Matt Wehr
ENGL 466
Professor Antonette
This is a timeline dedicated to those who stood up in the
face of adversity from 1947 to 1968—to those who fought
for the equal rights for all African American people—to
those who suffered—to those who changed the face of
America—forever.
In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is to those
who fought for “the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.”
1949:
Langston
Hughes’
One-Way
Ticket
1947:
Jackie
Robinson
1951:
Lanston
Hughes’
Montage of
a Dream
Deferred
1954:
Brown v.
Board of
Education
1957:
“Little
Rock Nine”
1955: Rosa
Parks
1960:
Woolworth
Sit-In
1960: Ruby
Bridges
1963:
MLK’s “I
Have a
Dream”
speech
1963:
Denise
McNair,
Carole
Robertson,
Addie Mae
Collins, &
Cynthia
Wesley
1965: Jerry
LeVias
1964: Nina
Simone
1966: Bill
Russell
1966: Greg
Page & Nat
Northington
1968: Sly
and the
Family
Stone
1967:
Thurgood
Marshall
1968: MLK’s
“I’ve Been to
the
Mountaintop”
Up until 1947, African American men were restricted
to play in the Negro Leagues of professional
baseball. As Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie
Robinson, writes in Promises to Keep (2004), the
Negro Leagues, although a “unique and exciting
style of baseball,” were a part of a “discriminatory
system” wherein salaries were lower, schedules had
no fluency, and games played in the south were
forced to follow Jim Crow laws (p.22).
Photo courtesy of csus.edu
Major League Baseball, which was considered
“America’s pastime” during the post-WWII era, was
beginning to get questioned, initially by sports
writers. As Robinson (2004) writes in her book,
“Could baseball truly be considered America’s
pastime when black ballplayers and white ballplayers
couldn't play on the same field” (p.25)?
Several years prior to 1947, Branch Rickey, owner of
the Brooklyn Dodgers, set out to find the African
American man who would be “right on and off the
field” in his campaign to integrate Major League
Baseball (Robinson, 2004, p.27).
Rickey finally decided, after plenty of scouting and
interviews, that Jackie Robinson would be the right
man to integrate Major League Baseball. Rickey
asked Robinson in an interview if he would be able
to “hold back his anger for the sake of the mission”
(Robinson, 2004, p.29). As Robinson (2004) writes
in her book, Rickey “knew that Dad had both the selfcontrol and the courage to succeed” (p.29).
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets
Field in Brooklyn, New York (Robinson, 2004, p.36). The game is historic in that it was
the first time an African American man had played in a Major League Baseball game. It
would also lead to a string of many more events involving the Civil Rights of African
American people in the next 20 years.
Already established as an acclaimed American poet, Arnold
Rampersad (2001) writes that Hughes’ release of One-Way Ticket
in 1949 was ridiculed by some critics. One scholar declared the
book “stale, flat and spiritless.” Another critic said that Hughes
“lacked everything one expects in a poet.” One reviewer called
Hughes a “documentary poet” (Vol. 2, p.9).
Ironically, Rampersad (2001) reveals that Hughes was “proud to be
a ‘documentary poet’ of African American life, setting down on
paper the life and language of the people” (Vol. 2, p.9).
Photo courtesy of
oberlin.edu
Several poems from One-Way Ticket can be seen on the following
slides. The poems I have chosen are very powerful in language.
Hughes, as will be seen in the poems I have selected, often wrote
about the inequalities, prejudices, and oppressions that African
American people faced.
The Ballad of Margie
Polite
If Margie Polite
Had of been white
She might not’ve cussed
Out the cop that night.
In the lobby
Of the Braddock Hotel
She might not’ve felt
The urge to raise hell.
A soldier took her part.
He got shot in the back
By a white cop—
The soldier were black.
They killed a colored
soldier!
Folks started to cry it—
The cry spread over
Harlem
And turned into riot.
They taken Margie to jail
And kept her there.
DISORDERLY CONDUCT
The charges swear.
Colored leaders
In sound trucks.
Somebody yelled,
Go home, you hucks!
Margie warn’t nobody
Important before—
But she ain’t just nobody
Now no more.
They didn’t kill the soldier,
A race leader cried.
Somebody hollered,
Naw! But they tried!
She started the riots!
Harlemites say
August 1st is
MARGIE’S DAY
Margie Polite!
Margie Polite!
Kept the Mayor
And Walter White
And everybody
Up all night!
Mark August 1st
As decreed by fate
For Margie and History
To have a date.
Mayor La Guardia
Riding up and down.
Somebody yelled,
What about
Stuyvesant Town?
