Southern Historical Association

Toward New Histories of the Civil Rights Era Author(s): Charles W. Eagles Source: The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Nov., 2000), pp. 815-848 Published by: Southern Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2588012 . Accessed: 03/08/2011 10:35 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sha. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Toward New Histories of the CivilRightsEra By CHARLESW. EAGLES THE

NOTED DIPLOMATIC HISTORIAN JoHN LEWIS GADDIS HAS OBSERVED

thatwriting in themidstof a struggle can lead to a lack of scholarly andan asymmetrical detachment approach.Cold warscholars,accordingto Gaddis,reflected thecontemporaneous debatesrather thanviewingthemwiththedetachment thatcomesaftertheendof an era; they viewedeventsfromtheinsideinsteadoffromtheoutside.Late in the cold war,manyscholarsdid notknowhow to getperlong-running spectiveon foreignpolicybecause theyhad neverexperiencedanythingbutthecold war.Gaddisalso arguedthatwriting aboutthecold wartendedto give"one sidedisproportionate attention" andneglected boththeinteraction betweenthetwosidesand theroleof ideas in the The result,Gaddisconcluded,was "an abnormalwayof confrontation. writinghistoryitself."Withthe end of the cold war,however,he to revertto a morenormalhistory because expectsthehistoriography historians willtreatthecold waras "a discreteepisode.... withinthe streamof time."1 Cold warhistoriography is notunique.Beforetheend of thecold likemuchofcontemporary shared war,civilrights scholarship, history, inthemidst somecharacteristics withhistories ofthecoldwar.Writing of the ongoingstrugglesfor racial equality,historianshave often lacked detachment because of theirprofoundand justifiablemoral commitment In addition,as to theaimsof thecivilrightsmovement. Gaddis suggestedaboutcold war experts,few scholarsof theblack freedomstruggle have had anypersonalexperienceof a worldapart fromthemovement; individuals bornsince 1940 can scarcelyrecalla of Historians periodbeforethemovement gainedwidespread publicity. themovement have also generally takenan asymmetrical approachto 1 in We Now Know: JohnLewis Gaddis,"The New Cold War History:FirstImpressions," Rethinking Cold WarHistory(Oxfordand New York,1997),281-95 (firstand thirdquotations on p. 282, and secondon p. 283; italicsin original).

of history at theUniversity of Mississippi. MR. EAGLESis a professor THE JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY

VolumeLXVI, No. 4, November2000

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thecampaignforequal rights. Theyhavetendedtoemphasizeone side of thestruggle, themovement side,and to neglecttheirprofessional obligationto understand theotherside,thesegregationist opposition. To explainthemostprofound changein southern history, historians have resortedto tellingthe storyfroma vantagepointwithinthe movement; onlyrarelyhavetheysoughta detachedviewor a broader perspective thatwouldnecessarily encompassall of theSouthto explain the momentouschangesin racialrelations.They have written aboutthemovement essentially fromtheperspective ofthemovement withoutfullyconsidering the largerhistoryof the Southduringthe entireera. As a result,important partsof thestoryremainuntold.2 Unliketheircoldwarcolleagues,however, civilrights scholarshave notyetdevelopedclearschoolsofinterpretation or consistently clashing interpretations; nothingcomparableto the orthodox, revisionist, and post-revisionist interpretations of the cold war yetexistsin the on themovement.3 writings Researchthathas coveredtopicsforthe firsttimehas had no earlierinterpretations to reviseorrefute. Writing on themovement has,nonetheless, involvedimplicitdisagreement on a numberof issues. Scholarshave variouslysuggested, forexample, thatthemovement actuallybeganin the1930swiththeNew Deal, in 1954 withthecase of Brownv. Board ofEducation,or evenin 1960 withthesit-ins. havealso placed By thefocusoftheirworks,historians different emphaseson therolesof thefederalgovernment, majorprotestorganizations, and prominent leaders,and theyhave stressedthe and tactics-violentor non-violent acefficacyof different strategies or massprotest, nationalor grassroots efforts. tion,litigation Students of themovement have also reachedconflicting conclusionsaboutthe resultsof thecivil rightsmovement. Seldomhave thedisagreements morecommonly amongscholarsbecomeexplicitin theirpublications; theyare impliedor have to be inferred by theirmoreexperienced readers. Havingyetto developthorough, critical,andradicalinterpretations of thecivil rightsstruggle, historians have tendedto sharea sympatheticattitudetowardthe quest forcivil rightsThey also lack the historians withtheendofthe advantagerecently gainedby diplomatic 2 outsidetheSouthtoo,thisessaywillbe restricted Although thecivilrightsstruggle occurred to includeall thestudyofthemovement to thesouthern movement. Suggestionsforbroadening be extended toincludeothersectionsofthenation aspectsoftheSouthcouldeasily,andcorrectly, as well. on thecold war,see RobertJ.McMahon 3 For a briefintroduction to thevasthistoriography and ThomasG. Paterson,eds., The Originsof theCold War,4thed. (Boston,1999).

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cold war,and theycannot,and do notwantto,declarethestruggle to be "over"becauseracialdiscordhas notendedand racialjusticehas notbeen achieved.Historianswill,therefore, continueto writeabout an ongoingmovement forequal rightsin whichtheiradvocacyand supportseem to themimportant to themovement'ssuccess.Because thestruggle forracialjusticehas notended,overcoming whatGaddis willrequiretheexerciseof greater termed"abnormalhistory" historical imagination. Trendsvisiblein therecentoutpouring of scholarship on thecivilrightsmovement suggestthata richerhistoriography may soon emerge. Historians'scholarlyinterest in thesouthern civilrightsmovement has neverbeen greater.Conventionsessions,seminars,and conferenceson thecivilrights struggle occurwithgrowing frequency. Books, articles,dissertations, andtheseson theblackfreedomstruggle proliferateat an amazingrate,andoftenstudiesofthemovement winmajor prizesin thehistorical profession andin thelargerpublishing community.Historicalconcernforthemovement seemsunlikelyto diminish but insteadwill probablycontinueto grow.As historians persistin theirpursuitof themovement and itsmeanings,an assessmentof the and futureof scholarshipon the civil rights origins,development, revolution mayproveworthwhile. Surveysoftheliterature by George Rehin,Adam Fairclough,StevenF. Lawson,and CharlesM. Payne have alreadymade important contributions, but a more extensive analysismayfurther highlight thewide varietyof worksalreadyproduced,identify persistent problemsin studyingthe movement, and pointoutpossibilities forfuture research.4 Journalists,movementactivists, and non-historianscholars 4 GeorgeRehin,"Of Marshalls, Myrdalsand Kings:Some RecentBooks AbouttheSecond Reconstruction," JournalofAmericanStudies,XXII (April 1988), 87-103; Adam Fairclough, "Historiansand theCivil RightsMovement,"JournalofAmericanStudies,XXIV (December 1990), 387-98; StevenF. Lawson, "FreedomThen, FreedomNow: The Historiography of the Civil RightsMovement,"AmericanHistoricalReview,XCVI (April 1991), 456-71; and CharlesM. Payne,"The Social Construction of History," in I've Got theLightofFreedom:The Organizing Tradition and theMississippiFreedomStruggle(Berkeley, Los Angeles,andLondon, 1995), 413-41. Witha few exceptions,theworksreferred to below will be limitedto books publishedthrough1998,buttheenormoussize of theliterature has necessitated selectivecitaofessayson themovement tions.Severalsignificant collections shouldbe acknowledged: Charles W. Eagles,ed.,TheCivilRightsMovement inAmerica(Jackson, Miss., 1986);PeterJ.Albertand RonaldHoffman, eds., We Shall Overcome:MartinLutherKing,Jr.,and theBlack Freedom Struggle(New York,1990); ArmsteadL. Robinsonand PatriciaSullivan,eds.,New Directions in CivilRightsStudies(Charlottesville and London,1991); BrianWardand TonyBadger,eds., TheMakingofMartinLutherKingand theCivilRightsMovement (Washington Square,N.Y., 1996); andCherylLynnGreenberg, ed.,A CircleofTrust:Remembering SNCC (New Brunswick, N.J.,and London,1998).

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on civil rights,whichoftenfodominatedmuchof theearlywriting In 1961,forexample,politicalscientist cusedon schooldesegregation. federaljudgesin impleJ.W. Peltasonexaminedtheroleof southern theBrowndecision.In 1964 theNew YorkTimes'sAnthony menting Lewis wroteone of the earliestbooks thatsurveyedthe decade afterBrown,CharlesE. Silbermanof Fortuneassessed the stateof Americanracerelations, andNewsday'sMichaelDormanprovidedan "eyewitnessaccount"of the movement.FreelancewritersWilliam Huie and WalterLordeach hadbookspublishedin 1965 on Bradford eventsin Mississippi,and twoyearslaterjournalistsPat Wattersand Reese Cleghornanalyzedthe arrivalof blacks in southernpolitics. AlbertP. Blaustein SociologistJamesW. VanderZandenandattorney and Benjamin contributed noteworthy earlystudiesof desegregation, on massiveresistance inVirginia. Muse andRobbinsL. Gatesreported Muse of the SouthernRegional Council and Reed Sarrattof the SouthernEducationReporting Serviceeach wroteaboutthefirstten yearsof schooldesegregation.5 "Manyoftheearlyaccountsoftheriseofthecivilrightsmovement by whitesoutherners," Dan T. and thebitterdefenseof segregation andrighCarterhas observed,"aremarkedby emotionalcommitment added teousindignation." None of theearlyreportson themovement own memoirs, passionto the storyas well as did the participants' of events.The LittleRock school whichprovidedvividrecollections accountsof schoolsuperintencrisisof 1957 yieldedthefirst-person dentVirgilT. Blossom and Daisy T. Bates, presidentof the local of Colored chapterof theNationalAssociationfortheAdvancement significant memoirsalso apPeople (NAACP). In the mid-sixties, pearedbyHowardZinn,Len Holt,andAnneMoody.As wouldbe true FederalJudgesand SchoolDesegregation J.W. Peltason,Fifty-Eight LonelyMen: Southern (New (New York,1961);Anthony Lewis,Portraitofa Decade: TheSecondAmericanRevolution York, 1964); CharlesE. Silberman,Crisis in Black and White(New York, 1964); Michael AccountoftheYearofRacial Strifeand Dorman,WeShall Overcome:A Reporter'sEyewitness Triumph(New York, 1964); WilliamBradfordHuie, ThreeLivesfor Mississippi(New York, Ill.,andLondon,1965); 1965);WalterLord,ThePast ThatWouldNotDie (New York,Evanston, Jacob'sLadder: TheArrivalofNegroesin Southern Pat Wattersand Reese Cleghorn,Climbing Politics (New York, 1967); JamesW. VanderZanden,Race Relationsin Transition:The SegregationCrisis in the South(New York, 1965); AlbertP. Blausteinand ClarenceClyde FergusonJr.,Desegregationand theLaw: The Meaningand Effectof theSchool Segregation Cases (New Brunswick,N.J., 1957); Benjamin Muse, Virginia's Massive Resistance (Bloomington, Ind., 1961); RobbinsL. Gates,The Makingof Massive Resistance:Virginia's Politicsof Public School Desegregation,1954-56 (Chapel Hill, 1962); Muse, Ten Years of Prelude:TheStoryofIntegration SincetheSupremeCourt's1954 Decision(New York,1964); and Reed Sarratt, The Ordeal ofDesegregation:The FirstDecade (New York,1966).

