PATTERNS or NEGRO PROTEST
' A STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS:

, A ......

Thesis for the Degree of pl! D ,2 1"
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

1964 27—1;,5,RWVH55; ?, _

THESIS

   
 

  

LIBRARY

Michigan State
University

 
    

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled
PATTERNS OF NEGRO PROTEST:

A STRUCTURAL-PURE TIONAL' Amwzs 18
presented bg
Augustus Feweh Cains
has been accepted towards fulfillment

of the requirements for

Ph.D. degree in Sociology and AnthrOpology

 

Major nrnfnsg 5

MW

0-169

 

/‘

 

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

PATTERNS OF NEGRO PROTEST:

A S TRUCTURAL —FUNCTI ONAL ANALYS I S

by Augustus Feweh Caine

Truis thesis is primarily concerned with an
examinatitni of the patterns of response to be found
among Negqnaes in a middle-sized American city to a
universal category of their experience, namely, racial

discrimination and segregation. Racial discrimination

refers to the arbitrary denial of opportunities
guaranteed all members of a nation or community, to
the members of some group within that entity on the

ground of race, or the placing of some burdens on them

alone for the same reason. Segregation is the physical

separation of groups manifesting differences in some

characteristic. Both carry the idea of arbitrariness,

unfairness and injustice.

The context of investigation was the protest

groups, or the organized collectivities within which

 

 

Augustus Feweh Caine

change in the direction of greater equal opportunity

is sought by Negroes and their white friends or sym—

pathizers. The structural features of each protest

group were studied for their possible influences on

group action. The analytic variables considered

include membership, leadership, goals, ideological

perspectives, cohesion, and techniques.

Data obtained from 65 randomly selected inform—
ants belonging to three protest groups and 35 members
of the Negro subcommunity chosen by nomination of
protest group members on the basis of presumed level

0f awareness of civil rights issues and Negro protest

activities in the community, constitute the main

empirical core for the analysis.

Techniques used consisted mainly of participant
observation at protest group meetings and of Negro life
htsuch institutional sectors of life as education,
economics, politics, and religion, and key informant
hmerviewings. Data from these sources were supple-
mented by material from use of a formal questionnaire.
mmted States Bureau of Census and relevant Michigan

State University School of Business and Institute of

Community Development publications were also used.

Augustus Feweh Caine

PerTuaps the major finding emerging from this
researrfli is that Negroes tend to respond to their
predicament as social identities, in this case class
groups, :rather than as members of a single biological
entity. This conclusion supports earlier theoretical

suggestions that group structure is a pivotal factor

in group action. The choice of goals and techniques
in the Negro protest movement was found to be closely
related to the crucial variable of class background,
understood as educational, occupational and economic
levels. This mode of response expresses itself in:
(l) conflicting interpretations of the concept of equal
opportunity, and (2) fragmentation of the protest
groups along these differing meanings of the goal of
change. The divisions tend to impair the effectiveness
of the protest activities.

While the research was carried out in only one
city — Lansing, Michigan — there are reasons why the
findings should have generalizability beyond the area.

The findings illuminate the proliferation of Negro

Protest groups.

 

P‘. .—-

 

‘m‘ wit-1f- -

PATTERNS OF NEGRO PROTEST:

IX STRUCTURAL—FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

BY

Augustus Feweh Caine

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

1964

 

«(V

E.)
7-15)”sz

DEDICATION

To Dr. William R. Tolbert, Jr., Vice President
of Liberia, a great friend and benefactor - a man
whose greatness is reflected in his ability and will-
ingness to see worth in whomever it may be found, and
whose active interest in providing every Liberian an
opportunity to learn and learn more gives further
evidence that the Tubman idea of unification is not
a mere slogan, empty of content, but a serious and
sincere promise of equality of opportunity in Liberian

life - this thesis is gratefully dedicated.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

It has been a long and some times difficult
mardh to this intellectual mount. To President
William V. S. Tubman and through him the people of
Liberia I am deeply grateful for a scholarship grant
which enabled me to undertake the journey. Professor
Charles C. Hughes, the Chairman of my Thesis Com—
mittee, has not only been an understanding and helpful
adviser, but a source of intellectual stimulation.
From him I have gained a broader conception of the
nature of science in general and of behavioral social
science in particular. In Dr. Bernard Gallin I found
a critical but always honest and friendly adviser.