When the PD car
Taken Margie away—
It wasn’t Mother’s
Nor Father’s—
It were
MARGIE’S DAY!
*(Hughes, 1949, p.194)
Who but the Lord?
Lynching Song
One-Way Ticket
I looked and I saw
That man they call the law.
He was coming
Down the street at me!
I had visions in my head
Of being laid out cold and dead,
Or else murdered
By the third degree.
Pull at the rope!
O, pull it high!
Let the white folks live
And the black boy die.
I pick up my life
And take it with me
And I put it down in
Chicago, Detroit,
Buffalo, Scranton,
Any place that is
North and East—
And not Dixie.
I said, O, Lord, if you can,
Save me from that man!
Don’t let him make a pulp out of me!
But the Lord he was not quick.
The law raised up his stick
And beat the living hell
Out of me!
Now, I do not understand
Why God don’t protect a man
From Police brutality.
Being poor and black,
I’ve no weapon to strike back
So who but the Lord
Can protect me?
*(Hughes, 1949, p.193)
Pull it, boys,
With a bloody cry.
Let the black boy spin
While the white folks die.
The white folks die?
What do you mean—
The white folks die?
That black boy’s
Still body
Says:
NOT I.
*(Hughes, 1949, p.187)
I pick up my life
And take it on the train
To Los Angeles, Bakersfield,
Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake,
Any place that is
North and West—
And not South.
I am fed up
With Jim Crow laws,
People who are cruel
And afraid,
Who lynch and run,
Who are scared of me
And me of them.
I pick up my life
And take it away
On a one-way ticket—
Gone up North,
Gone out West,
Gone! *(Hughes, 1949, p.188)
By 1951, Hughes had been writing poetry for almost thirty years and was regarded as
one of the most admired American poets of his era—black or white. His latest release
was Montage of a Dream Deferred. Arnold Rampersad (2001) writes that this book was
influenced by Hughes’ recognition of Harlem’s “growing unemployment, rising crime, the
advent of a drug culture, and a deepening sense of hopelessness…”(Vol. 3, p. 4).
On the following slides, several poems from Montage will be displayed. As with OneWay Ticket, Hughes’ book initially received “chilly” reception by critics and reviewers.
Black academic critic J. Saunders Redding said of the book, “His images are again
quick, vibrant and probing, but they no longer educate. They probe into old emotions
and experiences with fine sensitiveness…but they reveal nothing new” (Vol. 3, p.6)
Regardless, the imagery and language of Hughes’ poetry is true to what he as an African
American person saw, heard, and felt. The poems in Montage further established his
legacy as a writer not only among the African American community, but among the
American community as a whole.
Harlem
Not a Movie
What happens to a dream deferred?
Well, they rocked him with road-apples
Because he tried to vote
And whipped his head with clubs
And he crawled on his knees to his house
And he got the midnight train
And he crossed that Dixie line
Now he’s livin’
On a 133rd.
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 curst and sugar over—
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
He didn’t stop in Washington
And he didn’t stop in Baltimore
Neither in Newark on the way.
Six knots was on his head
But, thank God, he wasn’t dead,
Now there ain’t no Ku Klux
On a 133rd.
*(Hughes, 1951, p.74).
*(Hughes, 1951, p.36).
Parade
Seven ladies
And seventeen gentlemen
At the Elks Club Lounge
Planning planning a parade:
Grand Marshal in his white suit
Will lead it.
Cadillacs with dignitaries
Will precede it.
And behind will come
With band and drum
On foot…on foot…
On foot…
Motorcycle cops,
White,
Will speed it
Out of sight
If they can:
Solid black,
Can’t be right.
Marching…marching…
Marching…
Noon till night…
I never knew
that many Negroes
were on earth,
did you?
I never knew!
PARADE!
A chance to let
PARADE!
the whole world see
PARADE!
old black me!
(Hughes, 1951, p.28).
In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal
facilities for blacks and whites did not violate the fourteenth
Amendment” (Pratt, 2002, p.141). In 1954, this decision was
overturned by the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl
Warren, with the historic case of Brown vs. Board of Education
(Pratt, 2002, p.141).
Photo courtesy of Law.du.edu
Brown vs. Board of Education was a collection of five cases that
the “NAACP had been preparing” (Pratt, 2002, p.143). All five
cases had been combined, and on May 17, 1954, the Supreme
Court ended “legally sanctioned segregation in the public
schools” (Pratt, 2002, p.143).
Interestingly enough, Pratt (2002) writes that “until 1954 black
parents and their allies most often demanded educational
equality, not desegregation,” due to reservations such as “white
racial superiority and black inferiority” (p.142). Eventually,
however, African American people became convinced that “whites
would never grant total equality” (Pratt, 2002, p.142).
