Nell Irvin Painter's Case for African American History
Nell Irvin Painter makes the case for the history of African Americans throughout different eras. The civil rights movement, which Painter extensively documents in her book's twelfth and thirteenth chapters titled "Cold War Civil Rights, 1948-1960" and "Protest Makes a Civil Rights Revolution, 1960-1967," is one of the most important eras in African American history. The major points raised in the two chapters are reported on in this essay.
The Cold War and African American Success in Winning Civil Rights
The author's primary contention in the twelfth chapter is that the Cold War and the numerous ways in which African Americans protested contributed to their success in winning civil rights. The Montgomery Bus Boycott marked the onset of the struggle for equal treatment of the African Americans. The success of the boycott galvanized all African Americans around the country and made them develop a unified sense of identity. Painter writes "The Montgomery bus boycott represented a triumph of local organization on a massive scale. It inspired African Americans and their allies all across the United States and people around the world" (Painter 262). After the boycott and establishment of a united front by the African Americans who had been subjugated since the era of slavery, other modes of protests against the white supremist system were adopted. The Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark ruling in the legal front that outlawed the segregation of schools. Painter states that the politics of the Cold War were influential in the decision of the case because the US was receiving pressure from the global arena where segregated school systems were receiving much criticism. The amicus curiae application by the Truman administration proved that the decision was a Cold War political play as it was a win for the African Americans (Painter 266). After the wins in Montgomery and at the Supreme Court, the boldened African Americans resulted in the formation of militant groups with the vocal and eloquent Malcom X at the fore front. As a result, the Nation of Islam and its self-defense branch the Fruit of Islam gained popularity and their membership increased. Other means of protesting and activism that Painter presents are the impacts of conversations of Intellectual Blacks to Americans, such as those by W. E. B. Du Bois and Richard Wright.
Influence of Protests on the Civil Rights Legislation
In the thirteenth chapter, Painter’s main argument is that the great protests of the 1960s were heavily influential in the historical enactment of the Civil Rights Legislation. After the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gained prominence and became the figurehead of Civil Rights movement. The direct and indirect activism began by the student sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee which extended to North Carolina. After several months, the sit-ins had extended all over the south and occurred in libraries, cafeterias, bus and train waiting rooms. The massive group protests gained climax with the protests of 1963 all over the country that marked one hundred years after the emancipation proclamation. It is from these protests that King gave his famed “I have a dream” speech. The need for Civil Rights legislation informed the Freedom Summer in Mississippi where activists sought the help of both black and white students in registering people as voters. The increased influence of Civil rights movements and protests saw the transformation of Malcom X from the Nation of Islam into a Pan African agitator who helped define the relation with Africa and helped define the identity of Black Americans into African Americans (Painter 301). As a result, the Civil Rights struggle gained support from both blacks, nonblack citizens, and the then President, Lyndon B. Johnson and piled pressure on Congress to enact the Civil Rights legislation. Finally, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Painter hails it as “the most sweeping civil rights legislation in American History” (Painter 303). After the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, the activists felt that it was not complete since it did not address the various tests used in the South to prevent African Americans from voting. As a result, Congress enacted the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Consequently, the Civil Rights protests had achieved the identified goals and had put the African Americans on the right path to attain an equal footing with other nonblack Americans.
African American Resilience, Creativity, and Activism
From the two sections, it is clear that the writer presents the African American as resilient, creative, resourceful, and proud. The various attributes present the African Americans as people who will fight for their rights in a manner that Malcom X defined as "by any means necessary." The actions of the Civil Rights and emancipation groups formed the basis of public protests against the Vietnam War with Martin Luther King being vocal against the war. As a result, the history of the African Americans in the period covered by the two sections is used as a clarion call when most African Americans feel the need to agitate for social justice.
Work Cited
Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans. Oxford [U.A.], Oxford Univ. Press, 2007.
