The First Civil Rights Movement: The Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League in Movement Culture
Open Access
- Author:
- Fellmeth, Amanda Marie
- Area of Honors:
- History
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. William Alan Blair, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. William Alan Blair, Thesis Supervisor
Catherine Wanner, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Civil Rights
15th Amendment
Social Movements
Pennsylvania - Abstract:
- This work examines the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League, a political organization active between 1864 and the late 1870s. Affiliated with the National Equal Rights League, it was the most active of all of its chapters. Modern scholarship tends to begin its study of the Civil Rights movement only as early as the turn of the 20th century. This project extends that study to the middle of the Civil War and through the drama of Reconstruction. The Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League was a politically savvy, self-aware, and sophisticatedly organized group that, so far, has only been studied in terms of recording its historical facts. Work has yet to be done on how it functioned and the tools it employed. This study uses methodology from political science to understand how the group fought for its cause. I apply a political framework to the group that studies the way it operated in terms of several factors used to study political and social movements. This thesis employs three factors to analyze the League: issue framing, resource mobilization, and political opportunity. When examining the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League through these lenses, it becomes clear that it was far more politically sophisticated than any previous historical literature has given it credit for. The league presented Congress with petitions, held mass demonstrations and rallies, and interacted with key politicians. They actively created an image that they knew would be most sympathetic to the leading politicians of the day. They employed public media, such as newspapers, to expose as many people as possible to their message, and they had a hierarchical, centralized structure that created a support and resource base that allowed them to accomplish many goals. Upon a quick examination of the league’s activity, one could easily recognize strong parallels between this first Civil Rights movement and such groups as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1950s. Both movements engaged in some of the same tactics. However, such fundamental differences between the two groups that disallow simply considering the modern Civil Rights movement a simple continuation of the work done by the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League.