The civil rights movement in Tuskegee

Reaping the Whirl Wind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee

There are several "hot spots" with regard to the civil rights movement and one that has been recognized as such is Tuskegee Alabama, for both its early entrance into the civil rights movement as well as its long history of black and white relations. The town of Tuskegee, Alabama, the county seat of Macon County, was remarkable for several reasons and worthy of an full length book to put names and personalities to characters that played significant roles in the civil rights movement of the south and of this particular city.

Tuskegee was different in that it was the seat of one of the first and most well recognized black colleges in the south. The Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1880, first as a training school for black teachers and later as a fully developed college for blacks was one of the first and was supported in the community for political as well as higher motives, such as the establishment of greater harmony between blacks and whites (pp.12-14). The Institute itself, as well as it president Booker T. Washington have a rich history of change and development as the Institute responded to and often rejected the political and social will of the white and black communities throughout the south. For many years Tuskegee was the only viable place for higher education for blacks in the U.S. And the work, as a whole does an adequate job underpinning the development of the Institute as well as its place in local and national change in the civil rights movement. It also develops well the idea that among those who taught at and attended Tuskegee was a large group of well respected, upper middle class and middle class blacks who held significant roles in social change, but who were separated from local blacks mostly by the disparity of education and wealth, as many local blacks haled from the other side of the "track." Among local blacks many felt that voting was a waste of considerable effort, as it was dangerous and charged and it did not seem to result in the needed economic change (p. 20, 64, 76)

The work is also significant in that it follows the civil rights movement in the south, not from an accepted starting place, such as Brown vs. Board of Education but instead details the 1930 and 40s as well in the impetus transfer of information and action that built the case for legal and constitutional change. It also does not give the reader the idea that the constitutional and legal changes developed into real de facto change in communities where aggression and discrimination still existed between blacks and whites and where fear was still the overriding social climate. (p. 20, 52-53) There are countless example in the work regarding the changes as they occurred simultaneously with real fear and resentment between the races and how such strife culminated into official and unofficially sanctioned violence between the races, but mainly waged at blacks. The sections describing the law enforcement climate and the murderous white sheriff and all his tactics to thwart black control in the community is a good example of the kind of real strife and fear that people lived with on a daily basis in Tuskegee and likely elsewhere. (p. 52-54) (p. 216)

Tuskegee voting patterns among blacks and white are also significant and thematic in the work because the desire of white voters to withhold these rights stemmed from the fact that blacks held a high majority in the community and therefore could realistically turn any election they wished to with collective effort. This reality was realized early in Tuskegee, as compared to other places, in the 1970s when 80% of elected officials were black, corresponding to an above 80% black population. (p. 202) Yet, this ending is a culminated theme as many years of poll taxes, poll tests and overt disregard for the black vote often compiled with local violence against blacks wishing to and attempting to vote peppers the work. (p.20)

The work stresses individual identities and influences over change and resistance to it. One particular character, though the work stops short of deifying him which is common in civil rights histories is Booker T. Washington. "Ever since Booker Washington's arrival in 1881, blacks had been reacquiring power in small, almost imperceptible increments." (p. 30) the realistic assessment of the man, his college and the influence it had in the hearts and minds of Tuskegee residents is realistic and demonstrative of the special place that Tuskegee has in the south and in the civil rights movement.