To Fight Swimming with the Current

This chapter argues that movement history is often defined as the history of the civil rights movement. Vincent Harding suggests that beyond the general reasons for teaching history, there is a particularly compelling reason to tell movement history. The response of African Americans to the challenges and opportunities inherent in the political tumult of the decade helps to illustrate the dynamic and creative nature of movement history in the twentieth century. During the 1930s, a southern movement for racial justice and equality interacted with other democratic movements, initiating a sustained, organized movement to compel federal enforcement of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. For an understanding of the movement that developed during the 1930s, the interconnectedness between local movements in the South and national developments needs to be established. The focus on the mobilizing activity of post-World War II movement activity is in part a reaction to the advent of television.