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of theentiremovement, thepersonalreminiscences of people in the movement addedunusualintimacy anddramato thestoryof thecivil rightsstruggle.6 Professional historians, eventhoughtheymayhavetriedtobringto theirworka greaterdegreeof fairnessand impartiality thandid the activistsor thejournalists, nonetheless haveexhibitedgreatsympathy fortheblackfreedomstruggle. of the For someof thefirsthistorians movement, directpersonalparticipation precededwritingabout the movement.AugustMeier and HowardZinn providetwo examples. The involvement offewequaledthatofMeier.In thelate 1940sMeier taughtat all-blackTougalooCollegein Mississippiandenlistedin the NAACP whilea graduatestudent in theearly at ColumbiaUniversity 1950s.In 1960,whileteachingat MorganStateCollegein Maryland, Meierjoinedblackstudents in directactionprotesting racialdiscriminationat Baltimorelunchcounters.He attendedsome earlyconferencesoftheStudentNonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was particularly activein the Congressof Racial Equality(CORE). Meier laterdescribedhis role in the movementas a "participantobserver," butby themid-1960s,as his participation declined,he had begunhisextensivewriting aboutthecivilrights movement thatwould includemanyessaysand a majorstudyof CORE.7 One of Meier's contemporaries, HowardZinn,also workedin the movement. Zinn's civil rightsefforts grewout of his radicalpolitics andhisexperience inAtlantawherehe taught blackwomenatSpelman College, metblack men fromMorehouseCollege, and lived in the black community forsevenyearsin thelate fiftiesand earlysixties. Withothers, someofhisstudents, inAtlanta he demonstrated including to integrate thegalleryof thestatelegislature, and a publiclibraries, 6 Dan T. Carter,"From Segregationto Integration," in Interpreting SouthernHistory: Historiographical Essays in Honor of SanfordW. Higginbotham, ed. by JohnB. Boles and EvelynThomasNolen (Baton Rouge and London,1987), 422-23; VirgilT. Blossom,It Has HappenedHere (New York,1959); Daisy T. Bates,TheLongShadowofLittleRock:A Memoir (New York, 1962); HowardZinn,The SouthernMystique(New York, 1964); Len Holt, The SummerThatDidn'tEnd (New York,1965); AnneMoody,ComingofAge inMississippi(New York, 1968). Othervaluablememoirs,too numerousto mention, are beyondthescope of this essay. 7 See AugustMeier,A WhiteScholarand theBlack Community, 1945-1965: Essays and 'A Liberaland ProudofIt'," 3-38 Reflections (Amherst, Mass., 1992),especially"Introduction: (quotedphraseon p. 24); AugustMeierandElliottRudwick,CORE: A Studyin theCivilRights Movement,1942-1968 (New York, 1973). For otherautobiographical discussionsof the impact of race on the careersof historians, see Paul A. Cimbala and RobertF. Himmelberg, eds., Historiansand Race: Autobiography and the Writing of History(Bloomington, Ind.,and Indianapolis,1996).

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department storecafeteria. Zinn's longassociationwithSNCC led to his laterstudyof thatorganization's "newabolitionists."8 Few historians wereactivein themovement as earlyand as extensivelyas MeierorZinn,butmanyAmericanhistorians didparticipate. One signaleventof 1965 demonstrated theirwidespreadconcern.In the springof thatyear,whenthe ReverendMartinLutherKing Jr. in calledforclergyof all faithsto marchfromSelma to Montgomery supportof federallegislationto protectthe rightto vote, Walter to Johnson oftheUniversity ofChicagospearheaded an informal effort rallyhistorians forthemarch.Fromacrossthenation,morethanforty historians-"allofliberalpersuasion," according toJohnson-traveled to Alabamato join clergyand otherson the last day of thefamous march to Montgomery.The group included luminariesRichard Hofstadter, C. Vann Woodward,JohnHope Franklin, JohnHigham, and KennethM. Stampp,as well as younger historians suchas Robert Dallek, WilliamE. Leuchtenburg, LawrenceW. Levine, Louis R. Harlan,andSamuelP. Hays.Thegroupincludedseveral-Rembert W. Patrick,BennettH. Wall, and Seldon Henry-teachingat southern colleges.9 UnlikeMeierand Zinn,noneof theMontgomery turned marchers his scholarly researchto themovement thoughmanyof thehistorians presentdid writeaboutslavery,black history, and otherrace-related in twochapters thathe subjects(Woodwarddid surveythemovement addedto latereditionsofhis study,TheStrangeCareerofJimCrow.) The presenceof a largecontingent in Montgomery inof historians dicatedpervasivemoralsupport within thedisciplineforthecivilrights movement, especiallyamongtheleadersin theprofession. The historianswho marchedin Alabama includedfive presidentsof the SouthernHistoricalAssociationand eightof the Organizationof AmericanHistorians.10At least fromthe mid-1960s,therefore, 8 1915-1980 AugustMeierandElliottRudwick,BlackHistoryand theHistoricalProfession, (UrbanaandChicago,1986), 164-65; Zinn,Southern Mystique, 3-5; andZinn,SNCC: TheNew Abolitionists (Boston,1964). 9 WalterJohnson, "HistoriansJointheMarchon Montgomery," SouthAtlanticQuarterly, LXXIX (Spring1980), 158-74 (quotedphraseon p. 160). 10C. VannWoodward,TheStrangeCareerofJimCrow,2d ed. (New York,1966), 149-91, and 3d ed. (New York,1974), 149-220;Johnson, "Historians JointheMarchon Montgomery," 160-61. Past or futurepresidentsof the SouthernHistoricalAssociationwere JohnHope Franklin,Louis Harlan,RembertW. Patrick,BennettH. Wall, and C. Vann Woodward;in of American additionto Franklin, Harlan,and Woodward,similarleadersof theOrganization LawrenceW. HistoriansincludedJohnHigham,RichardHofstadter, WilliamE. Leuchtenburg, Levine,and KennethM. Stampp.

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membersofthehistorical profession haverather clearlybeencommitted to equal rightsforblackAmericans. For a youngergeneration of historians, thecivil rightsmovement oftenplayeda moreformative rolein theirearlylives.Manywholater wroteaboutthemovement actuallytookpartin it duringtheircollege years or early in theirscholarlycareers.For example,Clayborne Carson,who would laterwritea majorstudyof SNCC and editthe papersofMartinLutherKingJr.,traveledto theSouthto witnesscivil rightsactionin theearly1960s and soon thereafter tookpartin civil rightsdemonstrations while at the University of Californiaat Los Angeles.HarvardSitkoff, who has sincewritten a popularsurveyof themovement in additionto a studyofblacksin theNew Deal, joined the NAACP while in college in New York and wentsouthbriefly "tomarch,topicket,to sit-in."The authorofa Bancroft Prize-winning book on Mississippi,JohnDittmertaughtfora decade in thesixties and seventiesat Tougaloo College, wherehe metmanycivil rights veteransandbecamepartofthelaterstagesofthemovement. In each case andin manyothers, in themovement professional interest grewin largepartout of personalinvolvement withthe campaignforcivil 11 rights. Trying toidentify the"first" scholarly bookon thecivilrights movementby a historian maybe as unwiseas it is impossible,butaround 1970 professional historians began to addressthetopicwhenhalfa dozenimportant booksappeared.Severalofthemaddressedopponents of themovement. HughDavis Graham'sanalysisof Tennesseepress in 1967 demonstrated opinionon schooldesegregation thevirtuesof thescholarlyapproach,eventhoughGrahamtreatedtheopponentsof themovement morethanthemovement itself.Threeotherearlyworks dealtmorewiththeopponents of themovement: NumanV. Bartley's studyof "massiveresistance," Neil R. McMillen'sexamination of the whiteCitizens' Councils,and I. A. Newby's explorationof social scientists' defenseofracialsegregation. At thesametime,RichardM. Dalfiumeand WilliamC. BermanstudiedeventsbeforetheBrown decisionin books on desegregation of thearmedforcesand thecivil " Meier and Rudwick,Black History,192, 193, and 200 (bothquotedphraseson p. 193); ClayborneCarson,In Struggle:SNCC and theBlackAwakening ofthe1960s (Cambridge, Mass., and London,1981); HarvardSitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality,1954-1980 (New York, 1981); Sitkoff, A NewDeal forBlacks: TheEmergenceofCivilRightsas a NationalIssue (New York, 1978); and JohnDittmer,Local People: The Strugglefor Civil Rightsin Mississippi (Urbanaand Chicago,1994).

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A majorbook by a hisrightspoliciesof theTrumanadministration. toriandirectlyaddressedthe movementitselfwhen in 1970 David LeveringLewis, a specialistin modemEuropeanhistory,wrotea pathbreaking criticalbiographyof MartinLutherKing thatfocused on themovement. Aftertheburstofbooksaround1970,the explicitly civil rightsmovementincreasingly became a subjectforhistorical and otherscontinuedto study.Even thoughjournalists, participants, writeabout it too, historiansalong withotheracademicsbegan to dominatethefield.12 At firstlargelyunaffected by theemergent social history, scholarly worksduringthe 1970s (and, in a few instances,later)employed traditional and biographicalapproachesto the political,institutional, studyofthemovement. HarvardSitkoff, DonaldR. McCoy,RichardT. Reutten,RobertF. Burk,and Carl M. Brauer,followingthelead of WilliamBerman,studiedthecivilrightspoliciesand practicesof nationaladministrations fromFranklinD. RooseveltthroughJohnF. Kennedy.In a broaderstudy,Hugh Davis Grahamtracedthedevelopmentofcivilrightspolicywithinthefederalgovernment duringthe Kennedy,Johnson,and Nixon years.Journalist VictorS. Navasky plumbedthe Kennedyadministration morecloselyby analyzingthe JusticeDepartment underRobertF. Kennedy,andin 1987 law professor Michal R. Belknapevaluatedthefederallegal and constitutional implications of violenceagainstthecivil rightsmovement. Historian inTexas, DarleneClarkHineinvestigated theendofthewhiteprimary andpoliticalscientist David J.Garrow,beginning his long-term study ofMartinLutherKingJr.,concentrated on theconnection betweenthe marchandthepassageoftheVotingRightsAct Selma-to-Montgomery of 1965. Formercongressman CharlesWhalenand hisjournalistwife BarbaraWhalentracedthe legislativehistoryof thelandmarkCivil surveillance RightsActof 1964.The FederalBureauofInvestigation's of the-movementhas been illuminatedby Garrow's studyof the

12 and thePressin Tennessee(Nashville, HughDavis Graham,CrisisinPrint:Desegregation 1967);NumanV. Bartley,TheRise ofMassiveResistance:Race and Politicsin theSouthDuring the1950's (BatonRouge,1969);Neil R. McMillen,TheCitizens'Council:OrganizedResistance 1954-64 (Urbana,1971); I. A. Newby,Challengeto theCourt: to theSecondReconstruction, 1954-1966 (BatonRouge,1967); RichardM. and theDefenseofSegregation, Social Scientists Dalfiume,Desegregationof the U. S. ArmedForces: Fightingon Two Fronts,1939-1953 (Columbia,Mo., 1969); William C. Berman,The Politics of Civil Rightsin the Truman (New York, Administration (Columbus,Ohio,1970);David L. Lewis,King:A CriticalBiography 1970).

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Bureau'spursuitof Kingandby KennethO'Reilly's revelations ofits 13 broaderpattern of spying. Othersbegan to studythe impactof racial changeson electoral in the South.Relyingheavilyon quantitative politics,particularly data, forexample,NumanV. Bartleyand Hugh Davis Grahamin 1975 chartedthe changesin southernpoliticsduringthe "Second Reconstruction." The followingyearpoliticalscientist Earl Black explainedmorespecifically how segregation playedoutin southern gubernatorial elections,and JamesW. Ely examinedhow segregation affected Virginia'spoliticsin the1950s.Of all thebooksdealingwith themovement and politics,however,StevenF. Lawson's 1976 work, BlackBallots: VotingRightsin theSouth,1944-1969,mayhavebeen themostimportant becauseitprovidedan in-depth examination ofthe campaignsforblackvotingrightsfromtheoverturn of thewhiteprimaryto theenactment of the 1965 VotingRightsAct. Lawson later extendedhis studywithtwo books on black votingand political power.14 To understand thedevelopment of thecivilrightsmovement, some scholarsstressedtheroleof decisionshandeddownby federalcourts. The premierworkin thefieldwas SimpleJustice(1976) by Richard 13 A New Deal for Blacks; Donald R. McCoy and RichardT. Reutten,Questand Sitkoff, Response:Minority Rightsand theTrumanAdministration (Lawrence,Manhattan, and Wichita, Kan., 1973); RobertFredrickBurk,The EisenhowerAdministration and Black Civil Rights (Knoxville,1984); CarlM. Brauer,JohnF. Kennedyand theSecondReconstruction (New York, 1977); HughDavis Graham,TheCivilRightsEra: Originsand Development ofNationalPolicy (New Yorkand Oxford,1990); VictorS. Navasky,KennedyJustice(New York,1971); Michal R. Belknap,FederalLaw and Southern Order:Racial Violenceand Constitutional inthe Conflict Post-Brown South(Athens, Ga., andLondon,1987);DarleneClarkHine,Black Victory: TheRise and Fall of theWhitePrimaryin Texas (Millwood,N. Y., 1979); David J.Garrow,Protestat Selma: MartinLutherKing,Jr.,and the VotingRightsAct of 1965 (New Haven and London, 1978); CharlesWhalenand BarbaraWhalen,TheLongestDebate: A LegislativeHistoryof the 1964 CivilRightsAct (Cabin John,Md. and Washington, 1985); Garrow,The FBI and Martin LutherKing,Jr.: From "Solo" to Memphis(New York and London, 1981); and Kenneth O'Reilly,"RacialMatters ": TheFBI's SecretFile on BlackAmerica,1960-1972(New Yorkand London,1989). See also Allan Wolk, The Presidencyand Black Civil Rights:Eisenhowerto Nixon(Rutherford, Madison,and Teaneck,N. J.,1971),and twoshortmonographs by JamesC. Harvey,CivilRightsDuringtheKennedy Administration (Jackson, Miss., 1973) andBlack Civil RightsDuringtheJohnson Administration (Jackson, Miss., 1973). 14 NumanV. Bartley andHughD. Graham,Southern Politicsand theSecondReconstruction (Baltimoreand London, 1975); Earl Black, SouthernGovernorsand Civil Rights:Racial Segregation as a CampaignIssue in theSecondReconstruction (Cambridge, Mass., 1976);James W. Ely Jr.,The Crisis of ConservativeVirginia:The ByrdOrganizationand the Politicsof Massive Resistance(Knoxville,1976); StevenF. Lawson,Black Ballots: VotingRightsin the South,1944-1969 (New York, 1976), In Pursuitof Power: SouthernBlacks and Electoral Politics,1965-1982 (New York, 1985), and Runningfor Freedom: Civil Rightsand Black PoliticsinAmericaSince 1941 (Philadelphia,1991).

