David Carter: 1964 Civil Rights Movement
Mississippi: Is this America?
- real key to equality is mathematical literacy.
- New Jersey was home of DNC convention.
- local people matter – that’s where the action occurs.
1720 – 1835
- slave trade was participated by Spanish, French and British
1835 – 1865
- questions of primogeniture; moving into old southwest
- families broken b/c of migration to old southwest
1865 – 1876
- Why was Mississippi important? Questions of representation are paramount
in Mississippi and the questions they face are the questions that other states
face.
- White southerners almost immediately issued Black Codes.
- The “symbolic signs of defeat” – Radical Republicans want a war guilt clause.
- 2 black U.S. Senators
- blacks are enfranchised, women begin to push for enfranchisement as well
- Reconstruction didn’t end in 1877; states had abandoned
1890 – The Strange Carrer of Jim Crow (van Woodward) - Mississippi
- pointed to roads not taken to say that Jim Crow was not inevitable
- why do roads not taken have meaning for civil rights?
- whites argue that blacks are not capable of ruling themselves; outsiders are
stirring up responsible local black
- Alabama constitution dates to this period
- Poll tax, literacy tests, used as Jim Crow to disenfranchise blacks –
understanding clause
Three Pillars of White Supremacy
- segregation
- voter disenfranchisement
- extralegal violence
- (economic marginalization)
1940 – 1945
- Brown v. Board marks beginning of Civil Rights period (1954 – 1965)
- Later stages of Civil Rights movement are often overlooked b/c it gets much
messier
- Brown cases are important for larger story
- Emitte Till – killed by group of whites, tortured a 14 year old – “Mom wants
everyone to see what the did to my baby.”
1961
- Freedom Rides (Anniston, Birmingham, Montgomery)
- Mississippi is worse than Alabama; so Freedom riders will fair worse;
Kennedy’s agree to protect the Freedom Riders
- Kennedy agreed not to enforce Interstate Commerce clause; let whites arrest
freedom riders and beat them
- SNCC arrives in 1961 and 1962
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James Meredith in 1962 – Ole Miss
o Feds send in fed troops – “Losing virginity”
- Turn Around march in 1962
- Civil Rights images are spreading around the world and impacting the ability
of the Americans to sway people to the American side.
- Medgar Evers assassinated on June 11, 1963 – works for NAACP – WWII
veteran; assassinated as a political actor trying to register black voters
Mississippi
- battleground for democracy; Mississipi is place to make stand
- some MS countis where AA outnumber whites 8 to 1.
- Have to remember the local Mississippians – worked with outside agitators
to bring about change
- Outsiders come into MS
1961 – 1964 in Mississippi
- huge numbers of blacks who are disenfranchised
- whites and northern blacks move into MS; become fascilittors of change
- SNCC – let the people decide
- The “Beloved Community” –
- Bob Moses comes in as part of SNCC – wanted grassroots movement from
ground up; let locals work out situation for their help
- Tried to register blacks but whites refused
- In 1944 the white primary was abolished but whites kept blacks out of voting
b/c the turned the MS Democratic Party into a private structure and prevent
blacks from participating
- Party is closed so the MFDP – start their own party; (Rep) didn’t exist.
- African Americans in MS see selves as primary Dem party b/c of white fringe
nature of Dem Party in MS.
- African Americans would vote if given chance – what if you build alt freedom
structure.
- Challenge Nat Democratic party by going to convention – whites from MS
threaten convention.
- MFDP pursues confrontation with state MDP officials at national convention.
Kathryn Braund’s Lecture – Southeastern Indians
- Who is this man? William McIntosh
- What does it mean to be an Indian? How do you plot your course?
- William McIntosh was a civilized Indian.
- Tribes were sovereign, independent nations – Henry Knox’s Expansion with
Honor
- Federal tribe relationship with fed gov’t (not states)
- Purchase land for national expansion
o By public treaty
o Under authority of US
- Problem with Indians wasn’t racial, it was cultural inferiority – can civilize
savages.
- Civilizations of Indians
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o Two assumptions
 Indians aren’t civilized
 Some can become civizlized.
o Southeastern Indians
 Intermarriage and “Progres” – problem will go away (different
than situation with blacks who could not be civilized.
Civilization
o Comerical ag
o Private property
o New roles for women
 Weaving
 Domesticity
o Slave labor
o Move out of towns to individual farms
o Stock raising and hunting
End of “law of blood”
o Concept of individual vs. clan responsibility
o Law menders dispatched by council replace clan vengeance
Reform of Government
o National Council – centralize power and speak for all the towns
o Leaders receive gifts from US
o Shift away from consensus to accommodation
Creek War results – how do you respond to white imposition?
o William McIntosh – shape events from within and become
accomadationist vs. resist.
Cherokee use civilization ideas and push to develop their own society.
Cherokee cooperate with Americans and Andrew Jackson. Ally with
Americans to show how civilized they are.
Creek War – Turning Point
o Civilization no longer works; Indians must be removed.
o Kinship matters more than
o Creek War is turning point – to get their land; Andrew Jackson: series
of treaties
David Carter – Civil Rights: 1940s to Little Rock (7/6/10)
- focuses on agency – the little people have role in history in addition to dead
white men
- agents act and are not just acted upon (difficult vocab – aggregate)
Kathryn Braund – Southeastern Indians to 1800s (7/6/10)
- real people making real decisions about real things that matter than shape
their outcome
- not unanimous agreement on Indian choices;
- time viewed differently by natives; the power of the creator is manifested
through many spiritual agents.
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crawfish pile up the earth – each Indian people have different creation
stories.
Earth is important: 3 tiered universe – above world, below world, this world.
Birds represent the upper world.
“fire” – my town.
“Sun” – drops of Sun’s blood feel to earth and became man. Women are life
givers. Fertility and life giving from blood. Women are the life givers.
Women also associated with agriculture, production of crops. Women plant,
tend, and harvest the corn.
If a man moves into agriculture, they are declaring that they are women.
Men are life takers. Men either hunt for subsistence or killing the enemy.
Men associated with animal realm. Always equality/ balance in Indian world.
Always opposites balancing opposites. Medicines are spiritual concoctions
that allow one to become pure. Almost always plants.
Medicines could be used to get world right again. Composite animals live in
underworld.
Origin of fire important. Fires are central to Indian identity. Fires central to
Indian living. Fire is representative of sun on earth. Fire is extinguished in
ritual manner. Fire is center of community – physical, social, etc.
Second family – introduction to kinship: clans – matrilineal and matrilocal.
Kinship runs through the female line. Men live near mother in law. Men
moved between sister’s house where his clan was and his wifes clan.
No private property in Indian myths. No individual ownership of land.
Men must hunt. Animals do not sacrifice themselves for humans to eat. Hunt
must occur. Hunt is a spiritual exercise.
Indian culture has passed through to today – cultural continuity and change.
Indians can only conceptualize western history in certain ways because of
their worldview.
Braund: Civilization Program
- when American Revolution broke out, most Creek were allied with British,
trying to drive out American agents.
- After A.Rev, balance of power shifts. More Americans now than Creeks.
Americans want land. Trade is not priority for Americans.
- Civilization program is alternative to destroying Indians. Virtuous, Christian
American must deal with Indians in better way.
- Civilization Program – Treaty of NY, Treaty of Holston
- Red Stick of War