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The
Rainbow Beach story © is set against a background of historical
events that brought about fundamental change in civil liberties
in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Jack,
a reporter for the Chicago Defender,
is sent from the familiarity of his urban surroundings to cover
the Clarkesdale elections. From a relatively sophisticated and tolerant
Chicago society, Jacks visit to Clarkesdale Mississippi is an eye
opener and his values and humanity are tested to the full. Prejudice,
violence and hardship were the norm in Clarkesdale, as they were
in most of the southern states. Slavery for farm workers, long since
abolished, had been replaced by sharecropping
and for millions of African Americans this too was fast becoming
an impossible existence.
In the 1950’s a mass migration of
millions of black workers left for Chicago. The Chicago Defender
flying the flag for civil liberties was in part responsible for
this exodus. By the 1960’s Chicago, with inadequate housing,
transport and employment to cope with its sudden population increase
had become a tinder box. White people, resentful of this ‘invasion’
turned their anger from the politicians to their new neighbours
and violence escalated out of control. A struggle to gain a voice
and a civilised existence began in earnest for the new black residents
of the city. Leading the crusade towards what eventually became
the Civil Rights Movement were Dr Martin
Luther King and Malcolm X. |
