Elizabeth Gritter - River of hope : Black politics and the Memphis freedom movement, 1865-1954

Black Politics
and the Memphis
Freedom Movement,
18651954

E LIZABETH G RITTER

Due to variations in the technical specifications of different electronic
reading devices, some elements of this ebook may not appear
as they do in the print edition. Readers are encouraged
to experiment with user settings for optimum results.

Copyright 2014 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gritter, Elizabeth.

River of hope : Black politics and the Memphis freedom movement, 1865-1954 / Elizabeth Gritter.
pages cm. (Civil rights and the struggle for Black equality in the twentieth century)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8131-4450-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8131-4475-7 (pdf : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-8131-4474-0 (epub : alk. paper)

1. African AmericansTennesseeMemphisPolitics and government20th century. 2. African AmericansCivil rightsTennesseeMemphisHistory 20th century. 3. Civil rights movementsTennesseeMemphisHistory20th century. 4. Memphis (Tenn.)Race relationsHistory20th century. I. Title. II. Title: Black politics and the Memphis freedom movement, 1865-1954.

F444.M59N486 2014

323.1196'0730768190904dc23

2013048838

This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Memphis, Tennessee, was on the cutting edge of black political mobilization in the Jim Crow South. An unusually large number of black Memphians could vote compared with their counterparts in the rest of the South, and many African Americans, both in the South and elsewhere, saw Memphis as a model for political mobilization. The story of Memphis illuminates the small but significant number of black southerners who retained the right to vote and engaged in formal political efforts from the disenfranchisement campaigns of the late nineteenth century through the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, which overturned the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). In the face of the disenfranchisement, violence, segregation, and poverty in the region, black southerners fought these injustices through electoral action. Their political activities constituted a major prong of the long civil rights movement, and they often engaged in legal, direct action and labor efforts for civil rights as well. Ultimately, they contributed to the demise of legal segregation and the democratization of southern politics in the 1960s. They laid the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of black voters and public officials in the region and, eventually, the election of the nations first black president.

This study asks: How and why did black southerners engage in formal political efforts in the Jim Crow era? What was the impact of their efforts? It uses Memphis as a case study to more broadly explore the formal black political mobilization taking place in the Jim Crow South, an aspect of the long black freedom struggle and southern politics that scholars have largely overlooked. By connecting the post-Reconstruction era with the mass civil rights mobilizations of the 1950s and 1960s, this book shows the long duration and depth of the black freedom struggle. It focuses on electoral politics, specifically on African American voter registration and education activities, voting

This emphasis on electoral politics is not meant to suggest that politics took solely this form. One important development in scholarship over the last few decades is a recognition that politics encompasses not only the electoral process and government institutions but also broader power relations and struggles. Although such encompassing definitions of politics are useful and important, they can lead historians to lose sight of the crucial importance of the government. This book, by contrast, remains sharply focused on direct efforts to influence it through the electoral process. It brings into the spotlight the power structure that wields influence over all and, at the same time, examines the influence of black leaders and ordinary people on it. The governments capacity to formulate policy, mobilize resources, and change and shape the course of American life cannot be overestimated. At the same time, the structure of the government ultimately is created by people, put in place by people, and sustained by them.

Consequently, this book does not provide an exploration of the political culture of Memphis or claim to be a comprehensive community or political history of it. It centers on the electoral process in order to show how and why African Americans engaged in formal political mobilization in the Jim Crow era in Memphis and other urban areas in the South. To be sure, black electoral action was a complex process that was enmeshed with the institutions and culture of the black community. Although not focused on the intersection of black political activity with churches or schools or other sociocultural institutions, this study is not saying that these aspects of black electoral mobilization are not important or significant. Already, fine studies exist of the political culture and history of Memphis on which this book has relied, such as works by Laurie B. Green, Michael K. Honey, and G. Wayne Dowdy. To expand the focus of this study would dilute its purpose. Rather, it is hoped that this book will raise questions for future scholars to explore.

Memphis both serves and does not serve as a representative southern city for looking at African American political participation. On the one hand, it was distinctive in being the cotton capital of the world and the business center of the Mid-South area. One of the largest southern cities, it reportedly had more registered black voters than any other community in the South. It is also unusual because of Edward H. Crump. A white Democrat, he was the most powerful political figure in Memphis from the time that he became mayor in 1910 until his death in 1954; he built the longest-running political machine in US history to date. On the other hand, Memphis effectively functions as a case study because of its location and the nature of the black political mobilization that took place there. Perched on the Mississippi River just north of Mississippi, the city, located in Shelby County of West Tennessee, straddles the Deep South and Mid-South, thus containing features of both regions. Most importantly, the abundance of black electoral action in it offers a window into the range of political activity that occurred in other areas as well.