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Class Date: January 7th
Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!
Recommended Movie: "Ghosts of Mississippi" (You can watch for free on Tubi with a free account)
The Struggle for Civil Rights
The Struggle for Civil Rights
This week we are looking at the life and work of Medgar Evers. Though his life was cut tragically short by racially motivated violence, we will look at the work he did and inspired. But before we get there, here is a brief overview of the events of the time:
1917 - The US declares war on Germany
The United States declared war on Germany and its allies, but recognized its need for greater communication that adversaries could not understand. Things like the Zimmerman Telegraph also illustrated the value of coded intelligence. To read more about the significance of the Zimmerman Telegram, click here: https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/wwi/zimmermann-telegram
A new group was created, known as the Cipher Bureau, under the direction of Herbert O. Yardley. Headquartered in Washington D.C., the code and cypher description unit was part of the war effort under the Executive, lacking Congressional authorization or oversight. After the war ended in 1919, Yardley’s Bureau was moved to New York City, as a joint venture between the Army and the State Department. Known as The Black Chamber, it was disguised as a New York City commercial code company. The Black Chamber did sell commercial codes, but it also devoted time to breaking the communication codes of other nations.
August 8, 1925 - The Klu Klux Klan marches in Washington, D.C.
Though the first iteration of the KKK was born in the wake of the Civil War, the second KKK was founded in 1915. Like its predecessor, it was deeply rooted in racism and violence. The ‘secret’ society had 3 million members by the early 1920s and they organized a march on the National Mall to counter rumors of faltering enrollment numbers. Roughly 40,000 Klan members, most of them with their faces showing, marched in Washington, D.C.
1932 - Franklin D. Roosevelt elected
Roosevelt contracted an illness, most likely polio, in 1921, which resulted in his paralysis from the waist down. After becoming president, Roosevelt helped to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which is now known as the March of Dimes. His leadership and advocacy for this issue is one of the reasons his likeness appears on the dime.
1935 - The Tuskegee Study began
Ultimately, a 40 year study titled “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” was conducted through the U.S. Public Health Service. The men participating in the study were never informed that they had syphilis or informed of the true reason for the study, which was to study the effects of late-stage syphilis that was left untreated. Even after a cure was developed for the disease, it was withheld from the participants. The study is marked as one of the most egregiously unethical experiments ever conducted. To read more, click here: https://www.history.com/news/the-infamous-40-year-tuskegee-study
December 5, 1935 - National Council of Negro Women established by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune
Dr. Bethune called together more than 28 leaders of national women’s organizations together to help unite Black women’s organizations. The organizations sponsored efforts toward Black education, voting rights, and civil rights issues. The very next year, Dr. Bethune was appointed as the Director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration, making her the first Black woman to be appointed by the president and the highest ranking Black Woman in Theordore Roosevelt’s administration.
1938 - Germany annexes Austria
Known as the Anschluss, or ‘Union’, Germany marched into Austria and encountered no resistance, per design. Other nations protested the annexation, but no one interceded on Austria’s behalf. For more detail, click here: https://www.britannica.com/event/Anschluss
September 1, 1939 - World War II begins
Germany invaded Poland, prompting Poland’s allies, Great Britain and France, to declare war on Germany. For a more comprehensive look at the beginnings of World War II, check out this 7 minute video here: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/us-wwii/v/beginning-of-world-war-ii
1946 - The first Levittown is constructed
Entrepreneur William J. Levitt envisioned a large-scale housing project, built using assembly line techniques to maximize efficiency. On a thousand acres on Long Island, Levitt built 17,000 homes to accommodate approximately 82,000 people. He produced many more ‘Levittowns’ as a model for suburban planning. But not everyone was welcome in these new suburban dream communities; the lease itself stipulated that the premises would not be occupied “by any person other than members of the Caucasian race”.
To see a condensed version of a documentary made on the ‘crisis at Levittown’, click here:
April 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks the ‘color line’ in major league baseball
Jack Roosevelet Robinson, or ‘Jackie’ Robinson, was the first Black player to play in the Major League. He donned number 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers and was met with everything from enthusiasm to anger and hostility. Jackie’s phenomenal skill won him respect from many corners, including from the Sporting News, a publication that had originally opposed Black players in the major leagues. The magazine gave Robinson its first Rookie of the Year Award in 1947. Robinson played for 10 years, in 6 World Series and he stole home 19 times. Players across the MLB still wear number 42 to honor his legacy every April.
1950 - Korean War begins
Conflict between Community and non-Community forces clashed on the Korean peninsula. President Truman, without approval from Congress, committed American troops to battle.
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower elected 34th President
Eisenhower had formerly commanded the Allied forces in Europe during WWII. He was convinced to run for president, and he chose to run as a Republican. Using the slogan ‘I Like Ike’, he was elected president over Adlai Stevenson in a landslide.
1957 - Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock
In 1954, the Supreme Court had ruled that separate schools were inherently unequal, but Arkansas segregationist governor Orval Faubus refused to allow the “Little Rock 9” to integrate into Central High School. Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control to escort the 9 high school students and enforce the Supreme Court decision for integration.
That is where our timeline leaves us for the week! Tune in to learn more about the time period and the people in it!
