Day 3: Settings, Part II: World, the US, the Community

Tape 1A & B

Professor Harvard Sitkoff presents an overview of America in the aftermath of World War II, depicting a conflict between a rising wind of change and the sense of complacency brought on by economic prosperity and the growth of the middle class. According to Sitkoff, social change was also enfeebled by the fear generated by McCarthyism.

Sitkoff believes that President Kennedy provided little leadership on civil rights.  He characterizes him as a follower, a centrist, a man for whom things came too easily.  But in the last ten months of his presidency, there was a marked shift in his attitude for which he is still remembered.

Borrowing the words of Julian Bond, he describes President Johnson as an "activist, human-hearted man."  Although he achieved much, his personal flaws were his undoing.

As long as the movement remained in the South, neither Kennedy nor Johnson were forced to press the middle class to advance the cause.  As the movement moved North, that consensus shattered.

Tape 1B & 2

Robert Moses, Anne Braden and Sue Thrasher discuss and reflect on their roles in the movement.

Moses grew up in Harlem and attended several elite schools.  His involvement began when he met Allard Lowenstein and Amzie Moore.
Braden and Thrasher, both white, were propelled into activism by their growing disgust with systemic racism.  Along with her husband, Carl, Braden became an organizer for the Southern Conference Educational Fund, which encouraged white support for civil rights. Thrasher became a founding member of the Southern Students Organizing Committee.

Much of the discussion centers on the challenges of organizing in Mississippi and touches upon the work of many individuals. The influence of the Highlander Folk School and the significance of the Mississippi Free Democrats are also examined.

Tapes 3 to 6 (Side A only)

In discussion with the staff, Moses and Braden talk at length about the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC).  Moses expresses his belief that the involvement of so many out-of-state volunteers (most of them Northern and white) in the Mississippi Summer Project (Freedom Summer) played a significant role in the undoing of SNCC.  Braden believes that SNCC became a target of the power structure.