Wait...Gerry Dies?

The first time I watched Remember the Titans was quite depressing.  I remember watching the first half of the movie and thinking "This isn't going very well for them."  Then, as the movie progressed, I was thinking "Hey this could work out!"  And then Gerry's accident happened and it completely caught me by surprise.  Once he got behind the wheel of the car, and the audience sees him driving, I remember people whispering during the movie in theaters, knowing that something bad was going to happen.  However, if anything good did come from this accident, the audience gets to see the most emotional part of the entire movie...the bedside conversation between Gerry and Julius.  Julius hears of Gerry's accident and he rushes to the hospital to find the waiting room filled with his teammates, coaches, and members of the town.  Julius approaches Coach Boone almost as if he already knows how bad it is.  Coach tells Julius that Gerry is paralyzed from the waist down and the audience can see the anguish in Julius' face.  Julius then goes to Gerry's mother who says "He only wants to see you Julius."

Julius goes towards the hospital room where Gerry is, and when he's about to enter the room, the nurse stops him.  "Only kin's allowed in here."  Gerry responds with "Alice.  Are you blind?  Can't you see the family resemblance?  He's my brother."  When Julius approaches the bed, the only thing he can muster to say is "I should have been there with you.  You can't be hurt like this.  You're Superman."  The audience is able to see the dramatic change that has been made in the friendship between Gerry and Julius.  Throughout the second half of the movie, once Gerry and Julius gave their friendship a chance, Julius always called Gerry Superman.  Throughout the semester, we discussed comic heroes that had impacts on specific time periods (lecture).  Superman was one of the comic heroes that we discussed.  After a few moments of silence, Gerry tells Julius that "I was afraid of you Julius.  I only saw what I was afraid of.  And now I know that I was only hating my brother."  This brings up one of the documents that I discussed in an earlier blog.  In the Major Problems document "Journalist Tom Wolfe Describes the New Politics of Confrontation, 1970" Wolfe describes that when black people first began using the confrontation tactic, they brought fear into the face of the white man (Major Problems document "Journalist Tom Wolfe Describes the New Politics of Confrontation, 1970").

In the final part of the film, the audience watches as the Titans win the championship game and are Virginia State Champions.  "The Titans danced their way into history."  Sheryl, Coach Yoast's daughter, narrates that ten years later, Gerry died in a car accident.  In the closing remark of the movie, Sheryl states "People say that it can't work, black and white.  Well here we make it work every day.  We have out disagreements, of course, but before we reach for hate, always we remember the titans."  At Gerry's funeral, the players hum "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye."  The film ends showing Coach Boone and Coach Yoast standing together at the funeral, not allowing anything to get between them and their players of ten years ago. 

Gay Rights and Stereotyping

One of the subtle historical antecedents that can be connected to Remember the Titans is gay rights, stereotyping, and the counterculture that arose in the 1960s and 1970s.  Halfway through the film, the audience is introduced to a new characters that joins the football team during their camp.  One day during practice, a military father comes to the practice and explains to Coach Boone and Coach Yoast that him and his son just moved to the area and that his son was interested in playing with T.C. Williams.  The father was impressed with T.C. Williams because both African American and white players were integrated together.  When the coaches were talking to the father and son, Gerry made a snide comment to the rest of his teammates about the new guy, which is later given the nickname "Sunshine," that he looked like a fruitcake.  Sunshine was a white player who had long hair and had the general Hippie look that came into popularity during the 1970s (Hist page 466).  The stereotyping that the players placed upon Sunshine reminds me a lot of the Columbia student from Major Problems.  In the document "A Protester at Columbia University Defends Long Hair and Revolution," the student is tired of having stereotypes and associations placed upon him because of the length of his hair (Major Problems document "A Protester at Columbia University Defends Long Hair and Revolution").  The student makes the argument that as far as he knew, there was no correlation between hair length and violence, or hair length and intelligence.  The Columbia student argues that he should be able to have his hair long and be able to have a hairstyle that is however long he chooses it to be.  The student is arguing for the right to individualism and self-expression (lecture 11/10/11).  Within the first minute of seeing Sunshine, the players were already stereotyping him as being gay or being a hippie.  During the late 1960s, America saw the growth of a counterculture of young people who rejected traditional politics and social values (Hist page 465).  People who adhered with the counterculture, also called hippies, rejected the attempts to change American society and instead chose to "check out" of society (Hist page 466).

