No Way Out Serves as the Derivative to the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Bourgeoisie
by C.J. Thompson
The African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s is the most important organized form of resistance by blacks since the Fourteenth Amendment. From the rise of Jim Crow laws and the perpetuation of segregation and racism emerged black leaders who adopted different forms of resistance such as movements of nonviolence and the contrary, "force when necessary." One of the mental effects of such racial oppression was a middle class of black bourgeoisie who wore masks to conceal their feelings of inferiority and insecurity as well as the frustrations that haunted their lives. The film No Way Out (1950) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz serves as a precursor and outline to the Civil Rights Movement and is representative of some of the ideologies of the southern black bourgeoisie.
As slaves in America, blacks protested unfair treatment through work slowdowns, sabotage, escapes and rebellions, while free blacks in the North opposed racial discrimination through petitions, litigation and more aggressive nonviolent tactics. One such example was the boycotts from 1844 to 1855 that pressured Boston authorities to desegregate public schools (Blumberg, 84). However, it was not until 1954 that the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools did not uphold the "separate but equal doctrine" of the 1896 court verdict of Plessy v. Ferguson. In No Way Out, the Brown v. Topeka, Kansas Board of Education case of 1954, which ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, is symbolized through the presence of Sidney Poitier's character Dr. Luther Brooks, a black doctor serving residency in an all white county hospital.
By threatening white supremacy, the Brown case intensified white resistance to the civil rights progress. The Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups performed overnight revivals, congressmen and governors vowed "massive resistance," and state district attorneys sought injunctions to ban NAACP branches. Hospital patient Ray Biddle of No Way Out is representative of the hatred infested within the groups during the civil rights movement that perpetuated racial discrimination and acts of violence. Biddle passionately disregards Dr. Luther as an unfit doctor, despises the fact that his brother, John Biddle, has been treated by a black man and brainwashes himself with the illusion that a "dirty black bastard" has intentionally killed his brother.
The Brown verdict, nevertheless, did not do much to affect the racial polarization that attempted to put blacks on an equal playing field with whites. On May 3, 1963, and for several days afterward, Birmingham police beat and unleashed attack dogs on nonviolent black protestors, in full view of television news cameras. The public revulsion spurred President Kennedy to address the nation on June 11, to confront a "moral issue" that was "as old as the Scriptures" and "as clear as the American Constitution." Kennedy urged Congress to enact a strong civil rights law that would allow race "no place in American life (Blumberg, 89)."
This illustration of President Kennedy is a direct reflection on No Way Out's Dr. Daniel Wharton, the chief medical resident. His plea to the hospital manager for permission to perform an autopsy on John Biddle to possibly exonerate Dr. Brooks of charges of an incorrect medical diagnosis is paralleled to Kennedy's plea to Congress. Dr. Wharton tells hospital manager that he does not care what color a doctor's skin is-"whether he be black, white or polka dot"-and that the color of a doctor's skin should not even matter. This statement is comparable to Kennedy's statement that race should have no place in America.
The Brown case, however, did confer a symbol of legitimacy on black activists, who prepared bolder assaults on segregation. In December of 1955, blacks in Montgomery, Ala., organized a bus boycott after a former NAACP secretary, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to yield her seat on a segregated bus to a white man. The boycott leader was a young, northern-educated man originally from Atlanta. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was noted for his protest against segregation by invoking Christian morality, American ideals of liberty and the ethics of nonviolent resistance to racial violence exemplified by Gandhi of India in his campaign against British colonial rule (Paris, 79-82).
Like Gandhi, King advocated confronting authorities with a readiness to suffer rather than inflict harm, in order to expose injustice and impel those in power to end it. Dr. King justified nonviolence with an appeal to love and therefore, viewed it as intrinsically moral and in opposition to its alternative, violence. He buttressed the moral argument for nonviolence with a pragmatic concern that violence in the struggle for civil rights would be self-defeating (Paris, 97). Sidney Poitier's representation of Dr. Brooks' in No Way Out is analogous to Dr. King's personification of nonviolent protest and resistance. Brooks never resorted to violence, even when he is hit by Ray Biddle or when his neighbors and brother-in-law prepare for an attack on Beaver Canal. Brooks, like those who accepted to Gandhi doctrine, was ready and willing to suffer in order to expose his belief that he did the right thing. Brooks also, like King and Gandhi, felt that violence was not the key and was self-defeating in the cause for racial equality.
