Black Equality When Harvard Sitkoff

¶ … Black Equality

When Harvard Sitkoff published his book (The Struggle for Black Equality, in 1981) Barack Obama was 20 years old. Today of course Obama has ascended to the White House in part because of the struggles that Sitkoff describes so well in his book. Sitkoff's succinctly written chapters are chronological beginning in the year of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) but he includes appropriate flashbacks to the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. He sets the stage for the anger among Black Americans that would spill over and help drive the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. "Over a thousand [African-Americans] were lynched between 1900 and 1915" (Sitkoff, 1981, p. 5) the author writes, getting the reader's full attention. He is very convincing because he uses some narrative emotion along with historical dates and facts.

He carefully goes through the various phases of Civil Rights Movement, including Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of the bus as well as the militant side of the movement -- the Black Panthers, Malcolm X -- and points to the institutional racism promoted by the U.S. Government under the executive office of President Richard Nixon. Nixon "took every opportunity to exploit the emotions of race," Sitkoff asserts (p. 224). Nixon "emasculated the Offices for Civil Rights"; he "vetoed bills and impounded funds designed to assist blacks"; he urged Congress to "impose a moratorium on court-ordered bussing"; and he sent vice president Agnew out to "play on the anxieties of Americans" (p. 224).

What is Sitkoff's thesis? Is he biased or objective? In his Preface he makes clear that his book is not "scholarly" nor is it absolutely thorough. And he admits he is biased on the side of those Black Americans who struggled for so many years for justice: "I want the reader to encounter the anguish and hope, the violence and passion, the joy and sorrow that the fighters for freedom experienced" (p. viii). The thesis of this book is that his value judgments and the drama he captures in his narrative "will certainly provoke disagreement," he admits. "Good," he states, going on the insist that writing history "ought to stimulate debate…" He is saying basically that he knows some readers will disagree but he is telling it like he sees it -- Blacks have been struggling for fairness and economic justice for a long time and their story must be heard. He is also saying there is much more to be explained about the period 1954-1980. He conveniently provides a Bibliographical Essay (pp. 239-248) for further research by the reader.

Is the struggle for Black equality over? Certainly there is proof that struggles of the Civil Rights Movement are over. Black Americans have the right to vote (which they didn't really until the Voting Rights Act of 1965) and they have (on paper at least) all fundamental civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution (thanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964). The glass is half full (in the context of the Civil Rights movement). But it cannot be said that Blacks are on an equal basis with Caucasians in all aspects of American life. Just because the country elected Obama as president does not mean that Blacks are now on an equal footing. An ABC News / Washington Post poll (2010) found that "fewer Americans believe Obama has helped race relations than when he took office, dropping from 58% to 41%" (Netter, 2010). A minority of vocal conservative Americans still believes Obama is Muslim; and the president's image has been "altered to look like an African witch doctor..." (Netter, 2010).