Book Review: Eyes on the Prize: America s Civil Rights Years,

Transcription

1 Blair O Connor Canton High School TAHG Final Project Book Review: Eyes on the Prize: America s Civil Rights Years, The early years of the modern Civil Rights Movement, from the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education case to the momentous passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, are perhaps the most tumultuous and inspiring period of recent American history. While many books have been written about this important era, Eyes on the Prize: America s Civil Rights Years, by journalist Juan Williams is arguably the best and most comprehensive history of these significant years. As the companion volume to the highly acclaimed PBS television series, this well-written and highly readable book traces the pivotal events of the movement and powerfully tells the stories of the heroes and heroines, the brilliant strategies, the national politics and politicking, the violence, the people who defended segregation as a Southern tradition, and the unheralded people, black and white, who were soul of the movement (xi). Williams brings the emotional events of the nonviolent civil rights years to life through his lucid text in each of the book s eight chapters; and he provides background, context, and further insight into the participants perspectives through the use of compelling photographs, interviews, excerpts of writings, and other primary sources from the time in the interesting asides provided in each chapter. This combination of accessibility and insightfulness makes Eyes on the Prize an excellent reference and record of the issues, tactics, and people of the early Civil Rights Movement for both the layperson and the historian. Like the highly praised documentary series that inspired it, the Eyes on the Prize companion book takes readers beyond the popular belief that a few larger-than-life figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and John F. Kennedy were the movement s most important players (xiii). The purpose of the book is not to diminish the role of these men, but to remind us that they were not solely responsible for creating the movement or for its success. As Julian Bond points out in the Introduction, the passage of time has obscured the lesser-known folks who created the movement that produced King This story is really their story, for the movement itself belonged to them. The civil rights drama involved thousands of acts of individual courage undertaken in the name of freedom (xi). Thus, one of the aspects that makes this book great is its emphasis on the braver y and sacrifices of those often overlooked leaders and ordinary Americans who displayed extraordinary courage and risked their jobs, homes, and lives in this important, racially charged time. As Bond notes, this insight is important because it reaffirms the truth that in

2 America a movement of the people and not the actions of one or two leaders can effect change (xiii). It was the courage and tenacity of those who, despite violence and intimidation, testified in the courts, boycotted the buses, attended white schools, sat in at the lunch counters, led the Freedom Rides, and marched on Washington and Selma that created the movement of and effected change. And it is these people and their experiences that Eyes on the Prize celebrates most. Not only does the book remind us that ordinary Americans made the movement, it also highlights the role played by the U.S. Constitution. Bond notes in his Intro to the volume that the Constitution provided the framework within which people could act to change the nation for the better. The story of the civil rights movement is a great testament to the Constitution s strength (xiv). Several events in the book highlight how laws were often bent and twisted to deny African Americans their rights, but it also shows how the NAACP and other activists used the Constitution as their main tool for winning the fight for desegregation and for voting rights. These stories of unsung heroes and the latent power of the Constitution begin with the first chapter, God Bless the Child: The Story of School Segregation. In this chapter, Williams details the life and legal career of Charles Houston, one of the lesser-known but extremely important black lawyers who dedicated his adult life to improving the legal education of black Americans and grooming other highquality black lawyers to make the American legal system work for blacks (10). Williams explains that Houston thought that the only worthy role for a lawyer was that of social engineer someone who understood the Constitution and knew how to use it to better the living conditions of underprivileged citizens (8). He goes on to detail Houston overhauled Howard University s Law School and essentially turned it into a civil rights laboratory (9). The chapter also discusses of some of Houston s prominent students including Thurgood, who would go on to become the nation s first black Supreme Court Justice - and summarizes the legal strategies and earlier desegregation cases that eventually culminated in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision which ultimately overturned the separate but equal doctrine and called for desegregation and equal treatment in American public schools. Although Charlie Houston died nearly four years before the influential ruling, his influence on the lawyers, strategies, and earlier desegregation cases played a significant role in helping to end segregation in America s schools. Yet, many Americans are unfamiliar with his story. At the end of the chapter, Thurgood Marshall is quoted nearly twenty-five years after the decision as saying, A large number of people have never heard of Charles Houston but when Brown v. Board of Education was being argued in the Supreme Court there were some two dozen lawyers on the side of the Negroes fighting for their schools Of those lawyers, only two hadn t been touched by Charlie Houston That man was the engineer of it all (35).

