Abstract
Clifford Geertz in The Interpretation of Cultures uses the term “webs of significance”1 to identify laws, history, codes of behavior, symbols, and icons that man spins for himself, which, once explicated, dissolve a person’s and a culture’s opacity.2 Interpreting the contrasting descriptions of race relations in the Little Rock community renders a perspective more accurate and thorough than any single view, thereby accounting more holistically for the friction that gave way to the crisis. The conceptual structures of divergent characterizations of the Little Rock community in the 1950s and immediately following translate, then, to symbols of a frame of mind.3 Such frames of mind account for the translucent racially polarized city whose simmering cauldron reached the boiling point in the wake of the arsonist, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Geertz, Clifford (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, p. 5.
See, for example, Sears, D. O., J. Sidanius, and L. Bobo, eds. (2000). Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Morone explores the historical development of “us vs. them” communities in Hellfire Nation. See Morone, J. A. (2003). Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Huckaby, E. (1980). Crisis at Central High: Little Rock, 1957–58. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, p. 40.
Blossom, V. T. (1959). It Has Happened Here. New York: Harper, p. 2.
Beals, M. (1995). Warriors Don’t Cry: Searing Memoir of Battle to Integrate Little Rock. New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 24.
Bates, D. (1962). The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, p. 49.
Edwards, A. (1992). Children of the Dream. New York: Doubleday, p. 60.
Alford, Dale, and L’Moore Alford (1959). The Case of the Sleeping People: Finally Awakened by Little Rock School Frustrations. Little Rock, AR: The Alfords, p. 72.
Ezekiel, Raphael S. (1995). The Racist Mind: Portraits of American Neo-Nazis and Klansmen. New York: Viking Penguin, p. xxili.
Jones, Faustine C. (1981). A Traditional Model of Educational Excellence: Dunbar High School of Little Rock, Arkansas. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.
In his class on black political behavior, Walton chronicles how throughout much of American history and within traditional political science throughout the twentieth century, the opinions and views and experiences of blacks were not deemed important to study; hence, they were invisible. See Walton, Hanes (1985). Invisible Politics: Black Political Behavior. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Harris has written at length on the influence of the church on black political activism throughout the civil rights movement. See Harris, F. C. (1999). Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism. New York: Oxford University Press. Also see Gusfield, Protest Reform and Revolt, p. 477.
Jacoway, E. (1982). “Taken By Surprise: Little Rock Business Leaders and Desegregation,” in Elizabeth Jacoway, and David R. Colburn. (Eds). Southern Businessmen and Desegregation. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1982, p. 39.
Murphy, Sara Alderman. (1997). Breaking the Silence: Little Rock’s Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools, 1958–1963. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, p. 73.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Ravi K. Perry and D. LaRouth Perry
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Perry, R.K., Perry, D.L. (2015). Perceptions: Black and White Views on Race Relations. In: The Little Rock Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137521347_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137521347_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48919-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52134-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)