The Struggle for Black Freedom

When it comes to studying the battle for civil rights and Black freedom in America, most people focus on the the protests of the 1960s and the icons of that movement such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks.

But there is a danger is such a limited approach, cautions Oxford University history professor and author Stephen Tuck. First, Tuck says, there have been protest movements in every decade of the American experience and they are still continuing today.  Secondly, many lesser-known figures have played just as large, or in some cases, maybe even a larger role in the freedom story than their better known counterparts, he adds.

"The struggle for racial equality is a very long struggle that is still going on today," Tuck said, appearing at The National Portrait Gallery tonight to discuss his latest book on the subject. "I tried to include the stories of everyday people, as well as the good and the great and the famous and the famously bad"

"I wanted to interweave these everyday stories into the better-known narrative of history," Tuck explained. "These people affected the powers that be as much as they were affected by them. You could say local life is affected by the larger issues, but the larger issues are also affected by local life."

In researching his book We Ain't What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle from Emancipation to Obama, Tuck said he was struck by the discovery that over the decades the desire to make things better didn't change, but the ability to protest did. For example, the advent of television in the 1960s did much to bring the plight of black Americans to the forefront, just as today the internet and other social media allow the disenfranchised to attract a much larger audience than ever before.

"There has definitely been a global impact in your civil rights movement," Tuck said, noting that the movement is the 3rd largest dissertation topic in his graduate history department at Oxford. "For a lot of our students, I think they wonder would they have sat in the front of the bus and not have thought about (those) in back"

Tuck said he believes the fascination with the American experience stems from a basic desire for freedom everywhere. However, sometimes American techniques have to be altered to fit different cultures.

For example, the sit-ins, so instrumental in helping blacks in the south end Jim Crow, fizzled in England. "In England, there are lots of problems, but our institutions aren't segregated," Tuck said. "When young people tried to get thrown out of pubs, they were allowed to drink in 10 straight pubs. They did get thrown out of the 11th, but that was probably because they had been drinking beer in 10 other pubs." 

When he began promoting his book, the 1st question Tuck was asked was invariably some variation of "how come this book by a white Brit?" The author said at first he was disturbed by that line of questioning, but came to realize that it was valid.

"The real issue is power, who has it and who doesn't," Tuck said, citing that as one of his aims in writing this particular book. "Also, I wanted to go beyond the headline heroes and show those everyday people.  People on all sides of the spectrum use and abuse King for their own purposes. Remembering wrongly can be a form of forgetting and the fight for freedom is something that shouldn't be forgotten."

Tuck was asked what his prognosis is for the future state of race in America. Beginning by pointing  out that historians are much more comfortable discussing the past than they are predicting the future, he said that while problems persist, progress has been made.

"They're not showing Birth of the Nation here tonight, they're showcasing the Black List (a photo exhibit highlighting 50 prominent black Americans). And that's a good thing," Tuck said, noting that he had viewed the powerful exhibit just prior to his talk.

He pointed to the old's slave's prayer he borrowed for the title of his book as an encapsulation of his thoughts on the race question. That prayer, often quoted by black protest leaders says:
We ain't what we ought to be,
We ain't what we want to be,
But thank God Almighty, we ain't what we used to be."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Tuck is teaching this year as a guest lecturer at Harvard University and brought his family, including his 2 young daughters, with him to Boston, so they could experience America. This week, they were in Washington, and both daughters sat sprawled on the book store floor as Tuck delivered his talk last night. It was clear that the Tucks are a close family and the idea of family gave the youthful visiting professor 2 of his funnier exchanges. He said that although he had written academic books before, this was his 1st supposed popular creation. "Popular book? Ask my family. Lord knows none of them have read it." Tuck also said that when he delivers talks about King and Rosa Parks to students in England, his older daughter plays the role of Ms. Parks. Tuck said his daughter performance in protesting is so good "it gives me an inkling of what her teenage years are going to be like."