In the next scene, Sunshine decides to make a move that extremely upsets Gerry.  In the locker room, Sunshine tells Gerry that he knows why Gerry is trying to make fun of him in front of the rest of his teammates.  Gerry, looking confused, did not expect it when Sunshine swoops in and kisses Gerry in the locker room, in front of the rest of their teammates.  Gerry, being extremely upset, charges at Sunshine and tries to fight him.  The issue of gay rights can definitely be discussed here in this scene.  It is never really clear whether Sunshine was being serious when he kissed Gerry, or if he was just trying to make a point.  During the 1970s, gay men and lesbians tried to begin demanding equality.  People in the gay rights movement argued that since barriers against racial and religious minorities were beginning to collapse, their group should also begin to be recognized as societal equals (Hist page 481).  One of the major problems that gay rights advocates had to face was that consensual sex between two people of the same sex was illegal in almost every state (Hist page 481).

In the next scene, the players are eating lunch in the lunchroom when Petey, an African American player on the team, approaches Sunshine about kissing Gerry.  Petey asks Sunshine if he was just messing around or if he was serious.  Sunshine plays like he does not know what Petey is talking about.  Petey says that he has a right to know because he is Sunshine's roommate and he doesn't want Sunshine to make a move on him.  Still playing like he doesn't know what he is talking about, Sunshine finally says "If it's not that big a deal, then why talk about it?"  Finally, Petey loses his cool and screams "You know what I'm talking about, stop messing with my mind!"  The interesting point that comes up here is why Sunshine continually plays like he doesn't know what Petey is talking about.  It seems like Sunshine is playing with Petey, as if its a game.  The Major Problems document "Carl Wittman Issues a Gay Manifesto, 1969-1970" is a document that discusses the gay rights movement and the fact that the group that was fighting for gay rights wanted to be treated as societal equals, just like everyone else (Major Problems document "Carl Wittman Issues a Gay Manifesto, 1969-1970").  Carl Wittman discusses that he wants everybody that is gay to come out and be inspired by black people and all of their movements (lecture 11/10/11).  The group is trying to not be discriminated against and be recognized/accepted as a group.

Battle of Gettysburg

The scene at the Battle of Gettysburg is the most well known scene in the film Remember the Titans.  In the middle of the time being spent at football camp, Coach Boone wakes the players up at 3 A.M. and makes them go on a run, following him into the woods.  Once Coach Boone stops, he gives a speech to his team that has been used many times in high school football halftime speeches throughout the country and is considered one of the best "rally them up speeches of all time."  Because I think that the entire speech is important to the film as well as historical context, the entire speech is written below:

"Anybody know what this place is?  This is Gettysburg.  This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg.  Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves today.  This green field right here was painted red, bubbling with the blood of young boys.  Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies.  Listen to their souls men.  'I Killed my brother with malice in my heart.'  'Hatred destroyed my family.'  You listen and you take a lesson from the dead.  If we don't come together right now, then we, too, will be destroyed.  Just like they were.  I don't care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other, and maybe, I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men."

Up to this point in the movie, the black and white players had not been interacting to the liking of Coach Boone, even if he tried to force them to interact by using a buddy system.  However, this speech would change everything for this team.  It is clear that the speech that Coach Boone makes here is the turning point in the movie.  Coach Boone tells the team that the men that died fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg were "fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves today."  The battle took place in 1863, so Coach Boone was making the point that although over one hundred years had passed since that battle, the fight against racism and segregation is just as prevalent now as it was back then.  Coach Boone even goes to the extent to say make the point that the Civil War broke up families and brothers killed brothers.  Boone urges them to "take a lesson from the dead."  The intensity and prevalence with which Coach Boone gives this speech is absolutely astounding.  Probably the most important line in the entire film "If we don't come together right now, then we, too, will be destroyed.  Just like they were."  The parallels that Coach Boone is making between the Civil War and the team's fight to truly integrate into one is moving to the players, who stand there listening.  Speechless.

