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Bayard Rustin was a Civil Rights protest organizer with a well-known reputation. He was a pacifist who led sit-ins and marches against segregation. As a Quaker, Rustin’s protest efforts were nonviolent. The article mentions a sit-in in Media, Pennsylvania where he remained in a Whites-only restaurant until management had him physically removed from the restaurant. Rustin admitted to being a member of the Young Communist League for about three years before he left the group. He couldn’t disregard their tendency to ignore discrimination and participate in wars. In the 1963 article where Senator Thurmond calls out Bayard Rustin for his involvement with the Young Communist League, Rustin clarified that joining the Young Communist League was not equivalent with being a member of the Communist party. He joined the group as a college student because their political ideals were the only ones that appealed to him at that time in his life. Senator Thurman’s statement was an attempt to discredit Rustin as an effective activist.

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The Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century caused extreme political and social tension and thrust the issues of segregation and Jim Crowe customs into public eye. Civil rights leaders attempted to demonstrate the hypocrisy and inequality inherent in segregation and Jim Crow society by increasing voting among African Americans, challenging the legality of segregation in court, placing economic pressures on discriminating businesses via boycotts, and engaging in direct action, such as sit-ins and picketing. At the same time, civil rights opponents (typically elected officials from southern states) attempted to confirm the legality of segregation by taking advantage of a complex judicial system, and similarly attempted to justify the practices of Jim Crow society. These opponents of integration used a variety of clever tactics to both stall the inevitably building Civil Rights Movement across the United States. For example, a popular tactic used by southern politicians in favor of segregation was to emphasize the importance of state rights versus the power of federal government. This method of attack generally resulted in long, financially straining court cases that ultimately became less about civil rights and more about setting legal precedent in government power.

Eventually, however, the legality of segregation and Jim Crowe society became overwhelmingly dubious to the judicial system and non-Southern citizens of the United States. Direct action from Civil Rights Movement groups along with an organized effort to broadcast videos and images of racial brutality created huge pressures for the southern states to change race relations in the American South. Cases like Brown v. Board of Education outlawed de jure segregation in the United States, but the South was still slow to change, especially in terms of de facto segregation. New laws were also created to redefine African Americans as second-class citizens, stripping them of their rights to vote. Southern opponents to civil rights, however, faced another difficult challenge. Great Civil Rights Movement leaders such as Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. were well-respected, credible, intelligent, and inspirational, and received large amounts of attention from the United States public. In response, southern civil rights opponents began to slander the credibility of Civil Rights Movement leaders by slandering their personal image. The article below is a perfect example of a civil rights opponent attempting to take away the credibility of a prominent civil rights leader, Bayard Rustin, by attacking his character, a common political practice. By the 1950’s, fear of communism was widespread and intense, despite, by all standards, a minute American Communist Party (.0003% of Americans identified with the Communist Party). Anybody associated with the communist party was seen as inherently un-American and a danger to society as it was known. Similarly, civil rights opponents wrote off civil rights activists as outside agitators who were simply unaware that southern African Americans were actually happy with their citizenry status. By the 1960’s, civil rights opponents resorted to slandering civil rights leaders as communists or outside agitators to discredit their ideas about racial equality.

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Thurmond's Twist On Attempt for Equality

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Thurmond's Twist On Attempt for Equality

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Strom Thurmond is perhaps one of the most well-known Senators in America. Dying in 2003, Thurmond held his spot in the Senate for over forty-seven years. It was evident that Senator Turmond was opposed to Civil Rights, even though he claimed to not be racist. Thurmond's most well-known speech was his filibuster on on August 28, 1957, lasting a full 24 hours. During this speech, Thurmond discussed his view against the Civil Rights Bill of 1957, aiming to change the people's votes for the bill. However, it is a possibility that Thurmond's claim to not be against civil rights per say, but merely opposed to excessive federal authority was Thurmonds attempt to discredit Civil Rights leaders and their ideas for equality. Thurmond also had the tendency to degrade integration by tying it in with communism. By doing this, Thurmond connects Civil Rights Activists with Communism, which further devalued their ideas about racial equality. Thurmond planned to cover his racism by hiring a black aide, which in reality served the only purpose to increase black South Carolinian votes for Senator. Thurmonds actions show what a tactical man he really was. Being able to speak 24 hours and sugarcoating his racism beneath reassuring sayings such as wanting equality amongst the two races, never one to overcome another, which he attempted to claim African Americans to be achieving. Tying down the efforts of Civil Rights leaders to communism, such as he did to Bayard Rustin, to make their fighting words for freedom and equality seem concerning. The article “Strom Thurmond, Senate Institution Who Fought Integration, dies at 100”, provides a new perspective inside Strom Thurmond’s objective behind his decisions.