Journal on Constitutional Democracy

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 51



The Language of Mobilization

Black Monday: American Mores in
News Media

by Gabriela Martinez

54 Kinder Institute

Plessy v. Ferguson is often seen as the landmark Supreme due to its later treatment in Brown v. Board of Education
Court case that cemented inequality into the fabric of of Topeka (1954). At the time Plessy was decided,
the United States. Legal scholar Alex McBride states: and contrary to popular belief, the decision did not
“In the pivotal case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the make it into the national spotlight. Most Northern
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially separate publications gave Plessy mild coverage, if any at all. The
facilities, if equal, did not violate the Constitution. New York Times’ front page displayed other Supreme
Segregation, the Court said, was not discrimination.”1 Court decisions but relegated Plessy “to a page three
Other modern scholarly interpretations of the case column on railway news.”11 By contrast, the Richmond
view it similarly, for example as a “constitutional nod Planet, a Virginia-based, African-American newspaper,
to racial segregation in public places, foreclosing legal included a concise four-paragraph blurb on the case,
challenges against increasingly-segregated institutions the poignant urgency of which created a critical lens
throughout the South.”2 for viewing Plessy that distinguished its coverage from
that of other publications:
The facts of the case revolved around an 1890 Louisiana
law, which separated railway cars for people of color We can be discriminated against, we can be robbed
and whites. Homer Plessy, a seven-eighths white man, of our political rights, we can be persecuted and
sat in a railway car for whites and was arrested and murdered and yet we cannot secure a legal redress
convicted for violating state law because he was one- in the courts of the United States. Truly has evil
eighth black.3 Plessy filed a petition against the judge days come upon us. But as reckoning day will
in the case, the Honorable John H. Ferguson, to the come and all classes of citizens, sooner or later
Louisiana Supreme Court.4 Plessy’s argument was that realize that a government which will not protect
Louisiana’s law on segregation in public transportation cannot demand for itself protection.12
violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th
Amendment of the United States Constitution, but This excerpt of the article echoes the scant analysis
the Louisiana Supreme Court disagreed.5 Plessy filed of Plessy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, Most white newspapers did nothing to dismantle the
but to no avail; the Court affirmed Ferguson’s lower oppressive behaviors invoked here, instead condoning,
court decision.6 The Supreme Court determined that often overtly, harmful segregation that relayed a sense
the equality demanded and protected by the 14th of inferiority to African Americans in the United States.
Amendment “extended only so far as political and African-American media outlets like the Richmond
civil rights,” such as the freedom to vote.7 It did not Planet countered by spotlighting these oppressive
explicitly extend to African Americans’ “‘social rights,’” behaviors through scathing indictments of Plessy like
like “sitting in a railway car one chooses.”8 this one, which also tacitly indicted the white media

As Michael Klarman notes in Brown v. Board of Education
and the Civil Rights Movement, “judicial precedent in
the three decades before Plessy strongly supported
the practice” of racial segregation.9 Segregation
was perceived as an answer to rampant white-on-
black violence and dignified as “the embodiment of
enlightened public policy.”10 Segregation was even
supported by most Northern whites due to widespread
agreement that it was, in fact, the most feasible and
peaceable solution to the escalating racial violence of
the 1890s.

Although Plessy holds great significance in
constitutional history today, that significance is largely

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 55

outlets’ coverage of the decision. At the same time, within the African-American community, primarily
the postponement of justice implied by theological Communists, who saw this kind of legal action as
language such as “reckoning day” and the belief that the narrowly opportunistic and therefore an unfavorable
government would not provide “legal redress” suggests waste of time and resources.18 They argued that, “from
that many African Americans feared that Plessy was the tactical point of view, it was useless to generate
another in a long line of instances of discrimination, supporters in individual cases once the cases ended.”19
fortifying inequality. As I will examine, these kinds of Regardless, the mission of the NAACP was first and
divides would resurface, if along different lines, when foremost to have the “joint participation by both races
the Court finally overturned the precedent set by Plessy. in all institutions of the organized community.”20 To
use litigation as their weapon in order to fight for the
More than 50 years passed before Plessy’s precedent “legal redress” that was so poignantly demanded in the
was questioned with success, in the 1954 case of Brown Richmond Planet seemed exceedingly appropriate to
v. Board of Education, but this gain came only after achieving this end.21
extensive planning, organization, and debate. In the
years following Plessy, the National Association for the Prior to Brown, and during his tenure as editor of
Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP) worked the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis, W.E.B. DuBois
to craft an equalization strategy but had consistently launched a series of investigations to unearth and
failed when attempting to dismantle any paradigm of unpack the disparities between white and black
racial segregation through litigation.13 By 1945, with children’s education, ultimately “opposing a bill to
limited resources and scant political capital—the last provide federal aid to education on the ground that
time they had successfully pushed anti-segregation such aid would inevitably be distributed so as to
litigation that reached the Supreme Court had been in enhance existing disparities in expenditures on black
1939—the NAACP was on the verge of rescinding its and white education” and would thus “only make whites
efforts in the arena of racial segregation completely.14 more effective racists.”22 He found that discrimination
was ever increasing in several Southern states and
Again and again, the NAACP found itself divided that federal dollars were “systematically spent so as to
on whether or not class action lawsuits were the discriminate against colored children and keep them in
appropriate tool of agency for people of color. ignorance.”23 The NAACP compiled this research and
Some groups within the NAACP advocated for utilized it in Brown.24
what historian Mark Tushent called a “strategy of
delay,” wherein the NAACP would wait for the The tremendous success of the NAACP’s efforts
most opportune civil rights violations to occur and in Brown led the “separate but equal” precedent
then advocate at the local level for the individual or established by Plessy to be deemed unconstitutional,
individuals who were harmed.15 Each discrimination resulting in the desegregation of all public educational
equalization case cost about $5,000, and the NAACP institutions. Regardless of this civil rights victory, the
quickly noticed that this approach to litigation did not nation was in no way unanimously on the same page as
fit their economic constraints.16 By 1950, it seemed that
Thurgood Marshall had convinced enough counselors
on the NAACP’s legal team to push forward with
a class action lawsuit, specifically revolving around
racial desegregation of public primary and secondary
education. For Marshall and others, this would begin
to settle an internal struggle within the NAACP and
the African-American community at large on the
grounds that these educational liberties would allow
for development of the skillset necessary to then pursue
political and economic action in the future.17 Much
of the internal conflict came from extreme groups

56 Kinder Institute

the Court. On May 17, 1954, Mississippi’s Democratic people this decision is contrary to a way of life
Representative John Bell Williams mourned the end of and violates the way in which they have thought
racial segregation, calling the day when the Supreme since 1619.28
Court’s decision became public “Black Monday” on
the floor of Congress.25 In Williams’ home state, The above excerpt comes from “Violates Way of Life,”
protests supporting re-segregation were organized an article published in University of Virginia’s student-
through White Citizens’ Council movements, many run newspaper, Cavalier Daily, on May 17, 1954, the
of which called for the disbandment of the NAACP. day the Brown decision became public. The article
Editorial publications in the region truly reflected the expresses the sentiment of its community, cementing
disgruntled nature of whites in the Deep South: the widespread discord between the Court’s opinion
and a self-identifying Southern public, a dissonance
Human blood may stain Southern soil in many between the federal judiciary and the people that made
places because of this decision but the dark red up just one facet of how the nation acted in the wake
stains of that blood will be on the marble steps of desegregation.
of the United States Supreme Court building.
White and Negro children in the same schools In the Midwest, the vibrant voices of Chicago’s
will lead to miscegenation. Miscegenation leads black community expressed a different view on the
to mixed marriages and mixed marriages lead to Brown ruling:
mongrelization of the human race.26
Neither the atom bomb nor the hydrogen bomb
In this fervent and blatant display of white supremacy, will ever be as meaningful to our democracy as
Mississippi’s Daily News threatens persecution to the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of
whites and blacks alike. “Human blood may stain the United States that racial segregation violates
Southern soil in many places because of this decision” the spirit and letter of our Constitution. This
promises violence on the behalf of pro-segregation means the beginning of the end of the dual society
whites, whose anger and senses of self-preservation and in American life and the . . . segregation which
superiority were triggered by what they perceived as the supported it.29
stepping-stone to the de-purification of the white race:
“miscegenation” and eventually “mogrelizagtion.”27 The above passage from the Chicago Defender illustrates
how democratically liberated and vindicated the
Editorials in Northern, Southern, and Midwestern African American community felt when desegregation
publications varied widely in their analyses of was deemed the law of the land. They considered the
the Supreme Court’s opinion in Brown, and these atomic bomb incomparable to how important it was
differences were particularly pronounced not only with for the Court to have declared “separate but equal”
respect to white versus black media outlets, as we saw unconstitutional. Full and equal citizenship for blacks
before, but also in terms of how these publications
reflected the differing mores of their respective regions.
The media review that follows will specifically focus
on how newspapers reflected this regional divide.
Exploring these reactions to the Court’s decision allows
for a societal gauge of how Americans accepted or
vehemently rejected the unconstitutionality of “separate
but equal” and the new precedent set by Brown.

Although it is hard from a strict legal point of
view to justify any action contrary to law, we feel
that the people of the South are justified in their
bitterness concerning this decision. To many

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 57

was considered pivotal, and the NAACP’s strategy to Newspapers highlight the immense conflicts between
obtain educational equality for people of color via the regions and how fragmented the U.S. became post-
courts was accomplished. In contrast to the Southern, Brown. However, that fragmentation was already
white perspective of promised violence and reactionary present in the Brown opinion. Although seemingly
self-preservation, the Northern black community did benign, the language of Brown was primarily based
not feel threatened by the Court’s decision but, instead, on psychological arguments and the historical lack
empowered to continue pursuing egalitarianism and of equality of blacks, rather than on actual case law
putting an end to “dual society.” or established precedent. In fact, the opinion even
stated that “the validity of the doctrine itself was not
Similar perspectives were shared in Northeastern challenged” in two of the six cases involving public
editorials, with a focus on moving forward with education and the “separate but equal” guideline.33 For
progress toward equal rights for all. D.C.’s Post and example, Sweatt v. Painter (1950) set the precedent that,
Times Herald provides an example: in order for a public educational facility to be “separate
but equal,” its “tangible factors”—the facility, faculty,
The Supreme Court’s resolution yesterday of the course variety, and other physical factors—had to be
school segregation cases affords all Americans an of equal quality to that of a white school.34 The Court
occasion for pride and gratification. The decision disregarded this standard in Brown, seeming to no
will prove, we are sure—whatever transient longer be interested in addressing the constitutional
difficulties it may create and whatever irritations question at hand through precedent but only through
it may arouse—a profoundly healthy and healing moral standing:
one. It will serve—and speedily—to close an
ancient wound too long allowed to fester. It We must consider public education in the light
will bring to an end a painful disparity between of its full development and its present place in
American principles and American practices. It American life throughout the Nation. Only in this
will help to refurbish American prestige in a world way can it be determined if segregation in public
which looks to this land for moral inspiration and schools deprives these plaintiffs of the equal
restore the faith of Americans themselves in their protection of the laws.35
own great values and traditions.30
The Court continually affirmed the importance
The Post and Times Herald emphasized that there of education, at one point calling it the “principal
would be struggles ahead, yes, but that the decision of instrument in awakening a child to cultural values” and
the Court in Brown would be a “profoundly healthy even the agent that allows one to “adjust normally” to
and healing one.”31 One interesting contrast occurs his or her environment.4
in the phrase “values and traditions.” The Cavalier
Daily stated that Brown “is contrary to a way of life Instead of relying on precedent, the Court explained its
and violates the way in which [we] have thought since decision to overturn Plessy in a particularly interesting
1619,” whereas, here, Brown is presented as undoing way: “To separate [black children] from others of
centuries of “painful disparity” by reuniting principle similar age and qualifications solely because of their
or value and practice.32 This diametric contrast race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status
between the South’s interpretation of American values in the community that may affect their hearts and minds
and how other regions in the U.S. defined them was in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”4 The Court went
at the forefront of racial disputes during this time on to cite the Kansas Supreme Court, which had ruled
period, and these regional differences perpetuated against Brown based on legal precedent but spoke out
conflicting understandings of equality under the law against racial segregation in public education due to its
that would ultimately lead to flawed interpretations belief that “[s]egregation with the sanction of law […]
and implementation of Brown’s new precedent. has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental
development of negro children and to deprive them of
some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly]

