March: Books 2 & 3

March shows how one of the major challenges facing the civil rights movement was the various audiences it had to work with all at once. First and foremost, it had to convince the Black people of the Jim Crow South that they did not have to endure in silence the humiliations and abuses of existing systems. Their participation in sit-ins, marches, and various other efforts would not only call attention to the injustices of segregation, but also allow them to exhibit a dignity and self-respect that Jim Crow systematically denied them. The movement also had to communicate to local and state authorities throughout the Jim Crow South that protesters would neither back down to threats and violence nor provide a legitimate excuse for brutality. Nonviolent resistance, when met with a violent response, would expose the façade of “separate but equal” facilities, revealing the inherent cruelty of segregation against innocent people for no justifiable reasons. At the same time, activists ultimately had to appeal to federal authorities too. No matter how dedicated the campaign, those supporting Jim Crow would never give up power voluntarily; rather, they would utilize the power of the state and the mob to inflict as much terror and cruelty as possible. Only the federal government could force local police and courts to respect the equal rights of Black citizens, yet there was no guarantee that it would do so. Democratic presidents such as Kennedy and Johnson were generally friendly to the civil rights movement, but as Democrats, they were aware that their party’s monopoly on power in the South was rooted in the authoritarian regime of segregation. Upon signing the Civil Rights Act, President Johnson reportedly told an aide, “We [the Democratic Party] have lost the South for a generation” (Allen, Steven J. “We have lost the South for a generation…” Capital Research Center, 2014), and many of the most ardent supporters of segregation either switched to the Republican Party or formed third parties.

Any effort to communicate to one group risked alienating one of the others. Nonviolent resistance to gum up the works of segregation exerted a tremendous toll on volunteers, many of whom became frustrated with the lack of results and contemplated more confrontational approaches. Even though direct actions were overwhelmingly peaceful, at least when executed by the protesters, such actions still could alienate political leaders who viewed any demonstrations as destabilizing and potentially violent. White audiences seeing such actions on television could just as easily respond with annoyance or disgust. By 1968, Richard Nixon would win the presidency in no small part by appealing to the “silent majority” who were tired of constant upheaval and craved a restoration of “law and order.” Lewis’s response to these dilemmas was consistent: keep marching, keep organizing, keep up the pressure. Though this approach did not always elicit the response that activists wanted, it was the only way to make sure that the activists were driving the narrative and not giving others the power to determine their fate.