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Week 16: Persistence and Faces of the Black Freedom Struggle — Transcript

by Andrew Perkins · 5,019 words · 903 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01Hello and welcome back. Last week we
0:05examined the growth of the civil rights
0:07movement beyond those comfortable
0:09corridors of nonviolence, diplomacy and
0:12integration uh led by the actions of
0:14Martin Luther King Jr. and enforced by
0:17the government through the civil rights
0:19act and affirmative action.
0:22And we shifted our gaze to explore some
0:24of the more radical activist wings of
0:26the movement. Um, our study of urban
0:29radicalism began with our case study of
0:31Malcolm X. We continued through the
0:34ideology tracking the ideologies of the
0:36Black Panther Party and the Black Power
0:38movement as well as the attempts to
0:40suppress militant activism uh through
0:43government surveillance and oppression
0:45such as co-intentel pro and police
0:48brutality as the United States barreled
0:50into the Vietnam War which again
0:53involved uh disproportionate drafting of
0:56black Americans into a very deeply
0:59unpopular conflict.
1:02And today we're going to examine a
1:04similar theme as calls for black freedom
1:07in the face of conservative backlash
1:09continued as the United States shifted
1:12further to the right, pitting activism
1:14and conservatism in starkly moral terms
1:19which we'll find clashing with one
1:21another throughout the period of the
1:22late 20th century.
1:26So let's begin our case study for today.
1:29Uh we'll begin by speaking about Shirley
1:31Chisum. She was born in Brooklyn in 1924
1:34and she was one of the most
1:35groundbreaking political figures of the
1:38entire 20th century. As the first black
1:42woman elected to the United States
1:44Congress and the first black person to
1:46seek the presidential nomination of a
1:48major party, Shirley Chisum challenged
1:51long-standing barriers of race and
1:54gender and class in American public
1:57life. Her career, her efforts stand as a
2:02powerful example of how institutional
2:05politics could be harnessed in the
2:07service of social justice. And her life
2:10offers us insights into the broader
2:13trajectory of the black freedom struggle
2:15in the decades following the initial
2:18civil rights movement.
2:21Just a bit of background, Shirley Chisum
2:24uh was the daughter of Barbadian
2:26immigrants who instilled in her a deep
2:30sense of discipline, education, and
2:33community responsibility.
2:35And she excelled academically. She
2:38graduated from Brooklyn College in 1946
2:42and earned a master's degree in
2:44elementary education from Colombia
2:46University. So she was very highly
2:48educated and before entering politics,
2:52Chisum also worked in the field of
2:54education and as a child care advocate
2:57focusing particularly on early childhood
3:01development and the needs of
3:03workingclass black families.
3:07Her activism began then in local
3:10community organizations and then
3:13expanded into political clubs where she
3:15developed a reputation for her
3:17independence and outspokenenness.
3:20And in 1964,
3:22she ran and was elected to the New York
3:25State Assembly.
3:29Four years later in 1968, Shirley Chisum
3:32was elected to the US House of
3:35Representatives, becoming the first
3:37black woman to serve in Congress.
3:41And she did so representing New York's
3:4312th Congressional District. And she
3:46consistently used that seat to advocate
3:49for policies that would address the
3:51needs of marginalized communities where
3:53she had been already doing all that
3:56activism and work. She pushed for
3:59welfare rights and expanding access to
4:02education and for reproductive freedoms.
4:06And Chisum often found herself at odds
4:09with the political establishment,
4:11refusing to accept assignments that were
4:14not meaningful to her constituents. And
4:16she rejected the idea that she would
4:19only be a symbolic leader rather than a
4:22legislature with real influence.
4:28Perhaps the most defining moment of her
4:31career came in 1972 when Chisum launched
4:34her campaign for the Democratic
4:36nomination for president of the United
4:38States.
4:39Her candidacy was historic. She was one
4:43of She was the first black person to run
4:46for a major party's presidential
4:48nomination and the first woman to do so
4:52in the Democratic party.