58 Kinder Institute

integrated school system.”36 The Supreme Court never Frequently lost in broader debates concerning
mentions, in the entirety of its opinion, the effect that this [educational] disparity is the paradoxical
segregation would have on white children or if racial contribution of the  1954 Brown v. Board of
desegregation would be applicable to teachers as Education  decision. Schools were mandated
well. The insinuation that simply being around white under  Brown  to desegregate the student body.
children would enhance the psychological development But the law did not necessarily protect the jobs of
of black children projects a sense of pre-established black teachers and administrators.37
inferiority onto all children of color. Without showing
how the experience of desegregation would positively This omission resulted in the noticeable decline of
affect white children, this argument becomes one-sided African-American and other minority teachers in the
to the point of inadvertently enhancing the narrative of South. Administrators could no longer discriminate
white superiority that the Court is attempting to abolish. against children, but this left room for people in power
to actively fire or refuse to hire teachers of color in
After establishing the trauma and sense of inferiority schools, regardless of their credentials.
experienced by black children under segregation, the
Court went on to insinuate that this trauma would be Many viewed Brown v. Board as a catalyst for change that
cured by white teachers, while also, and inexplicably, would lead to the betterment of society by enhancing
avoiding addressing the need for desegregation amongst 14th Amendment rights for all Americans, and especially
educators. As noted in a 2009 study on “The Impact of for members of the historically disenfranchised African
Desegregation on Black Teachers in the Metropolis”: American community. Although this outcome was
certainly advanced, the overturning of Plessy resulted
in some unpredicted consequences. “Following Brown,
38,000 black teachers and administrators in twenty-one
southern and southern bordering states lost their jobs.”38
This consequence was troubling due to how incredibly
influential black teachers are for the success of black
students. As the aforementioned study notes, black
teachers create positive role models for black and other
minority children, ensuring their continual growth
while also enriching the “experiences of all students by
exposing them to various cultural perspectives.”39 As
more children of color were allowed into public schools
in the South, fewer minority teachers were represented
in classrooms and administrative offices, a problem
of diminishing presence that continued well into the
1980s. In fact, government-mandated desegregation
paradoxically made it more likely that black teachers
would be left out of the educational schematic. This
was largely a result of merging white and black schools
without focusing on “black-teacher retention,” which
was never mentioned in the Brown decision, nor in
the Civil Rights Act of 1965 or the desegregation
stipulations of 1966.40 This was compounded by how
the merging of schools nearly always meant the closure
of a black school instead of a white school, a further
obstacle, often an insurmountable one, to black and
other minority teachers’ participation in the education
workforce in cities across the South.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 59

As a case in point, in 1959, all eleven black teachers 1McBride, Alex. “Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).” The
at Lincoln High were fired when the all-black Supreme Court. December 2016. Thirteen New York
Lincoln merged with the all-white high school in Public Media. 15 October 2017. https://www.thirteen.
Moberly, Missouri.41 The teachers filed a class action org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_plessy.
lawsuit, claiming that the decision not to renew their html
contracts was made on the basis of their race, though 2McBride
the Moberly School Board maintained “that in each 3McBride
instance the teachers employed were better qualified 4McBride
than any of the plaintiffs to fill the teaching positions 5McBride
available.”42 In fact, some of the plaintiffs had more 6McBride
years of experience in education and more college 7McBride Emphasis added.
education than their still-employed white counterparts. 8McBride
But the Board terminated them nonetheless, mostly as 9Klarman, Michael J. Brown v. Board of Education and
a result of allegedly not meeting qualifications. The the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford: Oxford University
Superintendent had decided that schools in his district Press, 2007. 6-8
needed to be desegregated in 1955 and said that, as a 10Klarman, 6-8
result of the merging, one school must be closed and 11Klarman, 6-8
eleven teachers had to be fired.43 There was only one
black school and only eleven black teachers in the entire
School District of the City of Moberly. Regardless
of what seems like a transparent incentivization of
employment discrimination, the 8th Circuit Court
ruled in favor of the School District, stating that “there
is substantial evidence to support the trial court’s
determination that the plaintiffs have failed to meet
the burden of proving that the Board’s action in failing
to renew their teaching contracts resulted from racial
discrimination.”44 This would uphold a practice of
allowing employers to decline the renewal of contracts
without warning, providing an indelible loophole for
racial workplace discrimination.

Regardless of the Court’s intentions or influences,
the decision in Brown inspired an era of rancorous
race relations that culminated in the Civil Rights
Movement. The flawed moral standing of internalizing
racial conflicts, instead of recognizing them as results of
structural failures in society’s order, led to a practice that
gave the appearance of solving racial biases when, in fact,
discrimination prevailed even as desegregation occurred
alongside it. Brown thus may have cemented the roots of
discrimination in its wake not only due to misdirected
enforcement of its holding on desegregation, but also
due to the complicated and conflicting societal mores
about race, equality, and discrimination implicit in the
language of the Court’s opinion.

60 Kinder Institute

12Richmond Planet. “Another Decision.” Chronicling 36Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483.
America: Historic American Newspapers. 23 May US Sup. Ct. 1954.
1896. Library of Congress. 15 October 2017. http:// 37Oakley, Deidre, Jacob Stonewell, and John Logan.
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/1896- “The Impact of Desegregation on Black Teachers in
05-23/ed-1/seq-2/#words=decision+DECISION+supr the Metropolis, 1970-2000.” Ethnic and Racial Studies.
eme+SUPREME 32.9 (2009)
13Tushnet, Mark. NAACP’s Legal Strategy against 38Ibid.
Segregated Education, 1925-1950. The University of 39Ibid.
North Carolina Press, 1987. 104-106 40Ibid.
14Tushnet, p.104-106 41Naomi Brooks v. School District of City of Moberly,
15Tushnet, p.104-106 Missouri, 267 F.2d 733 (8th Cir. 1959)
16Tushnet, p.104-106 42Ibid.
17Tushnet, 164-165 43Ibid.
18Tushnet, 164-165 44Ibid.
19Tushnet, 164-165
20Tushnet, 164-165
21Richmond Planet. “Another Decision.” Chronicling
America: Historic American Newspapers. 23 May
1896. Library of Congress. 15 October 2017. http://
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025841/1896-
05-23/ed-1/seq-2/#words=decision+DECISION+supr
eme+SUPREME
22Tushnet, 6.
23Tushnet, 6.
24Tushnet, 6.
25“The Aftermath.” Brown v. Board at Fifty: “With
and Even Hand.” Library of Congress. 15 October
2017. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-
aftermath.html
26“Immediate Reaction to the Decision: Comparing
Regional Media Coverage.” Landmark Cases of the
U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Historical
Society. 3 October 2017. http://landmarkcases.org/
en/Page/507/Immediate_Reaction_to_the_Decision_
Comparing_Regional_Media_Coverage
27Ibid
28Ibid.
29Ibid.
30Ibid.
31Ibid.
32Ibid.
33Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483. US
Sup. Ct. 1954.
34Sweatt v. Painter, 339 US 629
35Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483.
US Sup. Ct. 1954.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 61

This Land is Our Land:
The 1969 Native American Protest
Occupation of Alcatraz Island

by Alexander Galvin

62 Kinder Institute

The year is 1969, and the landing craft is slowly The events that took place on Alcatraz Island between
approaching its target. The members of the crew are November 20, 1969, and June 11, 1971, did not occur
gently being rocked back and forth as their vessel floats in a vacuum but instead were products of their time and
through the dark, tranquil abyss. The sound of metal place. Long-term, nationwide policies, as well as local
screeching against rock fills the silent void, and the events that occurred in the San Francisco area, led to
crew is lurched forward by the instantaneous halt. They this protest. In terms of causation at the national level,
have touchdown. Many have tried and failed to reach the seeds of the overall Red Power Movement, which
the frontier that these intrepid few gaze out onto. The the Alcatraz occupation was at the forefront of, grew
scenery is desolate and rocky, no signs of life among out of two American federal policies: termination and
the barren stone. For every small step these modern relocation. The first of these policies, termination, was
pioneers take, they are making leaps for mankind. the result of the 1953 House Concurrent Resolution
These brave men and women are not setting foot on 108, which read:
the moon but making their way up the shoreline of
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. It is the policy of Congress, as rapidly as possible,
to make the Indians within the territorial limits
On November 20, 1969, exactly five months after of the United States subject to the same laws and
the Apollo 11 moon landing, this small group of men entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities
and women would open an entirely new frontier for as are applicable to other citizens of the United
Americans. Instead of claiming a distant celestial satellite States, to end their status as wards of the United
for the watching nation, these fourteen protestors States, and to grant them all of the rights and
would claim an equally lifeless rock, risking their own prerogatives pertaining to American citizenship.1
wellbeing to improve the lives of Native Americans in
the United States. Their story of survival goes against all Although this policy was aimed at granting privileges
odds. They are the Indians of All Tribes, and beginning associated with U.S. citizenship, it also took away
in the fall of 1969, they would make Alcatraz the symbol the only real privilege that many Native American
of their cause. As this essay will examine, the 1969- tribes across the country still had: autonomy. As the
1971 Occupation of Alcatraz by these Native American shorthand coined for it reflects, HCR 108 terminated
protestors served as the single most important event the right of a reservation to govern itself and therefore
of the Red Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s crippled and dissolved the already struggling Native
for three primary reasons: because of how the protest American communities on these reservations.
sustained despite the U.S. government’s efforts to
end it; because of the success it had in agitating other This is where the second policy, relocation, came into
related protests across the United States; and because effect. Under the Indian Relocation Act of 1956:
of its ability to effectuate lasting legal reform for the
communities it sought to aid. In order to help adult Indians who reside on or
near Indian reservations to obtain reasonable and
satisfactory employment, the Secretary of the
Interior is authorized to undertake a program of
vocational training that provides for vocational
counseling or guidance, institutional training in
any recognized vocation or trade, apprenticeship,
and on the job training, for periods that do not
exceed twenty-four months, transportation to
the place of training, and subsistence during the
course of training.2

The most destructive element of this Act was the
transportation provision. Under this policy, Native
Americans from newly terminated reservations were

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 63

incentivized, under the guise of a welfare program, The protestors justified their annexation of Alcatraz
to move away from their homes and communities in using the language of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie,
order to achieve employment in nearby cities. Over the which stated that all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use
next decade, cities across the United States, including federal land was to be returned to the Native people
San Francisco, received a steady influx of Native who had once occupied it.4 At the time, the prison
American migrants from the terminated reservations fit this bill, and it was not until after the occupation
in their respective regions. These migrants developed a ended that Alcatraz Island would be converted into a
sense of community with Native Americans from other U.S. National Park. Although the protestors had this
tribes, having all been alienated from their homes loophole to authorize their occupation, they knew
and individual cultures. A new sense of Pan-Nativism the government could remove them at any moment
developed out of this cultural alienation, resulting in under the justification of promoting the health and
the formation of an overall Native American identity welfare of its citizens, and this ever-present threat was
that had previously been outweighed by tribal identity. the protestors’ greatest obstacle to overcome. This
Indian Culture Centers were created in response to challenge is also where the ingenuity of these men and
this influx, and these Centers became key to the urban women shined brightest. Specifically, Earl Livermore
communities to which Native American populations described the protestors’ strategy of establishing
had been relocated. This is why it was so devastating to a community that would be immune to federal
the San Francisco Native American community when intervention because it was fully functional and self-
their Center accidentally burned down in a local fire. sustaining. He stated, for example, how
Earl Livermore, one of the earliest participants in the
Alcatraz protest, elaborated in an interview: “Since the We hope to set up our medical center, primarily,
San Francisco Indian Center burned down, there is no because we are very much concerned with the
place for Indians to assemble and carry on tribal life here health hazards and this is one thing that we were
in the white man’s city. Therefore, we plan to develop afraid of and in fact that the Federal Government
on this island several Indian institutions.”3 Thus the could use this to move us off at any time. We have
Native American protest occupation of Alcatraz was two nurses and we have a staff of doctors that
a product of both nationwide circumstances and local rotate. We also have an Indian woman who is a
incidents and served two distinct, but overlapping, dietician who helps in the kitchen.5
purposes: a practical purpose unique to the displaced
Native Americans of San Francisco, as well as a grander This extensive planning and inclusion of professionals
political purpose relevant to all Native Americans did not stop with healthcare but expanded to education.
effected by the policies of the United States Federal “We set up our grades from one to seven in the school
government from a decade prior. system,” Livermore further described, and

[w]e have approximately 24 children [and] about
three teachers which are accredited. Two with a
B.A. degree and one with a master degree. The
one with a master’s degree is a Ute Indian, and he
heads up the educational program.6

The attention to detail and function emphasized by
protestors like Earl Livermore ultimately precluded
the U.S. Federal Government from invoking “citizen
health and welfare” logic as a basis for removing
everyone from Alcatraz and thereby ending the
protest. Perfection was demanded in their everyday
organization if the protest was to survive.

