July ‘64
54 minutes. 2006. Closed captions. Monday, Sep. 29. 7 p.m. Calhoun Hall 100.
July 2, 1964: President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion or national
origin. The Act also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce
desegregation.
Harlem, July 18, 1964: Street fights erupt in Harlem, New York City, after the
fatal shooting of a 15-year-old African American male by a white police officer.
One person is killed, more than 100 are injured and hundreds more are arrested.
Rochester, New York, July 24-26, 1964:
This award-winning documentary about three days of urban unrest in Rochester
shows the disappointment of African Americans who came north hoping to
benefit from the city’s history of progressive social justice and its stable industrial
base. The black population grew by 300% between 1950 and 1960 and
continued to grow. Their disappointment is expressed in a poem by Langston
Hughes:
The lazy laughing South
With blood on her mouth
And I who am black would love her.
But she spits in my face
So now I seek the North
The cold-faced North
For she, they say,
Is a kinder mistress.
Those who were economically secure did not see any reason why they should
reach out to migrants, or make jobs or public housing available for them; the
long-time residents of Rochester were often described as smug, and we can see
that in parts of the film. Policemen and officials were obviously unwilling to admit
that anything the police did could feel threatening to the public. When the mayor
made statements in the film that reflected ethnic bias, another interviewee
clarified the situation immediately afterward.
Archival footage of the local TV reporter, Warren Doremus, makes it obvious that
he is using language on the scene that exacerbates the tensions. The following
statement is taken from the filmmakers’ question and answer section in the
Independent Lens section of the PBS web site: “Contemporaneous reporting of
the civil unrest of 1964 was largely from the majority point of view of the Gannettowned Rochester media. In 1964, Gannett owned the two daily newspapers, as
well as the major television station and the major radio station. Although the
Gannett newspaper has made many efforts in more recent years to fill out the
story, it became clear that the recording of this piece of Rochester history lacked
a significant voice—the black voice.” This is not brought out directly in the
documentary, but only indirectly.
Another aspect that is brought out indirectly and quietly in the film is that the
event was more of a rebellion than a riot: that is, the Saturday night continuation
of the protests was planned, and as Darryl Porter and Man #4 shortly after him
pointed out, it was necessary to make a point. Man #4: “Something will have to
be done. It has to be done. I mean, we can’t get our rights, so I mean if you can’t
get your rights, you’ve just got to take them some kind of way or another, ain’t
you, ain’t you?”
Some things are actually worse now in the previously troubled areas of
Rochester, New York, than they were in 1964. Home ownership is down; a larger
percentage of the percentage of the population fails to complete high school.
When the film was made, 2000-2004, only 25% of Rochester’s ninth graders
graduated at the end of their senior year. Large areas of Rochester were still
plagued by high rates of unemployment, infant mortality and teen pregnancy. The
per capita number of children living in poverty was the highest in the state and
among the highest in the nation. Home ownership was down and a larger
percentage of the population failed to complete high school.
However, as a result of highly effective local organization by the AfricanAmerican community immediately following the rebellion, which is not mentioned
in the film, the city had an African-American mayor 1993-2005; interviewed
around 2004, he was not smugly content, as those in power had been in the first
half of 1964. He alluded to the need to persist in working as a multi-ethnic
community and breaking down barriers to a harmonious environment in which
effective work can be done; he spoke of finding bridges into the various
communities that had the resources needed to overcome challenges in the areas
of health, education, and jobs. The mayor-elect in 2006, Police Chief Robert
Duffy, also appeared to understand the position of the African Americans well.
Taken again from the filmmakers’ question and answer section on the film’s
original website and not from the film itself, the following improvements did take
place: “Progress that was the direct outgrowth of the rebellion includes the
discontinuation of police dogs for crowd control, the establishment of The Urban
League of Rochester as well as Rochester’s first anti-poverty organization
(Action for a Better Community), increased employment opportunity through the
efforts of activist group Freedom, Integration, Honor, God, Today (F.I.G.H.T.) and
a significant increase in the number of black elected officials.”
The film ends with excerpts from 1964 interviews with one of the most credible
witnesses, suggesting that the country was in the middle of a social revolution
and that the same conflicts could happen again in any other community. This is,
followed by another Langston Hughes poem from “Montage of a Dream
Deferred”:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or fester like a sore and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load
Or does it explode?
The music in the film is Duke Ellington’s “Night Creature,” played by Ellington
himself, a live recording that was made in Rochester’s Eastman Theater just ten
days after the events of July ’64.
This film will be shown in
Celluloid for Social Justice: The Legacy of 1968 in Documentaries
Mini-Film-Series Honoring the 40th Anniversary of California Newsreel;
http://www.newsreel.org consisting of documentaries provided by California Newsreel
The film series precedes 1968: A Global Perspective -An Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of Texas at Austin
October 10-12, 2008; http://www.1968conf.org