Strategic Dramaturgy In The American Civil Rights Movement

Project Report: Oral History and the History of the Civil Rights Movement - Kim Lacy Rogers, The Journal of American History, Vol. 75, No. 2 (1988), pp. 567-576

Throughout the American 1960’s there was a Civil Rights Movement. This movement gained a lot of traction within a short amount of time through many people. There were two leaders with opposing tactics but had the same goal reined in the movement. One leader was Martin Luther King with the tactic of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and integration. The second leader was Malcolm X with the tactic to fight back and to have the communities better themselves by being separate. Martin Luther King’s philosophy was the best for the 1960s American by his idea of integration, economic standpoint, and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience.

The civil rights movement of 1954-1968 has made a huge impact on the history of African-American equality. All the great leaders of the movement have gone down in history for their courageous work and outstanding commitment to the civil rights movement. One of the most famous of the activists was Martin Luther King Junior (1929-1968) . King is still remembered today for his legendary speech entitled “I had a dream”. Many countries concurred with Luther King and agreed with his ideas because he made a difference for African-Americans and took a stand against racism. Yet the question today, over forty years later is: Was the African-American civil rights movement an overall success? Or is it the same now as it was back in 50’s and 60’s?

The civil rights movement would not have been possible without the contributions of many ordinary people. But these ordinary people could not have been organized without the skills of the leaders of the civil rights movement. Two very famous civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in particular contributed to the cause of desegregation. Though both men contributed much to the act of desegregation, these men had very different ideologies about the process of desegregation. By analyzing the two pieces and comparing how and why they are different, the differing strategies of the two men can be better understood and applied to issues of today.

The tactics used civil rights movement of both the 1950’s and 1960’s were different helped them succeed in different ways. During the late 1950s the tactics that were used were political, while in the early in 1960s they used social and political tactics to get their goals achieved, but in the late 1960s the tactics that were used were primarily economic and social,

Chris Everett Crowe was born on May 28, 1954, in Danville, Illinois. When Chris was a child his father's job caused him to move often, so he and his family lived in various places over the course of his juvenile years. He attended Brigham Young University with a football scholarship. His passion for writing and english resulted in him graduating with an english degree. He soon began his teaching career at various high schools. He earned his doctorate in English and went to go teach at a university in Japan. He also taught at a university in Hawaii, but he currently teaches at a BYU in Provo, Utah. He married his high school sweetheart, they have four children, and five grandchildren.

Kenneth Bancroft Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark were famous African American psychologists. This married team developed an interest in children, and conducted several researches as main activists in civil rights movements. The first black president of the American psychological association was Kenneth Clark, and the two have played a great role in the society. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez had something in common. They both believed in the power of peaceful and nonviolent protests in the quest of airing their views on certain societal issues. Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist and a humanitarian in a movement known an African American civil rights movement. Cesar Chavez on the other hand, was a labor leader and also a human rights

“Strategic Dramaturgy in the American Civil Rights Movement,” the author, Doug McAdam, discusses “framing” and how important it was in the Civil Rights movement specifically in the south. Throughout the chapter, McAdam, defines “framing” in his perspective and the importance it had on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and efforts from Martin Luther King Jr. This paper will analyze the role of framing in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as framing in the speech “the Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax” given by George C. Wallace, a governor from Alabama in 1964.

Doug McAdam is a Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He has written several exceptional pieces of work, including one that speaks about the framing processes. Doug McAdam depicted the concept of framing as a vital portrait that paints a picture of ideas, and/ or thoughts that interest and catch the eye of the people it is geared towards. Framing, is structured to give the viewer all the “pretty things”, nothing that is ugly, that would turn the viewer away. In “Strategic Dramaturgy in the American Civil Rights Movement,” Doug McAdam discusses how the importance of framing in the successes and failures of southern civil rights campaigns (SCLC.)

Throughout history many nonviolent social movements have taken place. These movements have helped to fix injustices and provide a better environment for many people. One of these highly important social movements being the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of a series of events that led to important advancements for people of color. These events took place during the 1950’s-1960’s and some of the campaigns that took place to further the movement were the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Lunch Counter Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and Freedom Summer. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a fundamental part of desegregating buses and gaining better treatment for African-American bus riders. The Nashville Sit-ins helped to desegregate eating

In 1991 Rodney King was in a high speed chase with the police and when pulled over he was brutally beaten by four white officers , the four officers were acquitted from all charges. The acquittal of the officers led to the 1992 riots in LA. Mainstream media coverage was key role in how the general public received information and how they got information presented to them shaped how people view the situation. Different news outlets portrayed different situations than others such as the riots, King being victimize or being seen as bad.

The film Selma directed by Ava DuVernay expertly represents the struggles African-Americans and supporters faced while advocating for an end to the corrupt exploitation of the civil rights of African-Americans. The issues that African-Americans contested during the film accurately represents the sentiment of many African-Americans during the Civil Rights movement. Because of the compelling and despairingly honest depiction of the struggles that the African-American community faced during this time, the film was able to create an accurate account and the importance of the historical events surrounding the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

David Kerr’s lectures analysed the ideas of Marx on how political history is not the only history. He analysed the history of those not associated with politics or wealth, the Class, play a more important role in history. The class struggle of the ordinary people is the real history

Another crucial point that Black Lives Matter movement requires is collaboration and partnership. The movement must reach out to other organizations across the nation to support and stand for Black people. Effective protesters need to have a variety of ways for families, youth and communities to be involved. They need to create partnership with local churches, schools, agencies and organizations and draw on the strength of the community wide collaboration. Social movement is multifaceted; there are different ways to be involved and different levels of involvement. Social movement is not the task of a few persons, called to a specific purpose, but it is the responsibility of the whole community. They must learn the commitment to shared goals, consensus decision making, open and honest communication, shared leadership, climate of cooperation, and collaboration. Partnership and collaboration with others need sacrifices from both sides to be able to share vision, open up for communication, confrontation, etc. …, and most importantly, to sacrifice oneself in order to reach the vision or the plan that they have set out to achieve. For instance, the Indian Independence March, the Selma March, and the Sharpeville Massacre showed “self-sacrifice” of the protest through many deaths to gain independence (Howard).

Frame analysis faces unresolved problems and tensions in at least five central areas: the conceptualization of ideology, identifying the manifestation of the frame, the distinctions between discourse and material resources, the micro-macro linkages in the framing process, and the difficulties of maintaining frame fidelity and alignment.