"Down By the Riverside" and The Movement for Equal Rights

"Down By the Riverside" and The Movement for Equal Rights

By: Akeel Dixon

Disclaimer: I have removed the n word for several of the used quotes and have replaced it with the word negro.

Britannica Academic state that the Civil Rights Movement was a "mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of enslaved Africans and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery." Down by the Riverside shares several passages which visualize the opposition against this movement as well as the struggles black people faced in the Jim Crow South. Certain aspects of the story where these passages are located are in the beginning of the story when Mann shoots a white person and at the end where he saves said persons family only to be executed for the murder of white man without a trial.

To start with a short summary of Down By the Riverside, the story takes place during the Mississippi River flood where a black family is trying to survive the flood and make it to a hospital to save the father's (Mann) sick wife (Lulu). Towards the beginning of the story Mann gives us an example of his environment but also the inequality he deals with. On the second page Mann thinks to himself, "He had heard that the white folks were threatening to conscript all Negroes they could lay their hands on to pile sand- and cement-bags on the levee. And they were talking about bringing soldiers in too." In the same paragraph later Mann also thinks, "Shucks, in times like these they'll shoota negro down jus lika dog n think nothin of it." I wanted to start off the the first paragraphs with these quotes because they really show the reader the environment of the Jim Crow south showing how they thought about (and would eventually) forcing black people to work to help others, specifically white people, survive the flood. This act shows that white people were prioritized especially in times of danger while black people had to fend for themselves revealing inequality.

The second quote is a bit more blatant with its depiction of inequality as it is directly told through Mann that white people will kill black people because there's an opportunity to do so. A reason why these acts are be happening is because in a flood everyone is trying to survive so no one would really be able to pay attention to their surroundings in all of the chaos. As demonstrated later in the book though it is apparent that the law will not accept when black people kill white people even if accidentally. I don't think this novel is saying that it should be right to kill anyone but the argument is that there should be equality in terms of how a person is punished. This topic was one of the major arguments during the Civil Rights Movement as white people were lynching and beating black people and both resulted in the deaths of tons, however none of these violent actions would happen towards white people. This act among others is what sparked the issue of equality where black people need to be treated like human beings the way that white people were.

Later throughout the story we get two depictions of the inequality that black people face however these two instances are more unique from the others as they don't have relation towards violence. For the first quote I would focus on the whole scene if I could but there's so much to unpack so I'm going to go with the quote that best fits the focus of this blog. The quote is "Well, boy it's all over," said the doctor. "Maybe if you could have gotten her here a little sooner we could have saved her. The baby, anyway. But it's all over now, and the best thing for you to do is get your folks to the hills." This quote comes in response to the doctor revealing that Lulu is dead and the reason I used it is because it shows how dismissive the white doctors and society were towards black people. What's even more interesting about the quote is that the doctor doesn't even comfort Mann and seems to bring the fault of Lulu's death on him instead. This quote demonstrates how around this era white people liked to deflect their faults and struggles on black people, as maybe if the people in the area decided to help instead of hurt black people they could've have brought Lulu to the hospital soon. The next thing that this quote does is it shows that the doctor doesn't care about how Mann and his family is feeling in the moment as he immediately rushes them to go to the hills. This act can come out as an act of concern but I saw it as the doctor not caring about letting Mann process his feelings or pain and urging him to move on despite his huge loss. It comes of as very apathetic and dismissive even if that's not how the doctor planned it to be it's how society treated black people in the Jim Crow South.

The next and final quote comes from Mann when he thinks to himself that Brinkley might help him with his dilemma of wether he should save the family whose father he killed. Mann thinks to himself, "He ought to tell Brinkley. Ahm black like he is. He oughta be willin t help me fo he would them...". This quote is important towards the Civil Rights Movement as it shows that it wasn't always bad as black people at least had each other and together as one they would overcome the oppression and negativity in their society. Despite the fact that Mann ultimately gives in to saving the family and is eventually killed it is shown that black people do sympathize with him but they don't have the power to do anything about it. However, the message that Richard Wright is trying to say is that together they can overcome the inequality similar to Mann's attempts at saving Lulu and the violence that he faces for trying to help his family