A second case, known as “Brown II,” was held in 1955. It
instructed school districts to implement desegregation “with all
deliberate speed’” due to intense resistance by many schools
(Pratt, 2002, p.144).
Kurt H. Wilson (2005) refers to Rosa Parks as “the woman who
had defied a bus driver and given them [African American people
of Montgomery, Alabama] the courage to defy a city” (p. 302).
Photo courtesy of
American.edu
She is often referred to by the media as “The Mother of the Civil
Rights Movement” and is partially responsible for “imitative
movements across the South, a new civil rights organization
(SCLC), and a charismatic, national civil rights leader (MLK)”
(Wilson, 2005, p.300). She is also partially responsible for the
Montgomery Bus Boycott on December 5, 1955. Most
importantly, she is partially responsible for the integration of city
bus lines, which occurred a year after her arrest for refusing to
give up her bus seat (Wilson, 2005, p.300).
Here is a quote from Rosa Parks on her refusal to give up her seat on the bus on
December 1, 1955:
“I did not get on the bus to get arrested; I got on the bus to go home….I had no
idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving in” (Wilson, 2005, p.
299).
Carlotta Walls, Jefferson Thomas, Elizabeth
Eckford, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo,
Ernest Green, Terrence Roberts, Gloria Ray, and
Minnijean Brown are the “Little Rock Nine.”
These nine students volunteered to attend Central
High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. At the time,
“less than 2% of southern schools had been
integrated” (Bridges, 1999, p. 4).
Photo courtesy of
nieman.harvard.edu
In August of 1957, the nine aforementioned African American children were approved
to attend Central High School. However, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus put a
temporary halt to the integration, claiming that “he had information that weapons were
confiscated from Negro teenagers by police. On August 29 Judge Murray O. Reed
issued an injunction halting the integration of Central High School” (“Daisy Bates,”
Biography Resource Center, 2006).
On September 22, 1957, Faubus went on national television to tell black children
and their parents to “make no attempt to enroll at Central High School” (“Daisy
Bates,” Biography Resource Center, 2006).
Only two days later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower “federalized all units of the
Arkansas National Guard and ordered Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson to
enforce the integration order issued by the U.S. District Court” (“Daisy Bates,”
Biography Resource Center, 2006). He had a television message of his own, and it
was quite different from Faubus’:
“Disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out of proper orders from
the federal court ... I have today issued an executive order directing the use of troops
under federal authority to aid in the execution of federal law in Little Rock” (“Daisy
Bates,” Biography Resource Center, 2006).
On September 25, 1957, the “Little Rock Nine” met at Daisy Bates’ home and were
escorted to and from the high school under the protection of soldiers with “hundreds
of reporters, photographers, and news cameras present” (“Daisy Bates,” Biography
Resource Center, 2006).
These are the “Little Rock Nine.”
Photo courtesy
of loc.gov
Ruby Bridges became part of a plan “to integrate only the
first grade for the 1960 school year. Then, every year after
that, the incoming first grade would also be integrated”
(Bridges, 1999, p.10). Prior to this, however, black
kindergartners were tested. Bridges (1999) writes in her
book, “They wanted to find out which children should be
sent to the white schools….I was only five, and I’m sure I
didn’t have any idea why I was taking it” (p. 11).
Bridges was just one of five African American children to pass the test, and on
November 14, 1960, she was the only one of the five to attend William Frantz Public
School in Louisiana. Bridges (1999) looks back at the event in her book and writes,
“There were barricades and people shouting and policemen everywhere. I thought
maybe it was Mardi Gras, the carnival that takes place in New Orleans every year.
Mardi Gras was always noisy” (p.16). When she got to the steps, she thought
otherwise: “It must be college, I thought to myself” (p.16).
While Ruby was integrating William Frantz, the other children who passed the test
were integrating nearby McDonogh No. 19. They were “Leona, Tessie, and Gail”
(Bridges, 1999, p.30).
In time, Ruby became a hero of some sorts to Americans from all over the country.
Bridges (1999) writes in her book, “People from around the country sent gifts and
money. They knew what was happening in New Orleans because of television
news programs, as well as magazine and newspaper articles. Many Americans
wanted to encourage us” (p. 36-37).
Ruby went to the school for most of the year in a classroom with only herself and
her teacher Mrs. Henry, which is not what integration was supposed to be. Her
biggest achievement, however, is, along with the African American children who
attended McDonogh No. 19, starting the integration of public schools throughout
the South.
Photo courtesy of american.edu
Four male African American college students sat down in a
Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, bought several
items, and sat down at a “whites only” lunch counter.
