Participants and Pariahs: Civil Rights Organization Representation in Congressional Hearings, 1900-2000

• In Event: 2483 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Policy Outcomes of Social Movements

Abstract

How does congressional representation shape civil rights movement outcomes? Previous research has suggested that movements should affect the legislative process, though the mechanisms for this impact are not well explored. We explore this question making use of a novel dataset covering congressional representation of 53 civil rights organizations from 1900 – 2000. Data are gathered using a "big data" web scraping technique to gather information on over 1,400 hearings and 40,000 witnesses. In this manuscript, we argue that one might make valid inferences about consequential topics such as repression, opportunity/access, as well as network connections among civil rights organizations by looking at their appearance in the congressional record. We make a novel contribution by looking at which organizations are present at congressional hearings, rather than focusing on topical issues addressed at these hearings. Findings of our analysis focus on which organizations are most represented in the congressional record, which organizations are subject to the highest levels of repression, and finally, which organizations tend to participate together in congressional hearings. Implications and further research extensions are discussed.

Authors

• Charles F. Seguin, University of Arizona

• Thomas V. Maher, Purdue University

• Andrew Davis, University of Arizona

• Yongjun Zhang, University of Arizona