In the film Brooks is also representative of many of those affiliated with the NAACP of the civil rights movement, like the young students who conducted sit-ins at lunch counters that served whites only. On February 1, 1960, a sit-in by four students from North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, N.C., at Woolworth's lunch counter sought to combat Jim Crow laws that segregated public facilities. Strict conformity to nonviolent Christian and Gandhi's peaceful doctrine characterized the demonstrators as well as Dr. Luther Brooks of No Way Out. This illustration of the sit-ins exemplifies Dr. Brooks' presence as the only black doctor in a white hospital, and it is clear that he tackles Jim Crow laws with his inclusion to an all white staff.
Images of Dr. Luther Brooks can also be seen in Dr. King's belief in the ultimate goal of kinship of all people in the blessed community (King, 88). King agreed that the leadership of the civil rights movement should be in the hands of black people but strongly disagreed with any move toward racial separation (Paris, 87). Brooks, too, gradually accepts this belief that responsibility should lay in the hands of blacks as he turns himself in to the police to attain an autopsy of John Biddle in order to find out the truth. Nevertheless, throughout the film, the white co-protagonist Dr. Daniel Wharton is close to Dr. Brooks' side in his mission to finding truth. Just as King, Dr. Brooks is taking responsibilities as a black man in a movement for his people but allows the presence of a white man to facilitate in the struggle for freedom.
The nonviolence movement headed by Dr. King was not the only form of resistance that blacks opted. Entering the world of political antagonism shortly thereafter was El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz-better known as Malcolm X. At the time, he sounded off with a high sense of exigency to black people that it would either be the "Ballot or the Bullet" and that "Blacks and Whites cannot live together and agitation for integration is suicidal." Malcolm X would later become notarized as a proponent of Black Power through his "any means necessary" doctrine and deemed as the antithesis to Dr. King. Black Power represented a nationalist, seemingly more revolutionary ideology, which rejected white American culture and advocated that blacks needed unity and self-pride rather than integration, and that self-defense was more than justified in their movement for freedom (Paris, 166).
The notion of Black Power hailed as a political and cultural symbol that implied a new orientation for black people in America. The ideas of Black Power and the views of Malcolm X are represented through Lefty of No Way Out. Lefty, probably in many contemporary minds, suffers from 'angry black man syndrome.' He is relentless in his efforts to inform Dr. Brooks of the racial implications within the county hospital and plight of black people in the community. He is also the driving force and leader behind the race riot on Beaver Canal and never considers Brooks' plea not to attack their white counterpart borough.
Lefty and many proponents of Black Power openly disassociated themselves from the tenets of Dr. King and the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. They advocated power instead of love and self-defense instead of passive resistance. "Turning the other cheek" ethic was anathema for Lefty and black separatism from white society was a notion that he seemed to advocate. Lefty's character personifies the notions of Black Power; he anticipated his people's attack on Beaver Canal and the thought of waiting for the white gang to invade his borough first frustrated him.
The nonviolent and black power approaches were important manifestations of the long-term liberation struggle, and both versions of protest and resistance were aimed at improving the conditions of black people, but they differed sharply on the means to that end. Young activists who had suffered beatings and even been jailed, who had become disappointed in their efforts to work within the system, became increasingly disenchanted with integrationist aims and nonresistance. Nevertheless, the nonviolent protest continued though Dr. King and his allies. This conflict of interest during the civil rights movement is manifested in the interactions between Dr. Brooks and Lefty. In the film, these two men obviously adopted two different ideologies and clearly disagreed on what would be better for their people. They are representative of the rivalry between the two different forms of resistance among black people.
Another facet that plagued the solidarity of the black community was the rise of the black, middle-class bourgeoisie, according to E. Franklin Frazier in his sociological study, Black Bourgeoisie. The class division between the middle-class blacks and the lower-class blacks during the civil rights movement results in different behavioral patterns, self-perceptions and -identifications. In No Way Out, Dr. Brooks serves as a quasi-representation of the black bourgeoisie class that emerged preceding the civil rights movement (Frazier, 106).
