Innovation, Inevitability, and Credibility: Tracking the Origins of Black Civil Rights Issues

Abstract

This paper uses historical black newspapers to provide context for the development of four major civil rights issues – lynching, segregated travel, abolishing poll taxes, and establishing a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee. The origins for these four issues speak to the larger question of how the issue content of the congressional black agenda changes over time. Placing these issues within the proper historical context shows that the particular demands of the civil rights movement were not the inevitable products of their time. Instead, these issues are the result of the purposive efforts of political entrepreneurs. Examining the origins of these four civil rights issues reveals the importance of black activism and representation in congressional agenda setting.