121 Years
Continued from A1 of its own organizations to generate opportunities for enhancing the quality of life of the “Negro” by voicing a growing need for improved education, federal laws against lynchings and improved voting rights. The birth of the Niagara Movement in 1905 and the emerging presence of W. E. B. Dubois, William Monroe Trotter, publisher of the Boston Guardian Newspaper, AMEZ Bishop Alexander Walters of the National African-American Council and other personalities joined with the ever present leadership of Booker T. Washington to form a chorus of strong voices that objected to the continuing civil rights abuses. While these individuals often disagreed among themselves with respect to what strategies should be pursued to achieve the community’s civil rights objectives, they were nevertheless the incubators, which brought forth the NAACP and other groups that focused on securing the civil rights the racist American culture was withholding from the evolving African-American community in this initial phase of the 20th century.
Fourth Section (1921-1934)
The fourth section starts off with coverage of the complete annihilation of the African American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma by White rioters. This event is often labeled
“Black Wall Street,” the devastation of which was followed by a similar violent event in Rosewood, Florida in 1923. Four years later as a result of the Mississippi flood of 1927, many Blacks were forced back into slavery to assist recovery efforts of White plantation owners. All of these abuses were interspersed with the continued reports of lynchings that not only proliferated throughout the South, but occasionally cropped up in selected locals in the North. Indeed it appears that the 1920’s were tough times for Black folks in America. The outraged voice of the NAACP was an ever present fixture in the AFRO in response to the brutalities suffered by Black communities in the 1920’s. In spite of the protestations of the NAACP and other groups, the quest for federal anti-lynching laws and federal voting rights laws could not overcome the strong Southern Block in Congress that continued to lock out Black civil rights until the period of the 1963 March on Washington.
Fifth Section (1934-1954)
The fifth section spans the period surrounding World War II up to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. The barriers represented by the ‘Jim Crow’ culture of the 1920’s appears to have begun to erode slowly with the inauguration of
Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1933. Elimination of segregation at the federal civil service job level was part of the ‘New Deal’ delivered by Roosevelt during his term, but the military continued to be segregated, abusive and restrictive towards Black troops who sorely wanted to prove their fighting abilities in battle but rarely were given the opportunity to show it. It was left up to Roosevelt’s successor, President Harry S. Truman who mandated equal opportunity and the elimination of segregation in the military when he issued the Executive Order #9981 in July, 1948. Even so, it would take years to completely eliminate the military ‘Jim Crow’ culture as reflected on several of the AFRO front pages in this section. On the civilian side, the A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union (BSCP) in 1941 planned a March on Washington Movement to demonstrate the need for federal antilynching legislation, and the need for removal of segregation restrictions in the defense industries and in the military. In spite of Randolph’s insistence to proceed with the demonstration, the march was nevertheless called off when Roosevelt partially capitulated by issuing Executive Order 8802 eliminating defense industry segregation.
Front images and articles clockwise from top left: • Aug. 1, 1942, Seven Days in Lifeboat Hell, but Seamen finds U.S. Jim Crow Worse • Daisy Bates protesting in Little Rock, 1960, Courtesy of Afro American Archives • Sept. 7,1963, ‘Cry for Freedom’, the 1963 March on Washington Edition • Sept. 21, 1957, I Didn’t Know People Could Be So Cruel • Elizabeth Eckford of the Little Rock Nine harassed trying to gain entry to Little Rock Central High School, 1957, Courtesy of Afro American Archives • Autherine Lucy, 1956, AFRO File Photo • Feb. 9, 1929, Restaurant Wouldn’t Serve Hero • March Supporting Anti-Lynching Bill Passage, circa 1940s,
Sixth Section (1954-1963)
The sixth and last section reflects the series of events that immediately preceded and precipitated the August 1963 March on Washington. This was the era of the non-violent demonstrations; a tactic not previously used but which nevertheless proved to be an effective strategy in igniting positive civil rights results. The often-violent confrontations occurring during this period fixated the world’s attention on the dramatic civil rights abuses suffered by Blacks in the South. At the 1963 March on Washington a collective voice was raised, most noted by the stirring “I Have a Dream” speech given by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., demanding an end to the violations of the civil rights of African Americans and the immediate enactment of protective legislation to secure the voting rights too long denied by southern state action. The collective voices raised at the 1963 March on Washington precipitated some important results. The following year, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, and a year later the long awaited Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted. While these legislative steps were vital in improving the Black community’s civil rights, remnants of the once prevalent ‘Jim Crow’ culture continue even today. Courtesy of Afro American Archives • June 7, 1930 Oklahoma Mob Lynches Half-Wit • June 10,1950, White Supremacy Takes a Beating • Mary Church Terrell reads AFRO front page after Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling, 1954, Courtesy of Afro American Archives • May 25, 1957, Give Us the Ballot, the 1957 March on Washington Edition • Aug. 2, 1941, Miss. Camp Dixie’s Worst • Moses Newson pictured with National Guard at the integration of University of Mississippi by James Meredith,1962, Courtesy of Afro American Archives • Center Picture– Aug. 28, 1963: LC-U9- 10363-5/Warren K. Leffler