The Vital Role of Printing in the Civil Rights Movement

William Lloyd Garrison, the famous abolitionist and journalist of the 1800s, believed that the printed word was a powerful tool for effective communication. Printing allowed him to boldly and broadly disseminate his beliefs. Using newspapers, letters, and pamphlets, he diligently went about the work of advocating for social change and an immediate end to slavery.

Print was important to the Civil Rights movement.

Slave owners too, understood how important printing was to the abolitionist cause. This was nowhere more evident than when, in 1835, after a large shipment of Garrison’s pamphlets was found in a Charleston, South Carolina post office, a group of slave-holding citizens promptly stole them, carried them into the street, and set them on fire. The burning of Garrison's pamphlets was deemed necessary to suppress the spread of abolitionist ideas and maintain control over the narrative surrounding slavery in the South.

The role of printers in shaping our country and enriching our culture is immeasurable. From September 25, 1639, the Sunday America’s first printing press arrived from England, printers have been at the forefront of spreading knowledge, preserving history, and empowering communities. Their work has not only made literature, news, and ideas accessible to the masses, but it has also fueled movements for change and progress.

Print samples vital to the Civil Rights movement.

In 1938, for example, in observation of the 75^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), launched a significant new initiative in their 29-year-old fight against ongoing, racial oppression. They called it a “Crusade for Liberty” and their goal was to achieve, once-and-for-all, the rights, privileges, and opportunities of full citizenship for African Americans, including and especially, equal access to quality education.

To get where they wanted to go, there was one significant, proven resource, one weapon, one tool, that was perhaps more valuable to them than any other asset at the time. It was something that could be leveraged to inform the public, sway opinions, raise money, and unite the nation. Only by leveraging this means could they ever hope to arise victorious in the seemingly impossible struggle to bring about systemic change.

And what was this ultimate, multi-functional, Swiss-army-knife resource?

It was a brochure.

Dwayne Magee (left) with Carolyn McKinstry who was present on September 15, 1963, at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, when the church was bombed and her four young friends were killed.

Last June, the organization I work for sent me on an educational bus trip that took me through 11 states in 9 days. The tour, coordinated annually by The Common Ground Project, focuses on teaching the history of the Civil Rights Movement and features stops in Greensboro, North Carolina; Atlanta and Albany, Georgia; Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; and Canton, Ohio. Along the way the 40 of us on the bus tour watched documentaries, listened to speeches, lectures, and vocal groups, and visited dozens of museums, monuments, and memorials.

Everywhere we stopped, I saw evidence that the fight for civil rights could not have been possible without printing. I saw historical posters promoting significant events. I examined countless membership cards, pins, buttons, and flyers. I inspected brochures explaining the process of voting, mailers outlining organizational strategies for combatting segregation, and pamphlets advising protestors what to do if they were approached by police or arrested.

I learned about how one woman, Jo Ann Robinson, printed 35,000 flyers in one evening on a mimeograph machine, so that information about a bus boycott could spread quickly to churches, schools, and businesses. Her efforts and those leaflets were instrumental in mobilizing the community and igniting a 381-day boycott that would become a landmark event in the Civil Rights Movement.

During that year-long boycott, newsletters and tens of thousands of printed leaflets were critical to the task of getting information out to communities – important information such as pick-up locations for people needing transportation and, eventually, a list of suggestions for integrating busses when the boycott was over.

Perhaps the most powerful printed expression I observed on our tour came in the form of a simple, four-word, single-color, poster. It read "I Am a Man" and it adeptly expressed a demand for recognition of basic human rights. These "I Am a Man" posters emerged during the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers' strike, another pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Ultimately, the posters helped to draw attention to the plight of low-wage workers and helped galvanize support for labor and civil rights reforms.

Can you Imagine? A poster, standing out and mightily, countering decades of systemic racism and dehumanization.

If you are like me, you might be wondering why a book was never written about the significant contribution of printers to the Civil Rights movement. If so, then you will be happy to learn that such a book has been written and it is relatively inexpensive to buy on-line.

The book is written by David L. Crane, founder and curator of Making the Movement: Civil Rights Museum. Crane is a history instructor at Alamance Community College in North Carolina and his book is called Making the Movement: How Activists Fought for Civil Rights with Buttons, Flyers, Pins, and Posters.

His museum is a traveling exhibition that explores the material culture of the Civil Rights Movement, and I am thrilled to invite you to come see it. It will be here, at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, on Monday February 3^rd. Mr. Crane will also be presenting a lecture that evening, celebrating printers, their significant contributions to the movement and their ongoing importance in this digital age.

The significance of the printer’s role in shaping our country and bettering our culture cannot be understated. Printers continue to be the backbone of communication, blending artistry and precision to leave an enduring impact on society and culture for generations to come.

Click here learn more about David Crane, his book, and the traveling museum he is bringing to Messiah University.

To learn more about the Civil Rights Bus Tour, click here to find an embedded 30-minute award-wining documentary. Anyone is invited to consider taking this trip, which usually takes place in June.

For more information about the bus tour or about our upcoming event at Messiah University in February, please email me at DMagee@Messiah.edu.