Big Idea

In the 1980s, the Black community emerged from the activism of the 1960s and 70s with a degree of hope for a new way of being. However, the “afterlife of slavery” was not so easily undone and the struggle for equality and dignity continued.

What’s important to know?

1. “The Black 1980s”: In the 1980s, the “afterlife of slavery” became clear in many important ways. While fighting for dignity and equality, Black culture gained influence.

2. The Anti-Brown Case: In 1976, two Black men sued the Washington, D.C. mayor for racial discrimination in police hiring. The Supreme Court ruled for the Mayor, requiring plaintiffs to prove "intent" to discriminate. This case made it much harder to prove discrimination thus weakening the impact of the Fourteenth Amendment.

1: “The Black 1980s”

Scholar Saidiya Hartman wrote in her 2007 book, Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route, about the “afterlife of slavery.” In that phrase, she described the impact of the enslavement of Black people as becoming entrenched in the American way of life (structural, systemic racism), White American dominant culture “established a measure of man and a ranking of life and worth that has yet to be undone” (Davis, 2019, p. 27-28). This ranking system placed Black people at the bottom and became the means by which the political, social, residential, economic, cultural (the list could go on) mores of the nation were established. In the 1980s, this afterlife became evident in many important ways. At the same time that they battled for basic dignity and equality, Black culture also gained influence, albeit in ways that often did not threaten White expectations.

Shows such as The Cosby Show, presented an alternative vision of the rising Black middle class. Hip-hop was becoming ascendent and rising starts such as Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, and Michael Jackson become household names in Black and White homes (p. 362). This represented the ongoing irony and challenge of the 1980s.

Students

Want to learn more? Watch the video below to learn more about the origins of Hip Hop and Rap and the cultural and political significance of it to the African American community.

2: The Anti-Brown Case

In 1976, the case of Washington v. Davis came before the U.S. Supreme Court. Two Black men sued the Washington, D.C. mayor alleging racial discrimination in the D.C. police hiring process. The court ruled in favor of Washington and in doing so established legal precedent requiring plaintiffs to prove “intent” to discriminate. As historian N. D. B. Connolly (Allen et al, 2023) noted, “one might consider Davis the anti-Brown decision. Under its ruling, back came ‘heart and minds'.’ Defendants now had to evidence somehow the bigotry left unspoken by individuals and institutions accused of committing racist acts or crafting racist policy” (p. 348). Cases following Washington v. Davis soon further entrenched this idea of “discriminatory intent.”

• Bakke v. the Regents of the University of California (1978): Admissions and hiring

• Mobile v. Bolden (1980): Voting

• McKleskey v. Kemp (1987): Death penalty

In each case, the courts held that intent was not established, and thus “further gutted anti-discrimination laws… [and] ensured the rolling back of previous breakthroughs, including the Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Fair Housing Acts” (Allen et al, 348).

While hardly discussed, the Washington v. Davis case stands as one of the critical turning points in the 1980s that allowed further retrenchment of structural racism. And, as had been established by the Moynihan and Kerner reports, this structural racism existed in American society and life but remained invisible to the majority of White people. Of course, Black communities saw it and felt it every day as they continued to fight for their Constitutional rights in a country that seemed determined to ignore them.

Watch

Watch the following video explaining the case Washington v. Davis.

3: Political Leadership

Throughout the 1980s, new African American leaders emerged to engage in the ever tenuous political dance required for ascension to public office in the United States. Women such as Mary Bumpers, Veronica Perry, Patricia Harris, and Angela Davis provided important organizing and intellectual drive to their communities. Al Sharpton, Jesse James, Alton Maddox, and Louis Farrakhan represented prominent African American men seeking office and seeking to be an influential voice on behalf of the Black vote in America (Allen et al, 2023, p. 349).

With the ascendency of William Jefferson Clinton to the presidency, Black leaders embraced him and found themselves vying for influence in his administration. While Clinton’s embrace of Black politicians was welcomed, this also had the affect of limiting Black desires to run their own candidate. Now Clinton and the Democratic party became the advocates for Black rights but also the gate keepers over who was allowed in to influence what these rights should be. In this way his efforts remain somewhat limited as Clinton “in the name of political expediency, often adopted conservative's’ definitions of a given Black nominee’s political viability” (p. 350).

In summary, Connelly argued that “The Black 1980s can be described as ambivalently rooted in lingering expressions of 1960s and 1970s–era political radicalism and the expediencies nurtured by new promises of institutional access” (Allen et al, 2013, p. 358).

Your Turn

In what ways did Black communities see advances in the 1980s as a result of the work of the Civil Rights movement? In what ways did the “afterlife of slavery” continue to haunt African Americans across the country?