ARTICLE AD BOX
"Civil rights didn’t happen because of rowdy and violent protests—nor did Social Security, the expansion of free speech, or even the Great Society. That’s a myth told by a Boomer generation that employed such tactics to steal the achievements of a prior generation that didn’t. Until we dispel this widely believed untruth among younger generations raised on the falsehood, we’ll continually botch any potential at making [things] better.
"America’s Civil Rights Movement is usually lumped into the cultural turmoil [that popular histories simply] call 'the ’60s.' In reality, what we remember as the ’60s was two entirely different periods of history. Most of [the turmoil] we remember as the 1960s in reality happened in the 1970s. A lot of the Civil Rights Movement that we also remember as the 1960s in reality happened in the 1950s. The dividing line between these eras is 1964. On one side is the Civil Rights Act and Great Society of 1964, which we can think of as the culmination of reform efforts of the ’50s. On the other side are the explosive protests and public upheaval of 1968, which ushered in a new era of radicalism that American society is still, in many ways, attempting to recover from.
"What began America’s Civil Rights Era was [not the 'protest era' of the '60s, but] the Second World War, a war waged in the name of democracy in which over a million black Americans bravely fought for freedom. Then they came home to a country that treated them like dirt. ... After the war, America started moving slowly to finally do something about racism and segregation. ... Out of that sensibility emerged a Civil Rights Movement eager to end this hypocrisy and which was led by the World War II generation of the 'Greatest Generation' and 'Silents.' The 'Boomers,' the children born after the war’s end, were just kids during this era. ...
"This movement was built around an ethic of non-violence. ... Civil Rights Era protests were ones in which well-dressed people arrived to respectfully make their presence known. They wouldn’t comply with unjust laws or systems, but behaved with dignity and restraint.
"Dignity in resistance wasn’t meant to scare America into doing the right thing. It wasn’t about making unreasonable demands to spark a political revolution. It was meant to shame America into doing what it already knew was right. It worked because Americans deeply understood their hypocrisy was a national embarrassment. ...
"The protesters who brought about this achievement hadn’t shouted, waved their fists, or cursed—much less burned things, threatened people, or rioted. Why then do so many young protesters think otherwise? Why do they think Civil Rights was the result of wild and violent protesting? Because of the myths of the [later] Baby Boomers who wrote the story, stealing the valour of the previous generation to cover their own failure.
"The Spirit of 1968 [however—the spirit of 'Boomer' protest—] was the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in which protesters fought a street battle with police on national television. ... [T]he Spirit of 1968 ... was the epitome of the Baby Boomer protest movement. ... New Left activists ... maintained the same militant tone claiming the impossibility of reform and the need for revolution against the system. Their protests were rowdy, with stunts and shouting and theatrics. New Left activists rejected the nonviolent principles of their predecessors. ...
"What exactly did the New Left movement achieve? It failed to nominate its anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy in Chicago. ...
"What policies can the New Left claim? It didn’t even manage to stop the Vietnam War or end the draft. ...
"Politically, the New Left so discredited itself with America that, on a national level, it destroyed the Democratic Party for a generation. ...
" Tackling [change takes] hard work. In place of serious reform, we get threats and histrionics. We get more Che Guevara, and less Edmund Burke. The young people who should become the ground troops for serious reform have sidelined themselves as irrelevant.
"I don’t entirely blame them. They’ve been lied to. In a bid to steal valour they didn’t earn, their teachers and leaders told them this is how change happens. It’s long past time for this dangerous myth to die."
~ Frank DiStefano from his post 'The Left Is Misremembering Civil Rights'
English (US) ·