The historical context of this scene is just slightly out of the time period for this class because the Battle of Gettysburg took place during the Civil War, which was content that was not covered in this class.  However, I think that it is extremely prevalent to understand the connections that Coach Boone is trying to make between the Civil War and the fight against segregation in the South during the 1970s.  This Gettysburg Speech to me seems very similar to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech which was given in 1963 during the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Hist page 454).  The speeches are similar because both King and Coach Boone are asking for change in the area of equality for African Americans and for every race to be treated as equals.  It is also interesting to note that both were speaking to an audience of both whites and blacks (lecture 11/8/11).  Coach Boone was obviously speaking to both his white and black players.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was also speaking to African Americans as well as white Americans.  Both feel that changes need to be made in order to survive in the world that they live in (Hist page 455).

Attitude Reflects Leadership

One of the most important aspects of this movie is the interaction between the black and white players and how the interaction changes throughout the movie.  When the players were at first forced together, there was stereotyping and mistrust between the white and African American players.  This is one of my favorite parts of the movie and it reflects how the attitude that a person has will have a great effect upon the organization or team that they are working with.  Gerry confronts Julius for being a selfish player and never playing for the team.  Julius argues back that he plays in this selfish way because Gerry only cares about the white players, and could care less about the black players.  The line "attitude reflects leadership" in this context means that the attitude of the player is dictated by how the leader behaves.  There is a great lack of motivation between both the black and white players.  The lack of objectivity that Gerry has forces him to see the black players as not as good as the white players.  With the preconceived notions that they both have, it will take a long time and a lot of hard work to bring these two to work together.

The historical connections that can be made for this scene in the movie have to do with Project "C" that took place in 1963.  Trying to build on the success of nonviolence, in1963 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launched a campaign in what was argued as the most segregated city in America, Birmingham, Alabama.  Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC started the campaign Project C, which stood for confrontation (Hist page 454).  The group organized marches in which they protested segregation even though Birmingham's mayor outlawed these such protests.  More than 20,000 black people were arrested, which included thousands of children.  The police in Birmingham used brutal force such as police dogs and electrical prods against the African Americans that chose to march.  The campaign ended in a somewhat bitter victory for the civil rights protesters (Hist page 454).  When I first read about this in the textbook, I felt that it was necessary for the SCLC to fight against segregation in Birmingham because it was the most segregated place.  If the group was able to be victorious in Birmingham, then they could probably be victorious in almost any other place.

I see a connection here to this scene in Remember the Titans to the campaign Project C.  The connection is that if Coach Boone wanted to bring the black and white players together, then he would need to first bring Gerry and Julius together because they are the leaders of both of the races.  Gerry is the leader of the white players and Julius seems to be the leader of the black players.  If Coach Boone is able to succeed in bringing these two together, then he would probably also succeed in bringing the rest of the team together because the rest of the team will follow in the steps of Gerry and Julius.  Another connection that I see here is one with the Major Problems document "Multiracialism (and Detente) on TV: Star Trek, 1967."  The document shows the multiracialism that was present in the television show Star Trek (Major Problems document "Multiracialism (and Detente) on TV: Star Trek, 1967").  There is also obviously multiracialism here in Remember the Titans as well.  This is even more evident in this scene because the audience sees the great distinction between the polarization of the characters of Gerry and Julius.  One final Major Problems document that I see being prevalent in a discussion of this scene is the document "Journalist Tom Wolfe Describes the New Politics of Confrontation, 1970."  In the document, Wolfe describes that African Americans started using the confrontation tactic to impose fear in the face of white Americans (Major Problems document "Journalist Tom Wolfe Describes the New Politics of Confrontation, 1970").  During this scene of the movie, I think you can really see that, for the first time, Gerry is scared of Julius.  

Why Don't You Go Eat With Your People?