64 Kinder Institute

Along with the practical methods they utilized to as determined by the white man’s own standards.
secure their claim to occupy the island against undue By this, we mean that this place resembles most
federal meddling, the protestors issued a declaration Indian reservations in that:
known as the Alcatraz Proclamation, which proffered
the following: 1. It is isolated from modern facilities, and without
adequate means of transportation.
We, the native Americans, reclaim the land known
as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American 2. It has no fresh running water.
Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair 3. It has inadequate sanitation facilities.
and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian 4. There are no oil or mineral rights.
inhabitants of this land, and hereby offer the 5. There is no industry and so unemployment is very
following treaty: We will purchase said Alcatraz
Island for twenty-four dollars in glass beads and great.
red cloth, a precedent set by the white man’s 6. There are no health-care facilities.
purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. 7. The soil is rocky and non-productive, and the land
We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres
is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was does not support game.
sold, but we know that land values have risen over 8. There are no educational facilities.
the years. Our offer of $1.24 per acre is greater 9. The population has always exceeded the land base.
than the $0.47 per acre the white men are now 10. The population has always been held as prisoners
paying the California Indians for their lands. We
will give to the inhabitants of this island a portion and kept dependent upon others.7
of the land for their own to be held in trust…by
the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs…in perpetuity— With this proclamation, the protestors justified their
for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers movement by wittily condemning the historic actions
go down to the sea. We will further guide the of white settlers in America—to not accept a treaty
inhabitants in the proper way of living. We will constructed around the same, exploitative terms they
offer them our religion, our education, our life- had deployed would be to acknowledge these terms’
ways in order to help them achieve our level of injustice. They used historic language, referencing their
civilization and thus raise them and all their white right of discovery and alluding to the Dutch purchase
brothers up from their savage and unhappy state. of the island of Manhattan in New York from Native
We offer this treaty in good faith and wish to be Americans, while generously adjusting for the modern
fair and honorable in our dealings with all white principle of inflation. The Alcatraz Proclamation is
men. We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island filled with pointed prose and ends in a list that directs
is more than suitable for an Indian reservation, attention to, and indicts the government for, the horrid
conditions of the Native American reservations that the
U.S. government had so hastily dismantled in 1953 and
whose occupants were subsequently dispersed instead
of being truly helped. It is because of such brilliance
in rhetorical strategy and protest conceptualization
and practice that the Alcatraz Occupation lasted nearly
two years and, as will be discussed later, inspired many
iconic events of the decade long Red Power Movement.

Serving as one of the longest continuous protests in
the Red Power Movement, the nineteen-month-
long Occupation of Alcatraz garnered public support
from the San Francisco Bay Area as well as from
across the country. Hefty donations from celebrities
including Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, and the band
Creedence Clearwater Revival helped provide the
means to keep supplying water and electricity to the

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 65

island, the commodities most regularly lacking due to helped bring about the end of the federal government’s
Coast Guard blockades and intentional power cuts. Indian termination policy with the passage of the Indian
Navigating the public relations battle did not always Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of
prove to be easy. At one point, the protestors had to 1975. This policy stated that:
block all non-Native Americans from remaining on
the island overnight in order to rid the grounds of Congress declares its commitment to the
members of the San Francisco counterculture scene maintenance of the Federal Government’s
who were damaging the image of the protest by using unique and continuing relationship with and
drugs. Despite being able to constantly find a way to responsibility to the Indian people through
solve the problems that the protest faced, the number the establishment of a meaningful Indian self-
of protestors remaining on the island continuously determination policy which will permit an orderly
dwindled due to resource shortages and personal, legal, transition from Federal domination of programs
and financial pressures. Some protestors simply had to for and services to Indians to effective and
return to work or school and could not remain a part of meaningful participation by the Indian people in
the planning, conduct and administration of these
the movement in perpetuity. Finally, on June 11, 1971, programs and services.8
a large force of government officers forcibly removed
the last fifteen protestors from the island, thus marking This policy acknowledged and emphasized
the end of the occupation. Although the occupation Native American autonomy in a way that the U.S.
ended before the protestors could effectively negotiate government previously had not. Under the Indian
for their demands to be met and an Indian Culture Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act,
Center built on the island, the protest was largely various arms of the federal government, including the
considered a success because of its ability to shed light Department of State and the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
on the hardships that Native Americans faced as a result were empowered to provide grants to reservations
of the federal government’s policies, both historic and but were also restricted from stipulating how the
more contemporary with the occupation. International grant money was to be spent. Supported programs
attention was focused on the Red Power Movement and services would include resource management, law
due to the Alcatraz Occupation, as well as the other enforcement, education, childcare, and environmental
protests that were motivated by it, including the cross- protection, and since Native communities had full
country march known as the Trail of Broken Treaties, control over how this money was managed, they were
the Bureau of Indian Affairs Occupation, the protest able to incorporate their own beliefs and philosophies
at Wounded Knee, and the D.C. march known as the
Longest Walk. All of these protests, in conjunction and
in conversation with one another, are ultimately what

66 Kinder Institute

into how these federal funds were administered to 7“The Alcatraz Proclamation to the Great White Father
better their communities. For example, instead of and his People.” Native Media Center. University of
reservations slowly decaying toward termination, and North Dakota. 5 October 2017. https://arts-sciences.
instead of Native Americans being forced to relocate und.edu/native-media-center/_files/docs/1950-
and assimilate into urban-American society, newly- 1970/1969alcatrazproclamation.pdf
funded schools were able to teach Native languages 8Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance
and customs and therefore preserve culture rather than Act of 1975. Pub. L. 93-638. 4 Jan. 1975. Stat. 10.101.
succumb to abandoning it.

While the 1960s often bring to mind the speeches of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights
leaders, the era encompassed more than the fight for
African American equality. Other marginalized groups
also played a vital role in protest movements across the
country, and protests like the Occupation of Alcatraz
in 1969 both helped effectuate real change for the
Native American community and served a part in the
broader history of American political participation.
Even today, the effects of the Occupation of Alcatraz
can be seen and felt. Whether it is debates about the
use of Native American symbols for professional sports
teams or the passionate protests regarding the Dakota
Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, Native American
communities have been and will continue to be
important participants in American democracy.

11953 House concurrent resolution 108. Pub. L. 280. 1

Aug. 1953. Stat. 67.132.

2Indian Relocation Act of 1956. Pub. L. 959-84. n.d.

1956. Stat. 70.986.

3Sylvester, John D. “An excerpt from an interview with

Earl Livermore about the Indians of All Tribes (IOAT)

occupation of Alcatraz, 1970.” The American Indian

Movement, 1968-1978. 1-11. Digital Public Libraries

of America. 5 October 2017. https://dp.la/primary-

source-sets/sources/1329

4“Transcript of Treaty of Fort Laramie

(1868).” OurDocuments.gov. 16 October

2017. https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.

php?flash=false&doc=42&page=transcript

5Sylvester, John D. “An excerpt from an interview with

Earl Livermore about the Indians of All Tribes (IOAT)

occupation of Alcatraz, 1970.” The American Indian

Movement, 1968-1978. 1-11. Digital Public Libraries

of America. 5 October 2017. https://dp.la/primary-

source-sets/sources/1329

6Ibid.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 67

68 Kinder Institute

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 69

“Stretching the Seams”:
Thoreau’s Walden as a Work
of Self-Improvement Literature

by Nathanael Owens

70 Kinder Institute

On December 19, 1732, Benjamin Franklin, a polymath unique inspiration and not as an example for widespread
famous for his inventions, newspaper publishing, emulation. In a deviation from earlier examples of self-
and statesmanship, released the first annual issue of improvement literature, Thoreau’s Walden sought to
Poor Richard’s Almanack, a pamphlet which contained empower people with the means to create their own
meteorological predictions, a calendar, astronomical personal, and thus more meaningful, definition of
and astrological information, and most importantly “improvement.” A brief examination of the texts reveals
for his readers who wished to improve their lives, a the impressive extent of Thoreau’s shift in focus, but it
collection of aphorisms and sayings selected or created is made truly manifest when he does what would have
by Franklin himself.1 During a long and exceptionally been unthinkable to Franklin or Weems: he rejects the
popular 26-year print run, Franklin’s Poor Richard’s demands of the marketplace.
would sell around 10,000 copies per annum to farmers
and other British subjects, leaving an extraordinary With his Life of Washington, Mason Locke Weems
impact on the developing culture of colonial America. stood in contrast to Thoreau’s noble goal—yet there
are clear reasons to believe that Weems had some
Sixty-eight years after Franklin printed his first Poor high-minded motivations (or at least pretensions)
Richard’s, Mason Locke Weems, a bookseller and behind what he was writing. Nowhere is this more
preacher from Maryland, published his folkloric evident than in his biography’s introduction, where he
biography of George Washington, in which he calls Washington “the Jupiter Conservator,”4 invoking
described Washington, in extravagant terms, as a comparison between the Roman god and America’s
god among men and an unparalleled inspiration to first president. With this statement, Weems places
his generation.2 Weems had no interest in being a himself in the footsteps of ancients like Plutarch, a
comprehensive biographer of the man in his failures Roman philosopher who constructed a set of “Parallel
and triumphs. Instead, the bookseller explored Lives” biographies, which described the lives and works
Washington’s life as a series of morally-significant of numerous Greek and Roman statesmen in similarly
scenarios, in which, as Weems argues, the nation’s first lofty terms.5
president made upright decisions. Operating within
the biographical tradition of providing an uncritical Weems, unlike Plutarch, had a particular focus on
examination of a “Great Man” or a revered public the moral instruction of children, since he thought
figure, Weems implored the ambitious citizen to act that “in [private virtues] every youth may become
virtuously by imitating the founding father. Such a a Washington.”6 Of course, not every child could
call to imitation was not uncommon during the time become a general or a president, and so Weems sought
of Weems and Franklin, and both of their projects not to present Washington as such an inimitably heroic
worked within the confines of the period’s conventions individual but instead to scale down “the hero and
for “self-improvement literature”—literary works that
attempt to show the reader how to be a better or more
successful person.

In August 1854—nearly a century after Franklin
stopped publishing his almanac and over a half-century
after the release of Weems’ biography of Washington—
Henry David Thoreau published Walden; or, Life in the
Woods, setting forth a new style of self-improvement
literature in which he worked admirably to shake off
the conventions of the past.3 Yes, both Thoreau and
his early American predecessors were attempting to
teach American citizens how to improve their lives, but
unlike Weems and Franklin, Thoreau forwarded his
own individual experience to his readers as a source of

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 71

Demigod”7 to the level of the common man. Weems demanded that he find, or even invent, stories that made
thus aimed to reveal Washington’s private life—which Washington more relatable to the common person
he goes so far as to call his “real life”—to be the truest than he may well have been. Of these two motives,
source of Washington’s genuine nature. In doing so, he the second was clearly more damaging. An uncritical
would make George Washington, the private citizen, presentation could still be accurate, and perhaps even
into an example that any child could emulate. Shrewdly, inspiring, insofar as Washington’s actions were truly
this would also make his book into a manual that any heroic. The second, however, lowered Washington,
parent would want to buy for their child; at all times, reducing him to a level of relatability dictated by the
saleability went hand-in-hand with Weems’ method of market and compromising Weems’ attempt at self-
synthesizing and analyzing Washington’s life. improvement literature.

