When it comes to leaders of the 1960s’ Civil Rights Movement many automatically think of activists like Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, John Lewis, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, etc. They were strong black men who considered were the face of the movement and whom thousands still recognize today. Unfortunately, while these men stood in the national spotlight, other important contributors to the movement were left in the shadows. African American women were not only supporters of the marches and boycotts, they were leaders who fought for equality just as hard the men. When it comes to the student led sit-ins and student led Freedom Ride, one woman in particular demonstrated unwavering determination and leadership and she worked right alongside John Lewis. Diane Nash was one of the most important female leaders of the civil rights movement and her role as leader was right on par with Lewis’s and other male leaders despite her lack of recognition.
In his 1998 memoir Walking with the Wind, John claims that the qualities of compassion, civil disobedience and nonviolence, which he developed as a child, shaped his character and “led him into the heart of the civil rights movement” (Lewis 37). Diane is the same way in the sense that her own self-confidence, moral conviction and religious beliefs, which she too developed as a child, would also catapult her into the center of a revolution. Diane Nash’s childhood was different from most civil rights leaders, but she still managed to develop qualities that turned her into major driving force behind many student protests. While many activists were born and raised in the Jim Crow South, Nash lived a somewhat peaceful life above the Mason Dixon line. She was born May 15, 1938 in the south side of Chicago and as a child held “no emotional relationship to segregation. She understood the facts and the stories but was not tied to it” (Bryan 62). This is not a surprise when you consider the family environment in which Diane grew up in. Like many African Americans, Diane’s family suffered from internalized race. Instead of taking pride in being African American her family put an emphasis on their identity as patriotic Americans (Ross 165). They truly believe in the common misconception that if African American wanted to achieve the status of their white counterparts all they had to do was be patient and work hard. Despite being surrounded by this repressive mindset Diane still managed to form a strong sense of personal worth. This confidence first showed showed itself when in 1956 Nash did not hesitate to try out for the local Miss America Contest (Ross 166). She obviously was not bound by the idea that African American were inferior second class citizens. Not only was she confident, Nash also had a strong moral compass brought on by her strict Catholic rearing. This conviction of hers would later combine with lessons on nonviolent direct action to lead Nash to the conclusion that the struggle against segregation was “a religious battle against ‘sin’” (Ross 164). This combination of her strong self-confidence and principles would ultimately support her stance on segregation and fuel her desire for immediate change. However, it was not until Nash transferred from Howard University in Washington D.C. to Fisk University in Nashville that she became fully aware of the social context of America and made the decision to make a change.
In the beginning of 1959 Nash began to her studies at Fisk University. Her social awakening began when she came into direct conflict with overt racial segregation. She recalls seeing the “colored” and “white” signs and “[reacting] emotionally to segregated water fountains and ladies rooms” (Bryan 62). While her peers at Fisk were accustomed to southern Jim Crow laws, Nash was not and found herself asking the question: “Who’s going to change these things?” (Bryan 62). So when Diane learned of seminarian and field representative of the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s James Lawson’s nonviolent direct action workshops she immediately joined (Ross 169). Lawson taught lessons on Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence and this became the foundation of the student led movements. Once the demonstrations began in February of 1959 Nash’s overall confidence and discernable level-headedness put her in a position to lead the Nashville sit-ins, initiate the “jail no bail” tactic, and publicly confront Mayor Ben West.