4:54She ran under the slogan unbought and
4:57unbossed
4:59and she uh rejected the control of the
5:02political machines and lobbyists and
5:06emphasized her own independence from
5:08those corporate interests from the party
5:10elites and from expectations based only
5:14on her identity. So, as a result of
5:17this, her campaign faced enormous
5:21challenges, including uh racism and
5:25sexism from both white and black
5:27communities. She faced exclusion from
5:30the televised debates and received
5:33limited financial support.
5:36But despite these obstacles, even though
5:39she did not win the nomination for the
5:40presidency, she did succeed in in uh
5:44receiving over 150 Democratic delegates
5:47at the convention and became a symbol of
5:51the possibilities and courage for future
5:53generations of women and people of color
5:56in politics.
5:58Her
6:00life and career, I think, challenge us
6:03to critically think about representation
6:05and participation and justice in the
6:07American democracy.
6:10As she proved that black women could not
6:12only enter these spaces of power, but
6:14could lead transformative change within
6:17them as a trailblazer for those who
6:19would follow. And at a time where many
6:21activists had turned away from electoral
6:24politics in favor of grassroots uh
6:27organizing, Trirley Chisum showed that
6:29the two could be complimentary rather
6:32than contradictory, bringing together
6:34that establishment and grassroots
6:36activism in one movement.
6:42As we move into 1970s and 80s and 90s,
6:46we must understand that uh Shirley
6:49Chisum and the wider black freedom
6:51struggle did not simply evolve in a
6:54vacuum.
6:55These movements were met by growing and
6:58organized opposition which found a voice
7:01in the movement called the new right.
7:04The new right was a growing conservative
7:06movement emerging from the perceived
7:09chaos of the 1960s and 70s
7:12um and often grounded its uh
7:17its uh appeals through racial language
7:20and reshaped uh American political life
7:24and posed serious challenges to civil
7:27rights gains. So the new right was not
7:30simply a reaction to the liberal
7:33movement coming out of the 60s and 70s
7:36but it was a calculated political
7:38movement emerging in the wake of the
7:42civil rights victories of the 1960s.
7:44This coalition of the new right brought
7:47together white southerners who were
7:50alienated by federal intervention in
7:52civil rights. It brought northern
7:54conservatives who were disillusioned
7:56with government spending and it brought
7:58a newly emerging uh political block, the
8:02evangelical Christian voting block, who
8:05were concerned about a perceived moral
8:07decline in the United States.
8:10Together, this movement rejected largely
8:13the legacies of the civil rights
8:15movement and presented itself as a
8:17return to what they called traditional
8:19values or law and order or individual
8:23responsibility.
8:25All of these terms which were often
8:27coded to discuss racialized concerns
8:30which we'll discuss more as our lecture
8:32unfolds to try to dive into what these
8:34rhetoric uh actually means.
8:39So the movement framed civil rights and
8:42affirmative action and anti-poverty
8:45programs as threats to American
8:48individualism and to meritocracy
8:51by claiming that the government had
8:53overreached,
8:55especially in terms of welfare or social
8:58support from the federal government and
9:00school desegregation.
9:03The new right leaders found ways to
9:05subtly reframe racial issues as broader
9:09critiques of federal power and moral
9:12decline.
9:14So this is an ideological shift and it
9:18formed the foundation of a political
9:20realignment across the United States to
9:23reconfigure American politics for
9:26decades and well into the present.
9:30And one of the most effective tools of
9:33the new right was the embrace of the
9:34so-called southern strategy.
9:37This approach was pioneered by
9:39Republicans like Richard Nixon, who
9:42recognized that white southern Democrats
9:44who had become alienated by the
9:46Democratic Party's support for civil
9:48rights could be brought into the
9:51Republican fold through coded appeals to
9:55race.
9:57Rather than directly attacking civil
9:59rights legislation, for example, the
10:02strategy emphasized language like
10:05pushing for law and order or to uphold
10:08states rights and opposition to
10:11courtordered uh responses for civil
10:15rights seen as overreach. These all were
10:18terms that resonated with white voters
10:21who felt threatened by the growing
10:23demands of African-Americans.