The lunchroom scene while the players were at football camp speaks a lot about the segregation that was still present within the football team.  The tables in the lunch room were segregated white or black tables.  At the beginning of the camp, there was no mixing of the races at the lunch tables.  Louis Lastik, a very large white offensive lineman, walked into the lunchroom and sat at the table with the African Americans.  When Louis sits down, Julius, his black teammate, asks him what he is doing.  Louis answers with a simple "eating lunch" in which Julius responds with "I see you eating lunch, but why you eating over here?  Why don't you go over there, and eat with your people?"  Louis answers with a line that has become iconic with the film: "Man, I don't have any people.  I'm with everybody Julius."  This is just the kind of interaction that Coach Boone wants between the teammates but Louis seems to be the only one that is making any attempt at interaction with members of the opposite race.  While Louis is sitting at the table, one of the white players at the other table says "Look at that traitor.  And Rev?  He better be praying that I block for his black behind."  It is extremely clear that there is still a lot of tension between the black and white players.  The lunchroom scene can be seen on the video at a time of around 4:20.

One of the interesting characterizations here that can tie into things that we have talked about in class is the characterization of Rev, aka Jerry Harris.  Rev is a very religious African American who plays quarterback for the team.  When Julius is giving Louis a hard time, Rev says "Come on Julius, he's just another blessed child in God's loving family."  The group then starts to hum "Amazing Grace."  From this scene, it is clear to me that the character of Jerry "Rev" Harris can be compared to a black Baptist minister of reverend of the 1960s (Hist page 445).  We are even told that he is called "Rev" because its short for reverend because he is always preaching about God.  Rev can be compared to Martin Luther King, Jr. or members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).  The group was created to try to challenge Jim Crow laws in a direct way (Hist page 445).  Rev can be said to be trying to challenge the preconceived "laws" that the football players have about not interacting with the other race.  The fact that Rev befriends Louis, a white player, goes even further to show that his character is trying to serve as peacemaker during the problems of bringing the team together.  It can also be noted that Rev does all of this in a nonviolent manner which reminds me even more of a reverend like Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1960s. 

The song "Amazing Grace" also plays an important role in this scene as well as the movie as a whole.  For this scene, the African American players hum the song to try to bring Julius to not being so against interaction with Louis, and the white players in general.  The song is always seen as an uplifting song that is able to rise people up and fight against the problems that they are facing.  Because African Americans were so mistreated throughout this time period, songs like "Amazing Grace" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" were songs that were able to uplift African Americans from the struggles that they were facing.  Songs like these were sung also to get people's minds off of the struggles that they were facing.  The religious tone of the song also attributes to the time period because African Americans were very involved with they churches and cited their faith as something that was very important to them.

Are We Really Desegregated?

After the white coaches and players show up to the football team meeting that is being held by Coach Boone, the announcement is made that the boys will be attending football camp before the start of the season.  When all of the white and black coaches and players show up to leave to go to camp, an interesting situation occurs.  When the players get ready to leave on the two buses, Coach Boone notices that the buses are segregated.  There is one bus with African Americans players and another bus with white players.  Although the school is integrated as T.C. Williams High School, it is very clear that the players are still segregated.  Coach Boone goes onto each bus and tells everybody to get off the bus.  After everyone is off the buses, Coach Boone tells the team that he wants everybody that is trying out to be on offense on one side and everybody that is trying out for defense on the other side.  There is then an offensive bus and a defensive bus that has both white and black players.  Coach Boone takes it even farther by pairing up each player with somebody else in a "buddy system."  It is not a surprise that most of the pairings are of one black player and one white player.  This is a common theme that is brought up throughout the first half of the film.  Although the school is integrated together, Coach Boone feels like he needs to forcefully make the black and white players spend time with one another.  Coach Boone is having to forcefully desegregate his football team.

This aspect of the film can be tied to desegregation on almost any level.  First, one could consider the desegregation of the military by President Truman in 1948 (Hist page 443).  Second, one could also consider desegregation in sports which was previously discussed in the Blog post "Desegregation in Sports" (Hist page 444).  And of course, one could also discuss desegregation of schools, which was discussed in my post on Brown v. Board of Education (Hist page 444).

