Cultural Change for the We the People Amendment

ninth in the series

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the South was a continuation of the earlier Abolitionist Movement. Its major achievements were the enactment of the post-Civil War 13th, 14th, and 15th “Reconstruction Amendments” to the U.S. Constitution which abolished slavery, established equal protection and due process under the law, and guaranteed voting rights for Black men.

Lynching by white vigilante groups, poor education, massive segregation and unequal economic opportunities led Blacks to further organize for civil and economic rights. One of the early 20th century public actions was a “Silent Protest Parade” of 10,000 people in New York City in 1917 to protest racial violence and white supremacy.

Inspired by Mohandas Gandhi’s direct action campaigns in India, many Blacks began adopting similar nonviolent tactics in the 1920s, including mass marches, picket lines, boycotts and sit-ins. These efforts led to the integration of public facilities and the creation of jobs in many communities in the 1930s and 1940s. A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters – one of the most powerful Black organizations in the nation – planned a March on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the military industry. The march was called off when President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order in 1941 banning job discrimination. Following the Supreme Court’s 1946 ruling outlawing racial segregation in interstate travel, an interracial group organized the Journey of Reconciliation during which Black and white activists rode buses through parts of the South to test compliance with the decision. In the late 1940s, Black communities, including young people and with support from the NAACP, began pressing for educational desegregation by filing local lawsuits. These actions built momentum and established the legal foundation that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The seminal actions of the Movement from the mid 1950s over the next decade involved hundreds of thousands of individuals, disproportionately from the South. These included the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, sits-ins at lunch counters, restaurants, libraries, theaters and other venues to protest racial segregation; multiple “Freedom Rides;” the “Bloody Sunday” march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; “Freedom Summer” and other massive voter registration campaigns; the March on Washington; the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party delegation at the 1964 Democratic Party convention; and the “Chicago Freedom Movement” to address segregation in education, housing, and employment

The major political achievements of the Movement including the ratification of the 24th Amendment eliminating the Poll Tax in 1964, the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

CULTURAL LESSONS

The Movement was not only a massive organizing effort to secure fundamentally just laws and policies; it was also a cultural and moral revolution that reshaped how Black communities and the nation understood freedom, dignity, and democracy. The are multiple relevant lessons for Move to Amend supporters working to pass the We the People Amendment (HJR54) , which would abolish corporate constitutional rights and end the legal doctrine that defines money as protected free speech under the First Amendment.

Asserting humanity and self-worth

Blacks in the Jim Crow South endured segregation, disenfranchisement, and daily humiliation under a system of institutional racism for decades after the Civil War. This system conditioned many to internalize a colonized mentality in which white people and their values were upheld as superior, while Blacks were relegated at best to the status of second-class citizens. The Movement was thus not only a struggle to dismantle unjust laws and amend the U.S. Constitution, but also a profound effort to reclaim human dignity.

A few of the many ways Blacks asserted their dignity and self-worth and demanded respect were by defining their own identity by self-naming as “Black” rather than “Negro’ or “colored,” by organizing “freedom schools” for self-education; by holding “I Am A Man” and other equivalent signs at protests and by becoming actively involved in the Movement.

The equivalent challenge for Move to Amend activists is to confront and overcome the dominant cultural narrative that only constitutional scholars, corporate leaders, elected officials, historians, and other so-called “experts” are qualified to legitimately call for and work toward fundamental constitutional change. This challenge is reinforced by the conditioned belief that working to amend the Constitution is futile, that such efforts are destined to fail. When internalized, these beliefs create a self-fulfilling reality. In today’s growing authoritarian climate, our organizing may also be dismissed or condemned as “extremist,” “unconstitutional,” or even “un-American.”

Move to Amend supporters must continue to counter this dominant disempowering narrative through self and collective education that we offer, and through visionary actions reflecting our right, if not duty, to organize to enact the We the People Amendment as a step toward fundamental democratization of the Constitution. Simple acts of expressing our support by wearing caps, t-shirts, and buttons; and by holding signs and circulating petitions are further expressions that fundamental changes to the Constitution affirming justice, peace, a livable world and authentic democracy are too important to be left to “experts.” “Human Rights over Corporate Rights,” “Money is Not Speech” and  “A Corporation is Not a Person” must become more frequent slogans at public rallies and marches. 

