The brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in May of 2020 as well as many other fatal encounters of unarmed blacks with white police in recent years have clearly shown that racism and other forms of discrimination have not been overcome in the 21st century, but are based on deeply ingrained economic, political, and cultural societal structures. Despite the significant progress that has been made since the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) of the 1950s and 1960s, it remains a challenge to change these patterns at their core. The conference discussed the legacy of this struggle from a transatlantic and interdisciplinary perspective. It analyzed the origins and uses of the concept of human dignity and human rights within the movement and explored how it has inspired activism and organizations for racial and social justice on both sides of the Atlantic.

In her opening remarks, BRITTA WALDSCHMIDT-NELSON (Augsburg) introduced the conference theme by emphasizing that in the tradition of the black freedom struggle, there are two crucial concepts for the foundation of racial equality and social justice: dignity and rights. She traced the historical development of both notions elaborating on their importance for the continuing fight for social justice in the US. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) and other black leaders of the CRM frequently used both concepts to sustain their full racial equality and social justice demands. Waldschmidt-Nelson concluded that considering current international political events, such as the nationalist extremist movements in some European countries, racial tensions in the US, or the current situation in Afghanistan, this struggle has lost nothing of its relevance and urgency. The conference presentations picked up on her core ideas, elaborating on the interpretations of human rights and dignity of different social movements from various angles, comparing developments in the US, Europe, and Western Africa, and delving deeper into the legacy of the CRM.

The first panel set the theoretical frame for discussions on human dignity and human justice in the following days. MICHAEL HASPEL (Erfurt) analyzed continuity and differences between abolitionist David Walker and MLK, debating the relevance of their respective contribution to the discourse on human dignity and human rights and the civil rights struggle. Walker’s Appeal from 1829 already indicates that the author aimed at establishing equal rights as universal norms. He used the theological concept of all human beings created in the image of God to sustain his claim. In King’s case, however, Haspel argued that starting merely in 1962, he employed the theological concept of the imago Dei more regularly and systematically as a foundation of human dignity and human rights. HELLE PORSDAM (Copenhagen) compared the modern CRM and the developments in human rights at the global level and debated what constitutes human rights in the eyes of the courts. She stressed that the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) from 1948 is not a legally binding instrument. However, due to global political developments such as the cold war and decolonization, member states in the UN could not agree on drafting one single instrument. Instead, in 1966, the UN produced two instruments leading to many discussions about which kind of rights are more important: civil and political rights – or economic, social, and cultural rights. Porsdam paid particular attention to the role of the US Supreme Court and the lasting impact of its decisions on what constituted freedom for American citizens.

In her keynote lecture, MARCIA CHATELAIN (Washington DC) presented her Pulitzer-price winning book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (2020). Her lecture explored the economic questions central to creating and sustaining movements empowering people of color in the US. Considering the various ways that the CRM was funded, the shift to Black Capitalism in the 1970s, and the contemporary conflicts around money and the Movement for Black Lives, this talk considered the difficult work of creating a more just world.

Opening Panel II, which focussed on children and black religious minorities’ rights, ANDREA CAROSSO (Turin) elaborated on Middle Eastern Muslims in the US in the 21st century. While Arab and Muslim Americans were a silent minority until the end of the 20th century, they became a "problem" ethnic group in the US consensus after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As a result, media and politicians iterated a pattern of scapegoating involving an entire ethnic minority. Furthermore, the presentation explored the racialization of Arabs and Muslims in America, and how American Islamophobia catalyzed the emergence of a cultural response on the part of Arab and Muslim Americans, in a new eagerness to "write" rather than "be written." BRITTA WALDSCHMIDT-NELSON examined the life and work of activist Marian Wright Edelman, who was an important African American civil and human rights activist of the 1960s. After meeting starving children in the Mississippi Delta, she became a passionate advocate for their needs and soon dedicated her life to protecting the rights of poor children and their families. She founded the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in 1973 with the mission to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged children and youths in the US – including access to welfare, health care, and education. As Waldschmidt-Nelson showed, Edelman’s and the CDF’s work for human rights and social justice are rooted in and form an important legacy of the civil rights movement.