Something else that can be discussed about in this part of the movie is the bus boycotts that took place in the 1950s.  The resistance of white southerners did not prevent African Americans from trying to push for equal treatment on all levels.  Civil rights activism actually increased in the 1950s, despite an increased amount of violence as well.  After a successful bus boycott in 1953 in Baton Rouge and the public disgust over the Emmett Till murder, a major breakthrough occurred in 1955 (Hist page 445).  In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a "whites only" section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  The Major Problems document "Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Defends Seamstress Rosa Parks, 1955," shows that the African American community completely backed what Rosa Parks did (Major Problems document "Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Defends Seamstress Rosa Parks, 1955").  In fact, after Rosa Park's arrest, the African American community in Birmingham, Alabama, which had been planning the event for some time, boycotted the city's bus system.  Even though there was much revenue lost, the white owners of the city bus system refused to integrate the seating (Hist page 445).  One major difference between the bus boycotts during the 1950s and the bus scene in Remember the Titans is that Coach Boone had to forcibly make the players get off of the buses.

Once the offensive/defensive buses were set up, the group was on their way to football camp.  One other interesting thing to note about this scene is what happened on the defensive bus on the way to camp.  One of the African American players, called "Blue," began singing the song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and tried to get some more of the African American players to sing along with the song.  This is an interesting song choice to have the African American players sing as their sort of "anthem."  The song was of course chosen for a reason and it is easy to understand that the African American players are saying that there isn't any mountain or valley that is high or low enough that can stop us.  This song becomes one of the iconic song of the movie.  Julius, one of the African American players who will end up playing linebacker like Gerry, tells Blue "Shut up! I don't wanna see your smilin or shufflin or hear your minstrel show singing on this bus."  A good point can be made here that Blue, one of the happy African Americans that can't seem to be brought down, is told to be quiet by Julius, who is one of the angry African American players who will quarrel with Gerry throughout the first half of the movie.  In a lecture at the beginning of the year, we discussed minstrelsy shows so that is another connection that can be made with what Julius said to Blue.

The Sit-Ins Turned Into the Sit-Outs

After losing his job as the football coach at T.C. Williams High School, Coach Yoast announces to his white players and their parents that he will be taking the year off from coaching and moving to be the head coach of a new high school the following year.  One of the parents of the white players says, "I say boycott T.C. Williams.  Our boys aren't playing for some Coach Coon."  The fact that the parents of the white football players are so upset that the head coach of their boys is now African American goes to show the racism and white superiority that was still present in the 1970s in the South.  Gerry Bertier, one of the white linebackers that played for Coach Yoast and one of the main characters in the film, says to Coach Yoast "He stole your job.  I'm not playing for him.  I started a petition and I'm sitting this season out."  This scene in the movie reminded me very much of the Sit-Ins that took place in 1960.  There is a lot of similarity between the two scenarios but one key difference as well.  In the Sit-Ins, African American boys were going to sit-in at a restaurant until they were served coffee (Hist page 453).  In Remember the Titans, the white players argue that they are going to Sit-Out of the season and not play this year.  Both groups are essentially doing the same thing, protesting because they do not agree with the way that things are now.

On February 1, 1960, four black college freshmen began a sit-in at a local lunch counter in Greensboro.  The young, African American men said that they would not leave until they were served a cup of coffee.  This was usually refused in a segregated society (Hist page 453).  The students sat patiently at the lunch-counter, not causing any problems or being rowdy in any manner, until the store closed.  The next day, twenty-seven students sat-in and within a few days there were more students than there were seats available.  Because there were no more seats, this prompted the students to spread the protest to other white-only restaurants in the city (Hist page 453).  On the Blog website Teaching United States History, Kevin Schultz discusses the Greensboro Four in his Blog post titled "Frustrations from teachings civil rights...."  Schultz states that it is an inspiring story about college students making a difference (Blog website Teaching United States History).  By the end of the month, students in other southern cities began similar protests.  Although many students participated in the sit-ins, the students largely were confronted with problems such as having food thrown at them, cigarettes were put out on their arms, and many were even forcibly removed from their seats.  However, faced with these constant humiliations, the students remained nonviolent and refused to retaliate in any matter (Hist page 453).  Because sales were dipping so low at their stores, many southern business owners agreed to desegregate.  The similarity between the Sit-Ins of the 1960s and the "Sit-Out" of the white players in Remember the Titans shows that protesting in a nonviolent way can sometimes get progress to be made. 