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Kluger,an experienced novelist, journalist, and publisher.His superlativeand compellingnarrative studyofBrownv. Board ofEducation explainedcomprehensively thelandmark courtdecisionanditshistorical background. Fouryearslaterlaw professor J.HarvieWilkinsonIII followedup Kluger's narrative witha moreprosaicanalysisof the in thequarter withschoolintegration SupremeCourt'sinvolvement century afterBrown.MarkV. TushnettracedtheNAACP's litigation thatled to theBrowndecision,whileTonyFreyerchronicled theeffectsof Brownin LittleRock and BernardSchwartzexplainedthe court'sdecisionon busingin Charlotte. E. CulpepperClarkfocusedon theUniversity of Alabamain thesinglemajorworkon thedesegregationof highereducation.15 The federaljudiciaryitselfhas also receivedconsideration. Charles V. Hamiltonand JackBass each emphasizedtherole of thefederal courtsin theSouth.Hamilton, a politicalscientist, assessedtheroleof thesouthern judgesin thecampaignforvotingrights, whilejournalist Bass describedthecrucialworkofthejudgesoftheFifthCircuitCourt of Appeals.TinsleyYarbrough'sbiography of FrankM. Johnson Jr. dealtwitha federaldistrict judge who was involvedin manymajor civilrightscases in Alabamaandwhowas laterappointedto theFifth CircuitCourtof Appeals.Yarbroughalso laterrecounted thecontroversialstoryof SouthCarolina'sJudgeJ.WatiesWaring.16 Civilrightsorganizations also begantoreceivesignificant scholarly attention duringthe1970s.AugustMeierteamedwithElliottRudwick to writein 1973 a history of CORE, whichwas thefirstmajororganizationalstudyof the movement, and the nextyearNancyWeiss oftheNationalUrbanLeague.Although publisheda partialhistory no comprehensive historyof the NAACP has yetbeen written, Robert 15 RichardKluger,SimpleJustice:The HistoryofBrownv. Board of Educationand Black America'sStrugglefor Equality(New York, 1976); J. Harvie WilkinsonIll, From Brown to Bakke: The SupremeCourtand School Integration:1954-1978 (New York and Oxford, 1979); Mark V. Tushnet,The NAACP's Legal StrategyagainstSegregatedEducation,19251950 (Chapel Hill and London,1987); Tony Freyer,The LittleRock Crisis:A Constitutional Interpretation (Westport, Conn., and London, 1984); BernardSchwartz,Swann's Way: The SchoolBusingCase and theSupremeCourt(New Yorkand Oxford,1986); E. CulpepperClark, The SchoolhouseDoor: Segregation'sLast Standat theUniversity ofAlabama(New Yorkand Oxford,1993). 16 CharlesV. Hamilton, TheBenchand theBallot:Southern FederalJudgesandBlackVoters (New York,1973); JackBass, Unlikely Heroes(New York,1981); TinsleyE. Yarbrough, Judge FrankJohnsonand HumanRightsinAlabama(Tuscaloosa,1981) andA PassionforJustice:J. WatiesWaringand CivilRights(New Yorkand Oxford,1987). See also JackBass's biography of JudgeJohnson, TamingtheStorm:TheLifeand TimesofJudgeFrankM. Johnson, Jr.,and theSouth'sFightoverCivilRights(New Yorkand othercities,1993).

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campaign,GennaRae Zangrandohas studiedits earlyanti-lynching a biography of its chieflegal strategist, Charles McNeil has written HamiltonHouston,and MarkV. Tushnethas produceda two-volume studyof ThurgoodMarshall,thechieflawyerfortheNAACP Legal DefenseFund.In 1981ClaybomeCarsondescribedtheriseandfallof Committeeduringthe 1960s, the StudentNonviolentCoordinating but only in the late 1980s did the SouthernChristianLeadership by Adam Fairclough.In Conference(SCLC) receivefulltreatment historyof the Civil 1988 GeraldHome recountedthe controversial RightsCongress.17 and throughBiographicalworkshave proved,fromthebeginning out the 1990s,perhapsthe mostpopularformof studyof the civil rightsmovementamong scholarsand otherwriters.In additionto studiesof NAACP lawyersThurgoodMarshalland CharlesHouston have biographers and JudgesJ. WatiesWaringand FrankJohnson, writtenon a rangeof individualsactive in the movement.Martin with attention, LutherKingJr.has,ofcourse,drawnthemostscholarly a comprehensive by David Garrow,a popularaccountby biography StephenOates, a briefscholarlystudyby Adam Fairclough,and a "workof biocriticism" by MichaelEric Dyson,whileJamesH. Cone wrotea dual biographyof King and Malcolm X. Otherimportant including A. PhilipRandolph, havealso beeninvestigated, individuals Ella Baker,Whitney Young,AdamClaytonPowell,ClarenceMitchell Jr.,BayardRustin,and RobertMoses, as well as compellingminor figuressuch as HarryT. Moore. Settingthe standardforresearch, however,the encyclopedicBearing the Cross by Garrowwon the in 1987.18 PulitzerPrizeforbiography

17 Meier and Rudwick,CORE; NancyJ. Weiss, The NationalUrbanLeague, 1910-1940 1909-1950 (New York, 1974); RobertL. Zangrando,The NAACP CrusadeAgainstLynching, Charles HamiltonHoustonand the (Philadelphia,1980); Genna Rae McNeil, Groundwork: Strugglefor Civil Rights(Philadelphia,1983); Mark V. Tushnet,MakingCivil RightsLaw: ThurgoodMarshalland the SupremeCourt,1936-1961 (New York and Oxford,1994) and Marshalland theSupremeCourt,1961-1991(New York Law: Thurgood MakingConstitutional To RedeemtheSoul ofAmerica:The and Oxford,1997); Carson,In Struggle;AdamFairclough, SouthernChristianLeadershipConferenceand MartinLutherKing, Jr. (Athens,Ga., and London, 1987); Gerald Horne, CommunistFront? The Civil RightsCongress,1946-1956 N. J.,andothercities,1988). See also ThomasR. Peake,KeepingtheDreamAlive: (Rutherford, fromKingto theNineteen-Eighties A HistoryoftheSouthernChristianLeadershipConference (New Yorkand othercities,1987). 18 David J.Garrow, BearingtheCross:MartinLutherKing,Jr.,and theSouthernChristian Sound: TheLife (New York,1986); StephenB. Oates,Let theTrumpet LeadershipConference MartinLuther ofMartinLutherKing,Jr.(New Yorkand othercities,1982); AdamFairclough,

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THE JOURNALOF SOUTHERNHISTORY

In 1981 HarvardSitkoffwrotethe firstscholarlysynthesisof the literature on the movementin The Strugglefor Black Equality, it laid outthestoryfromtheNAACP 1954-1980. In sevenchapters, LittleRock,Montgomery and King's emergence and Brownthrough withSCLC, the sit-insand SNCC, the FreedomRides and CORE, FreedomSummer theMarchonWashington, AlbanyandBirmingham, in Mississippi,Selma and theVotingRightsAct,to blackpowerand the tradiKing's assassination.Sitkoff'sworknecessarilymirrored and politicalapproachesthathad organizational, tionalbiographical, Even as he wrotethis dominated theearlyliterature on themovement. however,scholarship hadbegunto movein manyimportant synthesis, new directions.19 profession butespecially Influenced bylargertrendsinthehistorical the the new social historyand its emphasison women,minorities, "inarticulate," and otherswhose presencewas usuallyomittedfrom in the 1980s traditional students of thecivil rightsstruggle histories, widenedtheirview and droppedtheirgaze to see manypreviously and concernsenriching overlookedstories.By applyingtheinterests women's history,womenhistoriansof the movementin particular scholarship. rolesinthediversification ofcivilrights playedsignificant scholarly to attract Even thoughnationalfiguresandeventscontinued lookedat eventsat thelocal level researchers increasingly attention, and examineddifferent aspectsof the movement.Threeinfluential In 1979Sara moreinnovative studiesheraldedthebroader, approaches. Evans connectedwomenin thecivil rightsstruggleto thewomen's andshethereby helpedmovescholarsawayfrom liberation movement,

King,Jr.(Athens,Ga., andLondon,1995); MichaelEricDyson,I MayNotGetThereWithYou: The TrueMartinLutherKing,Jr.(New Yorkand othercities,2000) (quotedphraseappearson (Maryknoll, p. 4); JamesH. Cone,Martinand Malcolmand America:A Dreamor a Nightmare (Baton A. PhilipRandolph,PioneeroftheCivilRightsMovement N.Y., 1991); Paula F. Pfeffer, Rouge and London,1990); JoanneGrant,Ella Baker: FreedomBound (New York and other forCivilRights(Princeton, M. Young,Jr.,and theStruggle cities,1998);NancyJ.Weiss,Whitney Ky., 1998); M. Young,Jr.(Lexington, 1989); DennisC. Dickerson,MilitantMediator:Whitney CharlesV. Hamilton,Adam ClaytonPowell, Jr.: The Political Biographyof an American Dilemma(New York and othercities,1991); DentonL. Watson,Lion in theLobby:Clarence forthePassage ofCivilRightsLaws (New York,1990);JervisAnderson, Mitchell, Jr.'sStruggle BayardRustin:TroublesI've Seen: A Biography(New York, 1997); Daniel Levine,Bayard He N. J.,2000); EricBurner, AndGently (New Brunswick, Rustinand theCivilRightsMovement Shall Lead Them:RobertParrisMoses and CivilRightsinMississippi(New Yorkand London, 1994); Ben Green,BeforeHis Time:The UntoldStoryofHarryT. Moore,America'sFirstCivil RightsMartyr(New York,1999). 19Sitkoff, Struggle forBlack Equality.