Perhaps the most famous of Weems’ stories from An unscrupulous critic of Weems’ project might
Washington’s “real life” is the “Cherry Tree Anecdote,” contend that his fabrication of such stories has little to
and it embodies both the success and failure of the do with whether or not they hold value as instruments
work. The story, which Weems claims that “an aged of self-improvement. If they encourage children not to
lady, who was a distant relative”8 told him, is that lie, then why would his stories not be just as harmlessly
the young George was given a hatchet which he useful as telling one’s children the legend of Santa
proceeded to test on a cherry tree, his father’s favorite.9 Claus to convince them to be nice and avoid being
Faced with his father’s dismay at the loss of his “great naughty? Such a take, although initially appealing, is
favorite” tree, Washington responds, “I can’t tell a lie, fundamentally flawed. Weems’ status as a man who lied
Pa…I did cut it with my hatchet.”10 The story goes on in order to increase the sales of his book absolutely
to show the young George unpunished, and instead undermines his authority not simply as a proponent
forgiven because of his honesty.11 Far from the divine of honesty but also as a reliable instructor. Specifically,
and inimitable President Washington, this George Washington’s potential to function as a moral guide was
was accessible and relatable in his flaws and moral diminished in a powerful way by Weems’ hypocritical
responses. In other words, this was Washington at his project, since the author selected (or, again, invented)
most imitable and thus at his most saleable. not the most helpful anecdotes—i.e., the ones most
capable of spurring meaningful self-improvement—
This story, as appealing as it may be, begins to crumble but the ones that he could best and most easily sell.
when one realizes that the entire legend is, in all
likelihood, a fabrication. The story designed to teach Washington was not the only Founder who was
children not to lie was itself a lie. Though there is no put forth in self-improvement literature as a moral
definitive evidence that the incident did not occur example. Benjamin Franklin in effect put himself
as Weems tells it, a strong and enduring tradition
contends that Weems merely made the story up. The
current scholarly consensus, formed by scrutinizing
Weems’ anecdotes and searching for corroborating
evidence, is that Weems’ emphasis on saleability—the
very quality that made him favor pedestrian stories like
the cherry tree myth—brought him farther and farther
from the truth.12

The Life of Washington, then, can be seen as both a
biography in the “Great Man” tradition of moral
instruction and a book designed first and foremost as
a commercial product. Neither one of these ambitions
lent themselves to truth: the first oriented Weems
towards an uncritical presentation and the second

72 Kinder Institute

forth as the source of Poor Richard’s Almanack’s many and goes on to assert that it was “solid pudding,” or
morally instructive maxims, a number of which remain large sums of money, that kept him working on his
familiar in some form to Americans today: “To err is almanac project.15 His desire to make his maxims more
human,” “There are no gains without pains,” and many sophisticated was discouraged by popularity, so the
other similar motivational quotes descended from only motivation Franklin left for himself was to make
Franklin that litter social media. Historically speaking, money at the expense of maximizing the quality and
Franklin’s almanac and the maxims therein, like efficacy of his advice. As he writes in The Way to Wealth,
Weems’ biography of Washington, had an incredible “the people were the best judges of my merit; for they
effect on early American culture. Franklin biographers buy my works.”16 Self-aware though it was, Franklin’s
Claude-Anne Lopez and Eugenia W. Herbert, for perspective of market success as the only realistically
example, note that “Poor Richard became second attainable goal both undermined his attempts at
only to the Bible as a source of proverbial wisdom.”13 crafting self-improvement literature and ruined any
In contextualizing this popularity, Louis K. Wechsler chance he had at a positive critical reception (which
cites the economic conditions and culture of colonial his writings suggest was what he truly wanted). As one
America as the reason for Poor Richard’s success: might ask of Franklin, could a work whose author who
had to lower himself in order to write it ever succeed
Only those who have been as poor as most of in meaningfully uplifting its reader? Poor Richard’s
Franklin’s contemporaries can fully understand audiences may have believed Franklin was offering
the helplessness and humiliation of owning them the royal road to self-improvement, but in truth,
nothing, neither property nor money nor talent, he was merely profiting from their adoration and
and of having to depend on the bitter bounty of leaving them with little more than witticisms.
others, whether individuals or governments. For
them Franklin’s prescription of ‘industry and From these two examples, it is evident that the form
frugality’ was not a penny-pinching end, but a of self-improvement literature that existed in America
liberating means of achieving independence and before Thoreau was caused by, and perhaps inextricable
self-respect.14 from, the development of the nation’s capitalist culture.

As Weschsler identifies, Franklin’s predominately
poor audience had an enormous influence on both
the material he presented in his almanac and its
form, the maxim. Such short, simple quotations
were not particularly erudite, but they did deal with
the everyday concerns of the people who required
almanacs, particularly farmers. Just as the maxims
shaped their readers, the readers shaped the maxims by
forcing Franklin to address commonplace concerns in
a commonplace way. While the maxims, as Weschler
notes, were seen by many as a road to self-respect, they
nonetheless lowered Franklin, a man noted for his
rhetorical talent, to a pedestrian style of writing—just
as Weems lowered Washington by reducing his life to a
series of relatable moral episodes.

There is strong evidence that the sophisticated
Franklin understood what his maxims were making
of him. In The Way to Wealth, he describes his dismay
at having “seldom enjoyed” the “great pleasure” of
being “respectfully quoted by other learned authors”

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 73

The fact that Weems and Franklin’s main audiences Thoreau himself recognized the radical departure
were poor makes Thoreau’s statement about his most he was making from the established norms of self-
appropriate audience all the more fascinating. Thoreau improvement literature. In the second paragraph of
writes in his introduction to “Economy,” the first “Economy,” he sheds light on a critical piece of his
section of Walden that describes the scope and aims authorial decision-making, saying, “In most books,
of the project as a whole, that “[p]erhaps these pages the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be
are more particularly addressed to poor students.”17 retained.”18 More interesting than this stylistic decision
The important, and differentiating, word is students. is his reasoning: Thoreau believed that an individual
By using this word, Thoreau indicates that he views knows him or herself more than anyone else, and
his readers as much more than passive recipients therefore this is what he or she should endeavor
and emulators of his texts. Just as a good college to write. He compares the differences between the
instructor demands that students use critical thinking sincere lives of individuals to the separation between
when considering the material presented to them, “distant lands,” arguing that these distances make the
Thoreau demanded that his readers think critically earnest description of another’s life less fruitful than a
and independently about his advice in Walden—and discussion of one’s own life experience.19 The passage is
no one, he reasoned, would be more suited to such an enlightening enough that it bears quoting in full:
endeavor than those who were already doing so in their
courses of study. Yet the word “students” meant more In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in
than just this. Thoreau was offering his advice more this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism,
universally, to all those who were in a mode to learn is the main difference. We commonly do not
and to think critically about the fundamental questions remember that it is, after all, always the first person
of life. In this way, he took the first steps toward a that is speaking. I should not talk so much about
democratization of self-improvement. myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as
well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme
by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover,
I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last,
a simple and sincere account of his own life, and
not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives;
some such account as he would send to his kindred
from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it
must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps
these pages are more particularly addressed to poor
students. As for the rest of my readers, they will
accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that
none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat,
for it may do good service to him whom it fits.20

This paragraph would seem gratuitous and irrelevant
if Thoreau were not explicitly setting up his work
as a counterpoint to the traditional form of self-
improvement literature. The particular form of
this literature for which Thoreau seems to have the
most contempt is the biography of the “Great Man,”
exemplified in American literature to that point by
Weems’ Life of Washington. Thoreau, in contrast with
the goals of this tradition, states that he “require[s] of
every writer…not merely what he has heard of other
men’s lives.”21 He believed, in other words, that the

74 Kinder Institute

authors of these edifying biographies were not living of his book, if also increase its popularity in the process.
up to their capacities as writers, or their obligations
as guides to self-improvement, because they were not Just as Thoreau avoided lowering himself, he also
writing what they knew best. By eschewing the third insisted that his readers avoid lowering themselves,
person for the first, Thoreau was making Walden not even if they may be, by the standards of the world,
a story about “distant lands” but about his own life, lowly. In the conclusion of Walden, he discusses the
allowing him to focus on self-improvement from the criticisms that have been laid against Americans for
most effective instructional perspective: that of the self. being intellectually bankrupt:
In doing this, Thoreau also made clear that his goal
was not to impose his framework of being upon his Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans,
readers but instead to show how he discovered his own and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs
route to improvement, so that they might be able to compared with the ancients, or even the
find their own. His literature was democratizing and Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose?
empowering, not only in intention but in fact. A living dog is better than a dead lion...Let every
one mind his own business, and endeavor to be
Thoreau’s unique understanding of personal experience what he was made.23
supported his belief in the utility of Walden to its
readership. Nothing better communicates this belief This passage illuminates Thoreau’s willingness to
than the book-to-coat metaphor that he uses in tolerate great differences in intellectual achievement,
advising his readership against “stretch[ing] the seams” bringing to fruition his wide, democratizing definition
of the text by trying to wear if it does not fit.22 This of the word “student.” Yet he does not suggest that a
is in absolute contrast to traditional books of self- person should fail to be an intellectual if they have
improvement, which, because of their devotion to the capacity—this, in Thoreau’s language, would be a
market forces, would not and could not admit that the person failing to “be what he was made.”24 Everyone,
techniques preached in a particular book may not be then, not just the elites, should fulfill their own version of
applicable to everyone. Franklin and Weems believed betterment, improving not to become a Washington or
in the universality of virtue and its utility, but Thoreau a Franklin, but instead to become an actualized version
believed that different people required different ways of of their own capacities and values. Improvement, in the
life. This view underlaid his commitment to avoid the Thoreauvian construction, is not tied to the emulation
pull of saleability and allowed him to shrink his target of a universal ideal (like the honesty of young George
audience in a way that Franklin and Weems could not Washington) or the implementation of maxims (like
have fathomed. He desired as readers only those who Franklin’s) but rather the accomplishment of human
could find value in the text and never invited external flourishing, however one might be capable of it.
influences that might lower the quality of the content
Elsewhere in Walden, Thoreau expands on what exactly
it means to fail at flourishing. In the chapter called
“Reading,” in which he discusses the books he read
while at Walden Pond, Thoreau discusses his belief in
the importance of the classics:

A man, any man, will go considerably out of his way
to pick up a silver dollar; but here are golden words,
which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and
whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have
assured us of;—and yet we learn to read only as
far as Easy Reading, the primers and class-books,
and when we leave school, the ‘Little Reading,’ and
story-books, which are for boys and beginners; and
our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 75

on a very low level…25 still highly praised by scholars and students of
literature, though one of Franklin’s other projects, his
It is important to note that, in this passage, Thoreau is unpublished Autobiography, continues to receive serious
not attempting to attack people of low intellect—his academic consideration. Thoreau’s sincere effort to
other comments on this point make this clear. Instead, teach self-improvement in a way that is empowering—
he is criticizing society for not elevating and teaching and perhaps even democratizing—makes Walden a
the classics to people who do have the capacity to uniquely American work, and its message has influenced
comprehend them. If a person is unable to do this, modern Americans on a fundamental level. As John
Thoreau says, one should “[l]et [him]…endeavor to Updike wrote in a 2004 column in the Guardian,
be what he was made,” but if a person is so able, that “[o]f the American classics densely arisen in the middle
person has a responsibility to “pick up” the “golden of the 19th century…Walden has contributed most to
words” of the classics as they would a coin found on America’s present sense of itself.”27
the ground.26
In an era in which self-improvement literature—made
Thoreau was not demanding that his readers seek a manifest in the form of “self-help” books—is denigrated
singular truth from the classics; he was imploring his and laughed at rather than praised, Thoreau’s work
readers to find and interpret for themselves the trove of stands as a testament to the full capacity of the genre
knowledge and worth that so many generations before in the hands of a literary master. In “Economy,”
had praised. This sort of self-education, according to Thoreau argues that, in 1854, there were “professors of
Thoreau, would raise one’s standard of “conversation philosophy, but not philosophers”; that is, there were
and thinking,” allowing oneself to be better: to self- few who so “love[d] wisdom as to live according to its
improve. He was not arguing that Walden, erudite dictates.”28 By that definition, we may definitely count
as it may be, was the “one-stop shop” in which his Thoreau among the philosophers, for he sought not
readers would find a singular, concrete, infallible way only to improve himself (or his pocketbook), but to
to improve themselves. Instead, he points outward, improve all who would encounter his work—and who
to books of considerably more traditional influence would not “stretch the seams” by donning its virtues.
and history, and argues that these are the true sources
of self-education. Thoreau had so fundamentally
abandoned the market as his source for success that he
was willing, at this point, to openly admit that someone
might be better off buying a different book. One would
find it difficult to imagine Franklin or Weems doing
the same.

Thoreau, who loved the classics, presented his readers
with the best way he knew how to improve oneself—
the way he did it: not by rote emulation of the facts
of another’s life or the instructions of a commonplace
maxim, but by drawing one’s own guiding conclusions
from the wealth of knowledge that exists in the world,
in myriad forms. Thoreau’s work can inspire people to
find their own road to flourishing because the ideas
presented in it helped the author flourish. In this sense,
it empowers both the author and the reader to live in
the first-person and not the third.