10:27And as some evidence of this, I just
10:29want to share with you a quote from
10:31Nixon's campaign manager. His name was
10:33Lee Atwater, and he's pictured here. He
10:35explained the southern strategy in this
10:37way. You start out in 1954 by saying
10:41slurs, and by 1968, you can no longer
10:45say those slurs that will hurt you. That
10:47backfires. So you say things like forced
10:51busing and states rights, all that
10:53stuff, and you're getting abstract. Now
10:56you're talking about cutting taxes. And
10:59all these things you're talking about
11:01are totally economic things. And a
11:04byproduct of them is that blacks get
11:07hurt worse than whites. We want to cut.
11:10This is much more abstract than even the
11:14busing thing and a hell of a lot more
11:16abstract than beginning by discussing
11:19this with slurs.
11:23So, this is what uh people in politics
11:26often refer to as dog whistle racism,
11:30using coded language like states rights
11:32or the economy to perpetuate racist
11:36policies emerging out of the Jim Crow
11:39South, which appeal to a less direct
11:43form of discriminatory voting patterns.
11:48And this appeal to law and order was
11:51especially effective in the wake of
11:53urban uprisings, black power activism,
11:56and rising crime rates.
11:59These concerns became racialized in the
12:01political arena, associating
12:04African-Ameans with violence and
12:06disorder.
12:08anti-busting sentiment in particular
12:11served as a rallying cry, excuse me, for
12:14uh for white parents who opposed
12:17integration efforts in the north and in
12:19the south. And while busing uh was
12:23implemented as a remedy to segregated
12:25schools, it was portrayed by
12:27conservatives as government overreach
12:29and an infringement on parental rights.
12:32this idea of busing as a possible
12:34solution to desegregation by taking
12:37children from one uh community and
12:40busing them to another school
12:43was a possible solution to the
12:45segregation problem and was met with
12:48massive conservative backlash.
12:52Alongside these developments came a
12:54backlash against affirmative action
12:56which we looked at last week. This idea
12:59that raceconscious policies could be
13:02used to rectify historical and systemic
13:05discrimination. This was reframed by
13:08opponents from the new right as reverse
13:11racism
13:13um or that the government uh was now
13:16discriminating on the basis of race
13:18against white individuals.
13:22And in cases like regions of the
13:24University of California versus Bake in
13:261978,
13:28the courts began to limit affirmative
13:30action, signaling the judicial systems
13:33growing skepticism toward these remedies
13:36of institutional racism.
13:39And as you might be able to tell from
13:40the picture on our screen, these debates
13:43are ongoing, pinning claims of
13:45discrimination against attempts to
13:47affirm diversity and inclusion and
13:50equity, especially in the workplace.
13:55With the election of Ronald Reagan in
13:581980, the new right would ascend to the
14:01highest levels of political power.
14:04Reagan's presidency represented the full
14:07institutionalization of conservative
14:09ideology. And while he did not dismantle
14:13all civil rights programs, Reagan
14:15consistently undermined their intent and
14:18implementation through policies. He
14:21appointed conservatives to the federal
14:23judiciary. He slashed funding for social
14:26programs like welfare programs and
14:29emphasized tax cuts and deregulation.
14:33And one of Reagan's signature acts was
14:36to reframe civil rights in terms of what
14:39he called colorblindness. That the
14:41government would be colorblind in its
14:43response to taking uh on these problems,
14:47these institutional issues. That the
14:49government should not consider race
14:52should not take race into account
14:54whatsoever.
14:56And while this rhetoric appeared to
14:58support racial equality, in practice, it
15:02abandoned efforts to correct uh for
15:06centuries of discrimination.
15:09Um Reagan's policies, they cut deeply
15:12into housing and education and welfare
15:15programs that had disproportionately
15:17affected African-Ameans.
15:21Additionally, the war on drugs became a
15:23huge factor, a huge factor of Reagan's
15:26domestic policy. While this had largely
15:28begun under President Nixon, it expanded
15:31dramatically under Reagan's uh tenure as
15:34president. He played a key role in
15:37launching and expanding the war on drugs
15:40during his presidency. and he initially
15:43advocated for a punitive approach
15:46emphasizing incarceration and harsh
15:48penalties for drug offenders.
