Part of a series of articles titled The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963.
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Article
Chapter 9: The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library.
Kenny and Dad wake up before anyone else, listening to records in the car.
When Kenny asks if they really have to send Byron to Birmingham, Dad explains that there are things Byron needs to learn that he is not learning in Flint. He then asks Kenny if he has seen the news of what is happening in some parts of the South. Kenny remembers seeing photos of angry white people screaming at little Black children trying to go to school, but he doesn't understand how they could hate those kids so much. Mr. Watson explains that "a lot of times" this is what is waiting for the Watson children out in the world, and Byron needs to take that seriously and be ready. Momma and Dad hope that spending time in Birmingham will open Byron's eyes to injustice and the challenges of being Black in a racist society.
The Watsons' neighbor Mrs. Davidson comes over to give Joey a present: a white, blue-eyed angel made out of clay that reminded her of Joey. Joey politely accepts the gift, even though she doesn't think the angel looks like her because it is not Black. While most of the family prepares for the trip to Alabama, Byron acts like they won't really go. The night before they leave, Momma and Dad have him sleep in their room because Joey told them Byron was going to try to run away. Meanwhile, Kenny is so excited about the trip that he can't sleep.
As soon as the family is on the road the next morning, Momma begins reading through her notebook, listing step-by-step plans for the entire trip, including how long they will drive each day and where they will stop to eat and sleep. Kenny asks why they don't just drive until Dad gets tired. Dad explains, in an exaggerated southern accent, that in the Deep South you have to be careful where you stop. The family decides to take turns, based on seniority, choosing songs to play on the Ultra-glide record player. The Watsons pass through Detroit as they continue heading south toward Birmingham.
United States Department of Justice
Fact Check: What does Mr. Watson mean when he asks Kenny if he knows "what's been happening in some parts of the South"?
What do we know?
As Mr. Watson and Kenny speak, the South was in the midst of a historic struggle to actualize the promises of the Civil War and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Black Americans fought overseas and labored tirelessly at home to end World War II and realize the Four Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. Having defended democracy for the world, they sought it for themselves at home.
But white supremacists dug in to deny Black Americans their basic civil rights (to vote, educate their children, access housing and travel accommodations, and enjoy postwar prosperity). They wanted to maintain the status quo: second-class citizenship for Black Americans.
Southern whites' violent resistance to expanding Black rights was so great that the federal government sent in troops to enforce newly-ratified legislation and judicial rulings, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which determined that separate schools for Black and white children were unlawful, and the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which sought to protect the right to vote. As Mr. Watson questions Kenny, protests, violent resistance, and federal attempts to defuse the situation, and uphold the law, continued.
What is the evidence?
Primary source: United States Department of Justice, "William Frantz Elementary School, New Orleans, 1960. US Marshals with young Ruby Bridges on school steps," photograph.
Six years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, New Orleans finally began integrating schools by allowing a small number of African Americans to attend all-white elementary schools. Segregationists violently fought back, leading the federal government to send in U.S. Marshals. The photograph above shows six-year-old Ruby Bridges, the first Black student to integrate a New Orleans elementary school.
The Nashville Tennessean
Primary source: James Tally, "Lunch counter strike hits city," The Nashville Tennessean (TN), February 14, 1960, 10-A. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
In 1960, a group of Black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina organized to insist that the lunch counter at Woolworth's, a popular drugstore chain, serve Black patrons. Their nonviolent protest inspired similar student sit-ins throughout the South. The movement provoked violent resistance and arrests and resulted in many businesses defiantly closing their lunch counters for good.
Primary source: "Nine students leave Central High, Little Rock, Arkansas, under U.S. Army escort," Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library.
The integration of the majestic Little Rock High School in 1957 tested the recent Brown v. Board of Education decision and sparked unprecedented violence, drawing an angry mob of around a thousand. After the local National Guard failed to control the situation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. A guardsman was assigned to each of the "Little Rock Nine," and followed these brave Black high school students throughout the school day.
Primary source: Joseph W. Sullivan, "After Mississippi: two holdout states brace for showdowns on school segregation–next governor of Alabama vows to defy courts: more restraint in South Carolina–is business a calming voice?," The Wall Street Journal (NY), October 10, 1962, 1.
