OPINION | Dancing on the Grave of Jim Crow: Reflections on the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement

by Randy Rowland

There I was, dressed in my thin Confederate Army band uniform, shivering in the winter night, on the tarmac of the Montgomery airport, awaiting the arrival of Alabama Gov. George Wallace. I played trumpet in the high school band. It was 1963, shortly before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. President Kennedy was campaigning throughout the country for passage of the Civil Rights Act. Gov. George damn Wallace was traveling around giving speeches against the bill. Whenever Wallace flew back to Montgomery, the all-white Robert E. Lee High School marching band — including me — would be out to greet him, no matter the time of day or night. When Wallace stepped out of the airplane to walk down the mobile boarding stairs, we'd strike up "Dixie." The other kids called me "the Yankee." I was in the South, but not of the South. I was for civil rights. As far as I could tell, most white folks down South definitely were not.

The fight for civil rights was gaining strength. Though the country was divided, something had to give, and give soon. The Montgomery Bus Boycott had happened back in the '50s. Brown v. Board of Education had happened, the March on Washington had happened. Kennedy's civil rights bill was stalled in Congress, but competition with the Soviet Union, along with the successes of the pan-Africanist — and worldwide anti-colonial struggles — made it awkward for the U.S. to preach "freedom" abroad while inflicting fire hoses, dogs, and worse on civil rights demonstrators back home. I paid attention because my family had recently moved to Alabama, and as part of the band, I had to go play "Dixie" in the middle of the night for Wallace, who was holding the line against Kennedy's Bill.

Kennedy was killed while campaigning for civil rights. No matter the specific topic of the speeches he gave, like the ones he gave in Tampa and Miami just four days before he was assassinated in Dallas, they all contained some reference to freedom for all, at home and abroad. That was a tough sell in the South. This was before the laws supported Black voters, so the electorate down in Dixie was mostly white Southerners. I can tell you exactly how popular the civil rights bill made JFK among white folks in Montgomery. On the fateful day, when the announcement came over the intercom at school that the president of the United States had just been murdered, every kid in my class — except me — cheered wildly. The president had been assassinated, and they thought it was the best thing that could have happened.

Many narratives about his death focus on who hired the hit man or whether it was a conspiracy, but those details hide the domestic issue polarizing America at that time, which was civil rights. If you've ever wondered why so many African Americans of that era put images of John F. Kennedy in their living rooms, this might tell you why.

July 2024 will mark the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It's an anniversary worth noting. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the landmark civil rights and labor law that marked the end of legal Jim Crow. It outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination. It took the death of the president to get it passed. Sixty years later, we now include folks with disabilities, elders, and various genders as beneficiaries of that initial law, because the Civil Rights Act paved the way for additional laws. As a result, before she died, my 96-year-old mother could go into the restroom in the casino, knowing there'd be a stall large enough for her wheelchair. We've come a long way in these last 60 years. I feel lucky to have been a witness to it, starting back when I played trumpet in the marching band.

The Civil Rights Act is an example of how laws really do matter. Laws turn activism into reality and serve as markers for our progress or setbacks. I'm well aware that we still have an America that recently killed George Floyd and all the rest, but — at least domestically — it's a better country now than it was during the Jim Crow days. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made a difference for the better. The 60th anniversary of its passage is a fine time to dance on the grave of Jim Crow, and to remember and learn some lessons from history.

White Flight From the Democratic Party

I remember other things from that era. With JFK assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's vice president, became president. He had been the Southern, more conservative "balance" on the party ticket, certainly no friend to the left. Johnson had to sign the Civil Rights Act after it was passed by Congress. But as soon as he signed the Civil Rights Act, white Southerners began leaving the Democratic Party by the carload. It was like an enormous car caravan for the Klan. A Southerner himself, Johnson lost the Deep South in the 1964 election, though uber-rightist Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate for President, made even Johnson look better, so Johnson clung to office. Whites continued to flee the Democratic Party, led — wouldn't you know it — by Wallace, who left the Democratic Party, not for the Republicans, which was, after all, the "Party of Lincoln," but to run as an independent. It was just how Johnson had moaned it would be. Racist Southerners wouldn't vote for a Democrat because he had signed the Civil Rights Act. All the talk today about why so much of the white working class supports the Republican Party, which doesn't work for their interest on any issue, well, that was when it started. By the next election, white Southerners either supported the openly racist George Wallace running on his third party ticket, or switched over to the Republicans rather than support a Democratic Party committed to Civil Rights. They have yet to come back to the Democratic Party.

The Country Confronts the War

Meanwhile, folks on the left, trying to stop the U.S. war against Vietnam, were chanting "Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" By then, I was again uncomfortably in the uniform of a cause I didn't support, only this time, I was an anti-war soldier in the U.S. Army. Again, I was forced to pay attention to the history developing around me.

With racist whites abandoning the Democrats, and boxed in by the left, President Johnson didn't run again. Republican Richard "I'm-not-a-crook" Nixon won the election. There's a lesson to be learned from that. Third parties, like Wallace in 1968, can really determine who wins. The left-wing movement was coming on strong by then, but an obvious liar and right-winger still won the election. The most significant third-party effort in 2024 is a relative of JFK. I'm not sure whether he'll draw more voters from the Dems or the Republicans, but splitting the electorate can have dramatic effects. Under the influence of Trump, the Party of Lincoln is now nothing but putrid remains and wannabe fascists, but it's anybody's guess how things will play out.

If Trump Wins

One last thing I've been thinking about: Nixon, the has-been, previously the conservative balance to the Eisenhower presidential ticket, was somehow back to snag the 1968 election. Arch conservative red-baiter that he was, as president, he faced the full onslaught of the people's movement, and eventually had to end the U.S. war against Vietnam, stop the draft, and expand Social Security, and we won Affirmative Action, established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, and got the Clean Water Act, along with the U.S. signing the anti-ballistic missile and SALT I arms-control treaties with the Soviet Union. When Nixon went to China, it was to preside over the collapse of a U.S. foreign policy that had tried to keep China out of the U.N. And ultimately, "I'm-not-a-crook" had to resign in disgrace. If Trump wins the upcoming election, we'll need this example of life under Nixon to inspire us.

If Biden Wins

It's important to remember that Biden, like Nixon to Eisenhower, and Johnson to Kennedy, was the right-wing balance to the Obama ticket, and has never been a friend of the left. Our issues need resolving, no matter if the merely conservative Biden or the openly fascist Trump wins.

Lessons

I was a witness to history. In Alabama, I learned that just because something is the law, that doesn't make it right. After all, Jim Crow was the law back then. In the Army, I learned that just because U.S. imperialism was the law, it wasn't right either. Looking back, I've also learned the value of victories and the kind of sustained struggle it takes to make a breakthrough, regardless of who's in the Oval Office. This month, we can celebrate the Civil Rights Act and be inspired to struggle on. We have a world to win, and no time to waste.

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Randy Rowland is a retired RN who worked at Harborview Medical Center. He lives in the Rainier Valley neighborhood of Seattle. A member of Veterans For Peace, he has been a sporadic activist since resisting the U.S. war against Vietnam in the late 1960s while an Army medic.

Featured Image: Photo by Randy Rowland, who writes: "I took this photo of a mural in Minneapolis, near the George Floyd memorial. I was initially dismayed to notice I had gotten a street sign in the photo. Then I realized how profound that made this picture. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 opened the door, and finally, after much additional struggle, in 1990 we got the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). … It's easy to forget our victories, and take for granted the good things we've won, but we do so at our own peril, because the right-wing is always trying to take our hard-won victories back. 'When we fight we win' indeed."