Panel III concentrated on the topic of “White Supremacy, State Violence and Black Freedom Movements in the USA and North Africa.” BEVERLY E. MITCHELL’s (Washington, DC) paper focused on the still rampant segregation of African Americans in the US, which has been at the heart of the social construction of a racial hierarchy that continues to assault their dignity as human beings. Mitchell analyzed that these exclusionary practices continue in their present form through housing segregation. In violation of the Fair Housing Act (1968), US government policies undermined efforts to end housing segregation in the 1960s. Mitchell explored that even fifty years later, housing in urban areas is nearly as racially segregated as before the CRM. Housing segregation reduces the quality of public-school education for children of color, exacerbates chronic unemployment, and increases targeted over-policing of communities of color. CHOUKI EL HAMEL (Tempe) discussed the ideas Maghribian and Black Americans held about each other during the 1950s and 60s. He focused on Algeria and Morocco, calling Algeria the West’s most audacious critic and Morocco pro-Western. Furthermore, El Hamel described Algeria as a guiding light for many African countries in the wake of their independence movements. The nation also became a refuge to African Americans who confronted US institutional racism, such as Eldridge Cleaver. Festivals like PANAF (the Pan-African Festival of Algiers) in 1969 were especially popular among black activists because of their Pan-Africanism and the anti-colonial alignment.

The conference's fourth panel explored racial minorities in Europe and began with BIRGIT HOFMANN's (Heidelberg) presentation. She described how the term “minority” became popular during the end of the 19th-century. Minorities as “imagined communities” mirrored the invention of the nation(s) historically. The establishment of European nation-states also created new minority groups, for instance, the Sinti and Roma. During the interwar period in Europe, the so-called “minority question” became a central issue of international politics. Hoffman revealed how the German Nazi Party instrumentalized the situation of German minorities abroad for pushing territorial expansion. After the Second World War, immigration to Europe increased, which resulted in the merging of migration systems in Europe. In answer to the question “How do we think about race as a lens of analysis and as a legal category in contemporary Europe?” EDDIE BRUCE-JONES (London) addressed the issues of institutional and structural racism in Europe by using the legal situation in Germany and the UK as an example. He also elaborated on the difficulties of legally defining “race.” In France, the word “race” does not exist as a legal term, while in Germany, for historic reasons, its use is very controversial. ROKHAYA DIALLO (Paris) focused on the problem of trying to “be black in a country where race does not exist?” She elaborated on the fact that the term “race” was removed from the French constitution. According to her, French identity can be defined as being “of French stock,” primarily referring to white people living in France for generations. In order to illustrate her point, Diallo showed a part of her documentary about racially motivated police killings and other examples of racially motivated violence.

NICOLE HIRSCHFELDER’s (Tübingen) presentation in the “Young Scholars Forum” focused on the alleged phenomenon of homophobia within the black community and its repercussions on the CRM. She argued that homophobia is related to racism and explained why the perpetuation of certain discriminatory practices within the black community should not be regarded as an isolated incident but as part of a larger power dynamics. The case of Bayard Rustin not being recognized as much compared to other civil rights activists served as an example. Hirschfelder attributed this to his habit of criticizing respected establishments and him being gay. Rustin’s homosexuality was also instrumentalized by the government to criticize MLK and the CRM. CLARA-SOPHIE HÖHN (Augsburg) discussed the role, perception and memory of white southern female civil rights activist of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1996, the white activist Joan Browning questioned if historians had written accurately about white women's involvement in the CRM. She described herself and fellow white southern female Civil Rights activists as “invisible revolutionaries,” seemingly forgotten by historiography and collective memory. Höhn analyzed the alleged “invisibility” of white southern female activists’ presence in CRM remembrance and to what extent the women challenged these circumstances. KATHARINA MOTYL (Mannheim) talked about the significance of criminal justice reform for the struggle of African American human rights. Motyl demonstrated the disproportionately high incarceration rate of black people in the USA. The criminal justice system undermines the successes of the CRM by curtailing the rights of convicted and imprisoned people, revoking their voting rights, housing, and food stamps. This strategy’s “evil genius” lies in the fact that it does not overly discriminate based on race but curtails rights based on (criminal) individual actions. She concluded that despite repeated calls for reform, the lobbying for prison privatization has coincided with increasing incarceration.