Knowing that they would not be served, they still sat in their
seats and did not move. A policeman passing by came in
and, “hitting the palm of his hand with his billy club,” paced
back and forth in front of the four young men assuming that
it would intimidate them (Foster, 2003, p.397). Susan Leigh
Foster (2003) writes of the scene, “four white middle-aged
women shoppers paused to pat the students on the back,
remarking that they should have done this years earlier”
(p.398).
This event was not the first staged sit-in by African
American individuals during the Civil Rights movement, but
it “marked the beginning of a rapid expansion in similar
protests” (Foster, 2003, p.398). Throughout America’s
south in the following weeks, similar sit-ins occurred, all
similar to the Woolworth Sit-in in Greensboro, North
Carolina. As Foster (2003) remarks in her article, this event
was “more than a hamburger” (p. 398).
In reference to not only the Woolworth Sit-in, but all non-violent
actions, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his book Why We Can’t
Wait (1964):
“Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the
creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden
tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it
can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured
so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its
ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must
be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light
of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can
be cured” (p. 73).
Photo courtesy of http://ec1.imagesamazon.com/images/P/0451527534.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg
All photos courtesy of
sph.emory.edu
On September 15, 1963, a Ku Klux Klan
bombing killed four girls going to Sunday
school at their Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church (Morrison, 2004, p. 78). The
bombing is just one of many bombings
set off by racists that occurred
throughout Birmingham, Alabama.
The same church is also where “young
people,” black and white, once
“converged…in wave after wave. More
than a thousand young people
demonstrated and went to jail…there
were 2,500 demonstrators in jail at one
time, a large proportion of them young
people” (King, Jr., 1964, p.88-89).
In August of 1963, “Martin Luther King, Jr.,
addressed a large crowd of peaceful
demonstrators at a march on Washington,
during which he delivered his famous ‘I Have a
Dream’ speech” (Morrison, 2004, p.77). The
speech can be watched below by clicking on the
photo/movie clip.
Photo courtesy of
ncsu.edu
Simone is an African American singer/songwriter who released an album in 1964 titled In
Concert/ I Put a Spell on You. On the album,
there are two tracks that are lyrically directed
towards the oppressions and inequalities
African American people faced during this
time. They are “Old Jim Crow” and
“Mississippi Goddam.” The latter of the two is
playing in the background. The lyrics for both
can be seen by clicking on the links below for
each respective song. Be aware that you will
not be able to view the lyrics and listen to the
song at the same time.
Click here to see
lyrics for “Old Jim
Crow”
Click here to see
lyrics for
“Mississippi
Goddam”
LeVias was “the first black scholarship player in the Southwest
Conference” while playing football at Southern Methodist
University (Wolff, 2005, p.4). While a member of the football
team, he was “spit in his face during a practice…students
scrambled to avoid having to sit next to him in class, and
student trainers refused to tape his ankles” (Wolff, 2005, p.4).
Furthermore, “the parents of his first roommate threatened to
withdraw their son from school; his second moved out after
concluding that his social life was being adversely affected by
LeVias’s race,” and teammates would scatter from the shower
stalls as soon as LeVias entered them (Wolff, 2005, p.4).
Photo courtesy of
collegefootball.org
When he was on the road for games in other Texas towns, fans
would “hold up ropes tied into nooses, and the Texas A&M
corps of cadets let black cats onto the field” in one particular
instance (Wolff, 2005, p.4).
LeVias overcame all adversity and is now a member of the
College Football Hall of Fame. After years of having
“thrashings in the middle of the night,” he has begun to talk
about his past openly across the country (Wolff, 2005, p.4)
“The color barrier remained intact for SEC football until 1966,”
when Greg Page and Nat Northington became members of the
University of Kentucky Wildcats football team (Wolff, 2005, p.2).
Colleges of the SEC conference are embedded in the deep south
wherein racial prejudices and racism were at its worst. When
Page was asked why he chose UK, he said, “I wanted to play
football for UK and to help open the way for more Negro athletes
to play ball here” (Wolff, 2005, p. 8).
Photo courtesy of
flagline.com
In 1967, during a practice drill, “all 11 Wildcats defenders,” ALSO
teammates of Page’s, “converged on the ball” when Page was the
ball carrier. Page failed to rise. He was left paralyzed from the
nose down. He died on a Friday night (Wolff, 2005, p.2).
His only African American teammate, Nat Northington, on the day
following Page’s death, “became the first African American to play
in an SEC varsity football game…but within weeks he fled
Lexington in a fog of distress and loneliness, leaving the Kentucky
varsity all-white once more” (Wolff, 2005, p.2).
