Breaking Language: The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in Literature Main Menu Introduction: How was the Civil Rights Movement fought in language? Pre-Civil Rights Era Uses of Language: Epistemic Violence and Legal Restrictions James Brown, "Too Funky in Here" (1979) Builder Levy, I AM a Man (1968) Builder Levy, I Am a Man/Union Justice Now, Memphis, TN, 1968. From the series Civil Rights and Peace. Gelatin Silver print 13 1/16 × 8 13/16. artsy.net. Builder Levy, Harlem Peace March 1967 Builder Levy, Anti-War Protest Builder Levy, Harlem Peace March to End Racial Oppression, April 27, 1967. The statement "No black man ever called me chink: support the black struggle for existence" was taken from boxer/activist Muhammad Ali's original statement about his refusal to participate in the Vietnam War, "Ain't no Vietcong ever called me nigger." Amitage Digital Resources, Columbia University. Dykes on Bikes: Headlining SF Pride Parade since 1977 Malcolm X's Repudiation of a Slave Name Malcolm X: Language Play and Caustic Irony Audre Lorde: "You cannot dismantle the master's house with the master's tools" (1984) Adrienne Rich "Diving into the Wreck" (1973) James Baldwin: Deconstructing the Language of Racism Creative Commons License Resources test of radial view visualization of content

Conclusion: Language as a Medium for Activism and Liberation

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We have looked closely at a few ways in which the Civil Rights Movement was fought not only in the streets, in schools, and in the courtrooms, but also in literature and in the arts. The reality is that language encoded oppression in the 60s and 70s--with racist slurs, inequitable laws, rumor, and journalistic propaganda--but language in the hands of writers and activists was also a medium for liberation. Writers, poets, clergymen, and political leaders, and other activists used language to inspire people to join liberation movements and to decolonize their minds.

We have seen that there are certain distinctive linguistic strategies used to “break language” in the struggle for independence and civil rights. For example:

1) to break the ways in which race has been encoded in law and in elite power structures so that people can represent their own identities in ways that are authentic to them (incorporating autonyms, oral storytelling strategies, community-based epistemologies, etc.)

2) to break the ways in which power and authority inflected in law, commonly accepted morality, religion, etc. have been used to stratify social, racial, and ethnic classes 

3) to use parody and other forms of criticism in order to expose oppressive authority

4) to reclaim language that has been used to deride, categorize, stereotype, and otherwise limit the freedom of anyone or any group of people  

5) to reinvent language for your own purposes

6) to use code meshing and other forms of hybridity, among other literary strategies.

AND TODAY, the struggle for social justice continues: #blacklivesmatter  and #pussypower


 

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