3 Charles Houston s lost legacy is one of the many that Eyes on the Prize hopes to rightfully reintroduce to American memory. In the second chapter, Standing for Justice: Mississippi and the Till Case, the book details the brutal torture and murder of fourteen-year-old Emmitt Till in Money, Mississippi in Till was lynched by the husband and brother-in-law of a white woman he talked to/flirted with while visiting from Chicago. Williams describes the circumstances of Till s violent slaying and the subsequent controversial, racially-charged trial that ended in an a not guilty verdict; but he also points out the tremendous courage of Till s mother, Mamie Bradley, in deciding to have an open-casket funeral to let the world see what they did to [her] boy (44) and of Mose Wright, who risked his life to openly testify against the two white men in court. The chapter also contains several insightful vignettes that include interviews with Myrlie Evers (wife of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, who helped investigate Till s murder), Charles Diggs (black congressman from Michigan who attended the trial), and James Hicks (a prominent black reporter who reported on the trial), all of whom share their experiences and reactions to the historic events. Williams sums the chapter up well by explaining that Mamie Bradley and Mose Wright did not go down in the history books as a leader[s] of the civil rights movement. But [their] acts of courage, like the acts of so many unknown citizens, were as important to the movement as the charismatic leadership of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. (57). Despite the unfair verdict of the trial, Williams chooses to focus on the small, but significant, triumphs that resulted from Till s tragedy. Chapter Three goes on to chronicle the background, events, and people behind the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott. While well-known figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King get their just due for their important roles in the successful boycott of Montgomery s segregated buses, so too do other lesser-known but significant people like E.D. Nixon (former head of the local NAACP and key organizer of the boycott) and Jo Ann Robinson (another organizer who personally printed 35,000 handbills that spread the word of the boycott). After months of walking, carpooling, meetings, litigation, and intimidation, the boycott succeeded in November 1956 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Alabama court s ruling against segregation on the buses. And it also spurred violent backlash from angry whites fired shots at black people who began riding the buses again and burned black churches and homes. But, as Williams points out, the city s success fired the imagination of blacks throughout the country, inspired boycotts in other cities, led to the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, and earned King a national reputation as a civil rights leader. Most importantly, it is the ordinary black citizens of Montgomery who came together and prevailed who deserve the credit for these results. King himself is quoted in the chapter as saying, The story of Montgomery is the story of 50,000 Negroes who were willing to substitute tired feet for tired souls and walk the streets of Montgomery until the walls

4 of segregation were finally battered by the forces of justice! (89). Despite the bombings and shootings after the boycott succeeded and buses began to integrate, the author again ends the chapter on a positive note by giving credit to the average black people who united for a just cause and successfully stood up to segregation. The fourth chapter, Hall Monitors from the 101 st : The Little Rock Story, covers the turbulent battle to integrate Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas in Williams describes Arkansas governor Orval Faubus s political posturing against integration, recounts the violent anger of white segregationists, and outlines the conflicts between the local, state, and federal government (which ultimately resulted in President Eisenhower reluctantly intervening on the side of the black school children and sending the 101 st Airborne Division to escort the black students into Central High). Once again, the book highlights the courage and will of the nine students (later known as the Little Rock Nine ) who faced insults, angry mobs, and acts of violence to challenge segregation. The chapter has many powerful photographs and first-hand accounts of the Battle of Little Rock and the harassment that the nine black students had to endure. Although Gov. Faubus responded by simply closing all of Little Rock s public schools rather than integrating them, the chapter ends by pointing out that the Supreme Court eventually ruled the closing of the schools, as well as other evasive schemes to get around integration, unconstitutional and ordered them reopened and integrated in August of In Chapter Five, Down Freedom s Main Line, and Chapter Six, Freedom in the Air, the book turns its attention to the movement s next generation who came of age during the momentous events and changes of the 1950s and who would go on to become even more deeply involved in the fight against racism. The author details the experiences of young adults like Diane Nash, John Lewis, and James Lawson, who were eager to get involved in the civil rights movement. Nash and Lewis took action by participating in the workshops on passive resistance and massive nonviolent action against segregation offered by Lawson his group the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and by using the tactics they learned for their own nonviolent Nashville Student Movement to abolish segregation in Nashville, TN, starting with department store lunch counters. At the same time, four young men of the NAACP Youth Council staged a sit-in at the Woolworth Company Store in Greensboro, NC. Thus began the contentious sit-in movement. Under the direction of Gordon Carey of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the students developed a strategy involving enough students to conduct daily sit-ins in other cities throughout the South. As word spread, the tactic took hold elsewhere and even encouraged northern white students to get involved. Eventually, this led CORE and other student activists to expand their fight to the confrontation of segregation in transportation and the beginning of the volatile Freedom Rides. With this, the demonstrations shifted the focus of the civil rights movement seeking change through courts and

