Are we all born equal? Does every man and woman deserve the same basic rights as others? The Bogalusa Movement: Self Defense and Black Power in the Civil Rights Movement and At the Dark End of the street show the different types of struggles African-Americans encountered on their pursuit to secure the same civil rights as other Americans, in accordance with the Black Power to depict the reasoning of African-Americans struggling to fit into American society was not self-inflicted but caused by the unwillingness of White Americans to desegregate African-Americans. 

In the historical text, The Bogalusa Movement: Self Defense and Black Power in the Civil Rights Movement, Rickey Hill elaborates on the specific methods White Americans used in attempt to oppress African-Americans. At the time, White Americans did not feel the right to treat African-Americans the same way they treated other White Americans. They denied them many, if not all basic rights that citizens of the United States possess. White Americans denied them the right to have freedom to assemble and petition. Hill states, “From the beginning, the efforts to organize protests and demonstrations against racial segregation and public exclusion were met with white violence.” White Americans did not hesitate a second in attempts to keep Africans-Americans under oppression. They did not have limits on their actions and would do anything they could to keep things the way they were. White Americans wanted to stay as the superior race, thus shows the unwillingness of White Americans to desegregate and accept African-Americans into American Society.

 African-Americans faced oppression in several aspects of society, one being at work. Hill writes, “Zellerbach’s Bogalusa plant practiced job discrimination against black people and maintained segregated labor unions among its black and white workers.” Even in the work place, where everyone’s common goal is success, African-Americans were mistreated. Although, slavery had ended years before this, in a sense it was slavery. African-Americans worked as hard as they could, but were not provided with the same rights as other Americans. Yes, it is different from slavery back in the day, but African-Americans were still looked down upon and stripped of what was truly theirs. White Americans continue to provide evidence to support the argument that it was not self-inflicted reasoning behind why African-Americans were not integrated into American society. 

In At the Dark End of the Street, Danielle McGuire talks about how African-Americans were not allowed to vote. Yes, they were allowed to vote, but did not due to the violence from White Americans that followed if they did decide to vote. “On July 17, 1946---Election Day---veteran Maceo Snipes walked past armed thugs patrolling the ballot box to cast his first and last ballot. Later that night, four white men dragged him out of his house and murdered him.” An African American man, who fought for the United States was murdered by White Americans for fulfilling his civic duties. White Americans attempted to take away African-Americans right to vote with violence. White Americans wanted to scare them into doing what they believed the was the right way to live, and by making an example of any African American who resisted the oppression of White Americans. An African American man attempting to be integrated into American society was killed due to the unwillingness of White Americans to accept change.

In all three pieces, Black Power by Stokely Carmichael and The Bogalusa Movement by Rickey Hill, violence is brought up. In Black Power, Carmichael talks about White Americans inability to not view African-Americans as a threat. “Why do white people in this country associate with violence? And the question is because of their own inability to deal with “blackness”.” White Americans always viewed African-Americans as a threat, even when they were the ones committing the violence. Hill elaborates on how a civil rights organization created a unit to protect themselves from violence brought on by White Americans. Ku Klux Klan and Bogalusa’s all-white police force brought violence upon African-Americans. The only violence being done was those of the hands of White Americans. Relating back to the argument, White American’s unwillingness to desegregate was the reason African-Americans struggled to secure basic civil rights and be a part of American society. 

Danielle McGuire elaborates on the horrific ways African-American women were raped and abused by White American men. She makes it clear to the readers that a very large amount of African-American women were sexually assaulted by White American males, and if they were willing to go to the police, they would have been killed. “The Policemen, Carl R. Burleson and Leonard E. Davis, who were tried and convicted of raping a black woman in 1946, kidnapped the black woman, a waitress and mother of two, then drove her to a construction site and sexually assaulted her.” McGuire goes on to say the two men were sentenced to seven years in prison. Those two officers being found guilty was very surprising to others, because it was rare to get justice for African-American women. The sentence of only seven years was a reminder to African-American women that they were not given the same protection as white women. At this time period, almost all African-American men ever accused of rape on a white woman would have been given the death sentence. Did not matter if there was any evidence, or it was just the white women’s word saying he did it. Showing African-American men and women that they would not be given the same fair trial or justice of those White Americans provides more evidence to the argument of the unwillingness of White Americans to integrate African-Americans into American society.

After reading The Bogalusa Movement: Self Defense and Black Power in the Civil Rights Movement and At the Dark End of the street, it changes the readers perspective on Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power. The Bogalusa Movement and At the Dark End of the Street give important background knowledge about what Carmichael is talking about in his speech. Carmichael believes White Americans needed to stop focusing on African-Americans, and deal with their own problems. The two historical texts give clear evidence to the idea of whites not integrating African-Americans due to the fact of losing white supremacy. Carmichael notes, “Now, several people have been upset because we’ve said that integration was irrelevant when initiated by blacks, that in fact it was a subterfuge, an insidious subterfuge, for the maintenance of white supremacy.” The two historical texts change the reader’s perspectives by giving an inside to the terrors that African-Americans endured during this time period. The text shows readers the reason for change in American society.

With these pieces, the viewers can see the clear unwillingness of White American of accepting African-Americans as members of American society. African Americans tried to be integrated in various aspects of American society. White American men killed an African-American for voting. White Americans segregated work places by having different unions for white and black workers. White Americans of authority did not provide justice from African-American women who were raped and abused. By depriving them of their basic civil rights as Americans, White Americans wanted to keep the white supremacy. They viewed African-Americans as a threat to their ways of life. At the time, White Americans hated the thought of interracial couples, but white males sexually assaulted and abused African-American women. Why would they do this if they hated the thought of white and black couples? To prove their dominance to not only African-American women but also African-American men. They raped mothers and wives. White Americans dehumanized African-Americans in attempt to keep them under oppression, and to keep white supremacy. Looking into the future, the Civil Rights Movement shaped the way for African-Americans in the United States. The efforts of these brave African-American men and women proved to be success. Without the brave acts by these men and women, would White American have changed their ideas on integration?