Nonviolent civil disobedience is an essential strategy for achieving success

Nonviolent civil disobedience is the risking of arrest to bring about social change by refusing peacefully to obey unjust laws. In dramatizing the injustice and willing to accept the consequences – which can include verbal abuse, beatings and other violence actions by the police and/or those responsible for the unjust laws – greater public awareness and support can create pressure on elected officials to take action..

Civil disobedience was a cornerstone of the Movement, The nonviolent actions of Blacks sitting in at segregated lunch counters and abused, Freedom Rides of blacks and whites sitting together on buses and beaten, Blacks attempting to vote and arrested or beaten, and children by the hundreds in the Children’s Crusade trying to march and clubbed by police, attacked by police dogs and blasted by high-pressure fire hoses legitimized the moral urgency for equality. The Movement’s publicity of these actions to the mainstream media caused public outrage and placed unavoidable pressure on the federal government to enact laws dismantling segregation and restoring voting rights. For participants, they were further affirmations of their moral authority, courage,  discipline, empathy and humanity – enhancing their self-worth and dignity.

The We the People Amendment will never pass without a campaign of nonviolent civil disobediance for all the same reasons it was an effective strategy in the Movement. Move to Amend has not organized up to now coordinated, planned acts of civil disobedience. We’ve internally discussed and agreed its need, directed at individual Congresspersons who have not co-sponsored the We the People Amendment. However, the timing and circumstances haven’t been strategically appropriate. Moreover, we’ve not sponsored the necessary disciplined training. This strategy needs to be incorporated going forward, starting with training.

The importance of organizational support in creating a people’s movement 

A people’s movement, obviously, needs people, but it also needs what organizations can contribute. As with every other movement described in this series, the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t just random individuals who showed up to march, rally, risk arrest or register voters in hostile communities. Participants were educated, trained, inspired, and supported by existing organizations – most of them  Black-led. 

The Black church was the bedrock institution. It was the center for spiritual support and affirmation of dignity in the face of institutional oppression, for gaining a moral vision rooted in community, justice, and nonviolence, for organizing actions, for raising money and for recruitment and rallying support for justice. It was a place where training in nonviolent resistance occured. 

But there were other critically important organizations. Previously existing groups that were active during this period were the NAACP, Urban League, the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax, and the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE). New organizations were the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Important Black-led women’s organizations were  Black Women's United Front and the Third World Women's Alliance. The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) was a coalition of the major Movement organizations operating in Mississippi to coordinate and unite voter registration and other civil rights activities in the state. 

The Movement also depended on the support from other non Black-led groups. The Highlander Center in Tennessee served as a “popular education” training center where MLK Jr, Rosa Parks and Septima Clark (mentioned below) strategized direct actions. The United Auto Workers and Teamsters were the leading labor unions that provided important moral, financial and organizational support – including helping organize the 1963 March of Washington. 

Move to Amend stands alone as the only organization whose primary mission is to abolish the Judge-made constitutional doctrines that “money equals free speech” and “a corporation is a person.” While we are supported by hundreds of endorsing organizations, their main focus is on advancing specific social, economic, environmental, political, or legal issues through education, advocacy, and organizing. Many of these leaders recognize that achieving their goals is nearly impossible under current constitutional realities, yet they continue their current path. These groups aren’t designed nor their members experienced to pursue systemic strategies, Their work is rooted in lobbying legislators, defending clients in court, and/or protecting and expanding regulations. The constitutional arena, however, requires a fundamentally different kind of thinking and organizing.

The challenge is different among those interested in constitutional change – foremost being there are very few organizations that have the necessary knowledge, experience, infrastructure, grassroots support and funding. Several organizations (e.g. Wolf-PAC, American Promise, and Free Speech for People) address the issue of money in politics, but barely touch on ending corporate constitutional rights. There’s also no uniformity in strategy – Wolf-PAC supports amending the constitution through a constitutional convention approach, while the others advocate working through Congress. Move to Amend is currently focused on the congressional approach, but under the right conditions would support a convention strategy.

Other individual groups – the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Convention of States Action (COS) focus on reducing federal power and support a constitutional convention approach 

The only current coalition with a major focus on constitutional amendment is Democracy 2076. Their A Constitution for 2076 project outlines nearly two dozen generally-worded amendments – including one addressing reducing money in politics. 

