The Role of Women in the American Civil Rights Movement - Research Proposal Rough Draft
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The Role of
Women in the American Civil Rights Movement
Jessica Garrido
History 502: Historical Methods
Dr. Christopher J. Kline
I.
Description
The American Civil Rights Movement was a crucial, vital time in American History.
Starting in 1954, a social movement began with the goal of destroying discrimination and
disenfranchisement across the United States and bringing an end to the legalization of racial
segregation. In the aftermath of The Civil War, slavery was deemed illegal, and African
Americans were found to be equal to their Caucasian counterparts. This should have led to parity,
but instead resulted in Jim Crowe laws and legalized segregation designed to keep African
Americans under the heel of white supremacy. This disparity chafed upon a good portion of
society, and directly resulted in the development of a social movement which swept across the
United States. People of all races joined forces to demand the equality that had been promised
almost a century before but was still being withheld; however, despite their impact on the
movement, women are still not truly recognized for their role.
II.
Defense
Although every American child learns about the Civil Rights Movement in broad strokes,
there is a significant lack of attention and scholarship on the role played by women in the
movement. Rosa Parks is well-known for her refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white
person and subsequent arrest
1
, but she is only one of many feminine figures who drove the
movement. In fact, it can, and in some cases has been, argued that women were the backbone of
the Civil Rights Movement.
2
Women organized demonstrations and fundraisers, created and
published newspapers chronicling their own experiences, and led and participated in grassroots
activism.
3
Despite this, many are unfamiliar with the importance of the role played by women in
1
Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins, Rosa Parks: My Story (New York, NY: Puffin Books, 1992), 108.
2
Vicki L. Crawford, Jacqueline Anne Rouse, and Barbara Woods, eds., Women in the Civil Rights Movement:
Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941 - 1965 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993), 1.
3
Stuart A. Kallen, Women of the Civil Rights Movement (Detroit, MI: Lucent Books, 2005), 11.
1
the movement, and their achievements and contributions are still overlooked to this day. This
should be of crucial significance to both the general public as well as historians because the
presence of women in historical studies is growing; while there is still a lack of gender parity,
studies in 2014 showed women received almost half of all master’s degrees in history, and
around 40% of undergraduate and doctoral degrees.
4
Further, the lack of recognition of the role
women played in the Civil Rights Movement is endemic to the continued and persistent lack of
gender parity throughout society. Women are often overlooked or dismissed in favor of their
male counterparts, and sexism, whether intentional or not, impacts women every day.
Existing scholarship focuses primarily upon three things. First, on the overall importance
of the movement, as evidenced by its presence in scholastic textbooks and historical re-
enactments. Second, scholarship focuses on the impact of male movement leaders, such as the
many biographies and films surrounding Malcolm X and the national knowledge of Martin
Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And lastly, scholarship sometimes, though rarely,
focuses on the experiences of African American women who participated in the movement, such
as Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up her seat on a bus. All of these are inarguably important,
but they do not delve into factors that are equally as significant.
III.
Interpretation
I intend to address what impact women have had upon the Civil Rights Movement and
the lack of parity in their representation within scholarship. So far, existing research has allowed
me to tentatively conclude that scholarship exists that partially addresses some aspects of this,
but never the whole. For example, current research recognizes their significance in organizing
4
https://www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/higher-education/gender-distribution-degrees-history#:~:text=The
%20share%20of%20women%20receiving%20degrees%20in%20history,1966%20to%20as%20high%20as
%2045.3%25%20in%202010.
2
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the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
5
Other research recognizes the lack of recognition and
acknowledgement such women have received, despite the importance of their actions.
6
Still more
research defines the poise and fairness exhibited by women despite the nature of the battle they
fought, such as Height’s participation in the creation of a credit union “for all women, not just
black women or white women”.
7
There is no research, however, that fully encapsulates the
entirety of their impact and the lack of parity in recognition.