In the contemporary era, and of the three works
presented in this essay, only Thoreau’s Walden is

76 Kinder Institute

1Morgan, Lisa. “The Prominent and Prodigiously 23Thoreau, Henry David. “Conclusion.” Walden; or,
Popular Poor Richard.” The Pennsylvania Center Life in the Woods.
for the Book. Summer 2008. Pennsylvania State 24Thoreau, Henry David. “Reading.” Walden; or, Life
University. 3 April 2018. http://pabook2.libraries.psu. in the Woods.
edu/palitmap/PoorRichardsAlmanack.html 25Ibid.
2Weems, Mason Locke. “An Introduction.” A History 26Ibid.
of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General 27Updike, John. “A Sage for All Seasons.” The Guardian.
George Washington. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott 25 June 2004. Guardian News and Media Limited. 4
Co., 1918. Accessed as an ebook at https://archive.org/ February 2018.
details/lifeofgeorgewashweem. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/
3Thoreau, Henry David. “Economy.” Walden; or, classics
Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854. 28Thoreau. “Economy.”
Accessed as an ebook at https://www.walden.org/work/
walden/.
4Weems. “An Introduction.”
5Karamanolis, George. “Plutarch.” Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 4 November 2014. Center
for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford
University. 12 November 2017.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plutarch/
6Weems. “An Introduction.”
7Ibid.
8Weems. “Chapter II: Birth and Education.” A History
of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General
George Washington.
9Ibid.
10Ibid.
11Ibid.
12Harris, Christopher. “Mason Locke Weems’s Life
of Washington: The Making of a Bestseller.” The
Southern Literary Journal 19.2 (1987): 92-101.
13Lopez, Claude-Anne, and Eugenia W. Herbert. The
Private Franklin: The Man and His Family. New York:
Norton, 1975. 38.
14Wechsler, Louis K. Benjamin Franklin: American and
World Educator. New York: Twayne, 1976. 157.
15Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin’s The Way
to Wealth (1758). Ed. Shipside, Steve. Oxford: Infinite
Ideas, 2009.
16Ibid.
17Thoreau. “Economy.”
18Ibid.
19Ibid.
20Ibid.
21Ibid.
22Ibid.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 77

The Myth of Unity: Music, Art, and
the Great Depression

by Dylan Cain

78 Kinder Institute

“To Berry and Betty Bolen; The myth of unity does not stop with the Founding
My loving great-grandparents, who themselves but is reiterated throughout history. For instance, the
migrated from rural Missouri and Arkansas to phrase “Suffragettes” has long bound together many
California during the Great Depression” leaders in the early twentieth century struggle for
voting rights. However, deeper inquiry reveals stark
Whether in Supreme Court dissents, Congressional differences between American Suffragettes’ stances on
stump-speeches, or presidential inaugurations, it has such issues as black women’s place in the movement’s
become commonplace in discourse to depict a “myth overall objectives.2 Similarly, historical analyses have
of unity,” or an assumed ideological agreement, among for some time emphasized moral qualms with racism
the Founding Fathers. Today, in fact, one only needs to as the cause of the abolition of the slave trade in
skim the surface of political commentary on television Great Britain.3 However, closer examination shows
and social media to hear opinions on what the a dichotomy separating the moralists like Olaudah
Founders, as a consensus-driven whole, truly intended Equiano and William Wilberforce from those in Great
for their ideal democracy. This romanticized view of Britain who simply wished to use abolition as a political
the American origin story is not a phenomenon limited maneuver during wartime.4 This analytical miscasting
to contemporary rhetoric but also extends historically of unlike identities as a united front is unfortunately
back in time, to the visual and auditory arts that quite common, and the political nuances that go under-
depicted the era. Consider John Trumbull’s Declaration or un-analyzed when convenience of conceptualization
of Independence, a massive oil-painting for which the is prioritized are often critical to truly understanding
artist was commissioned in 1817.1 It hangs today in the important movements in history. Among such
Capitol Rotunda, showing a proud Thomas Jefferson movements is the Great Depression, a period of
delivering his draft of the Declaration to John Hancock, economic catastrophe that is too often presented not
who presided over the Congress. Here he is flanked only as creating a massive, leftward shift politically but
by powerful allies on each side, including John Adams, also as establishing a leftist music and art scene. Critical
Roger Sherman, and Benjamin Franklin, making analysis, as we will come to discover, dispels this myth
each of these revolutionaries appear as one strong, of unity as well.
ideologically-cohesive unit in their grievances against
the King. However, close analysis begins to reveal This essay will explore two men who were in their
the serious rifts underlying their common colonial artistic primes during the Great Depression, nearly
experience. When it came to finally establishing a 160 years after the signing of the Declaration of
system of government, some of those depicted in Independence: Woody Guthrie, a roaming Oklahoma
Trumbull’s mural went on to call for state supremacy folk singer, and Thomas Hart Benton, a Regionalist
and a removable executive branch supported by the painter from the Missouri Ozarks, both of whom used
Articles of Confederation; some hoped for federal their respective mediums to bring to life the hardships
supremacy and a strong executive branch; and others of many Americans during the Depression. The
occupied a middle-ground. superficial, mythological reading of these artists would
suggest that, through their work, they demonstrated
Herein lies significant consequences. The myth of nearly identical frustrations with greed and power. In
unity may allow for ease of study, but it compromises terms of unity, it is true that each demonstratedthe
historical accuracy, primarily because of how it fails left-of-center politics common in the art and music
to recognize a fundamental truth of social science, scenes of the era. But while they may seem to be
including the study of politics: that the same stimuli and equal shareholders in a “united,” progressive, anti-
similar variables often lead to entirely different outcomes. wealth force, a closer look reveals sharp distinctions in
The Founders agreed on much, but even those from their political philosophies and the ideal democracies
the same states, occupations, and upbringings—and that they propagated in their art. Whereas Guthrie
with similar grievances against Great Britain—could supported communist critiques of both private
form entirely different ideas about how to move property and the concentration of wealth, Benton
forward as a new nation.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 79

found “producerism” and a return to the Jeffersonian, in land speculation and mortgages on farms.7 However,
agrarian ideal to be the solution to the country’s woes. this massive increase in production was met with
But before engaging with this particular distinction, only marginal wage increases, leaving most workers
it is important to first discuss the Great Depression’s unable to afford the goods they produced. Thus, a
impact on the human condition. market whose very success hinged on consumption
was rendered unable to consume. Further, the boom
Introduction in agricultural production was met with massive wind
erosion from careless plowing and inefficient farming
Anne Marie Low, a young schoolteacher from North methods, creating both an economic and ecological
Dakota, described the conditions of her family’s farm disaster.8 This trend of overproduction and under-
during the blistering summer of 1934: consumption, combined with over a thousand bank
failures and compounded by environmental concerns,
At home there was less work to do than usual. led to a market panic and the economic crash of
There had been no moisture since Easter. The October 1929. Businesses collapsed, farms failed, and
crops which hadn’t blown out had been baked in unemployment rose from only 1.5 million in 1929 to
the ground. There would be no grain to cut and 12 million a year and a half later.9
shock. The garden never came up. There was no
corn to cultivate; it had not come up either. The States like Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas braved
hay meadows were rapidly burning up in the hot frequent dust storms and low yields in the “Dust Bowl,”
sun. But what would we live on?5 while states at their periphery, like Missouri, battled
semi-annual droughts and severe unemployment.10
What the Low family and many others experienced Out of this massive suffering, voices for working people
from around 1929 to 1939 can be considered the most emerged, casting aspersions on the wealthy—namely
severe scar in the economic history of the United bankers, investors, and others who were seen as culprits
States. Keeping with this essay’s framework, many for the monumental crisis at-hand. Nestled among
reduce the Great Depression to a sudden collapse these scenes of anger and frustration were Woody
in stock markets and the failure of major banks, but Guthrie and Thomas Hart Benton, capturing the
there were also gradual factors that presaged it. lives of common people in a way that was oftentimes
Behind the post-World War I economic boom in deeply critical of the economic and governing status
urban areas lay both increased worker productivity quo. But as the bulk of this paper will examine, their
and a commensurate rise in consumption of products similar subject matter and leftist political leanings did
and goods.6 Perhaps nothing exemplified these trends not imply agreement about the ideal political structures
better than the reign of assembly line production and for a post-Depression era.
the age of the automobile. On the agricultural front,
the era proved similarly prosperous, leading to a spike

80 Kinder Institute

Hard Travelin’ excesses of capitalism, leading the Oklahoma Socialist
Party to take root in many of the state’s southeastern,
Perhaps it is fitting that one of the most revolutionary rural counties.17 Although the party’s success would
figures in American music was born on one of the most fade after World War I, the stage was set for Guthrie’s
revolutionary of holidays: Bastille Day.11 On July 14, particular understanding of poverty and struggle.
1912, Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie was born to
a moderately-successful family in Okemah, Oklahoma. Guthrie himself began his youth as a relatively fortunate
Known most for the patriotic tune “This Land is Your Oklahoman: his father was a land speculator, not a
Land,” Guthrie composed his songs to reflect both his tenant farmer.18 During Oklahoma’s oil boom, Charley
personal struggles and the political strife of the Great Guthrie, a vociferous opponent of rural socialism, made
Depression and World War II eras. Despite being ends meet through this occupation, but once the oil
poorly-educated, he concisely articulated the concerns ran dry, the family became as poverty-stricken as any
of the working class, and through his guitar and his of the Dust Bowl migrants that would follow. Woody
harmonica, he channeled these grievances into a vision did not only experience economic plight: his sister
for the country. In order to begin dissecting his ideal died in a coal-oil fire, and his mother was committed
democracy and its hallmarks, one must first examine to a mental institution as a result. In hopes of better
the plight he experienced firsthand. fortunes, Woody followed his father to Pampa, Texas.
There, he worked odd jobs, including sign painting and
Oklahoma’s experience with statehood was limited at at speak easies. He also started a family in Pampa with
the time of Woody Guthrie’s birth, but its experience his wife, Marjorie, and had two children. Much more
with abject poverty and economic exploitation was significantly for his music, it was here that he began
deep-seated. As an agricultural state, most settlers to write about the hard times during the Dust Bowl.
in the Oklahoma territory relied on high yields of These first songs by Guthrie included a ballad about
cotton in order to subsist.12 However, several market “Black Sunday,” the infamous dust storm of April 14,
conditions arose that hindered Oklahoma’s small 1935, which carried dust across the Midwest all the way
farmers. First, the market was concentrated, with only to Texas, suffocating babies and children along the way.
a few merchants servicing the many new settlers in Woody scribbled down the fear people felt that day, as
Oklahoma who were desperate to sell their crops and everyone said their goodbyes to one another:
make a living.13 As a result, prices were naturally (and
predatorily) depressed, and those farmers fortunate I’ve sung this song and I’ll sing it again,
enough to sell their harvests made minimal profits, Of the place that I lived on the wild windy plains,
if any at all. Further, the merchants to whom these In the month called April, county called Gray,
farmers sold their crops also controlled the market for And here’s what all of the people there say:
farming equipment, creating utter dependency on an
oligopoly of elites in the state’s agriculture industry.14 So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
These factors drove many farmers to sell their land just So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
to pay off debts to their creditors, after which they often So long, it’s been good to know yuh.
turned to tenant farming. This institution came with This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
its own disadvantages, as most tenants had to give up And I got to be driftin’ along.19
significant portions of their harvest to their landlords.15
In Marxist terms, the significance of which will soon In some sense, Black Sunday can be seen as the starting
become clear, a wedge had been driven between point of his career. “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know
labor and the means of production (i.e. merchant- Ya” was his first major Dust Bowl ballad, and after
controlled equipment; land), and a highly bifurcated 1935, Guthrie began to “drift along” from his family in
class structure had developed. By 1910, well over Texas to join other working people and the displaced.
four-fifths of the people in Okfuskee County, where However, his experiences in Pampa forever anchored
Guthrie was born, had resorted to tenant farming.16 the focus of his work: the material condition and the
The ground was highly saturated with a distaste for the plight of lower-class Americans. And it is important to

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 81

note that Guthrie did not just sing of the experiences with real working people was a touchstone of his early
of common people; he sang their critiques of the adult years, and from it, he not only learned about his
established order, calling for an ideal democracy that fellow wanderers’ affiliations with labor interests but
might ameliorate the hardships of the times and work also came to closely identify with their sense of liberty
in favor of common folk. and their understanding of what obstructed it. For
instance, Guthrie eschewed law enforcement and their
This Land is Your Land harassment of hobos in “Hobo’s Lullaby”:
Guthrie’s music might have been rooted in the
experiences of his youth, but he didn’t channel these I know the police cause you trouble
experiences into a clear ideology until he fell under the They cause trouble everywhere
influence of important figures in the labor and workers’ But when you die and go to Heaven
movements. The impressions these figures left would You’ll find no policemen there.21
congeal into a set of beliefs directly comparable to the
revolutionary principles elaborated by both Karl Marx As Dr. Marvin Butler remarked in his essay “Always
and Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto. on the Go,” Guthrie’s use of hobos in songs indicated
Guthrie’s initial encounters with the aforementioned his attachment to the form of human mobility they
movements came during his westward travels to exemplified during the Depression.22 And from here
California in the summer of 1937. He would join up with emerges an early critique of capitalism that Guthrie
L.A.-based radio station KFVD to host a program as a would ultimately develop into a pillar of the vision
“hillbilly singer” when he reached the coast, but before of ideal democracy that he advanced in his later
this, he rode in boxcars, hitchhiked, and interacted with songs: how, in promoting and enforcing conventional
some of the most experienced, grassroots adversaries standards of private property, agents of power such as
of capitalism.20 They included members of the Farmer- bankers and police officers placed an undue limit on
Labor Union (FLU), the Industrial Workers of the human freedom.
World (IWW), and the veterans of an attempted
insurrection against his namesake, President Woodrow Perhaps there is no song more critical of private
Wilson, called the Green Corn Rebellion. The practice property than Guthrie’s most famous work, which
of roaming—or, as Guthrie phrased it, “ramblin”— continues to this day to be sung across the country as
a ballad of unity. “This Land is Your Land” boasts of
the nation’s natural beauty, and in affirmation of its
diversity, declares the nation “made for you and me.”
This 1940 classic became a staple for American school
children after it was re-released on a children’s album
a decade later.23 However, when it was reproduced in
school textbooks and songbooks, some of the hardest-
hitting verses were omitted. These omitted verses,
quoted below, include the fourth verse, which directly
attacks extant conceptions of private property, and the
final verse, which dwells on the conditions of the poor
and the hungry during the Depression:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
…
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office, I seen my people;

