The Master Narrative represents one primary way of understanding the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s–1960s. Expanding the view to include the Border campaigns, largely conducted earlier and in different states, provides historical context for understanding the later strategies, challenges, and successes.
In Oklahoma, challenges to segregation included sit-ins several years before those that gained more national attention, especially Greensboro, North Carolina.
One key feature of the Master Narrative is that it emphasizes the singular importance of the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision for subsequent desegregation practices and legislation, as well as for popular civic activism. It focuses on spectacular events and prominent leaders, especially Dr. King. The disadvantage is that it tends to downplay the widespread, large number of smaller actions and the extent of popular activism before Brown v. Board.
Attending to the Border campaigns emphasizes the variety of actions and of people involved, the intersections among them, and the cumulative effect; the approach is more broad-based and inclusive, rather than singling out a few individuals.
In 1953, a one-week-long bus boycott was conducted in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, challenging a newly enacted semi-integrated seating law and subsequent bus drivers’ strike. Rev. T. J. Jemison was among the leaders. The Montgomery boycott of 1955–1956 was instigated by the NAACP, under E. D. Nixon, together with the Women’s Political Council, led by Joann Robinson. She was largely responsible for the massive publicity after Rosa Parks was arrested. Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr., as leaders of the two largest black churches, played major roles. A new organization, the Montgomery Improvement Association, was created just to handle boycott activities.
Van Delinder, Jean. 2015. Struggles Before Brown: Early Civil Rights Protests and Their Significance Today. New York: Routledge.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/baton-rouge-bus-boycott-1953/
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/montgomery-bus-boycott-1955-56/
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
How does the Master Narrative differ from the Border campaign in the struggle for social equality in Oklahoma? How did the gender and leadership tactics in Oklahoma City differ from those in Louisiana and Alabama?
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