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theirrestricted focuson men.The nextyear,twostudiesshifted attentionto thelocal levelin an effort to tellhistory "fromthebottomup." WilliamH. Chafe's studyof themovement in Greensboro, Civilities and CivilRights(1980), supplemented sourceswithoral documentary historiesto recountthestoryof thesit-insin thatNorthCarolinacity twodecadesearlier.In a similarway,J.Mills Thornton III beganhis exploration of theMontgomery bus boycottin a lengthy1980 essay. ThoughChafe and Thorntoneach wroteabout a majoreventwith nationalsignificance, theiremphaseson relatively unknown peoplein theirlocal contexts in markeda significant the departure historiography of themovement.20 Threeotherbooks in theearly1980s also exemplified thesenew approaches.Eighteenyearsaftershe had been acceptedbut did not servein FreedomSummer, MaryAickinRothschild publishedthefirst scholarly appraisalofthenorthern andtheiractivities volunteers during 1964 and 1965.Althoughshe discussedRobertMoses and otherleaders,shedevotedmostofherattention to moreanonymous participants. In a volumethatsameyeareditedbyElizabethJacowayandDavid R. Colburn,morethana dozen scholarsassessedtheroleof local white businessleadersin thedesegregation of citiesacrossthe South;the essaysassessedforthefirsttimethepositiveand negativecontributionsof a majorgroupusuallyignoredin previoustreatments of the movement. In yeta different A. approachthefollowing year,Catherine Barnesproduceda thematicstudyof the desegregation of southern transportation. Rangingfromthe turnof the centurythroughthe FreedomRides,she broughttogether apparently disparatestrandsof thecivilrightsstory.21 Followingthe examplesof Chafe and Thornton, historianshave to examine increasingly used thetechniquesof thenew social history thestruggle forcivilrightsat thegrassroots in specificcommunities. 20 Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women'sLiberationin the Civil Rights Movement and theNew Left(New York,1979); WilliamH. Chafe,Civilitiesand CivilRights: Greensboro, NorthCarolina,and theBlackStruggle forFreedom(New YorkandOxford,1980); J.Mills Thornton III, "ChallengeandResponsein theMontgomery Bus Boycottof 1955-1956," AlabamaReview,XXXIII (July1980), 163-235.Fortheoriginofthephrase"[history] fromthe bottomup,"see PeterNovick,ThatNobleDream: The "Objectivity Question"and theAmerican HistoricalProfession(Cambridge, Eng.,and othercities,1988),442 n. 36. 21 MaryAickinRothschild, A Case ofBlackand White:Northern and theSouthern Volunteers FreedomSummers, 1964-1965 (Westport, Conn.,and London,1982); ElizabethJacowayand David R. Colburn,eds., SouthernBusinessmen and Desegregation(BatonRouge and London, 1982); CatherineA. Barnes,Journey fromJimCrow: The Desegregationof SouthernTransit (New York,1983).

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originsbysociologist An earlyandinfluential studyofthemovement's A few AldonD. Morrisemphasizedtheimportance oflocal organizing. inindividual haveattempted comprehensive accountsofthemovement townsor stateswhileothershaveemphasizedonlyone eventor aspect RobertJ.Norrellwrotethebest ofthemovement withina community. in the local studies his Whirlwind (1985) on Tuskegee, of Reapingthe by David Alabama,butothervaluableworksin thisveinwerewritten Colburnon St. Augustine, Florida;sociologistCharlesM. Payneon Greenwoodand the MississippiDelta; Kim Lacy Rogers on New andGlendaAliceRabbyon Orleans;GlennT. Eskewon Birmingham; approach:in an unTallahassee.Two bookstooka multi-community usualstudy, JamesW. Buttonlookedattheimpactof politicalscientist themovement on sixFloridacommunities duringthe1970sand 1980s, whileRichardA. Coutoexaminedfoursouthern communities toevaluatethemovement's effects on thelivesofordinary ruralblacks.In two recentstatestudies,JohnDittmerchose to considerthe movement in Mississippiwhile Adam Faircloughproduceda state studyon Louisiana.22

Insteadof attempting to tell the completestoryof the freedom in particular have also employedthemethstruggle places,historians school ods of social historyto examinespecifictopics,particularly desegregation, withinlocal contexts.In one of theearliestexamples, RaymondWoltersassessedtheimpactof theBrowndecisionin the coveredin theoriginalschooldesegregation cases. fivecommunities More detailedaccountshave been written by RobertA. Pratton eduDavisonM. Douglas on Charlotte desegregation, cationin Richmond, David S. Cecelskion the schoolsof Hyde Countyin easternNorth

22 RobertJ. Norrell,Reaping the Whirlwind:The Civil RightsMovementin Tuskegee Crisis: St. Augustine, (New York, 1985); David R. Colburn,Racial Changeand Community Florida,1877-1980(New York,1985);Payne,I've GottheLightofFreedom;KimLacy Rogers, (New YorkandLondon, Righteous Lives:Narratives oftheNew OrleansCivilRightsMovement in theCivil The Local and NationalMovements 1993); GlennT. Eskew,ButforBirmingham: RightsStruggle(ChapelHill andLondon,1997);GlendaAliceRabby,ThePain and thePromise: The Struggle for CivilRightsin Tallahassee,Florida (Athens,Ga., and London,1999); James W. Button,Blacks and Social Change: Impactof the Civil RightsMovementin Southern Communities (Princeton, 1989); AldonD. Morris,The Originsof the CivilRightsMovement: Black Communities Organizing for Change(New Yorkand London,1984); RichardA. Couto, Ain't Gonna Let NobodyTurnMe Round: The Pursuitof Racial Justicein theRural South Race and Democracy:TheCivil (Philadelphia, 1991); Dittmer, Local People; AdamFairclough, RightsStrugglein Louisiana,1915-1972 (Athens,Ga., and London,1995). See also thestudies of Panola County,Mississippi,by politicalscientistFrederickM. Wirt,Politicsof Southern Equality:Law and Social Changein a MississippiCounty(Chicago,1970) and "WeAin'tWhat WeWas": CivilRightsin theNewSouth(DurhamandLondon,1997).Foran incisivecritiqueof booksbyPayneandDittmer, see AlanDraper,"TheMississippiMovement:A theprize-winning LX (Winter1998),355-66. ReviewEssay,"JournalofMississippiHistory,

NEW HISTORIES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

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Carolina,WilliamHenryKellaron Houston,and RobynDuffLadino on Mansfield, Texas.A distinct localperspective also informed studies ofsomeofthemostdramatic andtragiceventsofthemovement. Three books on Mississippiexemplify themethod.In 1986 HowardSmead describedthe 1959 lynching of Mack CharlesParker,and two years laterStephenJ.Whitfield Till lynching in the wroteabouttheEmmett Delta. Also in 1988, twojournalistschronicledtheNeshobaCounty murders ofJamesChaney,AndrewGoodman,andMichaelSchwerner in 1964. SethCagin and PhilipDray,however,wentbeyonda mere of theeventsinvolvingtheFreedomSummermurders description to providea sweepingnarrative accountof Mississippiin thattroubled summer. CharlesW. Eagles grounded thestoryofthe1965 Similarly, killingof a whitecivil rightsworkerin the local contextof the Alabamablackbelt.23 In additionto theplethoraof community studiesof varioustypes, historians ofthefreedomstruggle also turnedin the1980sto consider relatively new subjectssuchas religion,women,and labor.Although theimportance of religionto themovement had alwaysbeen recognized,fewscholarshad paid muchdirectattention to it untilthelate 1980s.In fact,a major1993bibliography ofthecivilrightsmovement did notevencontaina sectionon religionor churches, and itssubject indexcontained onlya handful ofentries underclergy,oneunderJews, anda coupleforindividualministers. In thetenyearsfollowing1987, however,at leasteightbooks appeared,some of whichreliedon traditionalbiographicaland institutional approaches.AndrewMichael Manisopenedthesubjectin 1987byexamining thereactionsofsouthernBaptiststo theearlystirrings of thecivil rightsmovement from 1947 to 1957. Seven yearslaterJoelL. Alvis brieflysurveyedthe southern churchandracein thefourdecadesafterWorld Presbyterian War II, and morerecently GardinerH. ShattuckJr.has describedthe 23 RaymondWolters,The Burden of Brown: ThirtyYears of School Desegregation (Knoxville,1984); RobertA. Pratt,The Color of TheirSkin:Educationand Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1954-1989(Charlottesville andLondon,1992);DavisonM. Douglas,Reading,Writing, and Race: TheDesegregationof theCharlotteSchools(ChapelHill and London,1995); David S. Cecelski,AlongFreedom. Road: HydeCounty, NorthCarolina,and theFate ofBlackSchools in the South (Chapel Hill and London, 1994); WilliamHenryKellar,Make Haste Slowly: Moderates,Conservatives, and SchoolDesegregationin Houston(College Station,Tex., 1999); RobynDuffLadino, DesegregatingTexas Schools: Eisenhower,Shivers,and the Crisis at MansfieldHigh (Austin,1996); HowardSmead,Blood Justice:TheLynching ofMack Charles A Death in theDelta: TheStoryof Parker(New Yorkand Oxford,1986); StephenJ.Whitfield, Emmett Till(New YorkandLondon,1988); SethCaginandPhilipDray,WeAreNotAfraid:The StoryofGoodman,Schwerner, and Chaneyand theCivilRightsCampaignforMississippi(New York,1988); CharlesW. Eagles, OutsideAgitator:JonDaniels and theCivilRightsMovement inAlabama (ChapelHill and London,1993).

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involvement ofEpiscopaliansin civilrightsfromtheCivilWarto the 1970s.Froma morenationalperspective, JamesF. FindlayJr.assessed the relationship betweenthe NationalCouncilof Churchesand the movementin the fiftiesand sixties,but he also includeda careful discussionof theCouncil'sactivitiesin theMississippiDelta.24 and religionalso employedvariousbioScholarsof themovement graphicalapproaches.StephenL. Longeneckerdescribedthe early 1960sministry ofRalphSmeltzerin Selma,a minister withtheChurch of theBrethren, whilein 1997 MarkK. Baumanand BerkleyKalin editeda quiteunusualand helpfulvolumeof biographical essayson Two otherbiographical southern rabbisand themovement. treatments in the 1990s describedMartinLutherKingJr.notin traditional ways In an important, butspecifically as a minister andpreacher. innovative study,Voice of Deliverance(1992), KeithD. Miller,a professorof English,analyzedKing's sermons.Aftershowinghow Kingusedlanhis sermons,Miller locatedtheirsourcesin guage and constructed Threeyearslaterdivinity schoolprofessor blackandwhitehomiletics. RichardLischeraddressedKingas preacherand oratornotjust in the pulpitbut in the largerpublic arenato explainhow King used his rhetorical powersto lead a movement andthenation.In 1998Michael a freshapproachbyusingcollectivebiography B. Friedlandpresented in the movementwiththeirantiwar to compareclergyinvolvement activities.25

The mostvaluablecontribution concerning religionand themovement,however,came in 1997 fromCharlesMarsh,a professorof theology.Lookingat his homestateof Mississippi,Marshcombined bebiographyand thegrassroots approachto probetheconnections In tweenreligionand racialattitudes at theheightof themovement. he describedthefaithsof separatechaptersin God's Long Summer, 24 andResources(New Yorkand Paul T. Murray, ed.,TheCivilRightsMovement: References Blackand White othercities,1993);AndrewMichaelManis,Southern CivilReligionsinConflict: Baptistsand CivilRights,1947-1957(Athens,Ga., andLondon,1987);JoelL. AlvisJr.,Religion and Race: SouthernPresbyterians, 1946-1983 (Tuscaloosa and London,1994); GardinerH. Ky.,2000); JamesF. Shattuck Jr.,Episcopaliansand Race: CivilWarto CivilRights(Lexington, FindlayJr.,ChurchPeople in theStruggle:The NationalCouncilof Churchesand theBlack FreedomMovement, 1950-1970 (New Yorkand Oxford,1993). 25 Stephen L. Longenecker, Selma'sPeacemaker:RalphSmeltzer and CivilRightsMediation (Philadelphia,1987); Mark K. Bauman and BerkleyKalin, eds., The Quiet Voices: Southern Rabbisand Black CivilRights,1880s to 1990s (TuscaloosaandLondon,1997); KeithD. Miller, VoiceofDeliverance:TheLanguageofMartinLutherKing,Jr.,and Its Sources(New Yorkand othercities,1992); RichardLischer,ThePreacherKing:MartinLutherKing,Jr.and theWord LiftUp YourVoice ThatMovedAmerica(New Yorkand Oxford,1995); MichaelB. Friedland, Movements, 1954-1973(Chapel Likea Trumpet: WhiteClergyand theCivilRightsandAntiwar Hill and London,1998).

