Censorship and the Civil Rights Movement
Censorship during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (1950s-1960s) played a pivotal role in shaping the struggle for racial equality and justice. Southern communities often perceived the movement as an external threat, with local resistance framed as a means to protect their society from perceived outside agitation. This environment fostered a climate where African Americans faced significant censorship, particularly regarding their voting rights and participation in public life. Landmark moments, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the sit-in protests, showcased the determination of African Americans to challenge segregation and censorship despite violent repression.
Key legislative actions, particularly the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, emerged as responses to this climate, aimed at safeguarding voting rights and dismantling institutional discrimination. The Supreme Court also played an essential role by invalidating segregation laws and striking down censorship efforts against civil rights organizations, reinforcing the right to free expression and assembly. The movement ultimately led to higher political engagement among African Americans, exemplified by their significant voter turnout in the 1964 elections, marking a shift in the political landscape. Through collective action and legal victories, the Civil Rights Movement not only confronted censorship but also advanced the broader quest for equality and justice in America.
On this Page
Censorship and the Civil Rights Movement
Date: Mid-1950’s-late 1960’s
Place: Southern United States
Significance: In a decade of militant action the Civil Rights movement reversed a century-long trend of the South’s effectively censoring the African American voice by preventing them from exercising their full rights as citizens
The decade from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1960’s saw a new militancy in the battle for civil rights and social justice in the United States. Southern whites assured themselves that their struggle against school integration was entirely with forces and enemies external to their society: the Supreme Court, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Northern liberals, and Northern blacks. Southern whites justified much of their resistance to change as an effort to restore racial tranquillity and prevent contamination of the innocent Southern blacks from outside agitation. Belatedly Southern whites realized that Southern blacks had become the energizing source for the assault on discrimination.
In 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed legislation to protect the right to vote that was guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment, but was persistently and flagrantly denied to African Americans. In 1957 he renewed his recommendation to protect voting rights, though Southern senators offered angry opposition. A compromise bill passed both chambers by overwhelming majorities. On September 9, 1957, Eisenhower signed the first civil rights act since the Grant Administration. The new bill created a Commission on Civil Rights, which had power to subpoena witnesses in its investigations of all violations of the right of citizens to vote based on color, race, religion, or national origin, and which was to report to the president. Creation of the commission was a direct blow to the censoring of African American voting ac-tivity.
In late 1955 African Americans exercised a First Amendment right and began boycotting public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The segregated bus lines censored the races in compliance with state law and city ordinances. The boycotts challenged the direct action strategy utilized by leaders in the movement. The boycott continued throughout 1956, though white authorities attempted to censor activity by violent arrests and jail sentences. In November, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court held the segregation laws invalid as violations of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby rejecting the doctrine of separate but equal facilities, set forth by the Court in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
In 1960 the NAACP launched an effective boycott of retail stores which practiced segregation at their lunch counters. Though the Ku Klux Klan, a censorship organization by design, worked vigorously to prevent the organization of African Americans, the NAACP historically flourished under persecution and censorship. Efforts by Southern states to destroy or interfere with the NAACP were frustrated by a series of court decisions vindicating a citizen’s right to expression by joining that organization.
Three significant factors contributed to equal rights and the erosion of censorship for all citizens: first, a series of Supreme Court decisions disposing of the last remnants of the separate but equal fiction, striking down the more overt forms of discrimination and giving some reality to the guarantees of equality; second, an aroused awareness of the potential power of the African American vote; and third, the decision to create interracial unity in the Civil Rights movement.
Presidential Influence
Passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 was speeded along by the bus boycott of 1955 and the sit-in demonstrations of 1960. In May, 1961, the Civil Rights movement was augmented by a freedom ride campaign initiated by the Congress of Racial Equality. As a result of this strategy, the executive branch of government was forced to take a stand. The Kennedy Administration voiced early criticism of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign as it was launched in April, 1963, an indication of Kennedy’s inclination to do little more than modestly improve civil rights legislation.
Once the events of the civil rights movement began to unfold and the repressive and censoring behavior of the police surfaced, President John F. Kennedy could no longer remain a neutral spectator. In the summer of 1963, approximately a quarter of a million people from various parts of the country converged on Washington, D.C., to dramatize demands for racial justice.
President Kennedy’s posture on civil rights grew out of his confrontation with Governor George Wallace over a court order to admit two blacks to the University of Alabama. Kennedy delivered a dramatic attack on racial injustice, segregation, and discrimination and committed himself openly to strong and comprehensive legislation on civil rights. He later spelled out legislative proposals in a special message to Congress that gave birth to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The president’s death in late 1963 provided the final impetus for the early passage of this act in 1964.
Court Action
The U.S. Supreme Court took an increasingly active part in the defense of civil rights and liberties. By the 1960’s, two thirds of its business was taken up by civil rights issues. Under Chief Justice Earl Warren the Court upheld guarantees of free speech and press against all kinds of censorship by striking down the libel charge against a newspaper and the reporting of racial injustice. The civil rights legislation strengthened the guarantees of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments. The Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s contributed to the promises of equality and democracy. Millions of African Americans voted in the election of 1964 and provided an illustration of the power of African Americans in politics as well as the power of the Civil Rights movement.
Bibliography
H. J. Abraham in Freedom and the Court (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967) addresses the Supreme Court’s role in the dismantling of segregation. Martin L. King, Jr., in Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967) presents the quality and forces of interracial unity and community making. Benjamin B. Ringer in “We the People” and Others: Duality and America’s Treatment of Its Racial Minorities (New York: Tavistock Publications, 1983) presents two decades of research into American race relations. Allan Nevins and Henry S. Commager in A Pocket History of the United States (New York: Washington Square Press, 1986) present detailed facts on the civil rights movement. Kermit L. Hall in The Supreme Court of the United States (Oxford University Press, 1992) presents topics on censorship in the United States and the Civil Rights movement.