My conclusions may be challenged as I conduct my research in several ways. First, I
might find that certain parts of my research question have already been addressed, which would
require me to change or narrow my focus to those parts which are still unaddressed. Second, I
might find that while there is some coverage of aspects, it is not as significant or complete as I
previously believed. This would necessitate a greater amount of research and corresponding
widening of my focus to account for the unexpected lack. Professional standards dictate I honor
the integrity of the historical records, and I will do so by not only providing an accurate and
detailed accounting of my sources, but also by acknowledging the debt I owe to the historians
who have come before me and provided the materials I rely upon to effectively promote critical
dialogue; I will also utilize many sources that often have conflicting perspectives to ensure a full
and adequate accounting of history is present within my work.
8
IV.
Research Methods
While previous historians have created online archives of primary source material, like
that of the scanned Black Panther Party newspaper hosted on Lib.com, or the Civil Rights
5
Zita Allen, Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement (New York, NY: Watts, 1997), 7.
6
Janet Dewart Bell, Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement (New
York, NY: The New Press, 2018), 2.
7
Dorothy I. Height, Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir (New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2005), 86.
8
“Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct.” Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct (updated
2023), January 2023. https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/statements-standards-and-
guidelines-of-the-discipline/statement-on-standards-of-professional-conduct.
3
Records provided on the National Archives internet database, these collections focus on very
narrow aspects of the Civil Rights Movement. Other historians like Thomas C. Holt wrote
scholarship that focused on the movement, rather than the significance of women upon the
movement. My goal is to bridge this gap in research by employing both primary and secondary
sources as well as archival collections including print media and video interviews of activists. It
is only by thoroughly investigating the existing research that I can effectively determine where
the gap begins and ends and determine how best to fill it.
The most obvious ethical problem I will face in my project is that of bias, both my own
and that of my sources. I will overcome this hurdle with a three-prong method. First, I will keep
my own bias at the forefront of my mind, and regularly check my work for its presence. Second,
I will actively seek criticism for my work to ensure that I have not allowed my bias to affect it.
Third, I will lean into the bias inherent in my sources; I will not only openly acknowledge the
bias, but I will temper it with the presence of alternate and conflicting scholarship to ensure no
aspect of my research is negatively affected by said bias. Logistically speaking, the greatest
hurdle I will face in my research is that of distance; there are no physical repositories within the
state I live in. I will offset this by utilizing online repositories that include all sorts of media
relevant to my research. Other historians have overcome similar problems in much the same
way; by seeking out discourse and encouraging criticism into their research to ensure its validity.
V.
Secondary Source Analysis
Zita Allen’s
Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement
provides a detailed look
at many of the female key figures behind the Civil Rights Movement, assessing their specific
contributions and impact. While Allen fails to provide a comprehensive accounting of everyone’s
experience within the movement, she counters this by assessing the impact of women leading up
4
to the movement. Allen’s work intersects with other sources in that she does provide details on
the key feminine figures at the time of the movement and how they drove it.
In her work
Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights
Movement
, Janet D. Bell provides a valuable resource to the many ways women impacted the
Civil Rights Movement. While this source relates to my other secondary sources in its
assessment of key feminine figures of the movement, the true strength of Bell’s work is her open
acknowledgement of the lack of scholarship into the subject matter as well as the lack of
visibility to the public at large. As Bell’s work is closest in line with my own research and the
only source that directly addresses the significant lack of scholarship into women and their role
in the movement, she represents a proof of concept on the validity of my historical argument.
Earnest Bracey’s
Fannie Lou Hamer: The Life of a Civil Rights Icon
presents a narrative
of Hamer’s life that addresses not only her political impact upon the Civil Rights Movement, but
her social impact as well. While Bracey’s individual experiences with Hamer indicate a clear bias
towards her significance, he provides sufficient evidence of her impact on not only the
movement, but those she encountered on both sides of the aisle. While he assesses Hamer’s
impact, he does reference other key figures and their works in correlation to Hamer, which
provides an avenue of intersection that will allow for greater connectivity in my research while
simultaneously avoiding the promotion of a biased viewpoint.
With their work
Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-
Black Power Movement,
Bettye Collier-Thomas and Vincent Franklin take a similar approach to
that of Allen, assessing not just the women active during the Civil Rights Movement, but also
their predecessors who paved their way in the battle for equality. Unlike Crawford, Woods, Ling
and Monteith, they do not limit their scholarship to that of events during the movement. This is
5
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both a weakness and a strength; by keeping the scope of their sources wider, they can better
provide a comprehensive analysis of feminine impact; however, by increasing their scope
without allowing for a greater volume in each essay, the miss on the opportunity to provide
answers to questions that are unrepresented in any scholarship at this time.