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five individuals,who includedmale and female,whiteand black, clergyand laity,thefamousand thenotso well known,and activists on bothsides of thefreedomstruggle. Marsh'sworkset a new and higherstandard forscholarsstudying notjustreligionbutall aspectsof themovement.26 Civil rightsliterature on womenalso experienced a majorincrease after1980.Muchofthenewworkwas biographical. In 1990 VickiL. Crawford, JacquelineAnneRouse,and BarbaraWoods editeda volumeoforiginalbiographical andtopicalessayson "womenin thecivil rightsmovement." The subjectsincludedGloriaRichardson, Septima Clark,Modjeska Simkins,Ella Baker,and Fannie Lou Hamer,as well as womenin theMontgomery bus boycott,at HighlanderFolk School,andin theMississippiDelta.Individualbiographies havesince appearedon Ella Baker,FannieLou Hamer,and RubyDoris Smith Robinson.The firstbook to assay thecontributions of black women generallyto the freedomstrugglecame fromsociologistBelinda Robnettin 1997,butitsheavytheoretical concernslimitedits appeal and utility forhistorians.27 Diverselaterworksfurther expandedcoverageand broadenedunof the black freedommovementbeyondthe traditional derstanding majorevents,individuals, and institutions. For example,Alan Draper examinedtherelationship betweenorganizedlaborandtheblackfreedomstruggle, andMichaelK. Honeyfocusedon blacksandorganized laborin MemphisbeforetheBrowndecision.MerlE. Reed probedthe FairEmployment PracticesCommittee (FEPC) ofthe1940s,andBrian K. Landsbergchartedthehistoryof theCivil RightsDivisionof the Department of Justice.FrankR. Parkerassessed the impactof the VotingRightsAct of 1965 on Mississippipolitics,while Chandler Davidson,BernardGrofman, and othersstudiedtheeffectsof black electionsgenerally. votingin southern J.MorganKousserhasprovided an in-depth and morepessimistic of theVoting analysisof theeffects RightsAct. The precursors and the earliestyearsof the movement receivedattention fromPatriciaSullivanandJohnEgerton,whostudied liberalsin theNew Deal periodandtheearlypostwarera.Richard 26

CharlesMarsh,God's Long Summer:StoriesofFaithand CivilRights(Princeton, 1997). VickiL. Crawford, JacquelineAnneRouse,andBarbaraWoods,eds., Womenin theCivil RightsMovement:Trailblazersand Torchbearers, 1941-1965 (Brooklyn,1990); Grant,Ella Baker;Kay Mills,ThisLittleLightofMine: TheLifeofFannieLou Hamer(New York,1993); ChanaKai Lee, For Freedom'sSake: TheLifeofFannieLou Hamer(UrbanaandChicago,1999); CynthiaGriggsFleming,Soon We WillNot Cry:TheLiberationofRubyDoris SmithRobinson (Lanham,Md., and othercities, 1998); Belinda Robnett,How Long? How Long? AfricanAmericanWomenin theStruggle for CivilRights(New Yorkand Oxford,1997). 27

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Lentz,NicolausMills,andHerbert H. Hainesassessedthetreatment of MartinLutherKing by nationalnews magazines,surveyedFreedom Summer, andanalyzedblackradicalsandthemovement. BrendaGayle Plummer,PennyM. Von Eschen,and Michael L. Krennextended scholarlyinterest to blacksand Americanforeignpolicy.28 HarvardSitkoff's1981volume,newsurveys Competing to supplant and synthesesof movementhistorypouredforthin the 1980s and 1990s. Theyrangedfrombrieftextbooktreatments to the sweeping narratives of TaylorBranch'sPartingtheWaters(1988) andPillar of Fire (1998). AlthoughnonecouldrivalBranch'svolumesforbreadth and drama,severalscholarlystudiesnonetheless made signalcontributions.In 1984 sociologistManningMarablestressedtheimportance of thecold war,blacknationalism, and economicclass in theSecond Reconstruction. ThreeyearslaterJackM. Bloom,anothersociologist, applieda class analysismorerigorously to themovement's In history. Black, White,and Southern(1990), David R. Goldfielddevelopeda freshview ofpostwarsouthern racerelationsthatinterpreted thecivil rightsstruggle as a religiousmovement stressing redemption.29 28 AlanDraper,Conflict ofInterests:OrganizedLabor and theCivilRightsMovement in the South,1954-1968 (Ithaca,1994); Michael K. Honey,SouthernLabor and Black CivilRights: OrganizingMemphisWorkers(Urbanaand Chicago, 1993); Merl E. Reed, Seedtimefor the ModernCivilRightsMovement: ThePresident'sCommittee on Fair Employment Practice,19411946 (Baton Rouge and London, 1991); Brian K. Landsberg,EnforcingCivil Rights:Race Discrimination and theDepartment ofJustice(Lawrence,Kan., 1997); FrankR. Parker,Black VotesCount:PoliticalEmpowerment inMississippiafter1965 (ChapelHill and London,1990); ChandlerDavidsonandBernardGrofman, eds.,QuietRevolution in theSouth:TheImpactofthe VotingRightsAct, 1965-1990 (Princeton,1994); J. MorganKousser,ColorblindInjustice: Minority VotingRightsand theUndoingoftheSecondReconstruction (ChapelHill andLondon, 1999); PatriciaSullivan,Days ofHope: Race and Democracyin theNewDeal Era (ChapelHill andLondon,1996); JohnEgerton, SpeakNowAgainsttheDay: The Generation BeforetheCivil RightsMovement in theSouth(New York,1994); RichardLentz,Symbols, theNewsMagazines, and MartinLutherKing(BatonRougeandLondon,1990); NicolausMills,Likea HolyCrusade: Mississippi1964: TheTurning oftheCivilRightsMovement inAmerica(Chicago,1992);Herbert H. Haines, Black Radicals and the Civil RightsMainstream,1954-1970 (Knoxville,1988); BrendaGayle Plummer,RisingWind:Black Americansand U.S. ForeignAffairs,1935-1960 (ChapelHill andLondon,1996); PennyM. Von Eschen,Race AgainstEmpire:BlackAmericans and Anticolonialism,1937-1957 (Ithaca and London, 1997); Michael L. Krenn,Black Diplomacy:AfricanAmericansand the State Department, 1945-1969 (Armonk,N.Y., and London,1999). See also theessayscollectedin MichaelL. Krenn,ed., TheAfrican-American Voicein U. S. ForeignPolicysinceWorldWarII (New York,1998),andthehelpfulandoft-cited articleby MaryL. Dudziak,"Desegregation as a Cold WarImperative," Stanford Law Review, XL (November1988),61-120. 29 TaylorBranch, PartingtheWaters:Americain theKingYears,1954-1963(New Yorkand othercities,1988) andPillar ofFire: Americain theKingYears,1963-1965(New York,1998); in BlackAmerica, ManningMarable,Race, Reform, and Rebellion:The SecondReconstruction 1945-1982(Jackson, Miss., 1984); JackM. Bloom,Class,Race, and theCivilRightsMovement (Bloomington and Indianapolis,1987); David R. Goldfield,Black, White,and Southern:Race Relationsand SouthernCulture,1940 to thePresent(BatonRougeandLondon,1990). See also RhodaLois Blumberg, CivilRights:The1960sFreedomStruggle(Boston,1984);JuanWilliams,

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duringthelast diversescholarship For all thevastand increasingly traditional subjectshavenot threedecadeson thecivilrightsstruggle, topicsstillbeg forresearch.A dozen beenexhaustedandinnumerable Manyindiexamplesmayindicatetherangeof theworkremaining. have notbeen studied.Among vidualsand a numberof organizations the individuals,forinstance,the NAACP's executivedirectorRoy MedgarEvers,stillhavenotfound WilkinsanditsheadinMississippi, theirbiographers,and the same holds for manyothersincluding StokelyCarmichael,JamesLawson, and Ralph David Abernathy. thelargerstoriesof theNAACP as well as its Amongorganizations, Legal Defenseand EducationalFund,especiallyaftertheschooldesegregation cases, have notbeen told.Manyothersmallerorganizations-the Lawyers' Committeefor Civil RightsUnder Law, the theCouncilforUnitedCivil Southern StudentOrganizing Committee, Regional RightsLeadership,theFellowshipof Concern,theSouthern Council,the Episcopal SocietyforCulturaland Racial Unity,and notwarrant studybutdo book-length manylocal organizations-may deserveattention.30 financial Civilrightsorganizations survivedbecauseofthesupport, and otherwise, theyreceived,and scholarsneed to studythe larger contoursof supportforthe movement.In his pioneeringPolitical 1930-1970(1982), ofBlackInsurgency, Processand theDevelopment modelto exsociologistDoug McAdamemployeda political-process ofcivilrights butno aminethegrowth anddevelopment organizations, hasfollowedMcAdam's lead toexplain otherstudent ofthemovement thenatureand sourcesof movement supportand development.31Too patronsofthemajor littleis known,forinstance, aboutthenon-activist andhowandwhytheirsupport mayhaveflowed protestorganizations and ebbed. In civil rightsas in politics,historians mightbe wise to followthemoney. Eyeson thePrize:America'sCivilRightsYears,1954-1965(New York,1987);RobertWeisbrot, (New YorkandLondon,1990); FreedomBound:A HistoryofAmerica'sCivilRightsMovement 1954JohnA. Salmond,"MyMindSet on Freedom":A HistoryoftheCivilRightsMovement, 1968 (Chicago, 1997); WilliamT. MartinRiches,The Civil RightsMovement:Struggleand Resistance(New York,1997). 30 Roy Wilkins, memoirs;see Roy and MyrlieEvershave written RalphDavid Abernathy, of Roy Wilkins(New York, WilkinswithTom Mathews,StandingFast: The Autobiography 1982); Mrs. MedgarEverswithWilliamPeters,For Us, theLiving(GardenCity,N.Y., 1967); (New York Down:AnAutobiography andRalphDavid Abernathy, AndtheWallsCameTumbling and othercities,1989). On theCouncilforUnitedCivil RightsLeadershipsee NancyJ.Weiss, "CreativeTensionsin theLeadershipof theCivil RightsMovement,"in Eagles,ed., The Civil RightsMovement, 39-55. 31 Doug McAdam,PoliticalProcessand theDevelopment 1930-1970 ofBlackInsurgency, (Chicagoand London,1982).

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As partof his research,McAdamalso tracedthecoverageof the movement by theNew YorkTimes,andRichardLentzlaterexamined the coveragegiven to King by the major news magazines.David Garrow'sstudyofKing'sSelmacampaignalso emphasizedtheroleof thenationalnewsmedia.A number ofadditional bookshavediscussed southern a general journalistsand race,butno scholarhas attempted studyof therelationship betweenthecivil rightsmovementand the media;ToddGitlin's analysisoftheeffects ofthemediaon theriseand fallof theNew Leftmightprovidea suggestive model.More specific studiescould deal withindividualpublications orjournalists, suchas the New York Times and its major southerncorrespondents, John Pophamand Claude Sitton.Analysisof coverageby countlessother smallerpublications-whiteand black,Northand South-could also revealmuchaboutthestrugglein individuallocales and particularly aboutpopularopinion.The portrayal of themovement in thebroader popularculturemightalso help to explainlaterperceptionsof the movement. In thisvein,MelissaWalkerhas discussednovelsbyblack womenthatdealt withthe freedomstruggle,and Brian Ward has recently delvedintotheconnections among"rhythm and blues,black andracerelations" consciousness, duringthecivilrights era,butmuch remainstobe examinedin literature, television, themovies,andpopularculturegenerally, in supporting including theroleof celebrities the civilrightsstruggle.32 Althoughseveralscholarshave examinedvariousfacetsof Martin LutherKing's thought, theintellectual historyof theblack freedom has The formalideas and ideologies struggle receivedscantattention. of thepeopleinvolvedat all levels in themovement as well as their unarticulated andbeliefswarrant seriousanalysis.Richard assumptions H. Kingattempted butinsteadhe got to study"theidea of freedom," miredin theoretical andphilosophical considerations onlyperipherally 32 Lentz,Symbols, theNewsMagazines,and MartinLutherKing;Garrow,Protestat Selma; Todd Gitlin,The WholeWorldIs Watching:Mass Media in theMakingand Unmaking of the NewLeft(Berkeley,1980);MelissaWalker,DownfromtheMountaintop: BlackWomen'sNovels in theWakeof theCivilRightsMovement, 1966-1989 (New Haven and London,1991); Brian Ward,JustMy Soul Responding:Rhythm and Blues,Black Consciousness, and Race Relations (Berkeley,1998). Examples of workson southernjournalistsinclude Charles W. Eagles, JonathanDaniels and Race Relations:The Evolutionofa SouthernLiberal(Knoxville,1982); JohnT. Kneebone,Southern LiberalJournalists and theIssue ofRace, 1920-1944 (ChapelHill and London,1985); GaryHuey,Rebelwitha Cause: P. D. East, SouthernLiberalism,and the CivilRightsMovement, 1953-1971(Wilmington, Del., 1985); andAlexanderLeidholdt, Standing BeforetheShouting Mob: LenoirChambersand Virginia'sMassiveResistanceto Public-School Integration (Tuscaloosaand London,1997).