To him as well as the other members of my Thesis
Committee - Professors J. Allan Beegle, James B. McKee,
and John Donahue - I am thankful for their time and
Patience expended in working with me. Margery Gaeffner
and Jean Gorman of the African Studies Center at
Midfigan State University were helpful in typing the

first three chapters of the first draft of the thesis,

 

 

for whicfli I thank them. To my sister Lydia Zoe Caine

I owe art inestimable debt of gratitude for practical
help, in.]<eeping the home fires burning during the
nine years of my absence from Liberia, and take this

opportunity to acknowledge it. My wife Esther has

contributed companionship and I am grateful for this
as well as her sacrifice in agreeing to return to
Liberia as a graduate student's widow for the last
eighteen months of my academic career. Our daughter

Miatta Marlee Caine provided inspiration whenever the

burdens of graduate study seemed too heavy to bear.

iv

Chapter

II.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

A. The Problem
B. Theoretical Considerations
C. Application of Framework Structural
Elements
Goals
Membership
Leadership
Shared Sentiments
Tactics
Cohesion
D. Field Methods and Sources of Data
Significance of Study

WHY THE NEGRO REVOLT

A. Introduction

B. Reasons for the Revolt
Housing Today
Educational Opportunity
Voting Rights

C. Character of the Revolt

D. Results of the Revolt

E. Summary

THE COMMUNITY OF LANSING

Introduction

Patterns of Education
Economic Life‘
Political Relations
Religious Life

MUPWW

111

111
148
170
202
221

IV. THE STRUCTURE OF PROTEST

A. The NAACP
Membership
Leadership
Goals
Perspectives
Techniques
Cohesion

Intergroup Relations

B. The Citizens Non—Partisan League
Membership
Leadership
Goals
Perspectives
Techniques

Intergroup Relations

C. The Coordinating Council
Membership
Leadership
Goals
Perspectives

V. DYNAMICS OF PROTEST

Membership

Leadership

Church and Politics
Techniques

The Problem of Coordination
A Dilemma

VI. SUMMARY
A. Social Change in Lansing
B. Wider Implications - A Proposition

C. Outlook for the Future

Bibliography

vi

 

252

259

262
263
268
274
293
295
298

302
305

321
323
327
328
333

338

347

355
361

392
403
412
415
422
427
431

436

Table

10.

11.

12.

LIST OF TABLES

Page
Percentage distribution of Employed
Males by Major Occupation Group and
Color - 1960 71
Median Income of White and Non—White
Families, 1950—1960 72
Total Population and Negro Population
in Lansing by Census Tracts: 1960 122
Industry of Employed by Color, for
Lansing, 1960 172
Employment Status of Non—White and
White for Lansing, 1960 179
Occupation of Employed by Color for
Lansing, 1960 180
Negro Reaction to Their Political
Power 218
Rank Order of Protest Goals — NAACP
Members 267
Techniques Favored by NAACP Members 276
Socioeconomic Levels of Citizens Non-
Partisan League Members 301
Rank Order of Goals - Citizens Non—
Partisan League Members 307
Technicuq Preferences — League Members 322

 

 

 

PATTERNS OF NEGRO PROTEST

A STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

The story of the Negro's life in the United States

is that of a people's epic struggle for freedom and a

desired status. Centuries of unspeakable suffering have

forced the Negro to a point where he sees a need for
change in the social structure which generates this mis-
ery as urgently necessary and categorically imperative.
He has become an angry man indeed. He has become even
more so in recent years. The Negro is angry because

after a whole century since the emancipation the promises
of democracy have not been realized in his life. He still
does not enjoy the full rights of American citizenship.

He is not free to attend certain public schools in the
South. Throughout the country he does not enjoy equal
Service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels

and restaurants, and in some places theaters and retail

1

 

 

stores even when such enjoyment is guaranteed by law.
In parts of the South he may not use a public library.
He may not register to vote without the threat of econ—

. . . . . . 1
omic and other reprisals, including organized Violence.

Living in a society where skin—color is the pri-
mary credential of worth, the Negro is the victim of so—
cial rejection and open contempt by the surrounding white
world. Everywhere he is debarred from certain economic,
educational, political, and economic opportunities. The
urgency of the Negro's predicament is underscored in this
blunt warning by the late President John F. Kennedy to
the American peOple:

One hundred years of delay have passed since
President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their
heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free.

