We Shall Overcome: Tennessee And The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights movement was a turning point in our history. The fight for equality started long before the 1960’s for African Americans. Tennesseans fought to keep blacks and whites separated. Freedom was not easy to obtain in Tennessee, and many whites opposed the “freedman.” Black Tennesseans fought for their right to vote back in 1867 and won. However, this was not the end and soon the Klu Klux Klan were causing further problems. These years were just the beginning in the fight for equality in Tennessee. Tennessee was very much involved in the Civil Rights movement. Dr. Cynthia Fleming makes this clear in her article, ‘"We Shall Overcome": Tennessee and the Civil Rights Movement,’ where she discussed the involvement and impact that the

Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1954. The law was passed to start desegregation in schools. As Dr. Fleming pointed out, the southern states, particularly Tennessee, were not very happy with this decision. In fact, many congressmen signed a petition against desegregation in Tennessee schools. The mayor and governor of Tennessee did not go against the ruling because it was the law. However, Dr. Fleming points out that there was not a plan in place until a Tennessee black man went to the Nashville Board of Education to court over segregation. At that point, Tennessee was forced to have a desegregation plan in place. Segregation in Tennessee had begun. Unfortunately, it was not as easy as that though. Many black students and their parents were threatened with violence. Mayor West tried to keep the peace in these areas, but that did not last long and in September 1957 one of the integrated elementary schools was bombed. For nearly ten years, Nashville struggled with successfully integrating public schools. The fight was not over though, and Tennesseans then focused on allowing black admittance into state universities, where they eventually

Fleming’s article, ‘"We Shall Overcome": Tennessee and the Civil Rights Movement,’ was the right for blacks to vote. Even though the blacks had received the right to vote after WWII, many white Tennesseans had found reasons to stop the black people from being able to cast their votes. These included clauses, poll taxes, and even literacy testing. The threat of violence was also used to stop black citizens from voting. Some Tennesseans knew that the violence and unfair laws were something that needed to be changed. Although most counties in Tennessee allowed voting, some did not. Memphis and Nashville at one point did have restrictions on voting for the blacks, but eventually they removed the poll tax and this allowed more blacks to vote. The change and acceptance of allowing blacks to vote was seen a lot easier in Tennessee than in other southern states and was something that helped in the Civil Rights