In the middle of the year in 1960, after a few months of Sit-Ins taking place throughout the Upper South, the students now organized a group by the name of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  Because SNCC was composed of young college students, SNCC had the most energetic membership of civil rights organizations.  The group helped to spread sit-ins throughout the Upper South (Hist page 453).  Sticking to their nonviolent ways, the college students had the dream of living in an integrated America.  This is where I see a difference between the Sit-Ins of the 1960s and the "Sit-Outs" in Remember the Titans.  SNCC had the dream of living in an integrated America while the white players in Remember the Titans were trying to disallow the desegregation that was happening in their school.  Although both stood by nonviolent ways, that was a major difference that I saw between the two.   

Desegregation in Sports

The film Remember the Titans centers around the newly desegregated high school football team at T.C. Williams High School.  Throughout the film, the players as well as coaches are faced with the problem of forcing the two races to work together towards a common goal.  From the start, it looks as if all hope is lost for anything positive coming out from integrating the school together.  Before the season even starts, the two coaches, Coach Boone and Coach Yoast seem to be polar opposites of one another.  When Coach Boone goes to the house of Coach Yoast to try to get him to be the Assistant Coach/Defensive Coach, there is a struggle as to decide how best to handle playing time for the football team.  Coach Boone states, "The best player will play.  Color won't matter."  After a slight pause, Coach Yoast says "From the looks of the situation that we got here, it looks like that's about all that does."  It is clear from the get go that there are going to be major challenges in trying to put this football team together.  Coach Boone then asks Coach Yoast to stay as Assistant Head Coach to "help smooth things out for the city."  Yoast: "You mean work under you?" Boone: "If that's the way you see it."  The two coaches are having a hard time seeing the "rank" of one another because Coach Boone, the African American head coach, is not used to being at the top, with a white coach under him.  And Coach Yoast, the white coach, is not used to having to "work under" an African American head coach.  The class divisions that have been previously set up throughout American history up to this point always had whites as being "superior" to African Americans. 

Desegregation in sports came around the year 1947 and is mostly known by the career of African American baseball player Jackie Robinson (lecture 11/1/11).  The sport of professional baseball is a good example of civil rights liberalism that took place in the late 1940s.  Jackie Robinson, a World War II veteran, made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  When Robinson joined professional baseball at first, he knew that his presence may generate hostility.  Robinson promised not to retaliate against racist taunts that were used against him (Hist page 444).  What Jackie Robinson had to go through was very different from anything that professional athletes have to go through now.  Fans threw debris at Robinson, some rival players ever attacked him, and to take it even further, he was often stopped from eating with his teammates on the road (Hist page 444).  In spite of having to deal with all of this, Robinson was amazing.  Robinson "won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1947 and the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1949" (Hist page 444).  Robinson was later the first African American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  The progress that Jackie Robinson made allowed for other stars of the Negro Leagues to enter the majorly white leagues.   

In the Major Problems document "Nisei Soldier Honored with the Gold Star--and by Jackie Robinson,1944," it is discussed that Nisei soldiers sometimes received decorations for bravery.  The soldiers were sometimes defended by Americans who opposed racism (Major Problems document "Nisei Soldier Honored with the Gold Star--and by Jackie Robinson,1944").  Jackie Robinson was one such American who honored Nisei soldiers for the courage that they showed.  The fact that Jackie Robinson was helping to decorate war heroes goes to show the amount of publicity that Robinson had even before he entered the all-white baseball league.   

Nowadays, when one watches professional sports, it is clear that many, if not the majority, of professional athletes in almost any sport are African American.  During the time frame of the 1940s when Jackie Robinson entered the all-white baseball league, it was not the norm to see a professional team that was mostly African American.  Even in the time frame of Remember the Titans in 1971, T.C. Williams High School was the only school mentioned in the movie that had African American players integrated with white players.  All of the teams that the Titans played were all-white teams.  The changes that have come to professional sports by today can somewhat be attributed to Jackie Robinson and the desegregation in sports that took place in the mid-1900s.

Who is Herman Boone?