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Studentsof themovement relatedto therhetoric of themovement.33 and its meaningsvariedamong need to be awareof how therhetoric mayhave changedovertime. contemporaries and how thedefinitions An effort themeaningsof languageused in themoveto understand In additiontofreedom, mentcouldstartwiththeverytermcivilrights. Christian,nonviolence, possibilitiesinclude equality,integration, At blackpower,and thebelovedcommunity. equalityof opportunity, thesame time,scholarsneedto learnmoreaboutthebeliefsof those just commonsouthern whiteswhodidnotsupport themovement-not liberals,and politicians. membersof theCitizens'Council,southern peopleneedtobe examinedas well.Whites' The attitudes ofordinary wayof segregation, thesouthern ideas aboutNegroes,amalgamation, exploration forexample,warrant life,states'rights,and communism, has because theymightrevealmuchaboutwhatGeorgeFredrickson exposemore called "theblackimagein thewhitemind"and thereby whiteattitudes towardchangingrace relationsand the fullysouthern civilrightsmovement.34 oftenhad Biblicaloriginsor other The languageof themovement havetherolesofreligionand religiousconnotations, yetonlyrecently churchesbegunto receiveconsiderableattention by scholars.Much remainsto be done. National,regional,and statestudiesof many and Baptists,have notbeen denominations, especiallytheMethodists in themoveand theRomanCatholicChurch'sinvolvement written, mentstillneedsto be told,along withthatof smallerchurchesand sects.In each case, scholarsneed to clarifythedifferences and similaritiesamongthechurches'hierarchies, theclergy,andthelaity,white intheSouthovertheNational andblack.Discussionofthecontroversy of indiCouncilof Churchesand descriptions of the desegregation of the white vidual congregations would enrichan understanding southern church.In manywaystheworkofCharlesMarshstandsas a the religious modelbecause he treatsseriouslyand sympathetically thetheologically beliefsof segregationists as well as integrationists, informed as well as theunsophisticated.35 33 Richard H. King,CivilRightsand theIdea ofFreedom(New YorkandOxford,1992). On ofMartin thethought ofMartinLutherKingJr.,see HanesWaltonJr.,ThePoliticalPhilosophy Conn.,1971); JohnJ.Ansbro,MartinLutherKing,Jr.:TheMaking LutherKing,Jr.(Westport, N.Y., 1982); Ira G. Zepp Jr.,TheSocial VisionofMartinLutherKing,Jr. ofa Mind(Maryknoll, (Brooklyn,1989). 34 GeorgeM. Fredrickson, TheBlackImageintheWhiteMind:TheDebateonAfro-American Characterand Destiny,1817-1914 (New Yorkand othercities,1971). 35 Marsh,God's Long Summer.

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maybe effectively Many topics,such as religiousdenominations, to an individual state,and the approachedthrougha studylimited a seriesof state movement itselfcould be usefullyanalyzedthrough in his comprehenstudies.AdamFaircloughhas provideda prototype scope and impressive depth, sive workon Louisiana.Withsignificant inthePelicanState.He Faircloughprobedall aspectsofthemovement dealteffectively at thegrassroots withtheCatholicChurch,politics, and all partsof a multitude of activistorganizations, segregationists, thestate,including New Orleans,overseveraldecades.36Similarstudies are neededon othersouthern and borderstates. Of even greaterinterestwould be a widerrangeof community studiesto supplement the existingones on Tuskegee,Greensboro, and Tallahassee.Not onlydo Houston,St. Augustine,Birmingham, communities suchas Nashville,Selma,andAtlantaobviouslydeserve unknown centers scholarly attention, butthestoriesofmanyotherwise of activityshouldalso be recounted.37 The pivotaleventsand key enhancean appreciation individuals in unheralded placescouldfurther and of themoveof thestruggle in thelivesof ordinary communities ofhowthemovementin general.Especiallyneededareexplanations mentinvolvedand affectedpeople in the rural South. Although Payne's book on theMississippiDelta and Couto's on severalrural workoughttobe communities future arefirststepsbysocialscientists, morehistorically analytical.In reachingout to includetheotherwise buttoo ignoredand forgotten, Payneand Coutorelyon oralhistories oftenacceptthe voices as tellingtruestorieswithoutverifying the or with more materialeitherwithcorroborating from others testimony traditional sources.Justrepeatingsuch stories,howevercompelling history.38 theymaybe, makesforincomplete on The local levelalso providesa particularly important perspective the civil thedesegregation a of education, centralsubjectthroughout in myriad rightsera. Highereducationwas involvedin themovement incidents at thestateuniversities ways.In additionto thewell-known of Georgia,Alabama,andMississippi,manyothercolleges,privateas Black institutions well as public,desegregated. maynothave battled but theyand theirstudentsplayedmajorroles throughintegration, out the era and meritstudy.BeginningwithBrown,however,the 36

Fairclough, Race and Democracy. in Nashville David Halberstam'sThe Children(New York,1998) drawson his reporting community in thelate 1950sand early1960s,butit does notqualifyas a well-researched study of themovement. 38 Payne,I've Got theLightof Freedom;Couto,Ain'tGonnaLet NobodyTurnMe Round. 37

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education.Although andsecondary emphasizedelementary movement of thedesegregation aspects examined various works have manyfine of publicschools,thetopicremainsfarfromexhausted.The worksof DavisonDouglas andDavid Cecelski,forexample,needtobe suppleas theyexperimentedby accountsof a varietyof othercommunities Because public schools operatedunderstate enced desegregation. Spawned maybe appropriate. statestudiesof desegregation authority, in the theprivateschoolmovement in reactionto schoolintegration, Southalso meritsinvestigation.39 Beyond the traditionaltopics alreadymentioned,threegeneral on the civil rights sharedby muchof the literature characteristics and development important movementpointto avenuesforfurther varietyexistsamongthepubFirst,whileconsiderable improvement. to a similarchronomostconform licationson thecivilrightsstruggle, most logicaloutline.At leastsinceSitkoff'ssurveyof themovement, historianshave apparentlyaccepted a periodizationthatproceeds fromBrownto Memphis,or,in thewordsof a 1970 docuessentially toMemphis."The chronomentary on King'slife,from"Montgomery fromtheacclaimed reinforcement receivedpowerful logicalagreement serieson "America'sCivil Eyes on thePrize televisiondocumentary RightsYears, 1954-1965."In six episodes,executiveproducerHenry of Hamptonand his associatesmovedfromBrownand thelynching marchand the EmmettTill to the climacticSelma-to-Montgomery eight-part legislation. (A subsequent offederalvotingrights enactment companionseriescontinuedthe storythrough1985 but focusedprioutsideof the South.)Withinthe accepted marilyon developments timespan,filmsand surveytextstendto emphasizethesame major and figuresand episodes,in spiteof all the additionalinformation The examination ofevents brought by thenew social history. insights people has failedto and amongordinary in individualcommunities inauguratea differentchronologicalconceptionof the freedom struggle. 39 Douglas,Reading,Writing, and Race; Cecelski,AlongFreedomRoad; Clark,Schoolhouse at Ole Miss (Chicago, Integration of Mississippisee RussellBarrett, Door. On theUniversity 1965) and Lord,Past ThatWouldNotDie. 40 King,A FilmedRecord:Montgomery to Memphis,Ely Landau,prod.(Skokie,Ill., 1970), Eyes on thePrize: America'sCivil RightsYears,1954-1965,HenryHampton, videocassette; Eyes on thePrize II: Americaat the exec. prod.(Alexandria,Va., 1986), six videocassettes; Racial Crossroads,1965-1985, HenryHampton,exec. prod. (Alexandria,Va., 1990), eight HenryHamptonandSteveFayer,eds.,VoicesofFreedom:An Oral Historyofthe videocassettes. Fromthe1950s Throughthe1980s (New Yorkand othercities,1990). CivilRightsMovement series; citedbook(n. 29), as a companiontothetelevision serves,likeJuanWilliams'spreviously

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As a numberofworkshavealreadyindicated, students shouldat the veryleast be increasingly dissatisfied withthe standard1954-1968 scenario.MostbreakswiththeBrown-to-Memphis timeline havedeepened appreciation forthe decades priorto the school desegregation decision.The New Deal, theFEPC, Truman'scivilrightscommittee, and earliercourtcases have been exploredat the nationallevel, as wellas forerunners atthelocal level,especiallyintheworksofNorrell on TuskegeeandFaircloughon Louisiana.Too often,however,earlier people and events are viewed as precursorsratherthan parts of theactualcivil rightsmovement; therelationship betweenthe 1930s and 1940s and themoreconventional 1954-1968periodneedsto be clarified. To balancethegrowinginterest in thepre-1954history, however, moreattention needsto be paid to theperiodafter1968 and thelegacies or ramifications of the movement.Threedecades afterKing's assassination, historians and othershave examinedtheeffectsof the movementprimarily in politicsand school desegregation, but they largelyhave overlookedtheresultsin jobs, healthcare,law enforcement,housing,and manyotherareas of community life.One worthy recentexceptionis TimothyJ. Minchin'sHiringtheBlack Worker: The Racial Integration of theSouthernTextileIndustry, 1960-1980 (1999).41 Local andthematic analysesabouttheSouthsincethe1960s mightrevealas muchaboutwhathappenedin themovement as examinationsof the pre-Brownyears.Reassessingthe originsof the on one end and itsresultsat theothermayeventually movement lead to bettercriticalassessments of themovement itself. Even withinthe1954-1968model,theresearchagendaneedsto be expanded.Currently scholarstypicallystressthe importance of the NAACP onlyup through theBrownverdictand thenshiftthefocus to MartinLutherKing and the development of nonviolentpassive see also theolderbutstillexcellentcollectionof oralhistories compiledby Howell Raines,My Soul Is Rested:Movement Days in theDeep SouthRemembered (New York,1977). Two previouslycitedexceptions tothechronological limitsareThomasR. Peake's workon theSCLC since MartinLutherKingJr.(see n. 17) and JamesW. Button'sstudyof severalFloridacommunities intothe 1980s(see n. 22). Thoughbeyondthescope of thisessay,severalphotographic collectionswarrant mention: MichaelS. Durhamand CharlesMoore,Powerful Days: TheCivilRights Photography ofCharlesMoore(New York,1991); DannyLyon,MemoriesoftheSouthern Civil RightsMovement (ChapelHill andLondon,1992);FlipSchulke,He Had a Dream:MartinLuther King,Jr.,and theCivilRightsMovement (New York,1995); andStevenKasher,TheCivilRights Movement: A Photographic History,1954-68 (New York,1996). 41 Timothy J. Minchin,HiringtheBlack Worker:The Racial Integration of theSouthern TextileIndustry, 1960-1980(ChapelHill andLondon,1999).See also theessaysinJohnHigham, ed., CivilRightsand Social Wrongs:Black-White RelationsSince WorldWarII (University Park, Pa., 1997).

