The Relationship between Internationalism and the Civil Rights Movement

The Relationship between Internationalism and the Civil Rights Movement

As part of a revised examination of the Civil Rights Movement, we can see that protest was not solely limited to the southern States in America[1], in fact, protest was not exclusively limited to America either[2]. There were civil rights movements occurring globally[3]. In 1967, movements were taking place in no less than 20 different countries, across 4 different continents[4].

Thus, an analysis of the movement through the lens of an international approach is prudent. Providing much in the way of value to the topic. Furthermore, this approach makes it possible to analyse the traditional understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, challenging long held interpretations.

The Civil Rights Movement in America can be seen as influencing many other subsequent movements globally.

The example of Michael Vester, an exchange student from West Germany, elegantly portrays how the movement in the US would go on to affect other countries[5]. Vester became involved in civil rights activism while studying in the US[6] and would go on to write about ‘direct action’ in the magazine ‘Neue Kritik’ in 1965[7]. Thus spreading the movement further into Europe. There are many comparable examples of individuals visiting or studying in the US, becoming involved in the movement, then spreading the ideals or starting-up similar movements when they returned home.

Historian Belinda Davis also highlights how the discrimination of African-American GI’s, stationed in West-Germany, led to joint protest from the GI’s, in collaboration with West-German students.[8] This protest was so successful that it led to an investigation by the NAACP in the spring of 1971[9]. Thus highlighting another thought-provoking and niche way that US racial discrimination sparked protest internationally.

The example of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association (NICRA), founded in 1967, likewise displays how the US movement had spread and incentivised people thousands of miles away to protest for equality. In the same way as Black Americans were treated as inferior to White Americans, Catholics in Northern Ireland were treated as inferior to Protestants.[10] Comparable issues arise. Council Housing distribution was disproportionately given to Protestants in Northern Ireland.[11] At the same time government welfare and spending in the US disproportionately ignored African-American communities.[12] Furthermore, gerrymandering was evident in the County of Londonderry, where two electoral wards represented the Protestant minority, with only one electoral ward representing the Catholic majority[13]. This is clearly comparable to how Literacy Tests, Driving License and the Grandfather Clause legislation attempted to, and in many cases, succeeded in disenfranchising Black Americans in the US[14].

Therefore, through an international analysis of the Civil Rights Movement, it becomes clear that the US movement was the spark that lit the tinder of existing discrimination in countries globally.

The traditional view of the movement ignores that in 1972, 15,000 people marched in the city of Derry for Civil Rights.[15] As the traditional view confines itself to the southern US. This is a historically limiting approach which must be rejected. Historian Thomas Sugrue describes this narrative as ‘incomplete.’[16] Thus the Civil Rights Movement must not be viewed as a single movement in a single country. Instead, as a series of different movements occurring globally. Built on the values of equality before the law, characterised by non-violent direct action. Sugrue argues ‘it is problematic to talk about ‘the movement’ in the singular.’[17]

Interestingly, the ties between internationalism and the Civil Rights Movement can be traced back to some of the earliest achievements of the movement.

In the years following the Second World War, President Truman implemented change, making Civil Rights a national issue.[18] Truman became the first President to engage with the NAACP.[19] Alongside progress in ending discrimination in the civil service.[20] Truman in 1948 also issued an executive order to desegregate the armed forces.[21] Together with this, Truman established a fifteen-man Congressional Committee on Civil Rights.[22] These initiatives can be seen as an international reaction. A backlash against the racism of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during the war. Furthermore, the anti-racism principle was enshrined by the allies in their propaganda.[23] Phrases such as ‘Free Speech!’ ‘Defend Democracy!’ ‘Fight for Freedom!’ All appearing repeatedly in US propaganda throughout the war.[24] Hammering home democratic principles to Americans. The formation of the United Nations in 1945, also preserved the anti-racism principle.[25] Therefore, there were powerful and distinct internal pressures for the US to implement change.