15:51His administration significantly
15:53increased funding for law enforcement
15:55and other initiatives related to law
15:57enforcement, moving away from treatment
16:00and towards a focus on punishment.
16:03Reagan's emphasis here on incarceration
16:06and drugrelated crime enforcement led to
16:09a dramatic increase in the prison
16:12population,
16:14particularly impacting minority
16:16communities as mass incarceration took
16:19hold over the United States. From 1980
16:23to 1997, the massive increase of
16:27incarcerations for non-violent drug
16:28offenses would jump from 50,000 to
16:31400,000,
16:33disproportionately affecting minority
16:35communities by practice. And here on the
16:38screen, you can see um a uh
16:42a project that was in 2003 tracking the
16:46likelihood of imprisonment
16:48uh within one's lifetime. And while the
16:52chances of a white man being um arrested
16:56uh in the span of his life was 1 in 17,
16:58for black men as a result largely due to
17:01the war on drugs, black men were had a 1
17:04in3 chance of imprisonment at some point
17:07in their life, indicating that this was
17:11a systemic problem emerging from some
17:14kind of central source. And the federal
17:16war on drugs is one of those sources.
17:23While the rise of the new right and the
17:24Reagan administration signaled a
17:26powerful backlash against the civil
17:28rights movement, African-Americans did
17:31not abandon the fight for justice. Of
17:33course not. Instead, the black freedom
17:36struggle adapted and moved away from the
17:39national mass mobilization toward local
17:43community-based organizing.
17:46And these years marked a period then of
17:48reorientation and transformation and
17:51resilience especially for education and
17:54politics and gender equality which we
17:56will talk about as we continue.
17:58But one of the most dramatic
17:59transformations in this era actually
18:01came from within the Black Panther Party
18:03itself.
18:05The Black Panther Party was targeted by
18:07law enforcement with their leaders
18:09imprisoned or exiled or even killed. And
18:12the Panthers shifted their focus from
18:15militant confrontation
18:17to community survival programs. And
18:20these programs, for instance, would
18:22provide free breakfast for children.
18:25They would push for health clinics,
18:27provide clothing drives, and the
18:29establishment of what they called
18:30liberation schools.
18:33And at the same time, this pivot towards
18:36community work brought them back into
18:38alliance with local institutions like
18:40churches and women's organizations which
18:43had been largely left behind um by the
18:46more misogynistic movements of the black
18:48power movement.
18:50So the Panthers Intercommunal Youth
18:53Institute in Oakland, for instance,
18:55offered not only meals and education,
18:57but also a culturally affirming
18:59curriculum which they taught black
19:01history and identity. And as Huey
19:04Newton, who was the founder of the Black
19:06Party, uh, as he noted, working with the
19:09church to satisfy community needs became
19:13essential for survival in the face of
19:15political repression. The church of
19:18course as a safe place, one that seems
19:21to have a sense of sanctuary from uh
19:25political repression and accusations.
19:29And importantly, this movement back to
19:31the church, this transformation opened
19:34spaces for women's leadership within the
19:36Panthers. And if we remember from last
19:38week, previously the organization had
19:41been maledominated and often openly
19:44sexist. However, the success of these
19:48survival programs and community work
19:50needed the support of women from these
19:53communities.
19:54And ads in Black Panther newspapers
19:58began to call on mothers, welfare
20:01recipients, and grandmothers to join the
20:04cause, indicating a broadening of the
20:07movement, a more inclusive movement. And
20:11in practice, this marked a shift away
20:14from the masculine revolutionary
20:16posturing and towards a more inclusive
20:19pragmatic community activism.
