Institutionalism in the Civil Rights Movement

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Q&A: Civil Rights Movement and Institutionalism

1. Since institutionalism is the idea that institutions have their own interests, what were the interests and motives of the instructions present during the CRM?

- I think that it would be product, for the purposes of this discussion, to exemplify through the notion of historical institutionalism since what we are going to go through are institutions or groups that were involved in the conflict whose aim is to preserve their interests. First off, there is the 'old Guard'. This is a social institution of cultural framework. It means it is not just one organization - it is a number, one wherein the notion of 'separate but equal' is seen as the rule of thumb. It is possible to say that these historical institution regarded the Blacks as a 'lesser' people what with the history of said ethnicity 'serving' or having always been 'beneath' the mass-white, the major group with hegemony over the nation. Charles Tilly (1984) refers to such an institution as made up of, "big structures, large processes." Then government thus had an interest in keeping the separate but equal rule due to the tensions between ethnicity but primarily because the move of equality is not the most popular to the electorate. The notion of racial equality is not just for the Blacks but includes Hispanics and any other minority race and would require the then order to enact laws that will change the status qou - it was a can of worms that can lead to gender equality, pay equality, female suffrage and equal opportunity.

With power and influence protected by the elite, the institutionalized patriarchy that instituted the separate but equal and non-integration views felt threatened by the movement. The minority institutions - the Blacks, the women, the Hispanics - all of them shared the hope that they can achieve equal rights, that segregation will be outlawed, that the system will be equal opportunity. The motive behind their movement is all about what they deem as fighting for justice fuelled by the work of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for example as well as ...