American propaganda during World War Two, highlighting ‘Liberty’ as the reason for fighting.

Moreover, the international force of Cold War propaganda further compelled progress in the US. The US was criticised by the world for the way in which African-Americans were treated. The US was chastised by its allies in the ‘first-world.’[26] By the non-aligned ‘third-world.’[27] Yet, no one more heavily condemned the US than the USSR and its communist allies, in the ‘second-world.’[28]

Soviet propaganda highlighting the irony between supposed American ‘Liberty’ and the treatment of African Americans.

This is a clear example of foreign policy impacting domestic policy. Segregation, and more broadly, racism, was embarrassing for the US on the international stage. Thus Truman’s reforms between 1945 and 1953 were foreign, not domestic policies. Demonstrating how the Civil Rights Movements earliest achievements, were from a culmination of international pressures from a global audience.

Further evidence of internationalism impacting the Civil Rights Movement, can be found in the example of Bayard Rustin. Rustin, one of Martin Luther King’s most influential and trusted advisors,[29] spoke at the 1958 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) protest in Trafalgar Square.[30] Rustin encouraged the crowed to learn from the movement in the US, which they had in tern learnt from Gandhi’s non-violent direct action protest of Satyagraha.[31] Evidently encouraging internationalism within the movement itself.

Furthermore, what would become the famed 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was inspired by the 1958 CND protest.[32] Establishing how the different global movements functioned and cooperated together. Thus the international approach gives us valuable insight into the relationships between the global movements.

Likewise, campaigners and activists recognised and understood the international context of their situation. With one NAACP lawyer arguing in 1950, that a ‘policy of the US which permits the disfranchisement of coloured people is just as much an international issue as the question of free elections in Poland.’[33] Revealing how the movement used internationalism to its advantage. Winning global support to their cause. Reinforcing the interpretation that internationalism played a focal and fundamental role in the Civil Rights Movement.

Thus the Civil Rights Movement was an international event. Busting onto the world stage and going on to have global impact.

As we continue to expand our knowledge away from the confines of the traditionalist interpretation of the movement. We see internationalism playing a larger and larger role in almost every key facet.

The foundation of the movement was built around post-war international pressures. With Cold War competitiveness between the US and the USSR further embarrassing the US into change.  

Internationalism allowed the movement in US to spread and affect other countries globally. With campaigners deliberately using internationalism to help spread and strengthen the cause. The US movement can also be seen as a catalyst for an international effort. Internationalism also allows the study of how the separate movements interacted with one another. Providing an exciting and novel approach to the study of the past. Thus, the Civil Rights Movement was not just an American story nor just one singular movement, and subsequently, must be refrained from being studied as one.

 James Golden.

Bibliography:

K. Andrews and M. Biggs, 'The Dynamics of Protest Diffusion: Movement Organizations, Social Networks, and News Media in the 1960 Sit-Ins', American Sociological Review, Vol. 71, No. 5 (2006): pp. 752-777

Thomas Borstelmann, The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality (America in the World) (Princeton University Press, 24^th February 2013)

Z. Colley, 'Race and Rights: New Perspectives on the African American Experience', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 40, No. 1 (2005), pp. 179-188

Belinda Davies, Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Political Protest and Collective Identities in West Germany and the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s (Berghahn Books, 22^nd March 2010)

Niall O. Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites, Second Edition: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles (Palgrave MacMillan, 16^th April 2005)

Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton University Press, 31^st July 2011)

John D’emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Baynard Rustin (University of Chicago Press, 1^st October 2003)

J. Hall, 'The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past', the Journal of American History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (2005), pp. 1233-1263

John Hench, Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II (Cornell University Press, 2010)

Martin Klimke, 'The African American Civil Rights Struggle and Germany', GHI Bulletin, Vol. 43 (2008), pp. 91-106

Martin Klimke, The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties (America in the World) (Princeton University Press, 4^th September 2011)

Steven Lawson, To Secure These Rights: The Report of President Harry S Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights (Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 6^th August 2003)

