Menagerie, a Child’s Fable (Historical Context)

Historical Context

African-American Leaders in the Civil Rights Era

Although “Menagerie, a Child’s Fable” was first published in 1984, its setting evokes the era of social and political turmoil in the United States of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, known as the Civil Rights Era. The Civil Rights Era was characterized by massive efforts on the part of the Civil Rights Movement to gain greater social equality for African-American citizens in the United States.

Beginning in the 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement focused on efforts at desegregation of public schools and other public institutions, particularly in the American South. In addition, the Civil Rights Movement worked toward the enforcement of equal voting rights for African Americans in the South, where local authorities often went to great lengths to prevent blacks from voting in political elections. Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was one of the greatest achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Act focused on such concerns as equal voting rights and desegregation of public schools. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped to reinforce the principles set forth in the Civil Rights Act.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement, and an inspiration to many Americans hoping to create a more just society. King was inspired by the non-violent methods of Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi. Based on Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent resistance, King worked through an organization known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to stage such events as the famous March on Washington in 1963. King was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964. In 1968 King was assassinated. His legacy lives on in continuing efforts to improve the civil rights of all American citizens through nonviolent efforts. The institution of a nationally recognized Martin Luther King Day in the United States is an acknowledgement of the positive influence King and the Civil Rights Movement exerted on American culture.

While King is regarded as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement, more politically radical African-American leaders were also extremely influential during the 1960s and 1970s.

Malcolm X was the leader of the black nationalist movement during the 1960s. Born Malcolm Little, he converted to the Nation of Islam faith of Black Muslims and later changed his name to Malcolm X. Malcolm X was critical of the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King. By contrast, he advocated black separatism rather than integration and self-defense through violence rather than nonviolent protest. Malcolm X became known as a powerful speaker and effective leader in the Nation of Islam, and was assigned to be the minister at a mosque in Harlem, New York City. He was assassinated in 1965 during a rally in Harlem.

The Black Panther Party was another important influence on African-American culture during the Civil Rights Era. Originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Black Panther Party was organized in 1966 in Berkeley, California, by

Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. The primary focus of the Black Panther Party was to arm African Americans and patrol the streets of black neighborhoods in order to protect the African-American community from police brutality. Their signature “uniform” was a black beret. Although many African Americans sympathized with the Black Panthers, others were critical of their militant approach to battling racism. By the early 1980s, the Black Panther Party had essentially disbanded.

African-American Leaders Since the 1970s

Since the assassinations of Malcolm X and King and the dissolution of the Black Panther Party, a number of African-American leaders have risen to prominence. These influential figures have worked to strengthen African-American self-determination through their roles in political, religious, academic, and popular cultural institutions.

Jesse Jackson, a Baptist minister, was the most prominent African-American civil rights leader of the 1980s. Jackson had been active in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became known as the first African American to make a significant showing in his run for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. Presidency, in both the 1983 – 1984 and the 1987 – 1988 presidential races. In the process of running for presidential candidacy, Jackson organized a massive voter-registration drive throughout the United States. Jackson’s voter-registration drive contributed to the election of Chicago’s first African-American mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983.

Louis Farrakhan, the African-American leader of his own sect of the Nation of Islam (also known as the Black Muslims) founded in 1978, rose to prominence as an influential black leader during the 1980s and 1990s. Farrakhan advocates self-sufficiency for African Americans and a strong family. Farrakhan, however, has also been accused of promoting prejudice against Jews. In 1995 Farrakhan organized the “Million Man March” of African-American men in Washington, D.C.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Charles Johnson was active in helping to establish African-American Studies programs in American colleges and universities. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the field of African-American studies developed and expanded. Several scholars of African-American Studies rose to prominence on the national scene through the influence of their nonfiction books and their public speaking engagements. The most prominent African-American studies scholar is Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard University professor whose scholarship in the area of African-American literature attracted a broad-based readership. One of Gates’s best-known works is the book The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988). Gates has also taught at Yale University, Cornell University, and Duke University.

bell hooks (who intentionally spells both her first and last name in lower-case letters) became the most prominent feminist African-American scholar during the 1980s and 1990s. Her best-known work is the book Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981). hooks has taught at the University of Southern California, Yale University, Oberlin College, and City College of New York.

Oprah Winfrey, known primarily as a popular daytime TV talk show host and media personality, is influential as an African-American leader who promotes diversity at the level of the mass media and popular culture. “Oprah,” as she is known to fans, is arguably the most influential African-American woman in the United States. She is an influential promoter of African-American writers and film production and engages in a variety of philanthropic efforts, such as speaking out against child abuse. Oprah was awarded the Woman of Achievement Award by the National Organization for Women in 1986, and the Image Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) four years in a row (1989 – 1992).

Compare & Contrast

• 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s: The nations of Europe work increasingly toward peace and mutually beneficial trade relations through various international organizations that change names and merge several times over the decades. The European Economic Community, established in 1957, is designed to facilitate peaceful, mutually beneficial trade relations between the nations of Europe. In 1967 the European Economic Community merges with the European Cole and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community to form the European Communities. In 1979 the European Communities establish the European Monetary System to facilitate international trade between its member nations. In the 1980s the European Communities change its name to the European Community. In 1987 the European Community adopts the Single European Act, declaring the intention of creating a free-trade market throughout Europe.
  1990s and Today: The Treaty on European Union, also called the Maastricht Treaty, is completed in 1991. The Maastricht Treaty expands the scope of the European Community, changing its name to the European Union. The European Economic Community is now called the European Community. In 1994 the European Economic Area, an extensive free-trade zone across Western Europe, is created by the European Community. On January 1, 2002, twelve of the fifteen member-nations of the European Union adopt the Euro as their new currency. The Euro represents the increasingly peaceful, cooperative and interdependent relationship between the nations of Europe. The three nations that choose not to adopt the Euro — as well as many individual citizens within the nations adopting the Euro — argue that a single currency will threaten the diversity of cultures represented by the different nations of Europe. However, the terms of the European Union seek to ensure the cultural diversity among its member nations through a provision that all national languages represented by the Union will be preserved.
• 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s: The United States is in a continuing state of Cold War with the Soviet Union, a communist nation. Various arms treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union are designed to reduce the threat of nuclear war between the two superpowers. Within the Soviet Union, many former nations, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, struggle against communist rule for the right to self-determination.
  1990s and Today: Since 1991 the Soviet Union has been dissolved as a communist nation and separated into some eleven independent nations. The nations of the former Soviet Union belong to the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organization to promote peace and prosperity among its member nations. The dissolution of the Soviet Union ends the era of Cold War. However, the United States and Russia continue to negotiate over treaties aimed at reducing arsenals of nuclear arms.
• 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 initiates the implementation of affirmative action policies. Affirmative action policies are designed to help equalize the racial and gender balance in education and employment by allowing women and minorities limited preferential status in hiring and admission to institutions of higher education. In the late 1970s, various court cases arise in which white males claim that affirmative action policies represent “reverse discrimination.”
  1990s and Today: Beginning in 1989, the Supreme Court makes greater and greater restrictions on the scope of Affirmative Action policies, claiming that they are unconstitutional on the grounds of “reverse discrimination.” Various states throughout the United States have passed laws restricting or abolishing affirmative action policies.