Because three high schools were forced to integrate in order to create T.C. Williams High School, the student bodies and faculty members were forced to integrate as well.  As a result, Bill Yoast, the longtime coach and hopeful Hall of Famer, is asked to step down.  Herman Boone, the school's first African American faculty member, replaces Yoast as coach of T.C. Williams High School.  The Head of the Negro School Board, who is referred to as Doctor Day, recruited Coach Boone to coach at T.C. Williams.  When Doctor Day is meeting with Coach Boone at Boone's house, Doctor says "Folks in Carolina say you marched with Dr. King.  Say you stood toe to toe with the Klan.  Say you're a race man."  When I re-watched the movie for the assignment, I was surprised to hear all of the small comments that were made that had to do with things that we discussed in class about the Civil Rights Movement.  The fact that Doctor Day was able to recruit Coach Boone, a man who marched with Dr. King and fought against the Klan, is something that Doctor is very proud of and excited about.  Doctor Day is excited about this because "black folks have never had anything in this city to call their own except humiliation and despair."

One of the first organizations created after the war in the South was the Ku Klux Klan which was founded in 1865 by white Confederate soldiers who were concerned about the racial implications of black freedom (Hist page 276).  One of the Klan's main interests was the restoration of white supremacy.  In order to intimidate Black and Republican voters, southern Democrats used violence to attempt to control southern politics.  The Ku Klux Klan used violence to harass black and white Republicans and physically block black southerners from casting ballots in elections (Hist page 286).  The goal of groups like the KKK was to stop Republican support in the South to ensure election victories for the Democratic Party.  A good example of the violence of the Ku Klux Klan can be seen in the Major Problems document "Lucy McMillan, A Former Slave in South Carolina, Testifies About White Violence, 1871."  The former slave testifies with the Joint Select Committee her experience of the Klan burning down her house (Major Problems "Lucy McMillan, A Former Slave in South Carolina, Testifies About White Violence, 1871").  An interesting point about the Ku Klux Klan was that the organization died down in the late 1800s but enjoyed a revival in the 1920s.  The resurgence of the Klan was partly inspired by the film Birth of a Nation, in which the Klan was positively portrayed (lecture 10/6/11).  The Klan of this time period saw itself as "the embodiment of old Protestant and southern virtues" (Hist page 383).

In Remember the Titans, Doctor Day also makes the point that Coach Boone marched with Dr. King.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister who was at the forefront of the African American Civil Rights Movement.  King became a civil rights activist early in his career by leading the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and by founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Hist page 445).  The reason that King has to found this group is because his own religious denomination, the black Baptists, will not join.  They are fearful of direct assaults and direct challenges to white supremacy (lecture 11/8/11).  It is clear that the black Baptists have every right to be fearful because Southern white supremacists would do anything to stop desegregation and black voting.  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic moment was his effort to lead the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Hist page 454).  In the Major Problems document "Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Defends Seamstress Rosa Parks, 1955," King gives the sermon in response to Park's arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person.  This sermon helped to launch the Montgomery Buss Boycott as well as King's career as a civil rights activist (Major Problems "Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Defends Seamstress Rosa Parks, 1955" document).         

The fact that Doctor Day made the point that Coach Boone fought against the Klan and marched with Dr. King is very prevalent to much of what we discussed about the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s.

Black/White Violence

As Sheryl continues to narrate the events of 1971 in Alexandria, Virginia, she explains that a white store owner killed a young African American and that "the town was on the verge of explosion."  Violence between whites and blacks can be seen all the way back to the 1880s and 1890s.  Violence between the two races was used as a form of political intimidation and was especially effective in areas where whites and blacks competed for jobs (lecture 9/8/11).  The most common form of violence that was used in this time period was lynching, in which a white mob gathered to murder someone (usually by hanging) who they believed had committed a crime.  Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, nearly 2,000 black men were lynched in the South (Hist page 322).  A good example of violence against African Americans can be seen in the Major Problems document titled "Lucy McMillan, a Former Slave in South Carolina, Testifies About White Violence, 1871." Lucy McMillan testifies that the Ku Klux Klan came and burned down her house while she and her child were there (Major Problems "Lucy McMillan, a Former Slave in South Carolina, Testifies About White Violence, 1871" document).  The violence between the white store owner and the young African American was not new to the United States.  It was a problem that had been escalating for over one hundred years.

