American Civil Rights

The history of the Civil Rights Movement is often about resistance (both non-violent and violent) to racist environments. In Roanoke, Virginia, it took nearly twenty years to integrate city schools, yet opposition by the African American community has been nearly forgotten. School closings in Prince Edward County became the enduring image of civil rights in Virginia, while historians have generally ignored the patterns of desegregation in Roanoke and other areas in western Virginia because they assumed integration there to be a smooth transition.  The case study of Roanoke provides a very different response to civil rights in Virginia that was directed by the city’s white and black elites. While change elsewhere was volatile, change in Roanoke occurred at a much slower pace, a pace comfortable for these leaders. Roanoke’s history does not mirror the traditional model of civil rights action spearheaded by youth and challenges traditional views of Virginia’s postwar twentieth century political history. At the same time, Roanoke’s integration shows that even where whites and African Americans generally frowned upon racial violence, children could still receive psychological scars.

Resumen
El feminismo negro o afrofeminismo surgió como fenómeno social y político a finales del siglo XIX, cuando las mujeres blancas estadounidenses líderes del movimiento sufragista decidieron dar prioridad a su derecho al voto sobre el de las mujeres de color, dejando un espacio para el activismo de quienes querían luchar contra esta doble discriminación por igual. El presente trabajo se centrará en los sesenta del siglo XX, años en los que se desarrollaron con mayor fuerza los movimientos por los derechos civiles en Estados Unidos. Mediante el estudio de casos específicos de activistas del feminismo afroamericano, analizaré la evolución del papel desempeñado por las mujeres en el Movimiento por los Derechos Civiles, en la lucha por la liberación de la mujer afroamericana y contra el racismo de la sociedad estadounidense.
Abstract
Black feminism, also known as afrofeminism, started as a socio-political event in the end of the 19th century. Internal differences in the suffragist movement from the United States of America led to a scission with the white women fighting only for their own right to vote, thus generating an activism against the double discrimination former black slaves were subjected to. The following paper will provide a general overview of the US Civil Rights mobilizations and, more specifically, the paper women emancipation movement had during the sixties of the 20th century. Through the political experiences of some of its main afrofeminist activists, I will analyse the evolution of female role in the Civil Rights Movement, their role in the Afro-American woman’s liberation and their battle against the racism in the US society.

In recent years, civil rights scholars have written about the use of armed self-defense by participants in the southern freedom struggle. However, many of these studies focus on black men and relegate women to mere paragraphs or footnotes. This essay begins the study of the “fascinating and useful subject,” as historian Lance Hill put it, of women's role “in the self-defense movement.” The main focus of this essay is on acts of armed self-defense practiced by black women, such as Mabel Williams, women affiliated with the Deacons for Defense and Justice, Black Panther women, and numerous others during the freedom struggle, between the years of 1955 and 1975.

John Dewey's influence still lurks in the background. Dewey wrote:
"Society in its unified and structured character is in fact of the case." Dewey, to my knowledge, never wrote about RACE. His philosophy, however, in the context of post (de jure) "Jim Crow" America still lurks in the background of American thought about education. Politicians in our democratic society have used education to demagogue American anxieties and fear. Critical Race Theory has become the latest example. Symbolic leadership and past symbols of racism in America have intersected in New Orleans with the resignation of the CEO of a historic school. Her resignation was "A Milestone" in educational leadership, said a prominent Dean from Loyola University.