The Body and Citizenship in Social Movement Research: Embodied Performances and the Deracialized Self in the Black Civil Rights Movement 1961–1965

Abstract

In political and cultural theory, the body has been central to our understandings of political power, yet, the body remains absent in social movement research. This article examines the role of the body in social movements, focusing on how social movements shape bodily postures and techniques of affective self-mastery to represent idealized citizenship. Based on archival data and the concepts of performativity and performance, I use the cases of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Citizenship Schools and Role-Playing Simulations and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's Community Centers to show how the deracialized body was materialization of liberal civic culture that sought to: (1) severe identification with the racial group in favor of identifying with an idealized national identity; and (2) change what counts as good citizenship to change who counts as good citizens. I analyze the movement's pedagogy focusing on the ritualized repetition of embodied movements that deracialized the black political body by embedding idealized citizenship into bodily postures, which increased the probability for a successful performance. Although the deracialized body was vital to the passage of the national legislation, it served to hide geographical and economic differences within the black population, producing the false correlation of national policy change with local change.

‘You don't have to be black skinned to be black’: Indigenous young people's bodily practices

“…Descriptions of a hard-working body appeared closely related to Foucauldian notions of a disciplined body, taking up a morally obligated position (Lupton, 2003;Gard & Wright, 2005;Wright, 2009). It seemed that some young people had adopted the normalising discourse that an appropriately behaving, healthy, clean, hard-working body was linked with being a 'good' citizen (Hohle, 2009), albeit a proud Aboriginal one. However, as Rail (2009) found in her study of young Canadians from various cultural backgrounds, appearance was contested as a marker of worth by others.…”

“…Indigenous bodies have been depersonalised, with little credit given to the authority and occupation of the body as a lived experience (Shilling, 2003). Konishi et al (2008) have argued that 'the inherently ''embodied''' (p. 3) are denied the space to articulate their self-knowledge, yet command of one's body has arguably been one of the few sites of power for those marginalised (Hohle, 2009). Despite a lack of recognised authority, Indigenous people have nevertheless operated as social agents in negotiating with non-Indigenous people and white Western ways of knowing (Nakata, 2007).…”

The Rise of the New South Governmentality: Competing Southern Revitalization Projects and Police Responses to the Black Civil Rights Movement 1961–1965

“…Pritchett's strategy of dispersing jailed protesters throughout the county forced the civil rights lawyers and allies to travel back and forth between jails, thus, placing a strain on the movement's resources and minimizing the potential to create social bonds between activists. Indeed, the movement planned for and used imprisonment to create solidarity by holding refresher courses and discussion groups on nonviolence (see Hohle 2009). Additionally, Pritchett limited police violence when making mass arrests in front of key architectural and spatial locations, denying the civil rights movement a “backdrop” for their protest 6 .…”

Learning to Be Affected: Subjectivity, Sense, and Sensibility in Animal Rights Activism

“…Jasper, 2011), the use of activist biographies for a better understanding of activist subjectivity as a key dimension of social movements (Flacks, 2004;Gaarder, 2008;Jasper, 1997;Pallotta, 2005), and a focus on bodies for understanding the activist experience. While some studies look at activists' use of their bodies to "body forth" a message (Peterson, 2001; see also Hohle, 2009Hohle, , 2010, studies of embodied subjectivity and activist experience are scarce.…”

“…Hohle (2009Hohle ( ,2010) studies embodied performances as the "disciplining" of emotion, affective responses and the affective self; emotions are here seen as "political devices" for presenting an image to the public. However, disciplining does not capture the variety of ways in which the corporeal and bodily registers can be intentionally affected by training, affect modulation, noticing, monitoring, managing, growing, and embodying sensibilities.SOCIETY & ANIMALS (2014) 262-288…”