In their scholarship
Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers,
1941 – 1965,
Jacqueline Anne Rouse and Barbara Woods edited a collection of essays that
investigate the women who led the Civil Rights Movement. While these essays provide unique
views into critical feminine icons of the movement, their weakness is the narrow scope. In
limiting themselves to brief accounts of specific events and individuals, they missed the
opportunity to provide more in-depth assessments of pivotal moments and individuals. The true
value of this source is its coverage of events that are not otherwise represented in various
scholarship.
Davis Houck and David Dixon fill a previously unaddressed void in scholarship of
women in the Civil Rights Movement with their works
Women and the Civil Rights Movement,
1954-1965
by providing a fully written copy of speeches made by thirty-nine women during the
movement. Like Collier-Thomas and Franklin, their strength is also their weakness. While they
provide valuable scholarship, the reader is forced to rely upon the veracity of the editors, as there
is no way to validate much of the contents as their sources are inaccessible to the average person.
Their efforts will serve a valuable purpose in my research but will require a measure of scrutiny
that the other sources, with their more reliable reference points, will not.
Stuart Kallen takes an analytical approach with his
Women of the Civil Rights Movement
to assess the women of the Civil Rights Movements, and the specific rights they fought for. In
addressing the twin battles against both racism and sexism fought by African American women,
6
he acknowledges the greater hurdles they had to overcome and why their success was doubly
significant. While he provides a brief assessment of the violence these women faced, it is only
surface level. I will have to draw more heavily on my primary sources and other secondary
sources to offset this gap. The true strength of Kallen’s work is in the various media he provides
to supplement it.
In their scholarship
Gender and the Civil Rights Movement
Peter Ling and Sharon
Monteith provide a valuable look at the roles gender disparity played in the fight of African
American activists of the Civil Rights Movement. The editors do an admirable job of sourcing
material that directly speaks to the dual struggle faced by African American women of both
racism and sexism. The true strength of this source is it provides valuable insight unaddressed
through other scholarship that I will be able to tie into my other sources to provide a greater
understanding of the nature and extent of the struggles faced by women in the Civil Rights
Movement.
My interpretations of secondary sources differ from those of existing scholarship in that I
have pulled from a variety of single account narratives as well as a collection of multiple
narratives combined in singular sources. This allows me more avenues to explore the
connectivity of each secondary source in relation to the other. Further, my research methods will
not preclude any women; most similar research methodologies involve a much narrower scope;
the impact of African American women on the movement, the struggles faced by African
American women within the movement, or the overall struggles faced by African Americans
which discount or exclude the female element. In expanding my research methods to include
both Caucasian and women of color, and largely drawing from a pool of sources authored by
women, I will provide a more comprehensive and expansive look at how women directly
7
impacted the movement. By focusing solely on the impact of women on the movement rather
than all significant figures within the overall movement, I will avoid falling into the trap of
covering a material that is already sufficiently represented within scholarship. In doing so, I will
provide a compelling argument that the lack of such research denotes a need for further research
into this subject to improve public understanding and educational grasp of the women involved
in the movement and their overall impact upon it.
VI.
Primary Source Analysis
I will be using three primary archival collections to find primary sources that are relevant
to my topic. The National Archives Civil Rights Records provides both electronic records
delving into sexual harassment and the discriminatory educational and economic practices of the
times as well as data related to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While this archive is limiting in that
it only consists of raw data, it does serve to underscore the conditions the women of the Civil
Rights Movement were fighting to change from an analytical standpoint.
Lib.com, an online repository, is a particularly useful archival source as it contains many
scanned copies of the Black Panther newspaper, including many articles about actions taken by
women and how they aided the movement. The obvious limitation of this collection is the
inherent bias; as the Black Panther Party published it, it is representative of their views and
tactics and as such is not subjective of other views or methods. In addition, this collection trends
towards intentionally provocative, which I will offset by appropriately scrutinizing the work, and
cross referencing with other accounts of the events to determine where they intersect and
overlap.
The Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project is the final archival collection I will
be utilizing. Unlike the other archival collections, the Library of Congress provides a multitude
8
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of oral history video interviews with individuals who actively participated in the Civil Rights
Movement, and as such will serve a valuable function in gaining reliable eyewitness accounts of
events across a wide range of participants. The obvious limitation of this archive is that it relies
on memory of events decades past, and the experiences of the interviewees in the interim could
have affected their recall, and that because it is a collection of video interviews with participants,
there is a not a readily available list of sources or references to the events experienced by
participants. I intend to address this limitation by way of aggressive fact checking and cross
referencing my other primary and secondary resources to ensure accuracy and validity.
Elaine Brown’s autobiography
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story
was published
over thirty years ago but remains largely unreferenced despite her status as the leader of the
Black Panther Party giving her a greater breadth of power than any other woman within the
party, and indeed the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. While her own bias towards the events
in question could be considered a weakness, I will instead lean into the disparity of her
recollections to better account the diverse experiences of women who impacted the movement,
and how this disparity provides new research avenues that can only benefit the scholarship.
Dorothy Height’s autobiography,
Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir
, recounts a
wildly different impact upon the Civil Rights Movement despite the similarities of her childhood
and Brown’s. Height’s policies of nonviolence and acceptance directly impacted the Civil Rights
Movement and opened new avenues of support that it previously lacked, specifically that of the
SNCC and how the disparate activist groups could unify the cause and open new avenues of
change. Despite this enormous impact, she is largely left out of scholarship and studies. In
utilizing her autobiography, I will prove the significance of her impact upon the movement and
the benefits further scholarship can bring to unifying disparate social groups to advance change.
9
Edited by Alfreda Duster, Ida B. Wells’ autobiography
Crusade for Justice: The
Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
differs in that it has been utilized in scholarship to some measure.
Often considered the first woman in the civil rights battle, Ida B. Wells was born into slavery to
later be freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. This drove her fight for equality and directly
led to her helping found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In
many ways, Ida opened the door that Brown and Height later walked through, guiding their
impact upon the Civil Rights Movement. In analyzing the efforts of Wells to ensure equality for
African American women, I will provide direct proof that without her actions, the subsequent
actions of female activists would have been restricted or reduced, thus proving that further
research into this subject is both necessary and invaluable.
The primary source materials I am using have either been ignored in previous studies by
historians or have only been utilized tangentially to either provide an overall glimpse at the life
of women during the Civil Rights Movement, or to underscore the overall aims and
achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. Utilizing these primary sources in their entirety will
allow me to not only address the significant lack of scholarship into the role played by women in
the movement, but it will serve as direct corresponding evidence that further scholarship is
needed if we wish to adequately and accurately educate both the public and future generations on
the significance of the roles played by women within the Civil Rights Movement. By recounting
personal accounts and corresponding government data, I will provide compelling proof that such
scholarship can only be of benefit.
10
Bibliography
Allen, Zita. Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. New York, NY: Watts, 1997.
Bell, Janet Dewart. Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights
Movement. New York, NY: The New Press, 2018.
Bracey, Earnest N. Fannie Lou Hamer: The Life of a Civil Rights Icon. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland, 2011.
Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story. New York, NY: Pantheon Books,
1992.
Collier-Thomas, Bettye, and Vincent P. Franklin, eds. Sisters in the Struggle: African American
Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement. New York, NY: Univ. Press, 2001.
Crawford, Vicki L., Jacqueline Anne Rouse, and Barbara Woods, eds. Women in the Civil Rights
Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers, 1941 - 1965. Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 1993.
Height, Dorothy I. Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir. New York, NY: Public Affairs,
2005.
Houck, Davis W, and David E Dixon, eds. Women and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965.
Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.
Kallen, Stuart A. Women of the Civil Rights Movement. Detroit, MI: Lucent Books, 2005.
Ling, Peter J, and Sharon Monteith, eds. Gender and the Civil Rights Movement. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004.
“Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct.” Statement on Standards of Professional
Conduct (updated 2023), January 2023. https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-
development/statements-standards-and-guidelines-of-the-discipline/statement-on-
standards-of-professional-conduct.
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Edited by Alfreda
Duster. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1970.
11
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