Civil Rights And The 1950

′S Theatre Essay, Research Paper

Civil rights was and still is an ever changing picture. In the 1950.s, civil rights went from being a generally southern issue, to being a national concern. The issues of the day began to be spilled out over a new medium called television. During the 1950.s, television had become popular and spread throughout the United States. The racial issues of the south were now being seen in living rooms across the nation. The 1950.s laid the groundwork for what would become the massive civil rights movement of the 60.s. The laying of this foundation was not without failure and not without it.s share of problems. The issues of the day were not only reflected on the television screen, but on the theatrical stages of New York City. I will discuss the major issues and some of the ways that race was reflected in the plays of the time.

In the early 1950.s and throughout, the nation made steps forward while continuing to take steps backwards. Colleges began to allow some black students while slamming the door in the faces of others. Laws against burning crosses and wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods in public were passed in some states, while remaining in others. African Americans were treated better by many people, but they were still looked down upon by many.

On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the .separate but equal. doctrine in a case called Brown v. Board of Education. The doctrine, originally stated in an 1896 case called Plessy v. Ferguson, allowed states the right to have segregated facilities as long as the facilities were of the same quality. This had led to the intricate system of Jim Crow laws in the south, which had legally allowed separate schools, hospitals, restrooms, and water fountains. Brown v. Board of Education outlawed the segregation of public schools and other facilities. While this marked a major step forward in the civil rights movement of the 1950.s, the reality was much more harsh. Blacks in the south were harassed and still treated separately and certainly not equally. The Supreme Court had asked for desegregation to .proceed with all deliberate speed.. This gradual approach caused severe problems for many black students. The south saw several school districts close down rather than submit to the court.s decision. Also, black students were still not being admitted to universities in the south on a regular basis. It would take years before the integration would become a widespread reality in the southern states.

In 1955, a young boy named Emmett Till inadvertently, in the eyes of many, began the civil rights movement for much of the nation. Till, a fourteen year-old black boy from Chicago, was murdered by two white men, while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. The story is that Till was dared by some friends to go in and talk to a white female who was working in a store. He did so and later on, when her husband found out, he and a mob of people took Emmett from his relatives home. The men took him to a river, stripped him naked, beat him, gouged out his eye and shot him in the head. They made him carry a seventy-five pound cotton gin fan and threw him in the river. When his corpse was recovered, it was so badly mangled that the only way Emmett Till was identified was by a ring with his initial on it. A picture of Emmett.s corpse was shown in a magazine and the nation was outraged. The country watched the case closely due to it.s brutality and due to the recent decision regarding Brown v. Board of Education. The case marked the first time in the south that two white men were tried for the murder of a black man. While this was seemingly a big step forward in the civil rights movement, it really was to no avail. Due to an all white jury, in a segregated court room, the men were found not guilty. Although they were found to be not guilty, they proved to be far from innocent. The men later admitted to the murder in all its gruesome detail. The nation sat and watched what fueled the fire for so many young blacks, who would come of age in the 1960.s.

In 1955, Montgomery, Alabama had a municipal law which required black citizens to ride in the back of the city’s buses. On December 1st of that year, Mrs. Rosa Parks, a forty-two year old seamstress, boarded a city bus and sat in the first row of seats in the black section of the bus. When some white men got on the bus, the driver, James F. Blake ordered Mrs. Parks to give up her seat and move back. She refused to move, and Blake called the police to have her arrested. When Rosa Parks was arrested, the leaders in Montgomery ’s black community saw the incident as an opportunity for staging a protest against the city’s segregation laws. They held a meeting and began the M.I.A (Montgomery Improvement Association). The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was elected as president of this organization. The Montgomery bus boycott continued into 1956. For all its success, the boycott had its downfalls. Some blacks grew tired of their stand. They grew tired of walking places, they found themselves having to seek insurance from London as it was impossible to get it at home. During that time, reactionaries within the local white communities fought back against the protesters in a variety of ways. Blacks riding in car pools were harassed by the police. Bombs were set off at the houses of both the Reverend King and E. D. Nixon. At one point, King was a