20:24This struggle also marked the emergence
20:26of black women as leading voices in the
20:28freedom struggle both inside and outside
20:30of formal organizations. Women like
20:33Shirley Tisum, who we've already spoken
20:34about, and others like Barbara Jordan,
20:37would gain political office as um many
20:41began to be able to enter into those
20:43spaces. while writers uh like Tony
20:46Morrison who's pictured here and others
20:49Alice Walker, Bell Hooks, and Maya
20:52Angelo, all of these women articulated
20:55black women's experiences through
20:57literature and critical essays, opening
21:00up these experiences to new audiences
21:02and playing a very important role in
21:04perpetuating these stories and
21:07experiences uh to those who would
21:09ordinarily not have uh heard those
21:12stories.
21:16At the grassroots level, poor black
21:18women who were often single mothers
21:21began organizing to demand dignity and
21:23justice.
21:25And as recipients of the program aid to
21:28families with dependent children, which
21:30would commonly be known as welfare,
21:33these black women endured surveillance
21:36and midnight raids and humiliating
21:39interviews which uh reinforced racial
21:43and gender stereotypes.
21:46And these women began forming local
21:48welfare rights organizations in the
21:49early 1960s
21:51which were unified under the National
21:54Welfare Rights Organization or the NWRO
21:58in 1967.
22:01and women like Johnny Tilman, who's
22:03pictured here on the screen, uh were the
22:07chair of the NWRO,
22:09where she emphasized that women's
22:12oppression was not simply about race or
22:15gender. It was both a double bind, if
22:18you will. She famously wrote, quote,
22:21"I'm a woman. I'm a black woman. I'm a
22:25poor woman, and I'm on welfare. In this
22:28country, if you are one of those things,
22:30you count less. If you are all of those
22:33things, you don't count at all.
22:36These women developed a clear critique
22:41of this inequality and would lay the
22:43groundwork for modern black feminism
22:45while at the same time, these
22:47organizations pushed for a
22:48dstigmatization
22:50of uh welfare and social security net uh
22:55usage.
22:59Unsurprisingly, education was also a
23:02central battleground of the struggle for
23:03equality, especially as appealed by
23:06black mothers across the country who
23:08mobilized to confront these systemic
23:11inequalities in places like school
23:13funding and facilities and in
23:15curriculums.
23:17Here, many fought for busing as a way to
23:20gain access to better resourced white
23:22schools.
23:24However, as white backlash to busing
23:28intensified, including riots and legal
23:31challenges like Milikin versus Bradley
23:33in 1974,
23:36um where the United States Supreme Court
23:38ruled that that school districts were
23:40not obligated to desegregate if these
23:44lines were not drawn with discriminatory
23:47intent.
23:50This decision effectively limited the
23:52scope of Brown versus Board of
23:54Education. Milikin versus Bradley did
23:57particularly regarding cross-d district
24:00desegregation plans like those involving
24:02Detroit and its suburbs where the plan
24:05was to bus black students from the
24:07center of Detroit to uh segregate
24:10formerly segregated schools in the
24:12suburbs. But again, these decisions were
24:15met with riots and legal challenges
24:17which limited uh these desegregation
24:20plans.
24:22So rather than continue pushing for
24:24integration through the approach of
24:26busing, black mothers demanded equal
24:29funding and improved resources and
24:32community control over their own
24:34schools.
24:36and they believed that local oversight
24:38would make those schools more
24:40accountable and more culturally
24:42relevant.
24:44Still, even those efforts were met with
24:46white resistance and were often framed
24:49around arguments of property taxes or
24:51neighborhood rights or that color-blind
24:53equality rhetoric. That same kind of
24:56coded racial language that we were
24:58discussing earlier.
25:00And ultimately, education activism in
25:03this era reflected a broader turn toward
25:06self-determination or making one's own
25:09success
25:11rather than on assimilation or
25:13organizing uh with the powers that
25:16organized these schools.
25:20And in some cases, black school boards
25:22actually had attempted to fire white
25:24teachers. And these instances were also
25:27led uh to fierce opposition from
25:30teachers unions and allegations again of
25:33that reverse racism.
25:36But despite these challenges, this era
25:39would also see substantial political
25:41advances for African-Americans broadly.