"The violence in Mississippi appears to be deterring some Southern segregationists from all-out defiance of the Federal Government. But not George C. Wallace, the next governor of Alabama. 'If a Federal judge orders me to place a Negro student in a white school, I would refuse to do so,' declares the short, cigar-smoking Mr. Wallace, Democratic gubernatorial [governor] nominee and the sure winner in next month’s general election here. 'They'll have to arrest me. And when they put their filthy hands on the governor of a sovereign state, it'll wake this country up. We're going to create headlines here. We Anglo-Saxon folks don't like to be pushed around.' Alabama is one of the two states where public schools remain totally segregated. The other is South Carolina. With Mississippi's plan for a no-retreat fight against integration frustrated by Federal troops and marshals, attention is now turning to the question of how the remaining holdout states will meet attempts to desegregate their schools. In both Alabama and South Carolina showdowns over school integration are now looming."
According to Kenny, Momma shares "a bunch of boring junk about the expressway."
Fact Check: What might Momma have told Kenny and his siblings about the highway's construction?
What do we know?
The expressways linking Flint and Birmingham were part of a massive infrastructure project authorized through the The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. Signed into law by President Eisenhower, The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 called for the construction of 41,000 miles of roads by 1972. It was the biggest public works project in American history at the time.
The new interstate was fundamental to the federal defense strategy and was also meant to benefit everyday Americans by making the medium and long-distance travel of people and goods safer, faster, and more efficient.
News media and government agencies touted the wonders of the interstate project. The following facts were frequently cited in publications:
- By 1975, there would be an estimated 110 million vehicles traveling one trillion miles per year on the interstates.
- The new highways would be safer than existing roads, preserving as many as 9,000 lives per year.
- The interstate would save motorists 2 cents per mile in urban areas and 1 cent per mile in rural parts of the country.
- Researchers believed it would be feasible for highways to see self-driving cars.
The general public wouldn't see the full impact of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 for several decades. In addition to its wide-reaching benefits, early critics foresaw the interstate system's long-lasting consequences, including the destruction of Black neighborhoods, the disinvestment in public transportation, and a nationwide dependence on fossil fuels.
What is the evidence?
Primary source: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks in Cadillac Square, Detroit, Michigan, October 29, 1954 .
Transcript:
"Today—this month—there's 25 percent more construction going on in the United States than there was this same month last year. This is the greatest construction program in the entire history of the Nation. ...There has been an expanded program—a regular program of road construction—which has been expanded and made bigger than ever before. ...We are pushing ahead with a great road program, a road program that will take this Nation out of its antiquated [outdated] shackles of secondary roads all over this country and give us the types of highways that we need for this great mass of motor vehicles. It will be a nation of great prosperity, but will be more than that: it will be a nation that is going ahead every day. With Americans being born to us—with our population increasing at five every minute, the expanding horizon is one that staggers the imagination."
Primary source: Michigan State Highway Department, "To the highway users of Michigan," (Lansing: Michigan State Highway Department, 1961), 8.
"Highway Department studies show that freeways generally reduce accidents by 70 per cent compared to the old roads they replace. The studies also show a one-cent per mile reduction in vehicle operation costs on freeways through less wear and tear involved braking and stop-and-go driving. ...Nation-wide completion of the 41,000-mile Interstate Highway system by 1980 will annually save an estimated 9,000 lives and $12 billion in operating and accident costs, according to a recent Automobile Manufacturers Association report."
Momma carefully planned out every step of the Watsons' trip—including where they would sleep, eat, fill up, and stop for the bathroom.
Fact Check: Why does Momma plan in so much detail?
What do we know?
In 1963, not all travelers could pull off the road and assume they could get what they needed whenever and wherever they felt like it. Some facilities were closed to African Americans and others treated Black people poorly, overcharging them for inferior services or requiring the use of segregated facilities. Even more scary, there were roads where Black travelers were made to feel unwelcome, especially after dark. To avoid unpleasant and unsafe interactions, Black travelers planned ahead.