There are additional growing energies to prioritize constitutional change, but are focused on educational seminars, webinars, conferences, podcasts, and blogs on a wide range of proposed changes. Academia is becoming more focused on constitutional renewal, reflected by a slew of new books and public discussions and presentations  by political and constitutional professors calling for constitutional change, claiming our current system is inadequate to address our current polycrises. Move to Amend is connected to the Next Systems Studies program at George Mason University in exploring how our proposed amendment fits in with proposals for economic, social and environmental system changes. Meanwhile, Congressional representatives have introduced several amendments focusing money in elections and corporate power – many of which include reversing the Citizens United 2010 decision.

The bottom line is that no unified movement yet exists to amend the Constitution to abolish corporate constitutional rights and money as speech. For the past 15 years, Move to Amend has remained consistent in both our proposed amendment and our strategy. By contrast, new individuals and groups entering this struggle bring important energy and ideas, but their efforts are understandably diverse. There is, moreover, no historical playbook in the United States for building a coalition broad enough to achieve the breadth and depth of constitutional change we seek. In many respects, we are and remain at the forefront. The opportunities before us are real and growing, but there is still a very long way to go. 

The power of literature, poems, music, and political writings

The arts weren’t merely an extension of the Movement but an essential component, furthering a culture of self-determination, pride, and political consciousness. They became a powerful vehicle for expanding the Movement’s reach and strengthening its capacity to resist racial injustice and advance social change.

Seminal Black literature from the era included poems like Maya Angelou's Still I Rise, Langston Hughes' I, Too and Nikki Giovanni’s Black Feeling, Black Talk; and prose works such as Richard Wright's Native Son and James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain; and Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun. 

The Movement inspired music and music inspired activism. The traditional spiritual We Shall Overcome, maybe the most famous protest song of all time, was slightly modified and became the Movement's anthem, sung at marches and rallies to provide psychological strength and unity to activists. Other anthems were A Change Is Gonna Come and Keep on Pushing by Sam Cooke and Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam. Aretha Franklin’s Respect reflected the spirit of empowerment, while the gospel music of Mahalia Jackson, provided spiritual strength and a call for change. Finally, the political writings of the era provided information, inspiration and, often, a moral anchor for justice. Among the many writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., his Letter from Birmingham Jail, proclaimed that people have a moral responsibility to defy unjust law and must take action rather than waiting for change through lawsuits and court decisions.

The centrality of the arts in defining culture – be it mainstream or alternative – can’t be overstated. The range and influence of popular culture supporting the struggle to end corporate rule and money as speech through the We the People Amendment pales in comparison to the cultural power harnessed during the Civil Rights Movement.

Part of the reason is that our collective effort remains small in comparison. As noted above, there is still no unified movement dedicated to enacting the We the People Amendment.

The clarity and publicity of Blacks being beaten, attacked by dogs, humiliated at lunch counters, suppressed in voting, and existing in separate, unequal living conditions sparked a degree of disgust and moral outrage that have not triggered an equivalent emotional or intellectual reaction connected to the vast harms to people, communities and the natural world caused by corporate rule and money in elections. The connections are still too indirect and not immediately as glaring, while the solution is perceived as not possible.

Yet, popular culture is increasingly critical of corporate power and the corruption of money in politics, which has contributed to the distrust of big business (15% this year) and Congress (10% this year). The list of films both past and present critiquing corporate power is long. Many have focused on regular people taking on corporate giants. There’s an entire genre of dystopian and science fiction films. There’s no shortage of anti-corporate documentaries, including The Corporation. Films on money in politics are much fewer in number and tend to be more documentaries – including Wealth of the Wicked and Ohio Confidential.

Novels exploring themes of corporate power include Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, which portrays a future where corporations act like city-states. There’s several fictional pieces of discrimination against women in the corporate workplace. David Korten’s When Corporations Rule the World, Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, and Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine are among many non-fiction books on corporate power.

Contemporary musicians have a long history of criticizing corporations. Pink Floyd’s Money, Bruce Springsteen’s My Hometown, and Neil Young’s This Note’s For You are a few examples by prominent rock artists. Anti corporate and establishment musicians pervade every genre: folk, hip-hop, punk and metal artists. Beyond lyrics, many artists, including Taylor Swift, have challenged the corporate music industry by taking a stand against record labels, streaming services, and ticket monopolies. 

