Tuskegee: Living Black and White

An episode in The Alabama Experience documentary series

STUDY GUIDE

This program was produced by Michael Letcher (mletcher@cpt.ua.edu ).

Suggested grade levels: 9-12. The program is appropriate for classes in history or political science. It should be especially useful for units on African-American history or civil rights which relate to school desegregation, voting rights, and the evolution of black political power.

The program is 57 minutes long, but is divided into four roughly equal titled segments which provide convenient stopping points.


INTRODUCTION

This program is a history of the Civil Rights Movement in a town internationally known as a symbol of African-American culture. It is told in part through the experiences of people of both races and a variety of backgrounds, including those of the producer, who grew up in the area during the period.

A number of factors make Tuskegee an interesting case study. Most widely known as the home of Tuskegee University, the town has long boasted a strong black middle class community which as early as 1950 accounted for 68% more white collar jobs than the white populace. Because of that base and its close association with Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee became a symbol of a philosophy of gradual but eventual black assimilation into mainstream culture through educational and economic progress. Those factors, along with a strong educational heritage in the white community, seemed to make this a promising testing ground for democratic ideals.

However, the fact that the county’s population was nearly 90% black also contributed to a strong and fearful resistance among elements of the white community. And beneath the surface there were class divisions among both whites and blacks.

Against this context the documentary focuses on the local struggle for civil rights between the end of World War II and the 1972 election of the state’s first African-American mayor, Johnny Ford. During that period Tuskegee played a pivotal, national role in issues of voting rights and school desegregation and produced a number of key players in this historic American drama.

OBJECTIVES Viewers will learn about how the goals and tactics of The Civil Rights Movement were connected to the political and cultural changes taking place in the nation. They will also see how the beliefs and feelings of blacks and whites, rich and poor were often shaped by their different and sometimes entirely exclusive experiences.

THE PROFILES Among the primary figures who appear in the documentary, some are of historic significance as individuals. Others are important because they represent a variety of cultural and political elements in the society and help us understand that the history of The Civil Rights Movement, with all its moral authority, was also more than a simple struggle between two monolithic forces of good and evil or black and white.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHARLES GOMILLION Charles Gomillion (1900-1995) was the father of the modern Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee. Although less well known than others of the time, the story of his tireless and judicious work over nearly half a century is an inspiring example. He is also nationally significant in the history of voting rights. The Supreme Court decision in Gomillion vs. Lightfoot set the legal precedent that led to the establishment of the principle one-man-one-vote, and, in turn, revolutionized southern politics.


BEFORE VIEWING

Part One

  1. What were the main race and class divisions in Tuskegee before the 1960’s?
  2. What was the economic and educational environment like in Tuskegee at the beginning of the Civil War?
  3. Who were the politicians after the Civil War who were called "redeemers"? What did they do and why?
  4. What were the political conditions that brought about the creation of Tuskegee Institute?
  5. Compare the political philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.
  6. Why was the establishment of the VA hospital in Tuskegee an important political development as well as an economic one?
  7. How did WWII and the Tuskegee airmen change attitudes among blacks in Tuskegee? Among whites?

Part Two

  1. What legal barriers kept blacks from voting when Charles Gomillion began the leadership of TCA?
  2. What did Sam Engelhardt do that made Charles Gomillion change his assumptions and his tactics in dealing with the white leadership? How did they change?
  3. What was Gomillion vs Lightfoot and why was the decision in that case so important?
  4. What cultural, economic, or religious factors could have distinguished white "liberals" in Tuskegee from the more traditional white establishment?

Part Three

  1. How did Governor George Wallace deal with the desegregation of public schools in Tuskegee? What are all the possible motives he might have had for his actions?
  2. How did the school integration crisis effect the interracial political climate in Tuskegee?
  3. How, if any, did the goals or tactics of Tuskegee’s 1960’s black youth movement differ from those of the older black middle class?

Part Four

  1. What has taken place in Tuskegee since the transition to predominantly black political control with regard to: population changes, economic changes, degree of racial integration? What are some of the factors that have caused those changes?
  2. What changes have come to the class divisions that were introduced in the beginning of the program?


AFTER VIEWING

  1. Compare preconceptions of Tuskegee with those after viewing. What did you learn? What, if anything, surprised you?
  2. What were segregationists so afraid of? What did they have to lose? Which of their fears, if any, turned out to be valid?
  3. Was the spirit of "brotherly love" voiced by the 1964 black-white coalition government in Tuskegee naïve? Why?
  4. How much did George Wallace’s tactics in the school desegregation situation effect the long term outcome? Would other choices made any lasting difference?
  5. Johnny Ford lost his 1996 bid for reelection. What clues if any could be found in the documentary that this might happen?
  6. Charles Gomillion thought that if he could make integration work in Tuskegee by proceeding slowly and by initially limiting it to the most "acceptable" middle class blacks, the example it created would have wide spread results for America that would justify those means. Young black students thought that this kind of "classism" ran against the democratic ideals that were at the very heart of the movement. They thought it was a case of "the ends justifying the means" which was cynical and just as immoral as segregation. Choose sides and debate this issue.
  7. How much of the remaining divisions between races in America are also based on class? Is "classism" any more of less justifiable than racism?
  8. Debate the question of whether the United States is or ought to be a "melting pot" that blends all races and cultures together. Does racial identity have both positive and negative effects? How? What is lost and gained when a minority culture is absorbed in a dominant one?
  9. What is the value of Tuskegee as a symbol and expression of racial/cultural pride and identity? Encourage whites and blacks to think about the difference between the experience of being in the minority and the majority in a local population.
  10. Reconsider the debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois over political vs. economic avenues toward equality in light of what has happened since their time. Take sides and discuss.
  11. What is the "moral" of the story of Tuskegee as presented in the documentary? The main idea or feeling that you have after having seen it?


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee, Robert J. Norrell, Knopf, 1985.

Sammy Younge, Jr.: The First Black College Student to Die in the Black Liberation Movement, James Foreman, Grove Press, 1968.

Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington, Doubleday, 1936.

Wizard of Tuskegee: The Life of George Washington Carver, David Manber, Crowell-Collier Press, 1967.

A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman, Charles W. Dryden, University of Alabama Press, 1997.

Memoir of a Race Traitor, Mab Segrest, South End Press, 1994.

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