Doctoral Dissertation Research: Political Contestation of Race and State Response During the Civil Rights Movement

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Studies of the Civil Rights Movement have done much to describe and explain how such movements emerge and recruit members, are influenced by the political environment, and change their strategies and leadership. However, the response of states to challenges of the Civil Rights Movement is less well-studied and understood. When movements engage states in battles over inequality and the meaning of race, for example, the state can defend its use of racial classifications, make symbolic rather than real concessions, or bring about reform through voting rights and integration. At the same time, state officials in choosing their response must consider the meanings their actions have to diverse audiences - the federal government, the national public, local officials, movement activists, and state voters. This project thus examines the actions one state took in response to civil rights challenges and to the competing claims of multiple audiences. In so doing, it contributes to our understanding of how states deal with political conflict and change, try to maintain their legitimacy, and obstruct or facilitate changes in inequality. More specifically, the project examines the actions of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission (1956-1977), an organization created by the state legislature during the Civil Rights Movement to monitor race relations and defend against "encroachment." It uses primary data from the files of the commission and interviews with persons familiar with the commission, and uses secondary literature on the Civil Rights Movement and commissions in other states. The data from these sources show how the commission framed its efforts to legitimate segregation to multiple audiences, and faced challenges to the state's system of racial classification.