Photo courtesy of bu.edu
Bill Russell became the first African American head coach
in any American professional sport, and it was for the
most storied franchise in NBA history, the Boston Celtics.
In his first two seasons, he was a player/coach, meaning
he played and coached. Russell took over coaching
duties for the legendary Red Auerbach, who hired him.
When Auerbach was asked by Roscoe Nance (2002) of
USA Today about the hiring of Russell, he said, “the move
had nothing to do with race or a quota system…He was
given the job strictly because of merit. Him being black or
white was never thought of, hinted at or discussed” (USA
Today).
Russell won NBA titles in two of the three seasons he was
player/coach (Nance, 2002, USA Today). He opened
doors for future African American head coaches in
professional American sports. In 2002, the NBA had a
record 13 African American head coaches out of 29 teams
in the league (Nance, 2002, USA Today).
Marshall is often tagged as “Mr. Civil Rights.” He was “a
staunch defender” and “tireless champion” of Civil Rights,
an “attorney for NAACP,” helped end school segregation in
the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954, became
U.S. solicitor general in 1965, and the list goes on and on
(“Thurgood Marshall,” Biography Resource Center, 2006).
Photo courtesy of
web.mit.edu
In 1967, Marshall, although “facing stiff opposition” by “four
southern senators on the Judiciary Committee,” was
appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to be on the
Supreme Court with an overwhelming victory of 69-11. He
was the first African American to acquire such a position.
He retired from the position in 1991 (“Thurgood Marshall,”
Biography Resource Center, 2006).
"Throughout his time on the court, Marshall has remained a
strong advocate of individual rights.... He has remained a
conscience on the bench, never wavering in his devotion to
ending discrimination” (“Thurgood Marshall,” Biography
Resource Center, 2006).
Everyday People
Photo courtesy of
www.stonecisum.com
Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah
There is a blue one who can't accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha - we got to live together
I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag l'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah
There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair
For bein' such a rich one that will not help the poor one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee
Oh sha sha-we got to live together
There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one
That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one
And different strokes for different folks
King, Jr. was at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement. As
Clayborne Carson (2005) writes of King, Jr., he “not only
understood his place in a larger African American freedom
struggle but also the place of this effort in a global freedom
struggle” (p.3).
Carson (2005) further writes that King recognizes civil rights as
a world issue not only in his “papers,” but also in his final
speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” on April 3, 1968,
which was on the eve of his death in Memphis, Tennessee:
Photo courtesy of
http://www.drmartinlutherki
ngjr.com
“Something is happening in our world. The masses of
people are rising up. And wherever they are
assembled today; wherever they are in Johannesburg,
South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New
York City; Atlanta, George; Jackson, Mississippi; or
Memphis, Tennessee, the cry is always the same:
‘We want to be free.’….Men for years have talked
about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just
talk about it” (Carson, 2005, p. 3).
All of the individuals mentioned in this timeline are just a few of the men, women, and children
who helped future generations of African American people live a better life. Each person and
each event mentioned in this timeline led to something more, and if not for these individuals and
events, the United States would not be where it is at today in terms of equality for all of
humanity.
While I am presenting this timeline with some optimism, it is also safe to say that the fight for
equality for African American people continues to be an uphill battle in 2006. Some see the
events between 1947 and 1968 as not bringing “the revolutionary changes in race relations that
many had predicted. Many of the nation’s public schools are nearly as segregated today as
they were in 1954, and there are no current signs that the trend is reversing” (Pratt, p. 147).
Kenneth Clark, a psychologist whose tests helped influence the Supreme Court justices in 1954,
said in 1993:
“I am forced to face the likely possibility that the United States will never rid itself of
racism and reach true integration. I look back and shudder at how naïve we all were
in our belief in the steady progress racial minorities would make through programs of
litigation and education…I am forced to recognize that my life has, in fact, been a
series of glorious defeats” (Pratt, 2002, p.148).
Like Clark, when Thurgood Marshall resigned in 1991 from the Supreme Court Justice, he was
“thoroughly frustrated and bitter” (Pratt, 2002, p.148).
It is, however, important to recognize the bravery and dedication of the individuals mentioned in
this timeline, and to recognize the importance of the events that occurred. It is also important to
recognize that the fight for equality is never over. The world can always be a better place.
There is no such thing as perfection in this world, but it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to strive for
perfection. There can never be enough Jackie Robinson’s, Thurgood Marshall’s, Ruby Bridges’,
Greg Page’s, and Langston Hughes’ in this world. So who will be next?
Click here to be directed to a list of my
references for the Timeline in MS Word format.