Momma might have asked people in her community if they knew of safe places to stop and stay along the route to Birmingham. She probably also consulted travel guides. Victor and Alma Green published The Negro Motorist Green Book (The Green Book) between 1933 and 1966. It was so popular that it reached a circulation of more than two million. The Green Book listed drug stores, hotels, beauty salons, and restaurants that welcomed all. By following recommendations in The Green Book and other guides, Black travelers not only stayed safe but could also meet Black leaders and influencers nationwide.
What is the evidence?
Primary source: "Your rights, briefly speaking!," in Travelers' Green Book: 1963-64 International Edition: For Vacation Without Aggravation (New York: Victor H. Green & Co., 1963), 2. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library.
The 1963 edition of The Green Book provides a glimpse of the kind of resources Momma consulted as she planned her family's trip.
"Most people who 'go on holiday,' as they say in England, the Caribbean and other places where the accent is English, are seeking someplace that offers them rest, relaxation and a refuge from the cares and worries of the work-a-day world. The Negro traveler, to whom the Traveler's Green Book has dedicated its efforts since 1936, is no exception. He too, is looking for 'Vacation without Aggravation'. Of course, this is no surprise. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, the Congress on Racial Equity, the Students Non-Violence Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Association and other groups fighting for minority rights make it very clear that the Negro is only demanding what everyone else wants...what is guaranteed all citizens by the Constitution of the United States."
Secondary source: Jay Driskell, "An Atlas of Self-Reliance: The Negro Motorist's Green Book (1937-1964)," O Say Can You See: Stories from the Museum, National Museum of American History, July 30, 2015.
"Jim Crow still prohibited black travelers from pulling into a roadside motel and getting rooms for the night. Black families on vacation had to be ready for any circumstance should they be denied lodging or a meal in a restaurant. They stuffed the trunks of their automobiles with food, blankets and pillows, even an old coffee can for those times when black motorists were denied the use of a bathroom. ...The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) kept an active file of incidents of African Americans being accosted while in their cars. In 1948, sociologist Charles S. Johnson uncovered a pattern wherein white drivers would intentionally damage more expensive vehicles owned by African Americans in order to put black drivers back in 'their place.' Sometimes, being in the wrong town at the wrong time of day could even be fatal."
Secondary source: Candacy A. Taylor, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (New York: Abrams Press, 2020).
"The Green Book was published during a time when car travel symbolized freedom in America, but since racial segregation was in full force throughout the country, the open road wasn't open to all. When black motorists picked up a copy of the Green Book, they were greeted by the words "Just What You Have Been Looking For!! NOW WE CAN TRAVEL WITHOUT EMBARRASSMENT.' The Green Book was called the AAA guide for black people, but it was so much more. The businesses listed in it were critical sources of refuge along lonely stretches of America's perilously empty roads. To stay safe, black folks never left home without a plan, props, a cover story [an acceptable explanation for why they were making the trip], and a copy of the Green Book."
Voices from the Field
"Traveling While Black" by Gretchen Sorin, the director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at SUNY Oneonta and the author of Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights.
Photos & Multimedia
Courtesy the collections of Kettering University.
"American highways poster," [b. 1963], Historical Photograph Files, 1896 – 1963; Records of the Bureau of Public Roads, 1892 – 1972; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.
Writing Prompts
Opinion
The Green Book is a travel guide written by and for African Americans, first published in 1936. It provided an extensive list of safe and welcoming businesses and establishments that would allow people of color to travel with more comfort and confidence during the era of racial segregation in the United States. The book was also important in promoting Black-owned businesses and supporting African American entrepreneurship. It was last published in 1967. Do you think such a book is needed or would be beneficial today? Support your point of view with reasons and information that may also be based on your personal experience.
Informative/explanatory
The chapter has Kenny asking questions about pictures he had seen; “pictures of really mad white people with twisted-up faces screaming and giving dirty finger signs to some little Negro kids who were trying to go to school.” Research the childhood of Ruby Bridges. Choose two sources and examine what you find. Use the texts to learn about the facts and details of the event and convey this information clearly in your essay on the topic.
Narrative
Look at a highway map of the United States or the state you live in. Chose a major highway route that looks interesting to you. Write about a road trip that you take on this route. Research the miles and the states (or counties) your route goes through to imagine the experiences you would have. Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.
Note: Wording in italics is from the Common Core Writing Standards, Grade 5. Sometimes paraphrased.
Last updated: January 5, 2024