82 Kinder Institute

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking than a year later, and together they crisscrossed the
Is this land made for you and me?24 country, singing to everyone from transport workers
at Madison Square Garden to port workers in the San
Today, “This Land is Your Land” is often framed as Francisco Bay. Whenever they were not on the road,
taking a patriotic stand by emphasizing a nation meant they hosted “hootenannies” in their Greenwich Village
for all of its citizens. Guthrie certainly believed this, Apartment, charging a thirty-five cent admission to
but the omitted verses, and the first one cited above keep the group afloat financially.29 Their messages were
in particular, put forth a decidedly more nuanced succinct and laden with non-interventionist themes
interpretation of “meant for you and me” that very and class consciousness. Although the Almanac Singers
much kept with Guthrie’s critique on capitalism and disbanded in 1942, the themes of their politically
his vision of a more ideal democracy: he thought the charged, Marxist-adjacent music would live on through
land itself was made for all Americans in the sense Guthrie’s work.
that it belonged to everyone in a collectivist economic
structure. Consider the first-person narrative in which While highlighting the conditions of working people,
he explained which side of the “No Trespassing” sign his music became rich with additional Marxist themes
communicated what truly belonged to the people: not (see Figure 1). For instance, in the song “Jesus Christ,”
the side that affirmed an economic status quo of divided Guthrie reinvented the story of the death of Jesus,
land and resources, but the side that was simply blank mirroring Marxists’ critique of inheritance with the
and, in this, that indicated unfettered public access and claim that the messiah was killed because he “said to
a lack of singular, private ownership. This economic the rich, give your goods to the poor.”30 “Mean Talking
structure that continued to divide and deprive was Blues” described the most vile people in the world:
the same one, Guthrie went on to imply, that was union “scabs” and those who would try to pit workers
responsible for the long breadlines of the final verse. against one another.31 In addition to echoing a Marxist
Returning to a previous parallel, Guthrie’s collectivist emphasis on organized labor as a means of improving
vision fell immediately in line with the Communist working conditions, the lyrics of “Mean Talking
Manifesto, which advocated for “abolition of property Blues” also unveil Guthrie’s understanding of false
in land and application of all rents of land to public consciousness, the Marxist idea that the bourgeoisie
purposes.”25 will attempt to divide the proletariat in an effort to
distract them from their true oppressor.32
Another significant moment in Guthrie’s ideological
development was his time spent with the Almanac During this time, Guthrie also released “I Ain’t Got No
Singers, a group of fellow leftist artists who sang on Home in This World Anymore” (1940), both a tribute
picket-lines, at union halls, and at Hoovervilles across to the displaced and a reminder of the rural exploitation
the country. After Woody lost his job at KFVD, he of his Oklahoma youth.
followed his friend and fellow progressive (and future
Broadway star) Will Geer to New York City in early Was a-farmin’ on the shares and always I was poor;
1940.26 The roamin’ Oklahoman himself thrived in My crops I lay into the banker’s store.
the unofficial capital of American Communism, as he My wife took down and died upon the cabin floor,
joined a network of other singers who would reinforce And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore.
his conception of a private property-less democracy. …
At a benefit concert hosted by Geer, Guthrie met Now as I look around, it’s mighty plain to see
folk legends like Pete Seeger, Aunt Molly Jackson, This world is such a great and a funny place to be:
Lee Hays, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, Burl Ives, Oh, the gamblin’ man is rich an’ the workin’ man
and his future producer, Alan Lomax.27 That same is poor,
year, Seeger and Hays formed an idea for a musical And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore.33
group that would represent the proletariat and the
interests of common people.28 Guthrie joined on less The first verse above sets a scene of the experiences of
the poor and alludes to the exploitative sharecropping

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 83

schemes that he witnessed in Oklahoma and that Pastures of Plenty
recurred during the Great Depression. However,
the second verse above, the last of the song, pins the Thus far, we have seen Guthrie sing the plight of the
blame of the worker’s plight on “the gamblin’ man,” working class and speak critically of the exploitative
an avatar for those who speculate and take risks for a structures of capitalism. However, he would also make
source of income as opposed to deriving it from labor, it clear that labor and collective production through
toil, and effort. By noting that “the gamblin’ man is mass employment were key to facing and resolving
rich and the workin’ man is poor,” Guthrie pointed out America’s economic challenges, as revealed in his
what he deemed a dumbfounding fact that required New Deal-influenced songs. Guthrie was not always
Marxist correction. a supporter of the Roosevelt administration, initially
considering FDR a warmonger.35 However, there was a
Though Guthrie himself had little formal education somewhat apprehensive honeymoon forming between
in the works of Lenin and Marx, his personal communists like Guthrie and the more mainstream
experiences and relationships with laborers and the Democratic Party. Broadly speaking, this can be
downtrodden led him to develop two critiques of the reasonably attributed to the Communist Party of the
status quo that closely aligned with those found in United States’ “reform over revolution” views of the
the central texts of communist political philosophy.34 late 1930s and early 1940s, but Guthrie himself was
As discussed previously, the first was that capitalism more likely influenced by his brief stint of employment
created displacement, and it existed as a hindrance to by a New Deal program.36
human freedom itself. Thus, Guthrie’s ideal democracy
scorned private property. The second, so clear in “I In April 1941, Guthrie and his family were short on cash,
Ain’t Got No Home,” was that the reckless behavior so he took a one-month job as a Narrator-Actor for a
of the ultra-wealthy (the “gamblin’ men”) was the propaganda film produced by the Bonneville Power
cause of the people’s plight. Thus the need for a more Administration (BPA).37 The BPA’s task in Portland,
equitable or meritocratic economic structure, without Oregon, was to build the Bonneville and Grand Coulee
corrosively divisive capitalistic forces. Dams on the Columbia River, which would harness
enough hydroelectric energy to power factories that
enriched plutonium and developed weaponry for the
war effort.38 Guthrie’s job mostly consisted of driving
around the Columbia River Valley, meeting migrant
workers, surveying the construction of the dams and
the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest, and,
in all of this, seeking inspiration for music. His songs
would ultimately be played in the film The Columbia in
order to pitch the BPA’s effort as essential to democracy,
and after his thirty-day contract expired, Guthrie had
written twenty-six different songs detailing the workers’
hopes for a brighter future, the history of the region,
and the Grand Coulee Dam itself, the construction of
which he lauded in an eponymous song:

Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of
‘[thirty]-three,
For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me,
He said, “Roll along, Columbia, you can ramble to
the sea,
But river, while you’re rambling, you can do some
work for me.”

84 Kinder Institute

… Social History
Now in Washington and Oregon you can hear the
factories hum, In Neosho, Missouri, a small agricultural town in the
Making chrome and making manganese and light southwestern corner of the State, the Benton family
aluminum, was known as a populist force in Midwestern politics.
And there roars the flying fortress now to fight for Thomas Hart Benton himself was named after the
Uncle Sam, second U.S. Senator in Missouri’s history, who was
Spawned upon the King Columbia by the big Grand widely recognizable for both his bold opposition to the
Coulee Dam.39 practice of slavery and his signature feistiness, which
famously resulted in a duel with Andrew Jackson.41
The multiple invocations of Uncle Sam in “Grand The artist’s father was Maecenas Eason Benton, a
Coulee Dam” and other songs in The Columbia River Confederate veteran who served as Newton County’s
Collection illustrate not only the emphasis he was placing prosecuting attorney and a U.S. District Attorney
on the war effort and the need for munitions but also under the Grover Cleveland administration. Warmly
the roots of an evolving definition of patriotism that dubbed “the Colonel,” the elder Benton reached the
would play a critical role in his ideal conception of height of his political career as a U.S. Representative
democracy. The country had “taken up the challenge” from 1897-1905, beating the drum of populism led by
not simply to conquer the river and produce energy William Jennings Bryan.42 His biggest foe during his
but also to put people back to work. The War and the abbreviated political career was the populists’ newfound
New Deal’s recovery efforts had together employed enemy in rural Missouri: monopolized industries.43 By
millions of people, jumpstarting an era of production the late 1890s, zinc and lead mines were gaining new
and employment. Although Guthrie’s dalliance with traction in the region, and the Bentons began to warn
mainstream politics would later come to an end, the fellow Missourians of the dangers that followed these
collective economic efforts and the creation of new industrial corporations. Just like Guthrie’s Oklahoma,
nationalized industries that he celebrated still map onto the Ozarks region of Missouri thus became politically
both the vision of an ideal democracy that he called for fraught with concerns over exploitation and greed—
in his music and this vision’s communist leanings. He concerns that would stick with Benton throughout his
saw the collective employment of the Pacific Northwest career and shape his work.
as a ticket out of poverty and toward a brighter future
for “all of you and me.” Marx highlighted this point as Like Woody Guthrie, Thomas Hart Benton strayed
well, as one of his major steps in the revolution against from much of his father’s influence for quite some time.
the bourgeoisie was the “cultivation of wastelands, and Instead of sticking to politics or law, the two trades of
the improvement of the soil generally in accordance to the Benton name, he boldly aimed to pursue his artistic
a common plan.”40 talents by taking a cartooning job in Joplin, MO, and

Critiques of modern capitalism did not manifest
themselves in music only. Perhaps no medium did a
better job of demonstrating the scenery of the Great
Depression and the woes of common people than oil
paintings, and some of the strongest works in this
era came from Thomas Hart Benton. As we will see,
this Missouri painter expressed his qualms with large
industry, while simultaneously—though not initially—
levying huge criticisms against the Marxist ideas toward
which Guthrie leaned.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 85

later studying away from home in Chicago and then Benton would continue to work with these themes
Paris, where he briefly dabbled in new, popular forms in mind, including in the companion Social History
of highly conceptual abstract art. However, Benton painting commissioned in Indiana. This emphasis was
quickly developed a strong resistance to abstraction potentially based on two factors. First, his exposure to
after stumbling across several key works of aesthetic the political scene and political process as a child may
philosophy during his stay in Europe. Particularly, he have contributed to Benton’s belief in participatory
was inspired by the writings of Hippolyte Taine, who and localized democracy and spurred his reconnection
believed that art was not simply, or even primarily, to his home. Second, Taine’s artistic philosophy may
a product of one’s ideology or personal political also be behind this tilt in thinking. Deliberative
conviction, but rather gained most of its influence democracies like those shown in Social History reflect a
from its time and place.44 Scorning the contemporary philosophical focus on the immediacy of context, time,
art styles, like Cubism and Futurism, that were and place and how these factors can be extrapolated
supported by major academics at the time, Benton into a theory of good governance that directly addresses
instead became rooted in Regionalism, a type of contemporary issues. For Benton, the forces that might
realism that, following from Taine’s theory, is meant salvage democracy from the Great Depression would
to highlight the conditions of a particular time and be rooted in more traditional, small-town, close-knit
place. Just as many of Guthrie’s songs acted as a political environments. Personal letters corroborated
sounding board for the conditions of common people, his intent to infuse his work with this belief; in 1967,
Benton began to find his niche in representing the for example, he wrote that “[t]he better part of our
everyday lives of Midwestern people and using these history, cultural history, certainly was the outcome of
depictions to unveil his ideal democracy. rural pressures on the centers of cultivation and policy-
making…it was these I tried to represent.”45
In fact, a look at Benton’s commissioned mural for
the Missouri State Capitol, Social History of the State America Today
of Missouri (1936), reveals not only his realist style but
also how it drew him closer to the ideals of deliberative After Benton had finished his studies, he moved to
democracy. Particularly in the section titled Farming, New York to embark on his artistic career. He was
Politics, and Law in Missouri, Benton depicted a still an embarrassment to the Colonel, and Benton’s
fiery orator, Colonel Benton himself, proselytizing financial struggles during the early 1910s did nothing
at a public forum (See Figure 2). As he speaks, he to alleviate his family’s concerns. The starving artist
is surrounded by common Missourians, including often had to rely on small illustrating gigs, jobs as a
mothers caring for their young, old men listening scene painter for movies, and even on selling pottery
to the stump speech, and men plowing the fields to make ends meet.46 However, Benton would hit his
with their mules. In the background lies billowing stride in Regionalist art later in the decade, and this
smoke, suggestive of the dangers of industry and professional “boom period” extended into the 1930s.
the corresponding shift away from agrarian markets Two of his most famous works from this time stand out
that the elder statesman made his career warning as critical to understanding the ideal democracy that
against. However, this piece also stands out because
it makes clear the style of governance that served
as the framework for Benton’s ideal democracy:
one that engages small, localized communities to
directly contribute to the governing process. By
placing a cross-section of politically active, common
Missourians at the foreground of this panel, Benton
suggested a solution to the problems of encroaching
corporate greed and economic inequity: grassroots
mobilization of everyday people.