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resistance;beginning withFreedomSummerin themid-1960s,SNCC and more radical activistsgain nearlyequal billing with King. Throughout thecivil rightsera,theless excitingcontributions of the moreconservative NAACP andNationalUrbanLeague havereceived inadequateattention. UntilTimothyB. Tyson's workon RobertF. in theSouth Williams,studiesofblackpowerandotherradicalefforts havenotbeenexamined.42 Even CORE's FreedomRidesof 1961 and oftheVoterEducationProjecthaveyet themulti-organizational efforts to gaintheirhistorians. Broadenedresearchinterests mayopennewwaysofunderstanding thesouthern movement. Douglas S. Massey and NancyA. Denton's AmericanApartheid:Segregationand theMakingof the Underclass (1993) and StephenGrantMeyer'sbroaderAs Long as TheyDon't Move Next Door: Segregationand Racial Conflictin American Neighborhoods (2000) studiedurbanresidential butthey segregation, haveno analogueinthehistoriography oftheSouth.Similarly, Thomas J.Sugrue'saward-winning TheOriginsoftheUrbanCrisis:Race and Inequality inPostwarDetroit(1996) has no parallelintheliterature on southern work,housing,and race relations.43 A deeperunderstanding of residential and employment patterns mightlead to therealization thatthesignificance of somelong-term trendsor specificeventshave beeneitherover-or underappreciated; resultsof a newunderstanding could includea shiftin emphasison researchon themovement or a of itshistory. reperiodization on the civil rightsmovementcommonly Second, the literature sharesthesenseofengagement foundin cold warscholarship byJohn LewisGaddis.In thecase ofcivilrights history, thelackofdetachment derivesbothfromtheparticipant-observer statusofmanyofthescholars and fromthe overwhelming moralityof the movementitself. HarvardSitkoff,for example,acknowledgedhis involvement with themovement in thesixtiesand his continuing beliefthat"morality, 42 TimothyB. Tyson,Radio Free Dixie: RobertF. Williamsand theRootsofBlack Power (ChapelHill and London,1999). 43 Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton,AmericanApartheid:Segregation and the MakingoftheUnderclass(Cambridge, Mass.,andLondon,1993); StephenGrantMeyer,As Long as TheyDon't Move NextDoor: Segregationand Racial Conflictin AmericanNeighborhoods (Lanham,Md.,andothercities,2000); ThomasJ.Sugrue,TheOriginsoftheUrbanCrisis:Race and Inequalityin PostwarDetroit(Princeton, urbanhistorians have considered 1996). Southern someoftheissues;see,forexample,Christopher Silver,Twentieth-Century Richmond: Planning, Politics,and Race (Knoxville,1984); Ronald H. Bayor,Race and theShapingof TwentiethCentury Atlanta(ChapelHill andLondon,1996); andThomasW. Hanchett, SortingOuttheNew SouthCity:Race, Class, and UrbanDevelopmentin Charlotte,1875-1975 (Chapel Hill and London,1998).

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justice,and a due concernforthe futurewell-beingof our society necessitated an endtoracialinequality"; he "feltcompelledto writeof thestrivings and sufferings ofthesebattlesto makerealthepromiseof democracy."Whethertheypersonallyparticipatedin the freedom ornot,chroniclers struggle ofthecampaignforequal rights haveoften demonstrated a deep admiration fortheactivists.A nostalgicWilliam Chafecommented inthesit-inmovement thatthecollegestudents were "theproductsof an innocenceand idealismthatwe may neversee again."A conference on womenin thecivilrightsstrugglesoughtto "identify, acknowledge, andcelebratethem"fortheir"relentless courage and commitment." PatriciaSullivaneven dedicatedherworkon pre-1948interracial politicalreform to PalmerWeber,who was both her"mentor" as well as one of theactivistsstudiedin herbook.In an emotionalconclusionto hisstudyofFreedomSummer, NicolausMills urgedhis readersnotto abandonthelegacyof thesummerproject:a beliefthata "commongroundcould be foundamongblacks and whites."On fewotherhistorical so passionately topicshavehistorians expressedtheirpersonalattitudes.44 The lack of detachment can be readilyseen in the striking tone displayedin muchoftheliterature. Forexample,TaylorBranch'stitle phrases-"parting thewaters"and "pillarof fire"-conveythemovement'sawesomebiblicalqualitiesand thesensethatit was in facta moralcrusade.Othertitlesthatimplya similarcommitGod-inspired menton thepartoftheauthorinclude"bearingthecross,""reapingthe "and gentlyhe shall lead them,""righteous whirlwind," lives,"and "trailblazers and torchbearers."45 The rhetoric reflectsthebeliefpervasiveamonghistorians thatthemovement wasjust.No scholarwould proposewriting aboutthemovement froma positionhostiletoitsgoals andaspirations, buta moreobjectiveviewofitsparticipants shouldbe Increased not possible. objectivitydoes requirerepudiationof the movement'scommitment to justice, freedom,and equality,and it forthe shouldnotbe interpreted as showinga lack of appreciation andheroismdisplayedbythe"trailblazers bravery, courage,resilience, andtorchbearers" ofthecrusade.Mostworks,however, havepresented of the movementthatshy away from only positiveinterpretations 44Sitkoff,Struggle forBlackEquality,viii;Chafe,Civilitiesand CivilRights,viii;Crawford, Rouse,andWoods,eds., Womenin theCivilRightsMovement, xix,xx; Sullivan,Days ofHope, v, xi; Mills,Likea Holy Crusade,193. 45 Branch, PartingtheWatersandPillarofFire;Garrow, BearingtheCross;Norrell, Reaping the Whirlwind; Burner,And GentlyHe Shall Lead Them;Rogers,RighteousLives; Crawford, Rouse,and Woods,eds., Womenin theCivilRightsMovement.

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searchingcriticism of itsleaders,tactics,and strategies, as well as its largerfailureto achievethegoals ofracialjustice.Again,thewriting on the movementhas yetto producea rangeof strikingly different interpretive schoolsor consistently clashinginterpretations. A lack of detachment can also preventscholarsfromexploring subjectsand askingquestionsthatchallengetheirfaithor thatappear tothreaten theirgoalsforcontemporary society.Severalexamplesmay For all theattensufficeto showtherangeofneglectedopportunities. tionto MartinLutherKing Jr.,scholarshave been rathercautiousin theirtreatment of theNobel laureate.Although David J.Garrowcanwitha numberof didlydiscussedKing's "varioussexualinvolvements different women,"his "incidental couplingsthatwerea commonplace in his of King's travels,"and "his compulsivesexual athleticism" he offeredlittleseriousanalysisor deeper massive1986 biography, of King's behavior.Similarly, explanation King's plagiarismbecame well knownin 1990 when majornewspapersand news magazines coveredrevelations comingfromtheKingPapersProject.In 1991 the JournalofAmericanHistorydevotedmorethanone hundred pagesto a roundtable discussionofKingand"plagiarism andoriginality." Since then,theplagiarismissue has receivedsome scholarlyattention, particularlyin KeithMiller's meticulouswork,but no scholarhas yet combinedthesexualandplagiarism revelations, alongwithotherfacts inaboutKing's life,to fashiona critical,possiblypsychologically formed,biographyof King comparableto, forexample,the recent studiesof JohnF. Kennedy.46 Adventurous studentsof the movementmightgo beyondKing's in themoveandinvestigate theimportance of sex generally sexuality ment.Whitesupremacists triedto discredit FreedomSummerand the marchbycharging thatinterracial sex occurred Selma-to-Montgomery on eachoccasion.Eventhoughactivists themselves andtheir protected cause by denyingsuch allegationsat thetime,nobodysincehas intheextentofinterracial sex anditseffects on themovement. vestigated With so manyenergetic,passionateyoungpeople workingin the The importance of theabsenceofsex seemsquiteunlikely. movement, 46 Garrow,BearingtheCross,374-75; "BecomingMartinLutherKing,Jr.-Plagiarismand A RoundTable,"JournalofAmericanHistory, LXXVIII (June1991), 11-123 (the Originality: issue containsan introduction by editorDavid Thelen,commentsby the editorsof the King twointerviews conducted byThelenwithKing'sfellow PapersProject,someofKing's writings, seminarians, andcomments byDavid LeveringLewis,David J.Garrow,ClayborneCarson,John Higham,BerniceJohnson Reagon,and KeithD. Miller);Miller,VoiceofDeliverance;Thomas C. Reeves,A Questionof Character:A Lifeof JohnF. Kennedy(New York and othercities, 1991); Nigel Hamilton,JFK,RecklessYouth(New York,1992).

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in themovement also needsto be assessedbeyonda homosexuality BayardRustin, suchas AllardLowenstein, individuals fewwell-known to women's andAaronHenry.WhileSara Evanslinkedthemovement betweenthe no one has examinedthepossibleconnections liberation, and thegay rightsmovement.47 blackstruggle to themovement'sgoals also have had little Historianscommitted interestin exploringone of King's major setbacks,his 1961-1962 in the effortsto end segregationin Albany,Georgia. involvement Althoughthe Albany debacle was covered by Taylor Branch, ClayborneCarson,andDavid Garrowas partoftheirlargerworks,the no attention on its own. Partof the has attracted Albanymovement may Georgiacommunity fortheneglectof thesouthwest explanation foiledthe best be thatAlbany's wily police chiefLaurie Pritchett and scholarshave notbeenbeen drawnto white efforts of protesters, especiallywhentheyseemedvictorious. segregationists, froman asymmetry also suffers on themovement Third,scholarship Wherecold similartothatGaddisfoundinthecoldwarhistoriography. its allies' rolein the States and warhistorians have studiedtheUnited oppoof theircommunist conflict rather thantheactionsand attitudes nents(in partdue to a lack of available sourcesduringthe tense conflict),civil rightsscholarshave createda similarimbalanceby politicsand Books on southern opponents. themovement's neglecting inpoliticianssuchas GeorgeWallace and OrvalFaubusnecessarily statestudies and thorough cludeddiscussionsof the segregationists, s on Louisiana and balancedworkslike such as Adam Fairclough' to them.In the on Marsh's Charles religionalso paid due attention threedecadessincethestudiesof NumanBartleyand Neil McMillen, the havegenerally ignoredwhites,andparticularly historians however, whichincludeJeff powerfulwhiteresistance.Witha fewexceptions, in Georgia,scholars Roche'sstudyofthepoliticsofmassiveresistance seemto have assumedthatlittleremainsto be learnedaboutthesegto or unimportant or thattheyare simplytoo unattractive regationists warrant examination. disappoint wouldcertainly The failuretoexplorethesegregationists GunnarMyrdal,who arguedmorethanfiftyyearsago thatthereal racialproblemwas in thewhitemind.As a resultof theabsenceof thestoriesofthecivilrightsmovement attention tothesegregationists, 47 WilliamH. Chafe,NeverStop Running:Allard Lowenstein and the Struggleto Save BayardRustin:TroublesI've Seen; Levine, AmericanLiberalism(New York,1993); Anderson, BayardRustinand theCivilRightsMovement.

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have been told fromthe insidewithlittleconsideration paid to the largercontextandopponents ofthemovement, andthescholarship has therefore failedto developmorecomprehensive andcomplexaccounts of theentireera in theSouth.Includingtheresistanceby whitesegregationists willheighten appreciation fortheachivements oftheblack freedomstruggle and enrichitshistory. David L. Chappell'sodd and whitesupporters of the movementat least sketchylook at southern broachedthe topic of southernwhites,and a collectionof original essays on Virginiaexaminedthe"moderates'dilemma"over school butno recentscholarhas devoteda monograph to the desegregation, mostvocal whitepositionof theperiod.48An additionaldeficiency inthemovement involvesblackswhodidnotparticipate orperhapsdid noteven supportit; theytoo deserveexamination and explanation. Morestudiesofthecivilrights erathatincludedtheopponents ofthe the movement silentmajorities ofbothraceswouldhelppromote plus the symmetry now lackingin the literature and perhapsprovidea different view of themovement itself.Studying theentireSouth,not wouldmakefora muchmore just blackactivistsandtheirsupporters, fullof additionalconflicts and ambiguities. complicated story, Underforexstandingthemovement'swhiteopponentswouldnecessitate, ample, probing the complex political, economic, and cultural dimensions of southern whitesocietyto explainhow and whywhites heldtheracialattitudes theoften theydid.Told without condescension, tragicstoriesofwhitesoutherners' hates,fears,andpridebelongin the wideraccountsofthecivilrights era.Justas scholarsneedtobe critical ofthecivilrightsmovement thattheyendorseas morallycorrect, they need also to employsympathetic understanding towardthehistorical figureswhomtheycannotmorallyjustify.As Bartleyand McMillen havelongsincedemonstrated, historians do nothaveto approveofthe in orderto fullyappreciatetheirsignificance in southsegregationists ernhistory. 48 Bartley, RiseofMassiveResistance;McMillen,Citizens'Council;StephanLesher,George Wallace:AmericanPopulist(Reading,Mass.,andothercities,1994); Dan T. Carter,ThePolitics of Rage: George Wallace,the Originsof theNew Conservatism, and the Transformation of AmericanPolitics(New Yorkand othercities,1995); Roy Reed,Faubus: TheLifeand Timesof an AmericanProdigal (Fayetteville, Ark., 1997); Fairclough,Race and Democracy;Marsh, God's Long Summer;JeffRoche, Restructured Resistance:The Silbey Commissionand the PoliticsofDesegregation in Georgia(Athens,Ga., andLondon,1998);David L. Chappell,Inside in the Civil RightsMovement(Baltimoreand London, 1994); Agitators:WhiteSoutherners MatthewD. Lassiterand AndrewB. Lewis,eds., TheModerates'Dilemma:MassiveResistance to School Desegregationin Virginia(Charlottesville and London,1998); GunnarMyrdal,An AmericanDilemma:TheNegroProblemandModernDemocracy(New YorkandLondon,1944).

