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| From the Editor |
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The struggle for equality is one of
the defining themes of American history. In recent issues
of HISTORY NOW scholars and teachers have charted the
movements to end slavery, to insure women’s suffrage,
and to provide opportunities for immigrants equal to those
of native-born citizens. In this issue, we focus on the
modern movement to complete the quest for African American
equality: the civil rights movement. The essays in this
issue go beyond such familiar milestones as Brown
v. Board of Education, and such celebrated figures
of the movement as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks.
They explore the historical context in which the movement
arose and flourished; the social factors that determined
its successes and failures; the anonymous activists who
sustained the struggle; and the cultural contributions
of the movement.
In our first essay, “Different Perspectives on the
Civil Rights Movement,” Anthony Badger uses the
career of President Jimmy Carter to frame the questions
of change in the American South and the relative impact
that economic modernization, nonviolent protest, and armed
self-defense had on the end of segregation and the steps
taken toward political and social equality. Next, Brian
Ward brings to life the folk songs and freedom songs that
buoyed the spirits of the activists, spread the message
of the movement, and captured the resiliency and determination
of the women and men who marched, sat in, rallied, protested,
and lobbied for change with his essay, “‘People
Get Ready’: Music and the Civil Rights Movement
of the 1950s and 1960s.” In our next essay, “A
Local and National Story: The Civil Rights Movement in
Post-War Washington, D.C.,” Wendell Pritchett shows
how desegregation efforts in our nation’s capitol
helped to establish a precedent for fighting racism in
the rest of the country. In “African-American Religious
Leadership and the Civil Rights Movement,” Clarence
Taylor reminds us that we must look beyond the charismatic
leadership of the African American clergy to understand
the role of the church in the movement. While towering
figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesse Jackson
were indeed inspirational, it was the church’s clubs,
choirs, missionary societies and other auxiliaries that
inculcated the cooperative values and the commitment to
democracy and equality that were hallmarks of the movement.
Finally, in “The Civil Rights Movement: Major Events
and Legacies,” James Patterson provides an overview
of the movement, reminding us that the roots lay in the
early twentieth century with the founding of the NAACP
and the National Urban League and that efforts to secure
equality continued through the 1940s and the postwar years.
Patterson shows the variety of arenas in which the modern
civil rights movement operated, from the courtrooms and
legislative halls of the nation to the streets of Birmingham
and the highways of Alabama and Mississippi, and he carefully
assesses the movement’s victories and defeats.
As always, gifted and experienced teachers from around
the country have contributed lesson plans that you can
use in your classrooms or adapt to your own curriculum.
If you want to design your own lessons on the civil rights
movement, Mary-Jo Kline, our librarian extraordinaire,
has provided a broad, and richly varied, collection of
both Web and print sources. And, finally, our interactive
feature, a jukebox of protest songs, should spark your
imagination and creativity—and delight your students.
If you have questions or comments on this issue, we welcome
them.
With this issue, HISTORY NOW completes its second year
of online publication. We wish you all a happy and productive
summer—and we encourage you to visit us in September,
when our first issue of the new school year will focus
on The American West.
Carol Berkin
Editor, History Now
Carol Berkin is Professor of History at Baruch
College and The Graduate Center, City University of New
York. She is the author of several books including Jonathan
Sewall: Odyssey of an American Conservative, First Generations:
Women in Colonial America, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing
the American Constitution, and Revolutionary
Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence.
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Editor - Carol Berkin, Associate Editor - Lesley S. Herrmann,
Managing Editor - Karina Gaige, Editorial Assistant - Whitney
Moses, Designer - Sabina Daley, Archivist - Mary-Jo Kline, Contributors
- Anthony J. Badger, Martha Bouyer, Roberta McCutcheon, Carla
Nordstrom, Sean O’Mara, James T. Patterson, Wendell E.
Pritchett, Clarence Taylor, Brian Ward.
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