While many of these works effectively critique corporate power and the influence of money in politics, only a few explore fundamental systemic solutions. Dark Money implicates the Citizens United decision, but ends there. Only When Corporations Rule the World and documentary The Corporation highlights how corporate charters were once democratic tools to define corporate actions and mentions corporate constitutional rights. More recently, the first few minutes of the Barbie movie shows an all female Supreme Court hearing a female attorney declare that “money is not speech and corporations have no free speech rights to begin with.”

This leaves the task of continuing to plant the cultural seeds for the We the People Amendment to us. The closest we have to a cultural or political manifesto is our 2012 Why We Need a Democracy Movement. Our major documentary Legalize Democracy and short films Why we need the We the People Amendment and Peter Coyote on why he supports Move to Amend's efforts to overturn Citizens United are important efforts. Our YouTube channel has 349 entries of programs, presentations, interviews, training, testimonials and other visual works. Our social media postings have become more visually attractive and concise with the result that some several individual postings have attracted tens of thousands of reactions. We’ve also compiled our own list of Creative Resistance songs, poems, literature, plays, and music for our supporters to use. Its goals are to inspire, motivate, stimulate and bring together both existing and new supporters to expand our collective efforts, feelings, thoughts and actions. 

We’ve begun to intentionally seek out prominent “influencers” who can help inform and recruit massive new supporters. This must become a greater priority.

We must constantly work to assert equality to create a powerful movement

Sexism was pervasive in the Movement, which was dominated by Black men in leadership of Black organizations and campaigns. Many were ministers – the most prominent being Martin Luther King, Jr, Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lowry, and Fred Shuttlesworth – the product of a patriarchal culture where male pastors occupied the top of a hierarchical power structure. Women were excluded from formal leadership roles, denied prominent speaking roles (i.e. none spoke at the March on Washington), and their contributions were downplayed in the implementation of critical projects and campaigns. Women also faced sexual harassment and the pressures from Black men to prioritize racial justice over gender equality to maintain the momentum and unitt. 

Rosa Parks may have been the most popularly known woman of the Movement, despite the incredible contributions of women like  Ella Baker, a key behind-the-scenes organizer for groups like the NAACP and SNCC; Fannie Lou Hamer, a pivotal figure in voting rights campaigns; Diane Nash, who led the Nashville sit-ins and Freedom Rides; and Dorothy Height, who worked to improve opportunities for Black women and helped organize the March on Washington. The most uncredited woman may have been Septima Clark, who I learned about while studying at Highlander Center. An educator, Clark trained beauticians across the South in Citizenship Schools to become teachers of adult literacy and voting rights in their Black beauty parlors.

Homophobia was also widespread. Black activists like Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin were marginalized and faced expulsion, censure, and reduced public roles due to their sexual orientation. Rustin, the originator and major coordinator of the March on Washington, was intentionally kept behind-the-scenes, in large part due his sexual orientation.

Discrimination divides and weakens. It reduces the chance for those who have skills and abilities to fully participate and develop trust.. And it can distract – with energy focused on why some should not be included. It dehumanizes. It’s undemocratic. We the People have never included all the people because of discrimination and oppression. Move to Amend leadership and supporters can’t afford to discriminate. 

We must commit to being genuinely inclusive of individuals of all races, genders, incomes, sexual orientations, religions, and physical abilities. We must also speak up respectfully to one another whenever we witness or experience oppression.

Move to Amend’s Movement Education Program should be consistently referenced as a resource for study, discussion, and reflection on a range of topics – including how to recognize, address, and overcome various forms of oppression. As a person born with different physical abilities and having experienced many instances of overt and subtle discrimination, I have always felt respected by the Move to Amend community. We must work to make everyone feel this same sense of acceptance and respect.

Constitutional change is more permanent than legislative change

The “poll tax” in the U.S. was a fixed amount of money (about $1-$2)  levied on each voting age adult per year linked to the right to vote. The tax was passed by 11 Southern states in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was one of several undemocratic legal schemes  – including grandfather clauses, white-only primaries, literacy tests, closed registration lists, and straightforward intimidation – used to prevent Blacks (and in many cases poor whites) from voting. Grassroots pressure forced its repeal in many states in the early to mid 20th century. Poll taxes remained in place in only 5 states by 1962: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia. 