86 Kinder Institute

Benton was beginning to propagate in his art and The second mural project that seems to place Benton
how it critically addressed themes salient during the firmly in-line with Guthrie’s progressive ideology
beginning of the Great Depression. is America Today (1930-31).50 This thirty-foot-long,
three-sided mural was commissioned to wrap around a
First, Benton advanced several leftist causes in The third-floor boardroom at the New School in New York,
American Historical Epic, a collection of 18 murals and the project gave Benton the opportunity both to
that come together to create multiple “chapters” in reaffirm his Regionalist roots and to elaborate on—as
a candid and sobering account of American history. well as propose solutions to—the growing economic
Over the course of 1919-1928, he produced three and political concerns of the time. For example, one
installments that depicted the earliest hours of panel of the mural entitled Deep South (1930) depicts
the nation’s colonization by the Spanish settlers a steamboat coming to harbor, an African-American
(Discovery, 1919-1924), the toils of slavery (The man dumping his bag of picked cotton, and a white
Slave, 1924-1927), and the European pioneers of the man bringing a wagon-full of it to market. Yet again,
continent (Over the Mountains, 1924-1926), and each Benton demonstrated critical awareness of a divide
makes evident Benton’s recognition of the race-based between production and wealth, and particularly how
oppression of both African Americans and Native this disparity revealed itself in the institution of slavery
Americans. However, Benton also depicted a clear and its aftershocks.
Marxist theme in these works: a displacement from
not just the means of production, but from resources In other panels, Benton focused more directly on
generally.47 The plows and wagons that would proposing solutions to (vs. exposing the nature of)
continue to occupy his paintings were in the hands of these kinds of inequities, particularly by representing
white settlers only, as were the means by which one the restorative potential of increased production and
could stake the claim to territory (spears, whips, axes, mass employment. In what Erika Doss called evidence
and firearms). Even though the Great Depression of his “producerism,” Benton clearly articulated (1) the
had not yet occurred when Benton was working need for worker control over the means of production;
on these pieces, they nonetheless show the degree (2) how the United States was a bastion of production,
to which he was acutely aware of America’s history manufacturing, and industry; and (3) how only a return
of economic subjugation, and its impacts on both to these ideals could lead to economic recovery and the
African Americans and indigenous communities. rise of a thriving and truly egalitarian society prevail.51
In Instruments of Power (1930), for example, the engine
Thinking in terms of the comparison being drawn of American industry is on display, as trains, electric
in this essay, Benton seems to be in firm political generators, and even dams are boldly merging with
agreement with Guthrie at this point: just as Woody’s the landscape. Meanwhile, the workers in America
relationships in New York City injected clear Marxist Today use the tools of their trade to tackle monumental
themes into his songs, Benton’s close allies in New feats, including the construction of skyscrapers, the
York City set the stage for the critique of oppressive production of steel, and the mining for coal. This
forces shown in American Historical Epic. Particularly not only illustrates the chief activity of Benton’s ideal
during the late 1910s, Benton befriended John democracy—productivity and mass employment as a
Weichsel, the founder of the People’s Art Guild, a means of overcoming economic woes—but also who
conglomerate that considered many artists of the is included in this democracy. His ideas concerning
time to be highly pretentious and wished for art the latter are most clearly represented in City Building
to be more directly and universally accessible.48 (1930), in which a black worker operates a jackhammer
Their main mission was to simply give many of alongside his white colleagues (See Figure 3). Labor,
their artworks to the poor as an education initiative, Benton suggested in this and other works, is the activity
but Weichsel was also responsible for introducing that makes all men equal. And though, as Doss noted,
the works of Marx, among other influential leftist America Today certainly did not depict an objective
thinkers, to Benton.49 reality at the beginning of the Depression, this claim

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 87

is somewhat beside the point. Benton’s intention was by the relationships he formed with the People’s Art
for the painting to represent what could be and to chart Guild. However, one print by Benton, not one of his
the course for an industrious and energetic society that signature murals, illustrates a critical resistance to
aligned with the New Deal ideologies soon to come. 52 embracing Guthrie’s anti-capitalist ideology.
Although Benton and Guthrie yet again seem to be in
complete agreement, it would be a considerable mistake In Waiting for the Revolution (1934), Benton showed
to stop here and think them two sides of the same a downtrodden farmer sitting on the hood of his car,
ideological coin. As Benton developed disaffection longing for radical political change to come (See Figure
with New York and the arrogance of the art scene, the 4). However, the setting sun in the horizon indicates
parallels with Guthrie would fray. that the revolution he so eagerly awaits will never
arrive. Instead of whole-hearted acceptance of the
Waiting for the Revolution more radical, communist-leaning causes of the artistic
As noted earlier in this paper, the divergences in elite, what Benton revealed here was his gravitation
Guthrie and Benton’s respective visions of an ideal toward a more moderate notion of what constituted an
democracy are subtle and require careful analysis to ideal democracy. He in fact suggested just this in a 1938
fully appreciate. It has been established that both of op-ed he wrote for the democratic socialist magazine
these leftist plainsmen became voices of the people: Common Sense:
the musician gave a platform for the grievances of
the common man, and the muralist set the scene by When it comes to election time, however, I am a
depicting how common people lived in tragic times. common Missouri Democrat…I am not a radical.
Both men were highly critical of exploitative structures I discover that I have in me none of the ‘holier
in society, as Guthrie’s music was shaped by unionists than thou’ attitudes that must be fixed in the
and his musical peers, and Benton’s art was emboldened psychology of a true radical. Although I am not a
joiner or a person who is very loyal to institutional
things, I like to feel myself psychologically tied
to my background… I… ally myself to the liberal
and the humane spirit of the man who opposed
Hamilton in the notion that the rights of capital
and property are identifiable with human rights.53

To understand this moderate tilt, we must first remark on
the changes in Benton’s life up to this point. Benton had
moved from New York back to Kansas City, Missouri,
shortly after sketching Waiting for the Revolution, as an
act of defiance against the political ideologies of the
metropolis.54 As alluded to in the passage above, the
art scene of the mid-Depression era was beginning to
distance itself from Benton even while he still lived in
the city. Specifically, an increasingly powerful union of
left-wing artists called the John Reed Club began to
take issue with him in 1933, after the Regionalist chided
members of the organization for their dogmatic ways
and their refusal to immerse themselves in “the actual
culture of America.”55 These critiques, combined with
Benton’s silence on the issue of a Marxist artist being
censored at the Rockefeller Center, made him an enemy
of the organization. During some of his lectures and
discussions with club members, he was branded an anti-

88 Kinder Institute

Semite, and on one particularly contentious occasion, understand the importance of all individuals’ right
a communist colleague was allegedly so provoked by to “do as they please.”59 By immersing himself in the
Benton that he threw a chair at him because of his artistic value of people’s daily lives, and by placing his
deficit in left-leaning ideology. Benton thus became own rural background at the setting of his paintings, he
entrenched in a battle that was being waged in the thus began to reclaim the political values and virtues
art world (and elsewhere) throughout the mid-1930s, from which he fled early in his art career.
between liberals who preferred reforms to capitalism
and leftists who called for its outright abolition. Joining Conclusion
ideological forces with stylistic peers John Steuart Curry
and Grant Wood, the artist of American Gothic, Benton American history is comprised of large movements
moved back to Missouri to take a job at the Kansas and social phenomena that have shaken and continue
City Art Institute, where he continued his Regionalist to shake the political landscape of the country. When
art while espousing a more moderated ideal democracy examining these times of chaos and upheaval, it is
than that of his New York peers. important not to lump together the major political
ideologies of the period. This fallacy, which I have
Thus, Benton began to reflect back on his heritage called the myth of unity, is commonplace in political
in the context of the “holier than thou” artists—and discourse, including in analysis of the American
particularly Marxist artists—from whom he was Founding era, the Suffrage movement, the Abolitionist
politically disengaging. In his Common Sense essays, he movement, and the primary subject of this essay, the
noted how Marxism had never allowed for skepticism, Great Depression. At first glance, Depression-era
the characteristic Benton believed to be inherent artists of all media seem to project similar themes
in Missourians.56 He also made a full and unabashed regarding advocacy for those who had suffered the
defense of a right to property. Whereas Guthrie found worst economic conditions in the nation’s history.
that true freedom was a world without individual Whether through the posters of the WPA or the
property ownership, Benton fixed a special place for literature of John Steinbeck, a left-leaning monolith
a human right to property ownership. These points appears to arise to challenge the economic status quo
of fissure would reach something of a head in his while heralding solutions like mass employment and
autobiography, An Artist in America, where he railed New Deal projects. It would be misguided to maintain
against the “narrow intellectualism” of New York’s this view. The music of Oklahoma folk singer Woody
radical artists and their inability to recognize that Guthrie reveals that the Great Depression acted as
one could not make true art without listening to the a stimulus for Marxist ideology; his song lyrics are
common people.57 This harsh review marks a clear laden with support for collective industry and attacks
change from the young man who studied Das Kapital on capitalist greed and private property. The Missouri
at Martha’s Vineyard and who was an ally with the
People’s Art Guild.58

However, the variable that truly changed the path
of Benton’s ideology was not so much his social
alienation but rather the Regionalist philosophy that
heavily influenced his artistic perspective. Recall that
for Taine, art derives its value not from a concrete
philosophy, but from the setting of the work. This view
of art allowed Benton to reevaluate early time periods
and regions like in American Historical Epic and America
Today and also to reconsider the characters from back
home in Neosho. From his close friends and family, to
the Colonel himself, Benton claimed to have picked
up the lessons of rugged individualism and come to

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 89

painter Thomas Hart Benton, on the other hand, used conceal consequential and politically-relevant discord
his art to express his confidence in democracy and from the historical record altogether.
collective labor, while also showing consternation with
the radical beliefs of the leftist art scene, including the Figure 1: Marxist Themes in Select Woody Guthrie
call to abolish private property. The myth of unity Songs
may lump these two individuals together ideologically,
but close contextual analysis allows for the entirety of Elements of Proletariat Woody Guthrie Song(s) with the
Guthrie and Benton’s works to be examined from a Revolution from The Communist Corresponding Marxist Theme
more nuanced and clearer perspective.
Manifesto (1848)60
For example, Guthrie’s song “Grand Coulee Dam” and
Benton’s mural panel City Building might seem to be “Abolition of property in land and
advocating for the same goal: using collective labor application of all rents of land to “The Land is Your Land” (1940)
and industry to pull the nation out from economic public purposes.”
ruin. This theme corresponds with meta-analysis of
artists and musicians at the time who often advocated “Abolition of all right of “Jesus Christ” (1940)
for large scale work programs like the BPA. However, inheritance.”
post-hoc analysis reveals these two pieces to be
deceptively similar. Whereas Guthrie used the song “Extension of factories and “Grand Coulee Dam” (1941);
“Grand Coulee Dam” to promote the Marxist solution instruments of production owned The Columbia River Collection
of extending state-sponsored manufacturing and by the state…improvement of the
production, Benton was not calling for the same efforts soil generally in accordance to a
in City Building. Although Benton stood in support of common plan.”
producerism and the usage of American industry to
propel the country out of collapse, contextual analysis False Consciousness “Mean Talking Blues” (1945)
reveals the many qualms he had with the seizure of
private property and with communism, more generally. “Combination of agriculture with “Farmer-Labor Train”61 (1944/45?)
The myth of unity tends to either obfuscate or leave manufacturing agencies…”
unrevealed these most critical distinctions.
Fig. 2. Thomas Hart Benton, Farming, Politics, and
Each of these artists grew up in similar times and under Law in Missouri, 1936, oil and egg tempera on linen
similar conditions, but they ultimately diverged in mounted on panel, 14’ x 23’. State Capitol Building,
clear ways and for clear reasons. However, explaining House of Representatives Lounge, Jefferson City,
the reasoning for these two men’s diverging views is Missouri.
not the true purpose of this essay. Nor is this to be
a comprehensive analysis on every ideology of each
Great Depression artist: after all, only the works of
one musician and one painter are discussed. However,
this article is sufficient to demonstrate diversity in
artistic themes and political thought, and further, to
reveal the danger of lumping ideologies in a given
time period together, no matter how tempting that
impulse might be. Though the Great Depression did
spur left-leaning political thought within the artistic
community and the population at large, intellectual
fracturing is evident upon close examination. Such
analysis may muddy the academic waters when
studying social movements, but to do otherwise would

