The Doll Tests, Till Case, Birmingham: Catalysts of the Black Freedom Struggle

1. The “Doll Tests,” the Till case, Birminghamand young people as factorsin the black freedom struggle

2. The date April 4 has significance in civil rights history

3. “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” Martin Luther King, Jr. Riverside Church April 4, 1967

4. It is the thesis of this course that certain events catalyze historical change. But the forces underlying that change typically take shape over a long period

5. Remember how we described the events… • Often they involve young people • Not only the events themselves, but the depiction of the events • Role of the media is crucial • Malignant force • Innocent victim • Drama – good vs. bad, a moral choice • Aftermath: conclusion (by some) that change is needed The Problem We All Live With

6. It is important to distinguish the black freedom struggle (1619-present) from the civil rights movement (1954-65) Frederick Douglass

7. Black freedom struggle has a long history • Slavery • Abolitionism • Civil War • Reconstruction • Neo-slavery • Jim Crow (segregation) • Civil rights movement • Mass incarceration • Black Lives Matter The Scottsboro Boys

8. In 20th century, some underlying factors leading to change in the black freedom struggle • Great Migration results in a blending of black and white cultures, especially in the Northern cities • New Deal greatly expands reach of federal government, at the expense of state and local power • Democratic Party develops a black voting constituency – FDR, Truman • Mechanization of the Southern cotton economy • Experience of World War II. Ideals incompatible with Jim Crow • Cold War, global exposure, impact of Third World • Modernization of the South (more interconnected nationally) • National markets – for instance, baseball, television, etc.

9. The Jazz Age

10. Activists pushing for change • The “long” civil rights movement • NAACP – especially its legal defense fund • Labor unions, like the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters • Congress of Racial Equality (Journey of Reconciliation) • Regional Council of Negro Leadership • “Liberal” groups in the South like the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, the Southern Regional Council, and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare • Double V for Victory campaign • Black media outlets like the Chicago Defender Bayard Rustin

11. Events help accelerate change • Eugene Williams (1919) • Scottsboro (1931) • Jesse Owens (1936) • Joe Louis (1938) • Marian Anderson (1939) • George Stinney Jr. (1944) • Isaac Woodard (1946) • Jackie Robinson (1947) Marian Anderson Isaac Woodard

12. The great drama of segregation’s end occurs in the two decades following World War II Levi Jackson Ralph Bunche

13. Remember, often the most crucial events, historically, occur just after the tide has turned. These events crystalize the need for change that in fact is already under way. Linda Brown Elizabeth Eckford faces Little Rock mob

14. Today we look at three specific “events” • Mamie and Kenneth Clark’s “Doll Tests” • The Emmett Till case • Birmingham and the Four Little Girls Mamie Phipps Clark, left

15. Doll Tests • Kenneth and Mamie Clark – husband and wife team, first two blacks to earn Ph.D.’s in psychology from Columbia Univ. • Doll tests grew out of Mamie Clark’s master’s thesis in the late 1930s • Children’s self-perception based on race • Test results suggested that segregation harms children, and thus society at large. African-American children’s preference for white dolls represented psychological damage reinforced by segregation • Clarks testified as expert witnesses in cases that were part of Brown vs. Board of Education

16. Dolls were completely identical, except for race

17. “To separate [black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.” Chief Justice Earl Warren majority opinion, Brown vs. Board of Education

18. The Doll Tests

19. Brown ruling begins the civil rights movement • May 17, 1954 • A “friend” in the federal courts • Federal court rulings are backed by the federal government, with all of its power • Now the objective is to seek cases where the segregation laws of the South can be successfully challenged in federal court – that, essentially, is the civil rights movement, based in the Southern black church • Aim: “constructive nonviolent tension” • Blacks across the South are emboldened

20. Emmett Till murder -- context • Late summer of 1955 • Great Migration, to places like Chicago, well under way • Blacks lead a relatively free life in the cities of the North • In the South, a legacy of lynching and the paranoia surrounding black men and white women • Among Southern whites, backlash, deep fear following Brown ruling. A way of life is perceived as threatened “Dar he”

21. Why was this particular event so compelling? Bryant’s grocery store, Money, Miss., left, in 1955, and right, today

22. The case was so dramatic and so extreme • The victim seemed so innocent • What he was alleged to have done seemed so trivial • The people investigating the murder seemed so corrupt (or incompetent). The sheriff seemed so much a caricature • The trial seemed so unfair • The killers seemed so unrepentant • The nature of the killing seemed so barbaric • The jury seemed so cavalier • To many people, it seemed a system that would allow such a spectacle was so wrong

23. A few months later, the killers freely told Look magazine what they had done

24. Also, the photos of Till’s corpse were unbelievably shocking and grotesque. No one had ever seen photos like this before

25. The ultimate hate crime • Till was barely 14 years old • He had come down to the Delta from Chicago to visit relatives • He said something to (or whistled at) a white female clerk in a crossroads grocery store. She took offense and told her husband • The husband and his half-brother took Till out of the cabin where he was staying, at gunpoint, in the middle of the night • They tortured and murdered him, threw his body in the river • When the body was discovered, Till’s mother insisted on an open-casket funeral • After a five-day trial, the two accused killers were found not-guilty

26. Other factors… • The Till case was a huge media event, especially in the black media • It showcased black people standing up to white authority • It underscored changing racial demographics in the U.S. – blacks in the North had newfound power • The bravery of Till’s mother • The courage of Till’s great-uncle testifying against the two men • The courage of other witnesses coming forward to testify • Impact on young black Americans Mamie Till Bradley, at the graveside

27. In a sense, the civil rights movement, at its core, was about young people taking on the status quo Wade-in, Fort Lauderdale, 1961

28. And this was particularly true in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 In retrospect, the civil rights movement reached its climactic phase in Birmingham in 1963

29. Birmingham Campaign, 1963 • King called Birmingham the most segregated city in the U.S. • City controlled by “Big Mules” – tiny group of white economic elite • Front man for the Big Mules, public safety chief “Bull” Connor • Dozens of unsolved bombings of black targets – “Bombingham” • Close ties between police department and the Klan • George Wallace had just been inaugurated Alabama governor • King arrives in April to lead sit-ins, protests against segregation • Within a few days, he is arrested, placed in solitary • Letter from Birmingham City Jail Fred Shuttlesworth

30. What is a sit-in? What is creative nonviolence? What is the strategy behind it?

31. While King is confined in jail, others step in to lead the protests. The Children’s Crusade stems from that.

32. And Connor and the Birmingham authorities immediately overreact, playing directly into the hands of the protesters. America, JFK are horrified by what they see

33. Four Little Girls • Birmingham Campaign’s center was the 16th Street Baptist Church • Fred Shuttlesworth was senior pastor • Obvious target for Klan • Perhaps the inevitable result of the Children’s Crusade • September of 1963 • As with the Till case, this event was so extreme – innocent girls wearing white dresses, church Youth Day services, etc. • Recent review of a new book about the years-long effort to prosecute the killers • Spike Lee film

35. Looking back after nearly four decades, I believe the South began to change inexorably that day. Our transition in racial attitudes would take years and a long period of bitter resistance lay ahead. But the consciences of many white people were shaken badly that Sunday. We had been willing to ignore the indignities, the bogus arrests and the intimidation heaped upon our black population, but the murder of their innocent children was unacceptable.Curtis Wilkie, Dixie (2001)