of relief.
28:39But despite these initiatives, economic
28:41disparities would remain stark. By the
28:45mid 1960s, the black unemployment rate
28:48was more than double that of whites, and
28:50black workers earned on average only 55%
28:54of the income of white workers.
28:58Even among those who were employed,
29:00black men were disproportionately uh set
29:02aside to lowpaying unstable jobs
29:06and economic inequalities highlighted
29:09the inadequacies of civil rights
29:12legislation that focused solely on
29:14political rights. It forced activists to
29:19shift toward affirmative action, a
29:22strategy aimed at addressing systemic
29:25barriers to black employment and
29:28advancement. So recognizing that new
29:32strategies were needed, civil rights
29:34leaders increasingly focused on
29:36institutional racism, the idea that
29:39inequalities were embedded not just in
29:42personal prejudice, but also in the
29:44structures of government, in business,
29:45and in society.
29:48And in 1965, President Johnson gave a
29:51historic speech at Howard University in
29:54which he acknowledged that freedom was
29:56not enough. He argued that simply ending
30:00legal discrimination could not erase the
30:02effects of now centuries of racial
30:05oppression.
30:07So to address these systemic
30:09disadvantages, he called for affirmative
30:12action, a set of programs designed to
30:15provide compens uh compensation and
30:19opportunities for African-Americans
30:22and other marginalized groups. So
30:25returning to title 7 of the civil rights
30:28act of 1964,
30:30this had already banned employment
30:32discrimination based on race and color,
30:34religion, sex or national origin. But
30:36its enforcement was initially weak and
30:40the Equal Employment Opportunity
30:43Commission, the EEEOC,
30:45had struggled to effectively combat
30:48discrimination
30:49in part because it was underfunded and
30:53lacked strong enforcement powers.
30:56Nevertheless, activists would use Title
30:597 as a tool through which they filed
31:02thousands of discrimination complaints
31:05to strengthen affirmative action laws
31:08through legal challenges to build a body
31:11of case law to strengthen affirmative
31:13action. And one landmark case was called
31:17Griggs versus Duke Power Company. was a
31:20case in 1971
31:22which ruled that employment practices
31:25which disproportionately disadvantaged
31:28black workers such as requiring
31:30unnecessary educational qualifications
31:34were illegal unless employers could
31:37prove that those requirements were
31:39directly related to job performance.
31:42And this decision fundamentally shifted
31:45the legal standard, recognizing that
31:48seemingly neutral policies like
31:50education requirements could still
31:53perpetuate racial discrimination and
31:55were meant to.
32:00At the same time that black Americans
32:02were fighting for better jobs,
32:04structural changes in the United States
32:06economy made their struggle even harder.
32:09The phenomenon of deindustrialization
32:13devastated many northern and western
32:15cities where African-Americans had
32:17migrated in large numbers during what
32:20was called the great migration. We
32:21studied this a few weeks ago. Between
32:241947 and 1963, cities such as Detroit,
32:28Chicago, and New York, they all lost
32:31hundreds of thousands of manufacturing
32:33jobs to elsewhere in the nation,
32:35especially across the South, which was
32:38now called the Sunb Belt, and towards
32:40the West Coast, which saw a factory
32:43making boom, coordinating alongside the
32:47growth of suburbs across the South.
32:52Automation, outsourcing, and the shift
32:54of these industries to non unionized
32:57areas in the south and abroad
33:00contributed to a major decline in
33:02well-paying industrial employment. And
33:05black migrants arriving in cities like
33:07Detroit or Philadelphia found that the
33:10stable unionized jobs they had hoped for
33:13were disappearing or gone entirely.
33:17To compound this economic devastation
33:20was the phenomenon of white flight,
33:22where white Americans, aided by
33:25federally subsidized loans that were
33:27again often denied to black applicants,
33:31moved into newly developed suburban
33:34neighborhoods.
33:36This migration drained cities of tax
33:38revenues and left behind an increasingly
33:41impoverished, segregated black
33:44communities within these urban centers.
33:46and discriminatory banking practices
33:49such as redlinining again further
33:52entrenched residential segregation and
33:55economic isolation.
33:58And by the 1960s, the so-called urban
34:00crisis was characterized by decaying
34:04infrastructure and failing public
34:06services and concentrated areas of black
34:10poverty.
34:15By the late 1960s, turning our attention
34:18a little bit here, the black freedom
34:20struggle had expanded beyond the borders
34:23of the United States, African-Ameans
34:27increasingly recognized the
34:29interconnectedness of racial oppression
34:31at home and the perpetuation of American
34:34imperialism abroad. At the same time,
34:38the escalating war in Vietnam, economic
34:41injustice, and continued police
34:42brutality fueled a growing
34:44radicalization of black activists. And
34:47so, this phase of the movement was
34:50characterized by a deep opposition to
34:52the Vietnam War and the emergence of a
34:55bold militant black urban radicalism,
34:57which were often the source of those
34:59anti-war protests, which would come to
35:02color the 1970s.