25:44Black candidates gained power in cities
25:46and states, especially where
25:48African-Americans formed a sizable
25:50voting block.
25:52And in 1971, the founding of the
25:54Congressional Black Caucus, again, led
25:57by Shirley Chisum and among others,
25:59helped to centralize these efforts at
26:02the national level.
26:04And from just 1,469
26:08elected officials in 1970, there were
26:11over 9,000 by 2006.
26:15major cities like Los Angeles and
26:17Atlanta and Cleveland, all of these
26:20elected black mayors, even in cities
26:23without black majorities.
26:26And Jesse Jackson's uh presidential
26:28campaigns in 1984 and 1988
26:32further demonstrated the power of black
26:35political coalitions, particularly Jesse
26:38Jackson's rainbow coalition of laborers,
26:42women, rural farmers, and
26:45environmentalists.
26:48And although access to economic
26:50resources did not always follow these
26:52political gains, uh, court decisions
26:55like Griggs versus Duke Power Co, which
26:58we looked at last week from 1971, as
27:01well as, um, Title 9 and the Title 7 of
27:04affirmative action. These helped to open
27:06up employment for a time and education
27:09opportunities for African-Americans,
27:11especially in the public sector.
27:17And as a result of these political and
27:19legal gains, the black middle class grew
27:23significantly throughout the 1970s and
27:2580s.
27:27By 1980, the number of black
27:29professionals and college students had
27:31tripled compared to earlier decades and
27:34uh black earnings they rose as more
27:37families moved to the suburbs.
27:41However,
27:42uh this progress was uneven and perhaps
27:46fragile as many black families required
27:49dual incomes to maintain their status in
27:52the middle class and discriminatory
27:55housing policies despite the Fair
27:58Housing Act of 1968
28:01continued to limit mobility.
28:04Some suburbs remained hostile while
28:06others remly resegregated after a few
28:10black families moved in.
28:15Debates also emerged within uh black
28:18communities. Some believed middleclass
28:21African-Americans should remain in black
28:23neighborhoods to help uplift them, while
28:26others prioritized safety and education
28:30and economic opportunity even if it
28:32meant greater social isolation. And
28:35these are not new debates. We've seen
28:36these debates now through several weeks
28:38of our course. Uh we saw it during the
28:40great migration as people had to make
28:42very difficult decisions about whether
28:45to stay within one's community and
28:46attempt to work uh to lift them up or to
28:50look for better opportunities elsewhere.
28:56Carrying along in time, perhaps the most
28:58visible transformation in black life by
29:011990 or so was the emergence of a
29:04significant class divide. The black
29:07middle class had expanded rapidly.
29:09thanks to civil rights legislation and
29:11affirmative action and public sector
29:13employment. However, this success
29:16coexisted with a deepening poverty in
29:19inner cities.
29:21A new term emerged to describe those who
29:24had been left behind, the underclass.
29:28And this label along with alternatives
29:31like the truly disadvantaged.
29:33These terms described the structural
29:36realities of those trapped in
29:38neighborhoods with high unemployment and
29:41failing schools, poor housing, and
29:44limited economic opportunities.
29:47For many, particularly young black men,
29:50life was marked by joblessness or mass
29:53incarceration and premature death.
29:57By the 1990s, more black men from the
30:01ages of 18 to 22 were in prison than in
30:05college.
30:07At the same time, drug epidemics,
30:09including heroin in the 1970s and crack
30:11cocaine in the 1980s, these reflected
30:15and uh deepened this crisis.
30:19Some turned to drugs uh as an escape
30:22while others turned to drug dealing as
30:25an economic lifeline.
30:27And the results were devastating as
30:30crime increased including uh violence of
30:34black men against other black men. Gang
30:36activity spread and entire communities
30:39were destabilized.
30:41And the state's response was aggressive
30:44policing and increased incarceration,
30:47which only worsened these already
30:50unstable conditions.
30:52Police stopped and searched and verbally
30:55abused the law-abiding uh citizens just
30:58as they would suspected criminals as
31:01unrelenting police harassment joined the
31:04list of struggles faced by black men and
31:06women.
