Reading Response #7

EYES ON THE PRIZE: A NATION OF LAWS &

MOVEMENTS

AFAM B201 – Intro to African American Studies

Najmah Thomas, Ph.D.

Admin / Module To-Do List

 Reading - Eyes on The Prize Study Guide:

 Week 1b Reading – Episodes 13-14

 Assignments:

 Reading Response due EOD 12/04

 Donning of the Kente (Students

Connected Service Learning option; invite 2 guests & attend on 12/05, submit reflection by the 8th = 20 points)

 Extra credit – course evaluations!

Lecture Topics

 EOTP EP 11 & 12 RECAP Timeline of selected events

 EOTP Episodes 13 & 14: Affirmative Action…and negative reaction:

 Johnson’s Executive Order

 Boston’s public schools

 Atlanta’s airport

 UC Davis’ quota case

 Hip Hop & The Movement

 EOTP EP 11 & 12 RECAP Timeline of selected events

 *Closing Discussion!*

Image source: urban.org

A Nation of Laws and Movements

 Timeline of selected events:  September 24, 1965 – President Johnson signs Executive

Order sanctioning Affirmative Action at federal level

 February 8, 1968, Orangeburg, SC – Orangeburg Massacre at SCSU (HBCU campus)

 April 4, 1968, Memphis, TN – Dr. King is assassinated, widespread rioting follows

 July 31, 1969, Chicago, IL – Police raid Black Panther headquarters, 5 officers and 3 BPP members wounded

 December 4, 1969, - Police raid on BPP leader Fred Hampton’s apartment, Hampton and Mark Clark killed

 August 1970 – Angela Davis listed on FBI most wanted list

 March 1971, Pennsylvania, PA – Activists break in to FBI office and discover documents related to COINTELPRO

 September 8, 1971, NY – 1200 inmates take over Attica Correctional Facility; 29 inmates and 10 hostages killed during prison revolt suppression

 1972 – 1974 - Black parents in Boston, MA sue the city’s school committee over school segregation; busing authorized to integrate schools, violent anti-busing protests ensue

 October, 1973 – Maynard Jackson elected mayor of Atlanta, GA, 1st Black mayor of a major southern city

 June 28, 1978 – Supreme Court rules in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke that racial quotas are unconstitutional

4

Image source: racefiles.com

EOTP EP 13 & 14: How to guarantee

equal opportunity for all…?

Affirmative Action

in action:

 Johnson’s Executive

Order

Boston’s public

schools

Atlanta’s airport

UC Davis’ quota case

“Together, these policies

transferred more than

$100 billion to create a

modern middle class during

the first decade after the

Second World War.. the

black affirmative action

programs instituted since

1965 in fact were paltry in

their scope and scale

compared to the massive

governmental transfers that

disproportionately aided

whites in the previous three

decades, 1935-65.”

“At the very

moment public

policies were

helping white

Americans, black

Americans were

mainly left to fend

on their own. “

Johnson’s Executive Order for Affirmative

Action

 Announced new approach during address at Howard University commencement

 Executive Order No. 11246:

 Federal contracting will take affirmative action to ensure nondiscrimination

 Included all aspects of employment and contracting

 Required goals and timetables in action plans

 Covers approximately 1/5th of the US civilian workforce

“But freedom is not enough.

You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are fee to go where you

want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others,”

and still justly believe that you

have been completely fair.” - LBJ

Affirmative Action at Atlanta’s Airport

 At time of Mayor Jackson’s election (1974), 50% of Atlanta residents were African American:

 0.5% of all city contracts were won by African Americans

 Women leading city departments = 0

 Mayor Jackson’s administration dramatically changed appointment, hiring and contracting processes – tackled the ‘white power structure’:

 Mandated a minimum of 20% Black participation in every phase of the airport construction

 Ignored backlash from all sides, never lowered standards

 Completed airport on-time, on-budget

Image source: History of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta

International Airport - Sunshine Skies

UC Davis Medical School’s Quota Case

 Regents of UC Davis v Allan Bakke:

 White male student sues university over admission quota

 Supreme Court rules in favor of student…and affirmative action as long as quotas are not used

 Dissenting option from Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (Howard U grad):

 “…had the Court been willing in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson, to hold that the Equal Protection Clause forbids differences in treatment based on race, we would not be faced with this dilemma in 1978…”

*Class Poll: Have you seen the Netflix documentary “Operation Varsity Blues”?

Image source: health.uc.davis.edu

Image source: atlantablackstar.com

Misconceptions about Affirmative

Action – by the Atlanta Black Star

 Affirmative action is no longer necessary

 White workers will lose jobs if affirmative action continues

 White students are admitted to college solely on merit

 Affirmative action programs are based on quotas

 If other races advance economically, African- Americans should be able to do the same

 Affirmative action amounts to ‘reverse discrimination’

 Black people are the major beneficiaries of affirmative action

 Affirmative action hurts students of color by putting them in environments for which they aren’t prepared

Back to the Movement

 1980 - The Arthur McDuffie murder - police brutality, poverty, and protests in Miami

 1970s-80s – Hip Hop grows in the ghetto

 1982 – The movement to elect Harold Washington Mayor of Chicago

 1984 – The Rainbow PUSH for Jessie Jackson, candidate for US President

 Social & political commentary in Hip Hop:

 Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five – The Message

 Run-DMC – Hard Times

Who was the first

African American

person to run for

US President?

w/in major party?

Closing Discussion

In Summary…

 We’ve all been mis-educated in the past…

 There is waaay more than one story of the African/African- American lived experience…

 Black History is American History too, for all Americans (ps, CRT is not the Devil)…

 Desegregation and integration are not the same things…

 Voting matters…

 The government will only do what the people hold it accountable to…

 Notions of race-based inferiority and superiority die hard…

 Civil rights and human rights were purchased at very high costs…

 Youth leadership matters…

 Your crazy uncle is not really that crazy (COINTELPRO)…

 When in doubt, a good answer is always Septima P. Clark, James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer…or Denzel Washington!

Hope to see many of you all at the AASA DOK

Ceremony, December 5th, 6-7pm!

Less than 85% participation score? The Final Exam must

be completed December 8th 4:15-6:45pm – online

That’s All Folks.