The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6-Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “King of America: The Dream of Equality”

The author discusses the persistent problem of racial inequality in America after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Freedom for slaves didn’t automatically mean equality for Black Americans. To a lesser extent, Cullen also discusses female inequality in American life and tries to highlight the indispensable role of women during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The notion of equality of condition, meaning that the material wealth and life outcomes of individuals in a society are similar, has since the late 19th century been the scorn of US right-wing politicians, who have traditionally dismissed this idea as socialism. Instead, the principle of equality of opportunity, meaning that anybody who works hard has equal access to successful outcomes, remains a mainstay of American political life. The freeing of slaves in the US didn’t bestow either form of equality on Black Americans; instead, “Jim Crow laws” were enacted throughout the southern US that legalized racial segregation under the “separate but equal” principle—the standout legacy of the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case. Eventually and very slowly, such laws were dismantled in the 20th century when plaintiffs proved that segregated facilities were in fact not equal, as in the Brown v. Board of Education court case regarding school segregation.

The author engages with the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the most famous Black civil rights activist. Despite the shortcomings of his personal life, King was the chief expositor of the American Dream of equality in the 20th century through his writing and public speaking, culminating in his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. We can credit King for clearly enunciating the idea that “freedom is not enough. Nor is an equality of opportunity that is nothing more than an empty abstraction. For the Dream to live, it has to be more than that” (128). Cullen notes the crucial contributions of women like Rosa Parks (who famously refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955, sparking the civil rights movement as we know it) and lesser-known activists like Ella Baker and Septima Clark for civil rights successes.

Chapter 4 Analysis

The court system—specifically the US Supreme Court—has had a historically significant role in both limiting the Dream of Upward Mobility and making it more accessible, if only after prolonged and difficult legal battles. Disastrous decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson set the scene for generations of racist “separate but equal” legislation, while overdue victories like Brown v. Board of Education revealed the fundamental flaw of such policies—namely, that “equal” facilities for Black people were never equal but were always worse and dehumanizing.

Despite the influence of the courts, Cullen is careful to emphasize the primary importance of brave grassroots activism led by African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s who risked their lives and reputations to fight for equality. These activists, like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., were open-eyed about the fact that freedom from slavery following the Civil War didn’t mean equality for Black people. The post-war Reconstruction period, including the era of Jim Crow laws, showed that racism wouldn’t evaporate from the country simply because legislation changed. In fact, removing barriers to institutions for Black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries often increased white avoidance of Black people and generally failed to change hearts and minds.

A tension between freedom and equality runs throughout American history. Lincoln felt that although he could ensure freedom for Black slaves, he was unable to guarantee equality between the races. The civil rights movement was primarily a fight about equality, and according to Cullen, “slavery, which was now dead, was conquered by freedom. Segregation, which remained alive, could only be conquered by equality” (125). While debate persists about the benefit of demanding that individuals in society be truly equal (equality of condition), the concept of equality of opportunity is unsatisfying because it doesn’t account for the role of historical oppression in setting certain people up for success and leaving others behind. Cullen argues that “even if we cannot, or should not, demand equality of condition, it is clear that the very imprecision, even vagueness, of equality of opportunity demands a vigilance that we tend to resist out of laziness or fear” (129). This vigilance is both critical and uncomfortable. It forces us to confront a bloody and oppressive slave history—and it can be used to blame individuals for not taking advantage of life opportunities that, practically speaking, were never available to them in the first place.