35:06The Vietnam War intensified domestic
35:09discontent among African-Americans who
35:11saw parallels between the American
35:13military aggression abroad and that
35:15racial oppression at home. And black
35:18leaders and ordinary citizens alike
35:20criticized the war as a hypocritical
35:23extension of American racism. Martin
35:26Luther King Jr. for instance, declared
35:28in a famous speech in 1967 that America
35:32was the greatest cause of violence
35:35across the world today.
35:38And in effort to prove this, um, I will
35:41provide this information, which is that
35:43the United States instituted a draft to
35:45meet the need for troops in Vietnam. As
35:48several hundred,000 troops were sent
35:51abroad to Vietnam.
35:53draft boards were often dominated by
35:56white officials and systematically
35:58targeted black youth for conscription.
36:01So, black men already economically
36:03marginalized
36:05um did not have the same legal or
36:07educational deferments that many white
36:10men used to avoid service. And as a
36:13result, African-Americans served and
36:16died in Vietnam at higher rates than
36:19their white counterparts.
36:22Moreover, uh, black soldiers faced
36:25intense racism within the military
36:28itself. They were often assigned to the
36:31most, uh, dangerous and grueling combat
36:34roles, while white soldiers had greater
36:37access to administrative or technical
36:39positions.
36:41At home, the families of fallen black
36:44soldiers often found that their
36:45sacrifices earned little respect or
36:48tangible benefits. in a country that
36:50continued to deny them full citizenship
36:53rights.
36:56So civil rights organizations such as
36:58the SNCC, again led by Stokeley
37:01Carmichael,
37:02officially denounced the war. They
37:06emphasized that fighting for freedom
37:08abroad was morally bankrupt while black
37:11Americans still faced segregation and
37:14poverty and violence at home.
37:18And opposition to the war also inspired
37:20broader critiques of capitalism and
37:22imperialism among black activists who
37:25saw their struggle as part of a global
37:27movement against western imperialism
37:30linking the plight black Americans to
37:33the experiences of colonized peoples
37:35across the globe.
37:38So, the Vietnam War radicalized the
37:40Black Freedom Movement by exposing those
37:43contradictions between America's claims
37:45of democracy abroad and the realities of
37:48racism and inequality at home, bringing
37:51a new generation of civil rights leaders
37:53as had uh World War II and World War I
37:57before that.
38:01In response, urban black communities
38:04turned to cultural pride and armed
38:08self-defense and revolutionary politics
38:10as strategies for survival and
38:13liberation.
38:14However, uh urban radicalism faced
38:18significant repression from the federal
38:20government um as agencies like the FBI
38:25through programs such as Co-Intelp Pro
38:28um targeted black radical groups for
38:31surveillance and infiltration and
38:33destruction. and many Panther leaders,
38:36including Fred Hampton in Chicago, were
38:38killed or imprisoned as part of a state
38:41efforts to neutralize black radical
38:44activism, part of a larger scheme
38:47through the FBI to discredit black
38:49leaders, um, including, for instance,
38:52Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was the
38:54subject of many of these efforts.
38:59By the mid1 1970s, the black freedom
39:02struggle had fundamentally transformed
39:05American society. It had dismantled
39:08legalized segregation. It had achieved
39:10significant political victories and
39:12expanded the national understanding of
39:14citizenship and democracy.
39:17However, despite this progress,
39:19African-Americans continued to face
39:21persistent economic inequalities,
39:23political marginalization, and
39:25structural racism. So the black freedom
39:28struggle therefore is not just a closed
39:31chapter in American history, but this is
39:33an ongoing process marked by historic
39:36achievements and enduring challenges
39:38which we've seen over the last uh
39:41semester really.
39:43And this movement transformed American
39:46political culture. I I want to say this
39:49because it forced the nation to confront
39:51these deep contradictions between its
39:54democratic ideals and its racial
39:56practices. And as a result, terms such
39:59as equality or citizenship and justice
40:03were redefined to be more inclusive, at
40:06least in law, if not always in practice.
40:11I want to end on just a brief note about
40:14this period, which is to say that the
40:16federal government was not blind to this
40:19unrest.
40:21In 1967, President Johnson created the
40:24Kerner Commission to investigate the
40:27causes of urban discontent and protest
40:30movements among African-Americans.
40:32and its findings were stark that the
40:35riots were driven by black frustration
40:37over poverty, discrimination, and
40:40systemic exclusion.
40:42And the report warned that quote, "It is
40:45a little short of sheer madness for
40:48anyone to expect that the very poorest
40:51of the American poor to remain docile
40:54and content in their poverty while the
40:57television dangles the opulence of our
40:59affluent society before their hungry
41:02eyes."
41:04And the commission concluded that in
41:07America there were two societies which
41:09it labeled one black and one white,
41:12separate and unequal.
41:16From this discontented society would
41:19come this fundamental reshaping of the
41:22United States as the Black Power
41:24movement laid the groundwork for later
41:27struggles for racial, gender, economic
41:31justice inspiring movements through the
41:34Latino, Asian-American, Native American,
41:36feminist, and LGBTQ rights movements. As
41:40this vision of freedom articulated by
41:43black activists broadened the
41:46definitions of American democracy
41:48itself, which is a theme that we will
41:50continue with as we near the end of our
41:53course.
41:55All right.

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