Forty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, the storied organizations that propelled the modern-day civil rights movement alongside him are either struggling to stay relevant or struggling to stay alive.
In Atlanta, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) — which was founded in 1957 after Alabama’s Montgomery bus boycott and was led by King through the most difficult days of the movement — clings to life. Three years ago, utilities shut off the lights and the phones when the group did not pay its bills.
In New York, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which helped shape the movement’s philosophy after adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolent protest, is scarcely known outside Manhattan. CORE conceded that it now has about 10 percent of the 150,000 members it listed in the 1960s.
In Baltimore, the near-century-old NAACP, which tore down racial barriers with deft lawyering in the courts, recently cut a third of its administrative staff because of budget shortfalls. For decades, the NAACP asserted that it was the largest civil rights group, with about half a million dues-paying members, but one of its former presidents recently acknowledged that it has fewer than 300,000.
Some groups have disappeared, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which organized the Freedom Rides that drew sympathy to their cause and which was later led by firebrands such as Stokley Carmichael and H. Rap Brown. Others, such as the National Urban League, remain viable but have diminished visibility.
“They don’t really exist now,” said the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a former interim director of the SCLC, who spoke with pain in his voice. He added: “They’re just names. There has been so little activity from so many of them. SCLC rose from the dead, but we’re not so certain life has been blown into it yet. And the NAACP is vital, but they’re not doing what I’d expect.”
Hardly surprising. As many of these groups allowed, nay encouraged themselves to be co-opted by Leftist agendas that weren’t on target. The shunning of conservative blacks such as Clarence Thomas by the N.A.A.C.P. clearly illustrates the problem.
You can add to the list N.O.W. whose membership has collapsed in the last decade or so, until they’re little more than a bunch of old cats with the fur falling out.
Imagine MLK marching today and the racial mix of the police force managing the protest. When black folks exercise the reigns of power on the city council, the mayors office, police chiefs, school boards, county commissioner courts, etc., the formal groups obviously become relatively superfluous. Does the black middle class have a vested, or merely a vestigial, interest in the NAACP? There really is a long way to go, but it’s a different county than 40 years ago.
I think these groups should look at this as wonderful news! The reason they are declined is that the reason for them is declining. Not gone entirely, to be sure, but definitely declining. As a resident of Birmingham, Alabama, I often look around with wonder at how far we have come in such a short time.
Things are so different today that you couldn’t even say the proper name of the group in public. It’s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. That’s gone, along with the “whites only” signs, and good riddance.
He mentions good ole H. Rap Brown. Interesting, since he’s in prison for shooting and killing one deputy and wounding another (both black, BTW) who were serving an arrest warrant on him. What a great role model to bring into the discussion.
re: #3,
I can’t help but draw a parallel between your point and baseball. Once Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and more black players started coming into the American and National Leagues, there gradually became less and less of a need for the Negro League. Thus for the NAACP et al as well.
The ironic, and kind of sad, thing is that because of population demographics, African Americans traded a certain amount of power in segregated society for permanent minority status in integrated society. Of course, integration opened up greater opportunities for those able to take hold of them. But it also closed doors as well. In Bham, many AA owned businesses closed because AA’s could shop at the white stores. It’s one of those big fish/small pond; small fish/big pond quandries. Of course, none of this applies to any professional sport except hockey.