We all know about Dylann Storm Roof. So much, in fact, that we are no longer discussing his actions, but covering trips to Burger King, racist manifestos, the significance of the Confederate battle flag, and President Obama’s contextual usage of the word “nigger.”
I suppose this means the cycle is beginning to wane when it comes to the Charleston shooter and our attentions are starting to deviate elsewhere. But, there is still so much more that needs to be said and done.
I have given significant thought recently to the Civil Rights Movement and how it has impacted modern America. I have found myself unable to look at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s fight for equality as a successful engagement of a bigoted social establishment. When I?consider how black Americans are incarcerated at a much higher rate than any other ethnic subdivision within the American populace, how black Americans routinely find themselves in a vortex of poverty and social isolation thanks, in part, to racially-motivated gentrification, and the Laissez-faire racism that continues coursing through the blood of the United States.
Then, I heard about the Chicago Freedom Movement and how the decision to start in Birmingham instead of an urban mecca like Chicago may have dug the grave of the Civil Rights Movement.
Consider a comparison between Birmingham and Chicago in the 1960s. Birmingham’s racism was explicit and in the open — blatant segregation, Klan presence, a state governor the likes of George Wallace. Birmingham had all of the factors needed for a violent response to non-violent protests. It was more shocking than Chicago, where the racism was more closeted and institutionalized.
If you were a civil rights leader in the 1960s and you needed the press and public awareness to help your cause, would you walk into the more blatantly venomous, radicalized minefield of Birmingham,? or the more modest, institutionalized Chicago? Which battleground more easily ensures victory? In Birmingham, looking at a white woman the wrong way could get you killed. That’s horrible and pulls on the heartstrings. In Chicago, the racism was rooted in its institutions. There wasn’t dining counter or water fountain segregation. Crosses weren’t burned in front yards. Men wearing hoods didn’t drive past Wrigley Field. But black Americans were relegated to slums and low-paying service positions, assuming they were even hired at all.
Which city is more tantalizing to the press and more easily navigated to victory? Birmingham. How could any other choice be made?
Following the successes in Alabama, King, James Bevel, and Al Raby turned their attention toward Chicago. Their goal was to improve the quality of life for black Americans in the Windy City, including demands for open housing, improvements in education, employment, and wealth generation, as well as tenants rights and improving the ghettos where black Chicagoan’s lived. After King, Bevel, and Raby led marches through the streets in protest and held summits to improve the quality of life for black Chicagoan’s, their efforts began to fizzle and their attentions went to other causes, such as protesting the Vietnam War.
How could this have happened? How did the booming and successful Civil Rights Movement peter out to the point where Chicago is little more than an annotation at the end of the chapter? How could the Civil Rights movement dissolve when it manifested groundbreaking legislation and secured a Noble Peace Prize for one of its leaders?
Chicago is where the Civil Rights Movement died. James Bevel and A. Phillip Randolph best?summed up the collapse.
“The civil rights revolution has been caught up in a crisis of victory; a crisis which may insure great opportunity or great danger to its fulfillment.” — A. Phillip Randolph
“There is no more civil rights movement. President Johnson signed it out of existence when he signed the voting-rights bill.” — James Bevel
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