90 Kinder Institute

Fig. 3. Thomas Hart Benton, City Building, 1931, 3Kaye, Mike. “The Tools of the Abolitionists.” BBC
tempera and crayon on board, 15 3/8 in. x 19 5/16. British History. 17 February 2011. British Broadcasting
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Company. 19 April 2018. http://www.bbc.co.uk/
history/british/abolition/abolition_tools_gallery_08.
Fig. 4. Thomas Hart Benton, Waiting for the shtml
Revolution, 1934, lithograph, 4 in. x 7 ½ in. 4Ibid.
5Low, Ann Marie. Dust Bowl Diary. Lincoln: University
1“Declaration of Independence.” Architect of the of Nebraska Press, 1984. 98.
Capitol. 15 October 2017. https://www.aoc.gov/art/ 6McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression:
historic-rotunda-paintings/declaration-independence America, 1929-1941. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
2Bernard, Michelle. “Despite the tremendous risk, Publishing, 1984. 17.
African American women marched for suffrage, too.” 7Watkins, Tom H. The Great Depression. Boston:
The Washington Post. 3 March 2013. The Washington Little, Brown and Company, 1993. 44-45.
Post. 19 April 2018. http://www.washingtonpost. 8Ibid., 190.
com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/03/03/despite- 9Ibid., 51-55.
the-tremendous-risk-african-american-women- 10National Drought Mitigation Center. “Drought
marched-for-suffrage-too/?noredirect=on&utm_ in the Dust Bowl Years.” The National Drought
term=.67db68acb0f3 Mitigation Center. 2018.
http://drought.unl.edu/DroughtBasics/DustBowl/
DroughtintheDustBowlYears.aspx
11Kauffmann, Will. Woody Guthrie, American Radical.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011. 19.
12Bissett, Jim. Agrarian Socialism in America: Marx,
Jefferson, and Jesus in the Oklahoma Countryside,
1904-1920. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1999. 9.
13Ibid., 13-14.
14Ibid., 14.
15Ibid., 10.
16Ibid., 12.
17Ibid., 3.
18The biographical sketch that follows is drawn from
Kaufmann.
19Guthrie, Woody. “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know
Ya.” Dust Bowl Ballads. Victor Records, 1940.
20Kauffmann, 13-14.
21Guthrie, Woody. “Hobo’s Lullaby.” Woody Guthrie
Publications. 2016. http://www.woodyguthrie.org/
Lyrics/Hobos_Lullaby.htm
22Butler, Marvin. “’Always On the Go’: The Figure
of the Hobo in the Songs and Writings of Woody
Guthrie.” The Life, Music, and Thought of Woody
Guthrie. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company,
2011.
23Lewis, Randy. “When Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land
Is Your Land’ Went To School.” The Los Angeles
Times Music Blog. 10 May 2012. Los Angeles Times.

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 91

7 November 2017. 41Doss, Erika. Benton, Pollock, and the Politics
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/05/ of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract
woody-guthrie-centennial-this-land-is-your-land- Expressionism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
school-folk-music.html 1991. 16.
24Guthrie, Woody. “This Land is Your Land.” Woody 42Wolff, Justin. Thomas Hart Benton: A Life. New
Guthrie Publications. 2016. http://www.woodyguthrie. York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012. 21-27.
org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm 43Doss, 25-27.
25Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The Communist 44Wolff, 114.
Manifesto and Other Writings (Barnes and Noble 45Weintraub, Linda. Thomas Hart Benton: Chronicler
Classics Series). New York: Barnes & Noble, 2005. 27- of America’s Folk Heritage. Annandale-on-Hudson,
28. NY: Edith C. Bluth Art Institute, 1984. 7.
26Kauffmann, 28. 46Wolff, 140-146.
27Ibid., 34-35. 47Wolff, 181.
28Denisoff, R. Serge. “Take It Easy, But Take It: The 48Ibid., 148-149.
Almanac Singers.” The Journal of American Folklore 49Doss, 48.
83 (1970): 21-23. 50Ibid., 68-69.
29Ibid., 28. 51Doss, 70-75.
30Guthrie,Woody.“Jesus Christ.”The Asch Recordings, 52Doss, 87.
Volume 1. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkway 53Benton, Thomas Hart. “Confessions of an American
Recordings, 1999. (II): Marx and the Jefferson.” Common Sense 6.8
31Guthrie, Woody. “Mean Talking Blues.” The Asch (1937): 10-14.
Recordings, Volume 3. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian 54The following history of Benton’s life is taken from
Folkway Recordings, 1999. Wolff, 237-241.
32Engels, Friedrich. “Engels to Franz Mehring.” 55Ibid., 237-241.
Marxists Internet Archive. 2000. 10 November 2017. 56Benton, Thomas Hart. An Artist in America.
33Guthrie, Woody. “I Ain’t Got No Home In This Columbia, MO: The University of Missouri Press,
World Anymore.” The Asch Recordings, Volume 3. 1968. 75.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Folkway Recordings, 57Ibid., 260; Doss, 115.
1999. 58Wolff, 176-177.
34Kauffmann, 19. 59Benton, An Artist in America. 76.
35Ibid., 55-56. 60Marx and Engels, 28.
36Nate, Richard. “’Pastures of Plenty’: Woody Guthrie 61Guthrie, Woody. “Farmer-Labor Train.” The Asch
and the New Deal.” The Life, Music, and Thought Recordings, Volume 3. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
of Woody Guthrie. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Folkway Recordings, 1999.
Company, 2011.
37Menig, Harry. “Woody Guthrie: The Columbia and
the B.P.A. Documentary: Hydro.” Film & History 5.2
(1975): 24-33.
38Pedelty, Mark. “Woody Guthrie and the Columbia
River: Propaganda, Art, and Irony.” Popular Music and
Society 31.3 (2016): 329-332.
39Guthrie, Woody. “Grand Coulee Dam.” The Asch
Recordings, Volume 1. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Folkway Recordings, 1999.
40Marx and Engels, 27-28.

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94 Kinder Institute

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 95

96 Kinder Institute

The Government of Machinery

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 97

The Age of Television News

by George Roberson

98 Kinder Institute

In 1970—29 years after regular commercial television filter between viewer and subject. This added a sense of
broadcasts began and 10 years before the U.S. would urgency to deeply considering and resolving these two
elect a former actor president—officials within national crises, with the visuals on television ultimately
the Nixon administration began circulating a plan. convincing enough Americans that oppression in the
Spearheaded by external consultant Roger Ailes, these South and a war in Southeast Asia needed to end.
high-ranking advisers were collaborating on a project
to create a pro-Republican television network that But a medium that’s high in emotion has its downsides.
could counteract the “prejudices of network news” by While the moving image may have brought news
delivering strategic, positive information about the events more directly to television viewers, it also
Nixon administration to voters. An uncredited 15- demanded that media outlets absorb the consequences
page document on this idea begins with the following of emphasizing image over idea. Specifically, providing
explanation of why such a network would be influential: viewers direct access to an event in many cases meant
sidestepping impactful decisions about how to present
Today television news is watched more often than and contextualize that event. Compiling a story from
people read newspapers, than people listen to the footage simply requires the TV journalist to make
radio, than people read or gather any other form fewer framing decisions and do less explanatory work
of communication. The reason: People are lazy. than a print journalist describing the event would have
With television you just sit—watch—listen. The to. And again, while the directness of television does
thinking is done for you.1 have the potential to activate the viewer in a new way,
it also allows the producers of the image—either those
The language with which the author characterizes in the news media or those who are the sources of the
the public is inflammatory, and the implications of news—to lead the viewer in a certain direction. As the
taking advantage of a “lazy” viewership could be seen Nixon-era news plan suggested, this latter opportunity
as sinister. But the underlying logic about television would drive political actors to become more astute at
is, in many respects, correct: Watching television manipulating the images that make television news.
news is a passive activity that both requires far less
of viewers than reading a newspaper article does and The Nixon administration did not get its pro-GOP
leaves them open to the kind of manipulation implied television network in 1970. It would take until the
by “the thinking is done for you.” But as this paper 1990s for Ailes to team up with an Australian publishing
will examine, television is also constantly bombarding magnate and found Fox News Channel, fulfilling the
viewers with stimuli—both image and sound—that “dream” of a partisan counterpoint to the objective press.
can empower them to transform this passivity into Still, manipulation of public opinion through television
meaningful political action. news would continue to gather momentum inside
politics—for better or worse—in the decades before
In its opening stages, this argument will focus on this overt partisan news captured mainstream attention.
second point: how and why method of delivery can make
television a more direct and activating medium than
its predecessors. Unlike in past decades and centuries,
during which Americans most often consumed news
of violence and injustice as words and still images in a
newspaper, crucial moments in American history in the
age of television were captured in stirring, humanizing
moving images and sounds and then broadcast to the
world. As a result of the hyper-emotionalized, image-
based, and wide-ranging nature of the medium, the
alarming, violent injustices of the racially segregated
American South and the Vietnam War came under
public scrutiny with minimal editorial or governmental

Journal on Constitutional Democracy 99

*** the backbone of political discourse following the

In 1960, there were about 56,000,000 television Revolution, as ideological battles were waged in print.
receivers in use in the U.S., up from 27,300,000 just
seven years prior.2 That same year, just over 58,800,000 A combination of public demand and increased press
daily newspaper copies were in circulation, making for
about 11 percent more newspapers than households freedom and availability drove newspapers toward
in the country.3 This was a tipping point for American
news media—print, radio and television were all becoming organs of political parties, which in turn led
broadly popular sources of news, but the baton was
clearly being passed. From this point on, American consumers to
political discourse on television would gain strength
at the expense of the newspaper: Over the 1970s, as receive and seek
the number of households in the U.S. grew by as many
as 2 million each year, the number of newspapers in out news through
circulation remained steady, and the relative popularity
of the newspaper declined as television ownership and a partisan filter.
viewership grew.4 And the method of moving image
delivery was changing with popularity. Whereas video In the early 20th
news had previously been confined to newsreels playing
in movie theaters, footage of events was now consumed century, as mass
in living rooms, meaning much quicker and much less
burdensome access to news for viewers. production made

Our process of forming opinions and expressing newspapers
political preferences is largely dependent on news
media; we draw our conclusions from the voices, cheaper,
images, and ideas we are exposed to, and we react to
them in various ways. Furthermore, because consumers competition
expect something different from different forms
of media, each one must develop a unique mode of between brands
engagement in order to attract consumers. This mode
of engagement—i.e., the form that news takes—has increased. This
changed over time with advancements in technology
and shifts in consumer choice. In the process, a reshaped the
continuous feedback loop has developed, in which
the media presents something new to consumers, who industry, with
in turn respond with new demands. But each new
news platform has its own set of rules, possibilities, some publishers
and limitations, and as a result, the change from one
dominant form of media to another has historically turning to
come with a set of consequences, some desirable and
others less so. scandalous

Print culture both faced and made its own medium- content and blaring stylistic choices to grab readers’
specific demands, as the complicated history of
the American newspaper shows. Early America attention (and dollars). Finally, as readers grew weary of
had numerous partisan newspapers that formed
watered-down content, a desire for a more “objective”

press led to another industry shift. Specifically, those

papers that sold an objective news product found that

a nonpartisan press based a bit more firmly in fact than

in sensation could appeal to and meet the demand

of people across the ideological spectrum, leading to

news providers lashing back against both turn-of-the-

century profit-chasing and early American partisan

catering.

Given the new technological capacities that came with
it, the rise of radio, and then television, required much
more adjustment from media producers and, in turn,
produced a much more profound shift in how consumers
engaged with media.Where the predominant definition
of “news” had previously been inky words and still
photos in a newspaper (or disembodied words coming
from a box), the innovative possibilities of television in
particular drove consumer demand for something new:
a moving image, a voiceover, and speed. That meant
that the content of news events—including political
ones—needed to adapt to the new expectation of how
news was presented. As media theorist Neil Postman

100 Kinder Institute