“Black Consciousness” in the 1960s

“Black Consciousness” in the 1960s

Since this nation's birth, i.e., European discovery of the new world, Blacks, with exception to the native American Indians, have suffered disproportionately more than any other group. A cursory examination of world history will show that other groups have suffered more than the American Black. The brutal governments of Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Adolph Hitler are responsible for more deaths than any others in the history of the world. Nonetheless, limiting the discussion to American history, and the history of countries who have had the greatest influence on America's development, the Black struggle for Civil Rights is unparalleled. No group in America has or has had more difficulty assimilating into the American culture. When one considers Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness for Blacks, we must first begin with the nation's history and the enslavement of African Blacks. (Solomos, et. al. 1996)

Black Americans are often filled with rage when conjuring up visions of slavery in America. Most White Americans, however, are apathetic concerning slavery. They did not own slaves, so why should they feel any guilt over something that happened 100, 200, or 300 years ago? When one thinks of the Civil Rights movement, we initially think of non-violent demonstrations only forty years removed. From the boycott of the Montgomery bus system to the civil rights march on Washington, D. C., the visions are forever implanted in the minds of most Americans. The struggle for civil rights, however, did not begin with Rosa Parks nor the effort to desegregate the public school system in Topeka, Kansas. We would be remised if we ignore the earlier struggles that laid an immovable foundation for freedom and equality in America. (Solomos et. al. 1996)

The real struggle for civil rights actually began nearly four hundred years ago in the isles of the Caribbean's where Blacks were bought and sold into slavery. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that the doctrine of separate but equal as applied to public education was unconstitutional. Brown marked the culmination of the NAACP's long legal battle; the Court had effectively reversed its 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, the cornerstone of the segregation system. By implication, state-mandated racial segregation in all areas of public life violated the Constitution. (Ross, et. al. 1957)

However, the Court issued a separate ruling one-year later concerning the enforcement of this momentous decision. Sympathetic to warnings of Southern white defiance, the Court allowed for a policy of gradual implementation that would, the opinion explained be responsive to local conditions and problems. While calling for compliance "with all deliberate speed," the Court reflected the ambivalence of the justices, executive and congressional leadership, and the vast majority of Americans about dismantling racial segregation in the South. For most white Southerners, Brown II was a license to resist. (Manning et. al 1991)Although nowhere in the opinion can the phrase "separate but equal" be found, the Court's ...