Increasing demonstrations and civil disobedience in the early 1960s  included ending the tax, though this was only one part of what was needed in  the broader struggle for justice. Mass arrests, intimidation, beatings and killings by local police and the KKK throughout the South in response to growing activism – magnified by increasing media attention – forced the Kennedy administration and Congress to use federal legislation and the courts to initiate civil rights reform. 

Ironically, the poll tax was the first target. The 24th Amendment was passed in 1964, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections. The Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections in 1966 that poll taxes for state and local elections were also unconstitutional, finding them in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were the Movement’s monumental legislative achievements.They were testaments to the incredible commitment, courage, strength, faith, and organizational effectiveness of its leaders and participants. Yet, the Acts were just that – laws. Legislation passed one day or year can be altered or reversed the next day or year by legislation or court decision. This is exactly what has since happened. The 2013 Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision gutted the “preclearance” provision of the Voting Rights Act that ensured that state laws on voting were not racially discriminatory. States have since passed over 100 restrictive voter laws.

By contrast, the 24th Amendment is more permanent, institutionalized, and insulated from reversal. Yet its scope was narrow. The Amendment was important but ultimately symbolic, addressing only one barrier to voting while leaving numerous others intact.

This was, in hindsight, nevertheless a missed opportunity. What if the Civil Rights Movement had demanded more? What if, instead of tackling voting barriers one at a time, it had called for a constitutional guarantee of the right to vote and eliminating all forms of disenfranchisement? The momentum of the era – rooted in a cultural transformation and becoming an ever more interracial movement – might have been translated into one or more additional constitutional amendments locking in civil and voter rights, shielding what should be fundamental inalienable rights from the whims of racists and authoritarians who are looking to further gut what legal voting rights remain. The chance to enshrine the cultural revolution and Movement into a structural guarantee of democracy was lost.

For Move to Amend, the lesson is clear: true self-determination cannot exist while money counts as speech and “corporate personhood” (i.e., corporate constitutional rights) remains entrenched. Laws, no matter how well-intentioned, are less powerful than constitutional amendments. Reversing Citizens United alone is, in some ways, like abolishing the poll tax – an important step, but far from sufficient. Money as speech and corporate constitutional rights would still exist

The ultimate solution must be proportionate to the ultimate problem. If elections are corrupted due to massive money flowing into elections and corporations are increasingly ruling every aspect of our lives, then the constitutional shield protecting money power as “speech” and corporate power as “rights” need to be abolished.

—-

For Move to Amend, these lessons are urgent. The Civil Rights Movement shows us the power of affirming dignity, the effectiveness of nonviolence, and the necessity of culture in sustaining resistance. But it also shows us the limits of incremental reforms. Laws alone are not enough. 

To secure democracy for all, we must have a greater vision and strategy —toward structural, constitutional transformation.

That is the purpose of the We the People Amendment. It is not a piecemeal reform, nor a temporary fix. It is a systemic change to end corporate constitutional rights and to reject the corrosive idea that money is free speech. Just as the Movement sought to affirm humanity in the face of systemic racism, Move to Amend  seeks to affirm the sovereignty of people over corporations and wealth.

The Civil Rights Movement reminds us that cultural change must be matched by constitutional change. Today, we have a similar opportunity: to transform the current trajectory toward authoritarianism, coupled with growing public outrage and active resistance to political corruption and corporate power into structural, constitutionally grounded change that truly creates real democracy for the first time.

—

Note: Organizing for civil rights wasn’t limited to the South. The Black Power Movement was a political and social movement, present largely in the North, that emerged in the 1960s. Its agenda included some of the same cultural (e.g. promotion of Black identity, cultural pride black art and literature, and personal empowerment), issues (e.g. racism and systemic inequality) and strategic (e.g. voter registration and community organizing) components of the Civil Rights Movement. But it is different in significant ways. It focused more heavily on issues of police brutality and poverty. It rejected the integration strategies of the Civil Rights movement in favor of advocating for self-determination and economic and political independence and institutions, which gave rise to black nationalism and the formation of the Black Panther Party. It advocated for armed self-defense to be used when necessary. It also consciously integrated meeting people's immediate felt needs and educating and organizing for systemic change -- a topic to be explored more in-depth in the next article on the Agrarian Populist Movement of the late 19th century.