Breaking Language: The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in Literature Main Menu Introduction: How was the Civil Rights Movement fought in language? 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 Conclusion: Language as a Medium for Activism and Liberation Creative Commons License Resources test of radial view visualization of content

Pre-Civil Rights Era Uses of Language: Epistemic Violence and Legal Restrictions

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What was it about the language in the United States that needed to be "broken" by Civil Rights activists, novelists, poets, and other artists? In most of the twentieth century, language encoded oppression--with racist slurs, inequitable laws, rumor, and journalistic propaganda--but language was also a medium for liberation. Oppression, physical violence, and epistemic violence--including thought control and mind games--were part of the everyday American experience for communities of color, reaching their height in the Jim Crow laws that wrote racial segregation into law. We can see what Jim Crow laws looked like and can imagine the debilitating effects this language and legal impediments had on non-white citizens in the US. 

Since the 1930s, African American attorneys and the NAACP used their legal expertise to fight successfully existing Jim Crow laws that deployed language to oppress and to restrict the freedom and agency of people of color. In the 1960s and 1970s, these legal efforts, as well as literary and artistic efforts, were intensified as great segments of the American collective consciousness was raised.

Let's take a look at some examples of how artists of the written word--novelists, poets, and activists--used their skills and imaginations to "break" the language of oppression.

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  1. Breaking Language: The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in Literature Cathy Kroll