On February 13 the first student led sit-in had one hundred twenty-four students without any violent encounters or arrests(Ross 170). By the second sit-in Diane’s workshop peers had determined that she was composed and despite her objections, named her head of the central committee which was intended to make decisions for the Nashville movement (Ross 170). On February 27, 1959 the students held a third sit-in, but this time there was angry mob waiting for them. The students were beaten and terrorized and once the mob had cleared they were arrested by the local police. Diane was one of the eighty-one students taken to jail. By that evening, the students had been released from jail, but the following morning they were all tried in court for disorderly conduct. The judge ruled that the protesters were guilty and fined them fifty dollars each. Here Nash’s leadership would became clear because just as the case was about to be closed she interjected, “ We feel by paying these fines, we would be supporting the injustice and immoral practices that have been performed in arrest and conviction of the defendants” (Ross 171). Nash and fifteen other students had agreed to refuse to pay the fine which inspired the other sixty-six students to reverse their decision to pay. The employment of refusing to pay fines in compliance with civil disobedience “forged a bond among students and taught a major lesson to leading male activists” as many would soon follow Nash’s lead (Bryan 63). In fact, Martin Luther King Jr. would later use this strategy in his own demonstrations to “revolutionize the South” (Bryan 62).
The most important segment of the Nashville movement was headed by Nash on April 19, 1960. After the bombing of the Z. Alexander Looby’s house, Nash led 2500 demonstrators on a peaceful march to city hall. Upon arrival and on national television, Nash confronted Mayor Ben West and asked “do you feel it is wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of their race or color?” to which he responded “with a nod and a simple ‘yes’ affirming the protestors position (Ross 171). This tenacious and quick-witted action on Diane’s part had such a profound effect on people and the movement as a whole so that it would soon become her signature. She was key in the success of the student led sit-ins and once she became involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) she would continue to leave her mark by leading the Freedom Rides.
With the formation of SNCC in 1960 and following her release from jail in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1961, Diane Nash withdrew from Fisk to accept a joint staff position with SNCC and the Southern Christian Leadership Committee (SCLC) (Arsenault 181). She began to devote her life to civil rights activism and within a few months became a major leader and organizer of the next phase of the Civil RIghts Movement. On May 14, 1961 the initial wave of Freedom Riders, backed by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), were stopped in Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama and attacked by an angry mobs of white people. The result was burned buses, bloodied riders and a movement cut short which was a relief to supporters and opponents alike. However, the students of the Nashville Movement refused to let the movement collapse. Like many of her colleagues, Nash believed “that the future of the movement was going to be cut short if the Freedom Ride had been stopped as a result of violence. The impression would have been that whenever a movement starts all you have to do is attack it with massive violence and the blacks will stop” (Catsam 192). This reasoning made it all the more pertinent that the Rides continue and the Nashville group decided they would have to be the ones to direct the action. Out of all the members of the Nashville group, two members served as the unspoken leaders. As a previous member of the Freedom Riders, John Lewis had an unmistakable air of authority while Nash “relied on her reputation as the most effective organizer among Nashville’s student activists” (Arsenault 180). With the reluctant support of the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, both Lewis and Nash put together a team of ten students–eight black and two white–to continue the rides. However, Nash’s role as leader was almost arguably more complex than Lewis’s as she had to monitor the progress of the Rides, negotiate with government officials and garner national support for the Riders. With the Rides getting ready to commence, Nash’s peers elected her to serve as the trip coordinator for she was “very calm, very deliberate, always straightforward and sincere” (Arsenault 181). She would also serve as “a media liaison, [coordinating] action on the ground where SNCC had chapters, and [organizing] recruitment and training for the anticipated successive waves of Freedom Riders to come” (Catsam 194). The later successful integration of the interstate transit terminals was the result of many people working together to keep the Riders safe, but there is no doubt that Diane Nash was at the forefront, as she fought to keep the Rides going. With such an integral part in both the Nashville sit-ins and the Freedom Rides the question remains: Why are Black women left out of the civil rights narrative when it is clear they were major contributors to its success?
Black men and women have both been oppressed and abused for centuries within the United States, yet when it comes to the participation of black women in various civil rights struggles against said oppression, there is no doubt that their role has been left out. Historians and textbooks tend to focus on the great male leaders of the movement all while completely ignoring the pivotal achievements of African American women who “initiated protest, formulated strategies and tactics, and mobilized other resources…necessary for successful collection” (Barnett 163). According to Associate Professor of Sociology and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Bernie Barnett, the invisibility of these modern Black women leaders is in part a result of “gender, race, and class biases prevalent in both the social movement literature and feminist scholarship”. In other words, black women often suffer from sexism within the black community and racism from the feminist movement.