The concluding Panel V addressed the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in Germany. MARIA SCHUBERT (Bochum) discussed the connection between the CRM and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), highlighting mutual influences. First, she analyzed the East German policy of “international solidarity” and “friendship with the other America” based on the visits of MLK, Ralph Abernathy, and Angela Davis. Subsequently, she demonstrated how different groups within the GDR received those visits. The activists hoped to bridge the gaps between West and East and showed an interest in the practice of East German socialism. MARION KRAFT (Berlin) elaborated on black empowerment movements in Germany from a transnational perspective. Using individual examples, she began with a short overview of the post-World War II years, focusing on the influence of US military forces in occupied Germany. MLK’s visit to West and East Berlin in 1964 established him as a role model for Black Germans. On the other hand, the terrorist RAF used the Black Panthers’ ideology and iconography for their purposes. Kraft concluded with a short overview of recent Black German publications and referred to the work of current Organizations like ADEFRA (Schwarze Frauen in Deutschland) and PAD (People of African Descent).

In the final discussion, participants debated current issues that minorities have to face in different countries and the question of which public policies as well as actions by educators and scholars could aid the struggle for human righs and human dignity of all people.

Conference Overview:

Greetings and Introduction

Michael Mayer (Akademie für Politische Bildung)/Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (University of Augsburg)

Panel I: Human Dignity and Human Justice in the Struggle for Black Equality
Chair: Michael Mayer (Akademie für Politische Bildung)

Michael Haspel (University of Erfurt): Human Dignity and Human Rights: From David Walker to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Helle Porsdam (Copenhagen University): From Civil Rights to Human Rights – But What Kind of Human Rights?

Keynote Lecture

Introduction: Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (University of Augsburg)
Marcia Chatelain (Georgetown University): Black Lives Matter and the Contours of Black Freedom

Panel II: The Rights of Children and of Black Religious Minorities
Chair: Mirjam Zadoff (NS-Dokumentationszentrum, Munich)

Andrea Carosso (University of Torino): From Silent Minority to Problem Minority: Middle Eastern Muslims in the US in the 21st Century

Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (University of Augsburg): A Voice for the Voiceless: Marian Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund

Panel III: White Supremacy, State Violence and Black Freedom Movement in the US and North Africa
Chair: Dietmar Süß (University of Augsburg)

Beverly E. Mitchell (Wesley Theological Seminar): White Supremacy, Segregated Housing, and Fatal Police Encounters

Chouki El Hamel (Arizona State University): Black Power and the Maghrib (1962-1972)

Panel IV: Racial Minorites in Europe
Chair: Michael Hochgeschwender (University of Munich)

Birgit Hofmann (University of Heidelberg): Visions of Plurality? The Roots of Minority Rights in Europe

Eddie Bruce-Jones(University of London): Racism, Anti-Blackness and the Law in the U.K. and Continental Europe

Rokhaya Diallo (Author, Jounalist, Filmmaker): How Can You Be Black in a Country Where Race Does Not Exist?

Young Scholar Forum
Chair: Hartmut Keil (University of Leipzig)

Nicole Hirschfelder (University of Tübingen): Black (?) Homophobia and Gay Rights during the Civil Rights Movement and Beyond: The Case of Bayard Rustin

Clara-Sophie Höhn (University of Augsburg): Being Part of the Narrative? White Southern Female Activists and the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement

Katharina Motyl (University of Mannheim): Criminal Justice Reform as the Greatest Contemporary Challenge in the Struggle for African American Human Rights

Exchange of Ideas and Live Music

Introduction: Margaretha Schweiger-Wilhelm (Bavarian American Academy, Munich)
Ernest Butler’s Jazz Duo

Panel V: The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in Germany
Chair: Modupe Laja (Verein Afrodeutsche Frauen, ADEFRA e.V., Munich)

Maria Schubert (University of Tübingen): Let us Join Hearts and Hands Across the Atlantic Ocean: The Civil Rights Movement and the GDR

Marion Kraft (Verein Afrodeutsche Frauen, ADEFRA e.V., Munich): Black German Transnational Perspectives from 1945 to the Present