Another example of white/black violence that occurred in American history is the story of Emmett Till in 1955.  The violence that was used against Emmett is argued to be some of the most racist violence in American history.  Emmett Till, a fourteen year-old Chicago African American boy, was beaten and murdered for whistling at a white woman who worked at a grocery store.  The white woman's husband and half-brother were arrested for kidnapping and murder (Hist page 445).  The outrage that was present in the Emmett Till case among both African Americans and whites, is closely mirrored by the responses in this movie's opening scene.  There is no reason given in the film for why the white store owner killed the young African American boy.  The audience is allowed to wonder what reason could be given for the young boy to be killed.  However, what I began to think about was the possibility of whether there was even a reason at all.  In this time period, it seems that there was such hostility between whites and blacks that maybe there was no real justified reason for the young African American boy being killed.  The responses from African Americans in the film made it seem like there was no possible justified reason for the boy to be killed.  

Such white/black violence continued to occur throughout the 1960s and beyond.  In spite of the civil rights victories, violence continued to escalate.  Many homes of civil rights activists and the churches that they were associated with were bombed.  Because the civil rights activists were beginning to fear for their lives, some began carrying weapons to arm themselves (Hist page 456).  In the Major Problems document "Army Veteran Robert Williams Argues 'Self-Defense Prevents Bloodshed,' 1962," Williams argued that African Americans had as much right to self-defense as every other American (Major Problems "Army Veteran Robert Williams Argues 'Self-Defense Prevents Bloodshed,' 1962" document).  In the document, while Robert Williams is driving a car full of African Americans, his car is run into by a white driver pulling out of a restaurant.  The white driver and white mob that was created around the scene started to shout about killing the African Americans and burning them.                  

Integration of Schools and Brown v. Board of Education

The film Remember the Titans centers upon T.C. Williams High School, the newly desegregated school in Alexandria, Virginia.  Prior to 1971, schools in Alexandria had not been forced to integrate.  After a court ruling, three high schools, two white and one African American, were forced to integrate for the first time.  An African American head coach, Herman Boone (played by Denzel Washington), was hired to replace the previous Caucasian head coach, Bill Yoast, for the school's football team.  As the film opens, Sheryl Yoast, coach Yoast's daughter, narrates that "Up until 1971, there was no race mixing."  As the film progresses, we learn that many other schools in Virginia remained segregated as Caucasian schools. 

The major conflict that is brought up throughout the film is the forced integration of T.C. Williams High School.  Many years earlier, in 1954, the NAACP's legal team, led by attorney Thurgood Marshall, made one of the most important legal challenges to segregation, overturning around sixty years of legal segregation that began with Plessy v. Ferguson (lecture 11/8/11).  In the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities for white and black students was "inherently unequal" (Hist page 444).  Being that the film takes place in 1971, one might at first question as to why there is a time difference of around twenty years before schools in Alexandria, Virginia were desegregated.  The point needs to be made that although Brown v. Board of Education was passed in 1954, it was slow to trigger changes at first.  One of the reasons for this was because President Eisenhower thought that states, rather than the federal government, should deal with civil rights (Hist page 444).  Because of this, it is clear to see why some states desegregated later than others.  Another reason why Alexandria, Virginia, schools were desegregated twenty years after the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education was because the Court decided that desegregation of southern schools should proceed "with all deliberate speed" (Hist page 444).  This allowed southern states a greater amount of leniency in enforcing the law.   

In the 1960s, African Americans rose up and coordinated into a bunch of different Civil Rights struggles.  This happened at the level of the federal government in the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education where the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional (lecture 11/8/11).  The Major Problems document "The Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education, 1954" shows that the Court ruled that separate was not equal.  In the ruling, the argument is made that a child can not be expected to succeed in life if they are denied the opportunity of an education (Major Problems "The Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education, 1954"document).  The document goes on to explain that "Such an opportunity, when the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms" (Major Problems "The Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education, 1954"document).  The argument is made that you do not even have a chance in life if you do not have a proper education.  If you do not have an equal education, then you do not even have the opportunity to succeed in life (lecture 11/10/11).

The above video, by PBS highlights the issue of desegregating schools of K-12 in relation to Brown v. Board of Education.