In the case of civil rights activism, The Civil Rights Movement was rife with patriarchal double standards, but the movement itself was not the cause for these standards. In general, when it comes to black men and women, the women are often expected to take the supporting role. Women, as it were, “obeyed and supported their husbands, looked up to them as leaders, and didn’t take any credit even if it was offered….Black women especially had to work hard, but never ever threaten the fragile position of their Black men” (Barnett 175). Another issue was the fundamental way in which leadership was viewed within the movement. Men tended to lead while women tended to organize and in turn, one method became valued over the other. As a result, male activists like Martin Luther King Jr. or Ralph David Abernathy were heralded as key figures who constructed the very foundation of the movement on which the masses followed, while the women who actually organized and put demonstrations together were left without recognition. When one looks at the social constructions with the black community that place men on a higher pedestal than women, it is no wonder that when compared to the likes of John Lewis, someone she was actually in equal standing with, Diane Nash’s role in the Nashville movement and Freedom Rides has fallen into obscurity.
When it comes to Diane Nash, time and gender inequality may have undermined the importance of her role, but these obstructions ultimately do not change the reality of Nash’s accomplishments. She is one of many African American women who hailed from different backgrounds, social classes and professions, but shared a common desire for freedom and the determination to achieve it. When giving out lectures to college students, Nash would often bring up other women activists like Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, Gloria Richards,etc whom people might not be familiar with. At Yale’s Battell Chapel, she made an observation on the role Martin Luther King Jr. saying, “Martin was not the leader. He was the spokesperson. … It was not Martin’s movement, it was the people’s movement. And that is an important for you to understand, because when we see things that have to be done today, if you think it was Martin’s movement, you might say: ‘I wish we had a great leader like Martin.’ … But if you understand that it is the people’s movement, you would say, ‘What can I do.?’” (O’Leary). When it comes to movements or periods in time, it is easier for people to remember them when they can associate them with a person. In this case, many people associate and place the success of the entire Civil Rights Movement in the hands of one man, when it fact it is never one person or one specific gender. Movements are made through the power of the people, whether they’re black or white, or men or women. That is why it is important that we honor the contributions of the people that fought for a better future and change the way we define what it means to be a leader.
Works Cited
Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders : 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford bbbbUniversity Press, 2006. Pivotal Moments in American History. EBSCOhost, bbbb0-search.ebscohost.com.sophia.agnesscott.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=170lbbbb128&site=eds-live.
Barnett, Bernice McNair. “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights bbbbMovement: The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class.” Gender and Society, vol. 7, bbbbno. 2, 1993, pp. 162–182. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/189576.
Bryan. D.G. “HER-STORY UNSILENCED BLACK FEMALE ACTIVISTS IN THE CIVIL bbbbRIGHTS MOVEMENT,” SAGE: A Scholarly Journal On Black Women. (Fall 1988).
Catsam, Derek. “I’m Riding the Front Seat to Montgomery This Time: The Students Take bbbbControl.” Freedom’s Main Line : The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides. bbbbThe University Press of Kentucky, 2009. Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in bbbbthe Twentieth Century. EBSCOhost.
O’Leary, Mary. “Civil Rights Icon Diane Nash Talks Nonviolent Action, Continuing Struggle, in New Haven Event.” New Haven Register (CT), 26 Jan. 2017. EBSCOhost, 0-search.ebscohost.com.sophia.agnesscott.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W63812639078&site=eds-live.
Ross, Rosetta E. “Fire Shut Up In My Bones.” Witnessing and Testifying : Black women, Religion, and Civil Rights. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, c2003.