Daniel Levine, Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement (Rutgers University Press, 31^st December 1999)

Stanley Meisler, United Nations: a History (Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 24^th November 2011)

W. Santoro, 'The Civil Rights Movement and the Right to Vote: Black Protest, Segregationist Violence and the Audience', Social Forces, Vol. 86, No. 4 (2008), pp. 1391-1414

Thomas Sugrue, 'Toward a New Civil Rights History', Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2010), pp. 37-44

Harry Truman, 26^th July 1948, Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces, www.ourdocuments.gov/doc_large_image.php?doc=84

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[1] J. Hall, 'The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past', the Journal of American History, Vol. 91, No. 4 (2005), pp. 1233-1263 (p. 1236).

[2] Ibid, p. 1242.

[3] Thomas Borstelmann, The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality (America in the World) (Princeton University Press, 24^th February 2013), p. 34.

[4] Ibid, p. 311.

[5] M. Klimke, 'The African American Civil Rights Struggle and Germany', GHI Bulletin, Vol. 43 (2008), pp. 91-106 (p. 93).

[6] Martin Klimke, The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties (America in the World) (Princeton University Press, 4^th September 2011), p. 51.

[7] Ibid, p. 53.

[8] Belinda Davies, Changing the World, Changing Oneself: Political Protest and Collective Identities in West Germany and the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s (Berghahn Books, 22^nd March 2010), Chapter 5.

[9] Ibid, p. 231.

[10] Thomas Hennessey, Northern Ireland: The Origins of the Troubles (Gill & MacMillan Ltd, October 2005), p. 341.

[11] Ibid, p. 173.

[12] Z. Colley, 'Race and Rights: New Perspectives on the African American Experience', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 40, No. 1 (2005), pp. 179-188 (p. 181).

[13] Niall O. Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites, Second Edition: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles (Palgrave MacMillan, 16^th April 2005), p. 67.

[14] Stephen Tuck, We Ain't What We Ought To Be: The Black Freedom Struggle from Emancipation to Obama (Harvard University Press, 21^st October 2011), p. 511.

[15] Niall O. Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites, Second Edition: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles (Palgrave MacMillan, 16^th April 2005), p. 120.

[16] Thomas Sugrue, 'Toward a New Civil Rights History', Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2010), pp. 37-44 (p. 37).

[17] Ibid, p. 39.

[18] Steven Lawson, To Secure These Rights: The Report of President Harry S Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights (Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 6^th August 2003), p. 50.

[19] Ibid, p. 94.

[20] Z. Colley, 'Race and Rights: New Perspectives on the African American Experience', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 40, No. 1 (2005), pp. 179-188 (p. 179).

[21] Harry Truman, 26^th July 1948, Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces, www.ourdocuments.gov/doc_large_image.php?doc=84

[22] Steven Lawson, To Secure These Rights: The Report of President Harry S Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights (Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 6^th August 2003), p. 03.

[23] John Hench, Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II (Cornell University Press, 2010), p. 44.

[24] Ibid, p. 61.

[25] Stanley Meisler, United Nations: a History (Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 24^th November 2011), p. 9.

[26] Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton University Press, 31^st July 2011), p. 213.

[27] Ibid, p. 220.

[28] Ibid, p. 221.

[29] Daniel Levine, Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement (Rutgers University Press, 31^st December 1999), p. 159.

[30] Ibid, p. 160.

[31] John D’emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Baynard Rustin (University of Chicago Press, 1^st October 2003), p. 517.

[32] W. Santoro, 'The Civil Rights Movement and the Right to Vote: Black Protest, Segregationist Violence and the Audience', Social Forces, Vol. 86, No. 4 (2008), pp. 1391-1414 (p. 1398).

[33] K. Andrews and M. Biggs, 'The Dynamics of Protest Diffusion: Movement Organizations, Social Networks, and News Media in the 1960 Sit-Ins', American Sociological Review, Vol. 71, No. 5 (2006): pp. 752-777 (p. 759).