31:09And amid this economic and social
31:12upheaval, uh, a new youth culture would
31:15emerge that both reflected and
31:17challenged these status quo.
31:21Beginning in the South Bronx and Harlem
31:23in 1970s, hip hop developed as a
31:27creative outlet for marginalized black
31:30youth. It included DJing, breakdancing,
31:34graffiti art, and most famously rap
31:37music. And initially a form of local
31:40expression and competition, rap music
31:43quickly evolved into a vehicle for
31:45social critiques as artists confronted
31:48issues like police brutality and poverty
31:52and addiction, systemic neglect. But as
31:56rap gained uh national attention and
31:59commercial success, it also drew intense
32:02criticism as its depictions of graphic
32:05language and glorification of violence
32:07and misogyny as key themes perhaps made
32:11it a lightning rod for white and black
32:13Americans alike.
32:16Uh groups like NWA uh provoked
32:18government backlash, especially with
32:20their song [ __ ] the Police, which
32:23resulted in an FBI warning and the
32:27murders of uh Tupac and notorious B.I.,
32:31these further cemented the link between
32:34hiphop and violence in the public uh
32:38imagination.
32:41Yet, it's important to understand hip
32:44hop as a countercultural movement. In a
32:48society that had increasingly abandoned
32:51its poor black citizens, hip hop was a
32:53self-made form of expression, identity,
32:57resistance, and even economic success.
33:00And it gave voice to a generation who
33:02had been alienated from traditional
33:05institutions and offered some a path out
33:08of poverty through performance and
33:10creative production.
33:15During this same period, uh, gender and
33:18sexual politics within black communities
33:20took on new visibility and also
33:23complexity.
33:24the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation
33:27hearings of Clarence Thomas, for
33:30instance, uh Clarence Thomas was a black
33:32candidate for the Supreme Court and he
33:35had been accused of sexual harassment by
33:37his employee, Anita Hill, and these
33:40hearings uh to get to the bottom of this
33:42exposed deep divisions among
33:44African-Americans.
33:46The controversy split black America as
33:50liberals versus conservatives, as men
33:52versus women, over what loyalty meant,
33:56and whether gender injustice should be
33:58aired publicly in a public setting.
34:02Clarence Thomas was ultimately confirmed
34:05to join the Supreme Court, and he
34:07remains there to this day, and is now
34:09one of the most outspoken proponents of
34:12conservative judicial decisions.
34:17Meanwhile, black women's groups
34:19increasingly emphasized that racism and
34:22sexism were intertwined,
34:25and many black feminists argued that the
34:28black freedom struggle had too often
34:30ignored women's voices and experiences.
34:33the million man march in 1995 and the
34:36millionwoman march in 1997. These
34:39reflected efforts to address these
34:42divisions, these gender divisions um by
34:45uh appearing in Washington DC and
34:48marching uh towards the White House. But
34:51tellingly, the men and women in these
34:54marches did so in separate spaces.
34:57At both events, participants called for
35:00moral renewal and community uplift, but
35:03the very need for two marches
35:05illustrated that gendered fragmentation
35:08within black activism.
35:13Furthermore, black LGBTQ individuals
35:16began demanding representation and
35:18inclusion.
35:20no longer willing to be sidelined, these
35:22uh men and women uh and others
35:25challenged the heteronormativity
35:28of uh mainstream black politics and
35:31cultural expression.
35:33As one marcher put it, uh black LGBTQ
35:37visibility was both a declaration of
35:40humanity in the face of both racial and
35:43sexual marginalization.
35:46And so this moment would mark a pivotal
35:49reshaping of what it meant to be black
35:51in America as um gay, lesbian, and other
35:56um queer individuals challenged
35:58mainstream black politics.