Recommended Reading
Recommended Reading
To read more about this period, here are some great books to get you started:
For kids:
Medgar Evers: He Taught His Kids to Crawl So We Could Stand by Katina Rankin
“Crawling Leads To Walking, But To Walk One Must Stand” Medgar Evers: “He Taught His Kids To Crawl So We Could Stand” looks at moments in time — our history, racial past, even our current state of politics. It’s a riveting story, told in fittingly kid-friendly language, that explores how power and superiority corrupts everyone: those new to it and those resisting its loss. In Medgar Evers: “He Taught His Kids To Crawl So We Could Stand” — Katina Rankin teaches children that history’s mistakes can linger if we aren’t willing to stand up and tell the truth — that there will always be abuses of power, unless we jointly take a knee to prove a point, and that the arc of the universe doesn’t bend toward justice unless we’re willing to do the work even if it includes crawling to get the pendulum of justice to swing toward honesty. Each page filled with words of its era, pictures and quotes intertwined into the conversational setting of a loving family’s home. The storytelling provides deeper insight for children than some history books. The author supplies an in-depth analysis of civil rights through a family’s dialogue of various aspects of the movement often just glossed over in classroom school text books. Medgar Evers: “He Taught His Kids To Crawl So We Could Stand” also teaches kids now is always the time to do what’s right. And, it gives children hope teaching them justice delayed is not justice denied.
Child of the Civil Rights Movement by Paula Young Shelton
In this Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year, Paula Young Shelton, daughter of Civil Rights activist Andrew Young, brings a child’s unique perspective to an important chapter in America’s history. Paula grew up in the deep south, in a world where whites had and blacks did not. With an activist father and a community of leaders surrounding her, including Uncle Martin (Martin Luther King), Paula watched and listened to the struggles, eventually joining with her family—and thousands of others—in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery.
Poignant, moving, and hopeful, this is an intimate look at the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.
For adults:
Medgar and Myrlie; Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid
NAACP Image Award Winner
From Joy-Ann Reid, a triumphant work of biography that repositions slain Civil Rights pioneer Medgar Evers at the heart of America's struggle for freedom, and celebrates Myrlie Evers's extraordinary activism after her husband's assassination in the driveway of their Mississippi home.
“Medgar Evers deserves a place alongside Malcolm X and Dr. King in our historical memory. Evers, with Myrlie as his partner in activism and in life, was doing civil rights work in the single most hostile and dangerous environment in America.”—from Medgar and Myrlie
Myrlie Louise Beasley met Medgar Evers on her first day of college. They fell in love at first sight, married just one year later, and Myrlie left school to focus on their growing family.
Medgar became the field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, charged with beating back the most intractable and violent resistance to black voting rights in the country. Myrlie served as Medgar’s secretary and confidant, working hand in hand with him as they struggled against public accommodations and school segregation, lynching, violence, and sheer despair within their state’s “black belt.” They fought to desegregate the intractable University of Mississippi, organized picket lines and boycotts, despite repeated terroristic threats, including the 1962 firebombing of their home, where they lived with their three young children.
On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers became the highest profile victim of Klan-related assassination of a black civil rights leader at that time; gunned down in the couple’s driveway in Jackson. In the wake of his tragic death, Myrlie carried on their civil rights legacy; writing a book about Medgar’s fight, trying to win a congressional seat, and becoming a leader of the NAACP in her own right.
In this groundbreaking and thrilling account of two heroes of the civil rights movement, Joy-Ann Reid uses Medgar and Myrlie’s relationship as a lens through which to explore the on-the-ground work that went into winning basic rights for Black Americans, and the repercussions that still resonate today.
The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through his Writings, Letters, and Speeches edited by Myrlie Evers-Williams & Manning Marable
The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through his Writings, Letters, and Speeches edited by Myrlie Evers-Williams & Manning Marable
On the evening of June 12, 1963 -- the day President John F. Kennedy gave his most impassioned speech about the need for interracial tolerance "Medgar Evers, the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, was shot and killed by an assassin's bullet in his driveway. The still-smoking gun -- bearing the fingerprints of Byron De La Beckwith, a staunch white supremacist -- was recovered moments later in some nearby bushes. Still, Beckwith remained free for over thirty years, until Evers's widow finally forced the Mississippi courts to bring him to justice. The Autobiography of Medgar Evers tells the full story of one the greatest leaders of the civil rights movement, bringing his achievement to life for a new generation. Although Evers's memory has remained a force in the civil rights movement, the legal battles surrounding his death have too often overshadowed the example and inspiration of his life. Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable have assembled the previously untouched cache of Medgar's personal documents, writings, and speeches. These remarkable pieces range from Medgar's monthly reports to the NAACP to his correspondence with luminaries of the time such as Robert Carter, General Counsel for the NAACP in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Most important of all are the recollections of Myrlie Evers, combined with letters from her personal collection. These documents and memories form the backbone of The Autobiography of Medgar Evers, a cohesive narrative detailing the rise and tragic death of a civil rights hero.
Works Cited
Works Cited
https://ushistoryscene.com/article/levittown/
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/legacy-levittown/79661/
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6689
https://time.com/3889533/25-moments-changed-america/
https://www.history.com/news/little-rock-nine-brown-v-board-eisenhower-101-airborne
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