Frazier insists that the black bourgeoisie live largely in a world of make-believe, and the masks in which they paint of their sorry roles conceal the feelings of inferiority, insecurity and frustrations that haunt their inner lives. Despite their attempt to elude from identification with other blacks, they cannot escape the obstacles of racial oppression anymore than their kinsman. Their feelings of insecurity and inferiority are revealed in their pathological struggle for status within the isolated Negro world and the craving for recognition in the white world (Frazier, 110). This notion of black bourgeoisie is reflected in Dr. Brooks, a young black doctor working in an all-white hospital trying to justify his actions as a sound and fit physician.
Dr. Brook's inferiority is revealed in his fear of competition with whites. He prefers the security afforded by being an intern and not moving from county hospital residency. For example, Frazier suggests, since the Supreme Court has ruled against the segregation of public schools, many black teachers, even those who are well prepared, fear that they cannot compete with whites for teaching positions (Frazier, 111). This inferiority can be inferred in Dr. Brooks and can be noted as his "otherness." He insists on staying at the county hospital for another year and that he is not as prepared to leave as the others. By others, we know that Brooks means the other white students. He cannot see himself in the class as the others, even though Dr. Wharton has strong faith in him, and he is just as prepared as any other intern. The sense of other and otherness in Dr. Brooks can be attributed to his insecurity as a black doctor in a white hospital.
Frazier's study also suggests that there is much frustration among the black bourgeoisie despite their privileged position within the segregated Negro world. Their social positions cannot erase the fact that they are generally segregated and rejected by the white world. Their occupations may enable them to escape the cruder manifestations of racial prejudice, but they cannot insulate themselves against the more subtle form of racial discrimination (Frazier, 113). Dr. Brooks embodies these characteristics of the black bourgeoisie. He is a black doctor who has been given a chance by Dr. Wharton to work in an all-white hospital, but he still is a black doctor who receives the lash of white bigotry while working in the hospital. Ray Biddle and the mother of the injured rioter are examples of racism that Dr. Brooks cannot escape.
It is through these characters that Bell Hooks' notion of oppositional gaze can be seen in Brooks. He looks on with resistance to these white characters. Although Brooks is not the prototype of the oppositional gaze, he still looks on with inferiority and self-hatred. The oppositional gaze that Brooks holds in No Way Out is a symbol of the black bourgeoisie's reluctance to challenge racism and stereotypes.
These discriminations cause frustrations in black men because they are not able to fulfill their roles of masculinity as defined by American culture (Frazier, 108). This is exemplified in Dr. Brook's wife; she is the backbone of the household. She assumes the role of leadership and takes care of the family while Brooks completes medical school. "It's no good when a man's woman supports him, his mother and the rest of the family," Brook says as he recognizes his inadequacies. From the beginning of the film, Brooks relinquishes his role as the man that is the head of the household.
Other frustrations of the middle-class black bourgeoisie are noted in the failure to escape identification with the black community and the subjugation of contempt by whites (Frazier, 115). Despite the wealth and occupation in which so much has been invested as a solvent to the racial discrimination, the black bourgeoisie is still the subject of harsh racial insults and is excluded from white American society. To cope with such conditions, Frazier says, black bourgeoisie do not express their resentment against discrimination and insults in violent outbreaks as lower-class blacks (Frazier, 115). The repressed hostilities of the bourgeoisie to white are many times inflicted inwardly. The results are inferiority and self-hatred. In Dr. Brooks, we are able to see insecurities that his race has brought upon him. He does not respond to the racism and discrimination with violence like Lefty does, but he does act with an inward sense of responsibility for the racism and discrimination that has occurred. With these two characters, we see the conflicting actions of a lower-class black and the black bourgeoisie.
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s is representative of the struggle of an oppressed people to achieve freedom and a newfound meaning of life. This movement called for the congregation of men and women of all ages to join across the nation in the struggle for equality. In No Way Out, a film that highlights a black man's subjugation to racism and his efforts to overcome such obstacles, we see a precursor and the derivative of the civil rights movement. The film parallels the modern movement of black civil rights through its origination, roles of leadership, conflicts of order and representation of the black bourgeoisie.WORK CITED
King, Richard H. Civil Rights and Idea of Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 4, 5, 34, 91.Paris, Peter J. Black Leaders in Conflict. New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1978. 75-90, 95-98, 149-155, 166-169.
Blumberg, Rhoda Lois. Civil Rights: The 1960s Freedom Struggle. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1984. 22- 25, 83-92,
E. Franklin Fraizier. Black Bourgeoisie. Columbia: The Missouri University Press, 1957. 106-117.