The entertainment industry is one of the most successful industries in the United States for one simple reason: people like to be entertained. Some of the most popular forms of entertainment are films and television shows. Although once used for merely the purpose of entertaining, media has steadily transformed into a tool that can be used to influence society. Movies and television shows were used in the 1960’s to promote both social change and political change by challenging people to redefine how they viewed African Americans in our society.
The United States is sadly no stranger to racial discrimination. Significant change began to occur in the late 1950’s with the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. Since the overall failure of the Reconstruction Era that ended in 1877, almost nothing had changed legislatively or socially for African Americans. The United States began to change when on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks made the decision to refuse to move to a seat at the back of a bus for a white man. This lit a fire under all those who opposed racial discrimination, thus beginning the Civil Rights Movement. From that day on laws that were known to be discriminatory were slowly brought forward to the Supreme Court for retrials. It was an incredibly challenging time, as change was slow and cost those who fought for justice dearly. Events such as Brown v. Board of Education, the Little Rock Nine, and the Civil Rights Act of 1957 catapulted the fight for change into the 1960’s. The fight for equality would be a long and difficult journey, but leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged all those in support to not lose hope. The legislative change during the 1960’s shown through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 were all monumental achievements for African Americans. However, it is one thing to change a law, it is a completely different thing to change a heart. Supporters of the Civil Rights Movement wanted to find a way to create change in the hearts and minds of people in the United States. They found this way through something everyone enjoyed: media entertainment.
Interracial couples could not have been more uncommon in the 1960’s. In fact, interracial marriage was banned until 1967. This was the year that Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man were married. It was this marriage that brought the laws into question. Being residents of Virginia, they were charged with violating the state’s antimiscegenation statute. Their conviction through the courts of Virginia led the case to be taken all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that the laws banning interracial marriage were in complete opposition of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This was a huge step forward legislatively for interracial couples, but society was more than a few steps behind. This issue was addressed in the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which notably was released the same year that interracial bans were ruled to be unconstitutional. The movie is about Joanna, a young white woman who brings her fiancé, an African American doctor, to dinner to meet her parents. The entire movie shows the tension created in this upper-class family’s home by the idea of their daughter marrying an African American man. Joanna’s mother is supportive from the beginning, while her father is not as easily convinced. It is not until the father witnesses the true character of Dr. Prentice that he announces that he only cares that they love each other, and that the only crime would be for them to not pursue a life with each other just because others may disagree. This decision expressed by the father was shocking for audiences to hear at the time. Wasn’t everyone supposed to disapprove of such a union? This movie was released with exquisite timing, pointing out the most egregious flaw in interracial marriage bans: there was no merit to them.
The history of conflict between African Americans and the police force is long and extremely controversial. To address this issue in the 1960’s took an immense amount of courage, which is exactly what the film In the Heat of the Night had. In this movie, Virgil Tibbs, an African American man, was arrested on the charge of murder. The arrest was made by Bill Gillespie, the police chief of small-town Sparta, Mississippi. Gillespie was under pressure to arrest a suspect for the murder case, and when he saw that Tibbs had a large amount of cash on hand, he immediately accused Tibbs of the crime. His racial prejudices blinded him into seeing Tibbs as a criminal, when humorously it is later found out that Tibbs is in fact a highly respected Philadelphia homicide detective who was merely visiting his mother on vacation. Although Tibbs once found innocent of the crime wished to leave quickly and return home to Philadelphia, his captain urged him to stay and help Gillespie with the murder investigation. In staying to aid in the investigation, Tibbs is met with unrelenting opposition from the townspeople. He ultimately solves the case, but is almost killed by a mob in the process. This film carried a tremendously significant message. Not only did it show the absurdity of racial profiling, but it also depicted an African American who was willing to put his life on the line for a predominately white community.
So, are there any forms of media from the 1960’s that show how people of different ethnic backgrounds can live and work together harmoniously? The answer to this question lies in the hit television series Star Trek. Premiering in September of 1966, this sci-fi original featured a cast of characters of not only men and women, but also people of different races. Among these cast members was Nichelle Nichols, the first ever African American woman to play a leading role in a television series. There was a point in her career on Star Trek that Nichols planned on leaving the show. That is, however, until Martin Luther King Jr. himself came to her and urged her to reconsider. What Nichols had not realized was that she was the first non-stereotypical role to be played by an African American on the screen. King challenged her to stay on the show, telling Nichols, “You are changing the minds of people across the word, because for the first time, through you, we see ourselves and what we can be.” By seeing an African American woman working alongside white men, it showed viewers that there was no reason to hold prejudices against someone, man or woman, just because they were a different skin color. It also encouraged African Americans to no longer see themselves as less than white Americans, but instead to seek a new identity founded in pride and confidence.
Movies and television shows provide countless hours of entertainment for viewers. However, they also possess a power that is far greater than many realize. Our world is a very big place with very big problems, but sharing something as personal as a favorite movie with someone who lives halfway across the globe makes it feel much smaller. People look up to actors and actresses, learning from them by example. This admiration gives movies and television shows the ability to influence anyone who watches them. This is why many forms of media in some way reflect on or allude to current social and political issues that the world is facing. Many movies and television shows in the 1960’s used this power in an attempt to further social change and political change for African Americans. I believe that these movies and television shows not only succeeded in making a difference back in the 1960’s, but that media is still a powerful weapon that should be used today in the continual fight for equality.
Works Cited
https://www.chttps://s.abcnews.com/images/US/gty-mlk-1-er-170113_33x16_992.jpg
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-253626914/family-stories-black-white-marriage-during-the-1960s
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1966/395
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-people/nichelle-nichols/#:~:text=Actress%20Nichelle%20Nichols%2C%20who%20was,would%20like%20to%20meet%20her.
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