PEACE BE STILL PEACE BE STILL MODERN BLACK AMERICA FROM WORLD WAR II TO BARACK OBAMA MATTHEW C. WHITAKER University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London © 2013 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska Portions of chap. 1 were previously published in the author’s Race Work: Th e Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West (Lin- coln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005), 63–87. © 2005 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. Portions of chap. 6 were previously published in Hurricane Katrina: America’s Unnatural Disaster, edited by Jeremy I. Levitt and Matthew C. Whitaker (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), 1–10. © 2009 by Jeremy I. Levitt and Matthew C. Whitaker. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Publication of this volume was assisted by the Virginia Faulkner Fund, established in memory of Virginia Faulkner, editor in chief of the University of Nebraska Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whitaker, Matthew C. Peace be still: modern black America from World War II to Barack Obama / Matthew C. Whitaker. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8032-4693-5 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn 978-0-8032-4964-6 (paperback: alk. paper) 1. African Americans—History—1877–1964. 2. African Americans—Social conditions—20th century. 3. African Americans—Social conditions—21st century. 4. African Americans—Politics and government—20th century. 5. Afri- can Americans—Politics and government—21st century. 6. Civil rights movements—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. e185.6.w57 2013 973'.0496073—dc23 2013029667 Set in Minion Pro by Laura Wellington. Designed by A. Shahan. I dedicate this book to the person who put me on the path and set me free, my mother, Covey L. Whitaker. Contents Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: American History as African American History 1 1. “Make Way for Democracy,” 1939–1954 7 2. “Let Your Motto Be Resistance,” 1954–1961 53 3. “Deep Rumbling of Discontent,” 1961–1968 85 4. “So Let It Be Done,” 1968–1980 133 5. “To the Break of Dawn,” 1980–2000 169 6. “Th e Audacity of Hope,” 2000–2008 213 7. Contemporary Black America 247 8. Hope and Change: Th e New Millennium and Freedom’s Promise 279 Appendix 1: Excerpts from the U.S. Constitution (1787) 307 Appendix 2: Executive Order #8802 (1941) 309 Appendix 3: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) 311 Appendix 4: Th e Civil Rights Act of 1964 313 Appendix 5: Th e Voting Rights Act of 1965 317 Appendix 6: Fair Housing Act (1968) 321 Appendix 7: “A More Perfect Union” (2008) 323 Appendix 8: African American Population as a Percentage of the Total Population, 1870–2008 333 Appendix 9: Distribution of the African American Population by Region, 1870–2008 335 Appendix 10: Black Population in the Twenty Largest U.S. Cities, 2008 337 Notes 339 Bibliography 349 Index 375 Illustrations 1. Dorie Miller 16 2. First black members of the Women’s Army Corps 20 3. Tuskegee Airmen 26 4. Jackie Robinson 45 5. George E. C. Hayes, Th urgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit 50 6. Mamie Till 57 7. Rosa Parks 61 8. Martin Luther King Jr. 65 9. Malcolm X 78 10. Freedom Riders 81 11. Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington 96 12. Fannie Lou Hamer 101 13. Muhammad Ali 111 14. Tommie Smith and John Carlos 113 15. Angela Davis 114 16. Sidney Poitier 116 17. Th e Black Panther Party 121 18. Stokely Carmichael 123 19. James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul” 124 20. Richard Pryor 148 21. Clarence Th omas 173 22. Anita Hill 176 23. Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones 186 24. Jesse Jackson 192