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to be invigonowneeds,therefore, on themovement The literature add chronology, ratedbynewworksthatwillchallengetheestablished and correctthe imbalancenow pervadingthe greaterdetachment, scholarship.The innovationsmay come fromimaginativemonoand,morelikely,fromnewbold recongraphicwork,new syntheses, Fromwhatever source,new history. ofthemovement's ceptualizations thetoleranceof many and stretch approacheswill cause controversy establishedscholars.To extendthedebatein civil rightsscholarship becomemoretolerantof will requirethatstudentsof themovement mayindicatethe Two examples opinions. even iconoclastic, divergent, to common byideas thatruncontrary resistance toooftenencountered yearsafterthe school desegregation In 1984, thirty interpretations. case, RaymondWolterswroteThe Burdenof Brownthatassessed wheredesegregation "how thingsworkedout in the school districts began."The authorof earlierworkson blacksduringtheDepression in the1920s, andon revoltsamongAfricanAmericancollegestudents WoltersarguedthattheBrowndecisionhad failedbecauseit had not because it had notimproved led to desegregation butresegregation, publiceducationgenandbecauseithad undermined blackeducation, to theconsensusthathailedBrownas a turning point erally.Contrary of thedeforcivilrights, Wolterscontendedthattheimplementation as toimpossibleintegration fromdesirabledesegregation cisionshifted naiveliberaljudges promotedsocial change.49 InitiallyWolters'sbook receivedlittlepublic noticebeyondthe scholarlyreviews,whichweregenerallyfavorable,and a customary couple of reviewsin liberalopinionmagazines,one criticalby the Lukas. WhentheAmericanBar Associationin journalistJ. Anthony the summerof 1985 announcedthatit would give its SilverGavel Awardto Wolters'sbook,however,a majorcivilrightsscholarrushed by launchingan attackon the to defendthe standardinterpretation whenthe receivedwide publicity book.David J.Garrow'scriticisms his chargesthat Post and theNew York Timesreported Washington In response Wolters'sbookwas "clearlyracistin toneand sentiment." Woltersallegedthat"inacademiccirclestheword'racist'nowadaysis used to ruinpeople thesame way 'pinko' was duringtheheydayof Woltersadmitted that"[i]t annoysme thatwhenever McCarthyism." you departin anyrespectfromthestandardprevailingliberalorthoIn a reviewofTheBurden doxyyoucomein forthissortofcriticism." backedoff later,Garrowapparently ofBrownpublisheda fewmonths 49 Wolters,TheBurdenofBrown,3.

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fromthe racismchargebut did criticizeWolters'suse of "heavily loaded" language,disagreedwithmanyof his "outspoken"and "dison severalpoints,and hisdocumentation tinctive opinions,"questioned vigor."Garrowconcludedthat"this his"self-righteous foundoffensive of some of themostserious book suffers fatallyfroma multiplicity can offer"and thatits workof scholarship failingsthata purported "biases and political agendas . . . clothed in the garb of carefulscholarship . . . completelyvitiateany and all affirmativescholarlyvalues

tothe letter topossess."In a subsequent thatsucha bookmightpretend journal,Woltersrebuttedthe attackon him and his work,but the Wolters'sbook.50 attackssucceededin marginalizing Michael J. In 1994, ten years afterthe Wolterscontroversy, ofVirginia,sparkedanother attheUniversity Klarman,a law professor overthe 1954 SupremeCourtdecision.In two separatearargument of Brownin triggering the ticles,Klarmanquestionedtheimportance civil rightsmovement.Unlikeotherlegal scholarswho have chalfortheschool andconstitutional justification lengedthelegalreasoning decision,Klarmanpointedto widersocial, economic, desegregation andpoliticalchangesand suggestedthat"scholarsmayhaveexaggerated the extentto whichthe SupremeCourt'sschool desegregation In to thecivil rightsmovement." rulingprovidedcriticalinspiration a provocative interpretation, Klarmanoffered placeoftheconventional southern resistance "backlashthesis":thecourt'sverdict"crystallized to to racialchange,"massiveresistancethenled to violentattempts thatweretelevisedto nationalausuppresscivilrightsdemonstrators indifferent whites northern dience,andthesceneschanged"previously of civilrightslegislation."In an indirect intoenthusiastic proponents themuchheraldedschooldecisionplayeda majorrole way,therefore, in theenactment of thecivilrightslegislationof the1960sbecauseit backlash.Brown'simprompted an angry,powerfulwhitesouthern portance,accordingto Klarman,derivedmore fromits impacton theMontgomery bus whitesthanfromitseffectin sparking southern in thecivilrightsmovement.51 boycottand laterdevelopments 50 Washington New YorkTimes,July Post,July5, 1985,p. A10 (firstandsecondquotations); Legacy,"Reviewsin American 6, 1985,p. 8 (thirdquotation);David J.Garrow,"Segregation's on p. 429,secondandthirdon p. 430,and quotation 1985),428-32 (first History, XIII (September otherson p. 432); Wolters'sletterof rebuttalis in Reviewsin AmericanHistory,XIV (March 1986), 160-61. For otherreviewsof The Burdenof Brown,see JournalofAmericanHistory, LI (August1985),467-69; ChesterE. Finn History, LXXII (June1985),197;JournalofSouthern Jr.,"Choice and Coercion,"The New Republic,March 11, 1985, 35-39; J. AnthonyLukas, "Black,Whiteand Brown,"TheNation,May 25, 1985,623-24, 626. 51 MichaelJ. Klarman,"Brown,Racial Change,and theCivil RightsMovement,"Virginia

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In the same issue as Klarman'soriginalessay,the editorsof the bycivilrightsscholVirginiaLaw Reviewpublishedseveralrejoinders ars, along with a replyby Klarman.David J. Garrowcriticized excesses"inhis"rushtowardinterpretive novKlarmanfor"rhetorical of firsthand evielty."ClaimingthatKlarman"ignorestheprofusion blacks,he warnedthat dence"aboutBrown'simpacton Montgomery oftenand oversimplifications "rhetorically excessiveoverstatements timesdo turnoutto be hopelesslyhollowonce a fullerunderstanding of the historicalrecordis broughtto bear." Joiningin rejecting MarkV. Tushnet. was historian andlaw professor Klarman'sargument ofBrownand thecrucial Eagerto defendboththecentralimportance his thatKlarman"overargues role of black activism,he too thought that"Klarman'saccounthas founddistressing point"and particularly effectof substantially reducing thepeculiarand no doubtunintended the apparentrole of AfricanAmericans . . . , coming close to elimi-

agents,as actingsubjectsin the natingAfricanAmericansas historical historical processratherthanits objects."52 In a replyto his criticspointedlysubtitled"Facts and Political Klarmanregretted thatBrownhad become"politically Correctness," sacrosanct"amongso manyscholars.Specifically,he disputedthe effect on Montgomery blacks, evidenceofBrown'sdirectinspirational but andhe labeledthechargeaboutblackagency"notonlyinaccurate, correctdecision," offensive." Brown"notan unambiguously Judging Klarmandespairedthat"it is todayunacceptablenotonlyto question the constitutional basis of Brownbut also to ponderthe decision's ofthe1960s.Suchconstricforthecivilrightsrevolution significance Klarmanwantedto openthe tionof academicdebateis unfortunate." contextand without debateby considering Brownwithinitshistorical feelingcompelledto justifyit as a "judicial icon" consistentwith it is possibleto criticize constitutional theory."While,conceptually, theorywithoutsimultaneously Brownas a matterof constitutional theinstitution of beliefsthatunderlay thewhitesupremacist endorsing Klarmanconceded,"in practicethisseparation school segregation," The attackson Klarman,likethe has notbeenso easilyaccomplished." Law Review,LXXX (February1994),7-150; Klarman,"How BrownChangedRace Relations: quotation LXXXI (June1994),81-118 (first The BacklashThesis,"JournalofAmericanHistory, on p. 81; secondand thirdon p. 82). 52 David J.Garrow, Devaluingof Brownv. Board "HopelesslyHollow History:Revisionist of Education,"VirginiaLaw Review,LXXX (February1994),151-60 (firstquotationon p. on p. 160); MarkV. Tushnet,"The 151; secondquotationon p. 153; thirdon p. 154; fourth of Brownv. Board ofEducation,"ibid.,173-84 (bothquotationson p. 174). Significance

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similaroneson Woltersa decadeearlier,seemedtoprovetheaccuracy of Klarman'sconclusion.53 in writing aboutthesouthern moveOf course,special sensitivity mentpersistslargelybecause the largernationalracial dilemmaremainsunresolved evennow,a generation afterthepassageofmostof the majorcivil rightslegislationand King's assassination.Withno thata solution resolutionof theseproblems,and withno expectation movement has willsoonbe achieved,manybelievethatthecivilrights notonlynotendedbutindeedmustgo on. Politicaldivisionsoverthe meritsof affirmative action,overthebenefitsof schoolbusing,over themeaningof racism,overthecauses of blackpovertyand theinterconnections betweenclass and race,and overthenatureof racial the differences-suchdivisions,and manyothers,stillcharacterize publicdiscussionof race. Justas in thefifties and sixties,thecontinuing fightforequal rights andracialjusticenecessarily involvesbothproponents andopponents, andin somewaysthesidesareas clearas ever.In theenduring debate, of themovement seem worriedthatwhattheywrite manyhistorians abouttheheydayofthemovement policy maysomehowaffectcurrent or even decisions.Historians, remainparticipant-observers therefore, becomepartisans, and theirdetachment suffers. One obviousexample of Kingon wouldbe thepossibleeffectsof a trulycriticalbiography the decisionto honorhim witha nationalholiday;no scholarwho thought Kingshouldbe honoredwouldhavewanteda probinganalysis Moresignificant, ofthemoveofKing'sflawsandfailures. supporters mentcouldhave fearedthatRaymondWolters'snegativeassessment of Brown would fuelthe opponentsof school desegregation efforts suchas busing.Manyotherissuesmaystrikemanyscholarsas inapforresearch effects propriate becausetheresultscouldhavedeleterious on thecontinuing publicdebate. Historians ofthecivilrightseramaybe fated,therefore, to continue The growingand exto writewhatGaddiscalls "abnormalhistory." on thecivilrightsstruggle pandingliterature will,however,inevitably producean evolvinghistoriography thatcan be neitherpredictednor of controlled. Justas scholarshave begunto questionthechronology themovement itsoriginsandresults, theywilleventually byexamining 53 Klarman, "Brownv. Board ofEducation:Factsand PoliticalCorrectness," ibid.,185-200 (first, third, andfourth quotations on p. 185; secondon p. 198; fifth on p. 186); Klarman,"Brown, and Constitutional Originalism, Theory:A Responseto ProfessorMcConnell,"VirginiaLaw Review,LXXXI (October1995), 1881-936 (quotationon p. 1929).

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in their gainincreasedcriticalperspective andachievemoresymmetry workon themovement itself.Freshwaysof conceivingthefieldmay be attainedwhena youngergeneration of scholarswho did notexperience"Americain theKingyears"beginsto writeaboutthemovement,buteven theywill likelywritewithinan ongoingstrugglefor racialjustice.Untilscholarsacknowledgetheend of themovement, liketheendofthecold war,historians willneedtomuster evengreater historicalimagination to writenew historiesof thetwentieth-century balanced movementand its era in a more detached,well-rounded, manner.Much remainsto be learnedaboutthe civil rightsera, and opportunities forbothresearchand explanation shouldkeep thefield vigorous,challenging, and controversial fora longtime.