Research Paper
The Civil Rights Act and All the Way
The Civil Rights Movement was one of the most arduous and hard-fought social progress movements in American history. Capitalizing on the confluence of aggressive resistance to Jim Crow laws and increased pressure from the American public to foster racial equality, President Lyndon B. Johnson had an extremely difficult time reconciling the deep divisions that existed between progressive whites and blacks and Southern whites who wanted to maintain social restrictions on black people. This conflict is depicted in Robert Schenkkan’s play All the Way in an accurate, dramatic manner, showcasing the unique tensions that faced Johnson as he negotiated between ushering in social progress with Martin Luther King Jr. and holding off until he felt the time was right.
The biggest thrust of the Civil Rights Movement occurred during 1961-1963, when the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led nonviolent demonstrations throughout the South, particularly Selma, Mississippi, in order to rally and push for civil rights legislation from the United States government that would protect African-Americans from discrimination and violence under the law (Hampton, 1987). These marches were met with significant resistance, with police officers and racist whites fighting them back with dogs, hoses, and imprisonment – particularly in Birmingham, Alabama, where King himself was put in jail (Hampton, 1987). On the other side of the coin, Malcolm X was another civil rights leader who took a more separationist and violent approach – he felt that it was impossible for whites to understand “what it’s like to be a Negro in America,” and therefore worked to simply give blacks the ability and right to defend themselves against white aggression (Hampton, 1987). These two sides of the Civil Rights Movement clashed over the best way to achieve progress for their people, and further complicated the goals of the Movement itself in their conflict.
All the Way, Jay Roach’s filmed adaptation of the Robert Schenkkan play, demonstrates the complex political maneuverings President Lyndon B. Johnson had to endure in order to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Perhaps most important in the larger political scale was the Civil Rights Act’s role in switching the ideological bases of the Democratic and Republican political parties of America; prior to the Act’s passing, Democrats were conservative opponents of civil rights while the Republicans were the party of Lincoln and emancipation. However, with Democratic candidates refusing to aid in passing civil rights bills, Johnson saw a golden opportunity to leverage the black vote by supporting the Civil Rights Act, despite being a Republican. The play/film demonstrates this ideological divide in the conflict between Johnson and Sen. Richard Russell, a Democrat who vehemently opposed the passing of the bill and thought Johnson was getting “too big for [his] britches” by supporting it (Roach, 2016).
Another central component of the bill was the stern fight between Johnson and MLK about whether or not voting rights should be included in the bill. From Johnson’s perspective, he believed in getting incremental change for Negroes, particularly by fighting a “war on poverty” through desegregation, jobs and more (Roach, 2016). King, however, felt that voting rights were fundamental to black participation in American political life, and fought tooth and nail for it to be prioritized in Johnson’s administration, even if it had to be in a later bill. As Johnson says in the film, “politics is warperiod,” and the struggle over how best to get any sort of Civil Rights Bill passed was a complicated mixture of compromises and negotiations (Roach, 2016). Each major player in the conflict, from Johnson to MLK to Hubert Humphrey, had to mix political expedience with doing the right thing, making equal rights legislation a matter of timing as much as morality. In this respect, All the Way accurately and compellingly presents the various conflicts and tensions that arose between all parties involved in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Of course, the fight did not happen solely on the halls of Washington, DC; the everyday struggles of blacks and white civil rights supporters to make their voices heard and protest segregation and racism were also incredibly important to the Civil Rights Movement. The march from Selma, Mississippi to Montgomery, Alabama was a civil rights milestone that was as bloody as it was important. Rioters clashed with police, and the safety and protection of the rioters became paramount to Johnson and Gov. George Wallace, who feared an incident if people were harmed or killed (Hampton, 1987).
The effects of the Civil Rights Act were immense, as schools were desegregated throughout the South, Jim Crow laws were abolished, and a turning point was reached in race relations between blacks and whites (Nagel et al., 2015). However, the Act simply transformed white racism in some ways instead of eliminating them; for instance, urban whites simply moved to the suburbs rather than share the inner city with blacks, making for an informal kind of segregation that still continues today (Nagel et al., 2015). Other legal actions have seen whites fall back on First Amendment protections to permit hate speech, which in turn gradually chips away at people’s guarantee of equal access to public spaces (Engstrom, 2014).
Socially, post-Voting Rights Act America saw blacks as a threat, particularly with the rise of the Black Power Movement and the increased lack of insulation from racist whites hoping to stay away from African-Americans (Olsson, 2011). The Black Power Movement, despite being characterized as a violent gang of black criminals, was instead a reactionary group responding to the overtly discriminatory and violent actions of white police and everyday anti-black discrimination that persisted beyond the Civil Rights Movement (Olsson, 2011). While the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act both provided unprecedented rights and protections for African-Americans, it is important to note that the struggle for racial equality continues to this day.
In considering the complexities and impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, the difficulties in bringing about social justice in America for racial minorities becomes very clear. In All the Way, the pressures felt by both Lyndon B. Johnson (to compromise between an intractable Congress and the demands of the people) and MLK (to get progress even if it is less than ideal) are immense and speak to the political and social problems that faced America at that time. The Civil Rights Movement itself was a passionate, sometimes violent enterprise, as peaceful protestors clashed with white police and racial resistance from riots to marches to sit-ins. Even after the victories of both Acts passing in Congress, the struggles continue through the different ways in which racism manifests itself both socially and culturally, whether through white flight or fear of the Black Power Movement. When looking at all of these factors that went into the Civil Rights Movement, its importance – and the struggles its leaders and members endured to achieve its goals – cannot be denied.
Works Cited
Engstrom, David Freeman. "The Civil Rights Act at fifty: past, present, future." (2014).
Hampton, Henry (exec. prod.) Eyes on the Prize (documentary). PBS, 1987.
Nagel, Caroline, et al. "The legacies of the US Civil Rights Act, fifty years on." Political
Geography 48.15 (2015): 9e168.
Olsson, Goran (dir.). The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (documentary). 2011.
Roach, Jay (dir.). All the Way. Perf. Bryan Cranston, Anthony Mackie, Melissa Leo. HBO Films,
2016.