36:01Um and in parallel at the same time this
36:06became this took on a renewed importance
36:08as the HIV and AIDS epidemic emerged as
36:12a devastating devastating public health
36:15crisis that disproportionately affected
36:18black men and women especially those
36:21living in poor urban communities. So HIV
36:25or AIDS, this is a virus that decimates
36:28the body's immune system and is often
36:30transmitted through sexual intercourse
36:32or transfer of blood or other bodily
36:34fluids. And so HIV disproportionately
36:37affected gay and bisexual men um in
36:39large part due to a greater likelihood
36:41of uh male-to-male sexual contact, which
36:44was a higher likelihood of transference
36:47of the virus.
36:49And the federal government under
36:51President Ronald Reagan was very slow to
36:53respond. Reagan did not publicly
36:56acknowledge AIDS until 1985, while his
36:59uh press relations secretary um
37:03openly stigmatized AIDS as a gay disease
37:07and made light of the of the disease in
37:11um their uh public speaking.
37:14Treatment as a result lagged behind the
37:17scope of this crisis because of the
37:19stigmatization of AIDS as a gay disease.
37:23And the delayed response had
37:24catastrophic effects for communities of
37:26color where the disease spread quickly
37:30through unadressed public health
37:32vulnerabilities like a lack of access to
37:35quality care or the stigma around
37:38testing and treatment and the rising
37:41rates of intravenous drug use which
37:44helped to spread the disease.
37:47By 1990, AIDS had become the sixth
37:50leading cause of death for
37:52African-Ameans,
37:54and it was the leading cause of death
37:56for black women aged 25 to 34.
38:01Despite this, black communities often
38:03found themselves ignored in these
38:05national conversations about AIDS,
38:07as both public health campaigns and
38:09advocacy organizations prioritized white
38:12gay men.
38:16Um, as uh the epidemic complicated
38:19sexual politics within black
38:21communities, black feminists and LGBTQ
38:25activists pushed for an open dialogue
38:28around health and consent and sexuality.
38:31Yet, they faced resistance from some
38:34religious and conservative voices within
38:36the black church and the civil rights
38:38establishment.
38:40Nevertheless,
38:42activists continued to assert that the
38:44AIDS crisis was not just a medical
38:47issue, but that AIDS was a social
38:50justice issue, one connected to poverty
38:52and racism, homophobia, gender
38:55inequality, and institutionalized
38:58racism,
39:00which had suppressed movements to
39:02respond adequately to the AIDS crisis.
39:07So the movement of the black freedom
39:09struggle evolved from the 1960s through
39:12the 1990s to meet and respond to new
39:15challenges, shifting its forms and
39:18strategies to match the complex
39:20realities of the late 20th century.
39:24While the formal movement for civil
39:27rights, things like marches, landmark
39:29legislations like the Civil Rights Act,
39:32uh, and court victories may have slowed.
39:35Black Americans remained engaged in
39:38political and social and cultural
39:40activism.
39:42However, as the rise of the far of the
39:46new right and conservative backlash took
39:49hold, the struggle moved away from these
39:53broad national campaigns and towards
39:56grassroots organizing towards cultural
39:58expression and localized battles over
40:01education, policing, housing, and
40:04healthcare. And so the successes of this
40:06era cannot be overlooked. The growth of
40:08the new black middle class, increased
40:12representation in elected office, the
40:14founding of the congressional black
40:16caucus.
40:17All of this amid a flourishing black
40:19arts and cultural scene that included
40:21music, literature, and film. All of
40:24these gains revealed new challenges.
40:27growing class divisions, the spread of
40:29urban poverty, incarceration, and
40:32emerging conflicts for gender and
40:34sexuality within black communities
40:37themselves.
40:40What became increasingly clear by the
40:421990s and as we move into the 2000s was
40:45that there was never a single black
40:48America.
40:50The increasing diversity of experience
40:53shaped by immigration, class, gender,
40:56sexuality, generational differences, all
40:59of this meant that the black freedom
41:02movement had to become more inclusive,
41:05more intersectional, and more responsive
41:09to these varied needs of the community.
41:13As we near the end of our class, next
41:15week we will wrap up our lecture series
41:18with a brief discussion of uh this
41:20history by bringing it to the present
41:22day as we expand into into the 2000s and
41:26into our lived recent memory. That's
41:29where we'll be going next.
41:32All right.

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