5 Congress, as the NAACP had traditionally done, to conducting active demonstrations to attack segregation in the marketplace, as the newly formed youth organization like SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) were now doing. Author Juan Williams introduces and explains the various organizations as they emerged and explains the tensions that developed among them. He also explains how the sit-in demonstrations and Freedom Rides tied into national politics and how the Kennedy administration responded to these momentous events. He ends the chapter by explaining how President Kennedy tried to redirect the movement, deflect the non-violent direct-action groups from participating in confrontations that would lead to violence, and stress the importance of black voter registration (rather than demonstrations like sit-ins and Freedom Rides) in convincing southern politicians to be more responsive to their needs. Williams points out that while the shift to voter registration efforts did occur, people across the South continued to associate all civil rights workers with these significant movements and continued to be inspired by the courage and tenacity of those pioneers [who] had captured the imagination and awe of blacks throughout the Southland (161). Chapter Six continues this emphasis on young activists and the tensions between civil rights groups. It focuses specifically on the squabbling between the NAACP, SCLC t\and SNCC, and how the various groups formed a precarious alliance to challenge the entrenched segregationalist practices in Albany, Georgia. Although the Albany Movement did garner much press attention and public support, it did not succeed in desegregating the city s schools, parks, and other public places and caused many people to question the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. Juan Williams notes, however, that Albany provided valuable lessons on organizing a community and inspiring individuals to challenge racism. The chapter then shifts to the waning influence of Dr. King and the shift of the movement (and King s leadership) to Birmingham, aka Bombingham, Alabama in the wake of the infamous 1961 Mother s Day mob attack of the Freedom Riders. Once again, the book chronicles the grass-roots demonstrations and the violent reactions they elicited from both citizens and local government officials like the notorious police commissioner Bull Connor and segregationalist governor George Wallace. It includes a powerful excerpt from King s famous Letter from Birmingham Jail and dramatic photographs of police dogs and fire hoses being turned on the young demonstrators that help to bring the violence and tension of the period to life. The chapter ends with President Kennedy s agreement to send federal troops into Alabama and his proposal of a new civil rights bill to Congress in the spring of 1963, as well as the resolve of King and the various civil rights groups to demonstrate on behalf of the president s legislation. The remaining chapters of the book focus on the more well-known events of the Civil Rights Movement, including the famous March on Washington in August 1963, the shocking assassination of Medgar Evers (director of the Mississippi NAACP), the tumultuous Mississippi Freedom Summer

6 campaign and infamous lynchings of civil rights workers of 1964, President Johnson s signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and the political awakening of individuals like Fannie Lou Hamer, the bloody march on Selma in 1965, and passage of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act. As in the previous chapters, Williams takes care to point out the sacrifices of both well-known and lesser-known people involved in the movement and intersperses the narrative with vivid photos, interviews, speeches, and other powerful primary sources. The last chapter ends with the movement s shift from the emphasis on moral imperatives of education and voting rights and strategy of nonviolence to the more complicated issues of job/housing discrimination, the war on poverty, and affirmative action and the rise of black nationalism, black power, and calls for violent revolution. But, as author Juan Williams notes, the violent events of later years and the many new directions of the latter part of the civil rights movement cannot obscure the remarkable accomplishments wrought by the men and women, black and white, who in ten short years rewove the fabric of American society. The decade spanning [ ] saw more social change, more court decisions, and more legislation in the name of civil rights than any decade on our nation s history. He concludes by adding that these changes who forced by the millions of ordinary Americans who, with a sense of service and justice, kept their eyes on the prize of freedom (287). In all, Eyes in the Prize: America s Civil Rights Years, is a significant source for understanding the struggles, sacrifices, tragedies, and triumphs the early years of America s modern Civil Rights Movement. Julian Bond sums it up best when says that Eyes on the Prize is a vital and necessary book for everyone who wants to understand what it means to live in this American democracy. This book is a close, precise look at the years It is also lively, compelling reading. It reminds us of eth great potential we all have as Americans to change our world (xv).