They are not yet freed from the bonds of in—
justice; they are not yet freed from social

 

lThe most recent dramatic case of such violence

is that of the murder of three civil rights workers in
Philadelphia, Mississipi, in the summer of 1964, two of
them white and one Negro. Registering Negroes to vote
was one of the elements in the program in which the three
martyrs were involved. The picture has improved somewhat
as far as the use of public accommodations is concerned,
With the passage of the 1964 Federal Civil Rights Act,
Which bans discrimination on grounds of race, creed, re-
ligion, or national origin in public accommodations. Many
restaurants and hotels in the South have begun to serve
Customers without regard to race or color, but resistance
Continues in others, throught subterfuge and other means.

 

 

and economic oppression . . . .

The Negro baby born in America today,
regardless of the section or state in which
he is born, has about one—half as much chance
of completing a high school as a white baby,
born in the same place, on the same day,-
one-third as much chance of completing college;
one-third as much chance of becoming a profes-

sional man; twice as much chance of becoming
unemployed. . . .2

Implied in this denial of equal opportunity is the con—

cept of the Negro's “place" which has been so central

in Southern social and political thought, and finds ex—

pression in the segregated pattern in many areas of in—
stitutional life, even in the Northern states. As will
be shown in the second chapter, the assignment of a
"place" to the Negro is a universal phenomenon in the
United States, although wide variations occur in the
degree to which it is institutionalized.

The vast majority of Negroes have never been

satisfied with their subordinate position and have tried

\

From an address to the nation on June 11, 1963,
0n the occasion of federalizing the Alabama National
Guard to insure admission of qualified Negro students
to the University of Alabama, on orders of a Federal
COurt. Governor George Wallace had promised his consti—
tuents to prevent such admission even by ”standing in
the door” of the school house. Making good on his promise,
his guards had turned the Negro students away when they
attempted to enroll at the University.

 

 

to escape from it through a variety of means. Forms

of resistance have ranged from individual escape attempts
through flattery of whites to extract favors from them,

to slave uprisings and the seeking of what has been called
"cultural whiteness" by a suppressed minority. By far,
however, the most frequent form of protest has been

through collective action involving Negroes and their

white sympathi zers .

A . THE PROBLEM

This thesis is addressed to the problem of the
patterns of Negro protest in one midwestern city, Lansing,
Michigan, or how the Negroes in the community respond to
the challenge of racial discrimination and segregation.
Specifically, we shall inquire as to whether Negroes in
the city respond to the "Negro condition" as a single
biological grouping or as distinct social categories,
such as class, religious, work or other groups. The
CIllestion will be examined within the context of the Negro
mass movement against racial discrimination in the city.
If different patterns of response occur, what consequences
dOes this hold for the dynamics of organized protest by

the Negro community?

 

 

 

"Racial discrimination" refers to the arbitrary
denial of opportunities guaranteed all members of a na—
tion or community, to the members of some group within
that social entity on the ground of race, or the placing

of some burdens on them alone for the same reason. Seg-

regation is the physical separation of groups manifesting

differences in some characteristics. Racial discrimina—

tion and segregation constitute an aspect of that which
in the sociology of racial and cultural minorities is

called "dominant—minority" relations. Both carry the

idea of arbitrariness, unfairness, and injustice.

Writing nearly two decades ago in a volume edited
by a leading anthropologist, Louis Wirth defined a minor—

ity group as

a group of people who, because of their physi-
cal or cultural characteristics are singled out
from the others in the society in which they
live for differential and unequal treatment,
and who therefore regard themselves as objects
of collective discrimination . . . .

A minority group can exist only in relation to a dominant

group which enjoys higher social status.

x

As compared with

LOUiS Wirth, "The Problem of Minority Groups, " in
Ralph Linton (ed.) , The Sciernce of Man in the World Crisis
(New York; Columbia University Press, 1945), p. 347.

 

the latter, minority status carries with it "exclusion
from full participation in the life of the community . . . .n4

A dominant group is one whose particular way of life
and/or physical appearance has become established as su-
perior in the society and which treats differentially and
unequally other groups that differ from it in one or both
ofthese respects.5 Where race is the primary basis for
discrimination and segregation the dominant group looks
upon members of the minority group as innately inferior
to themselves. A biological theory of culture history
informs its dogma of social superiority. It sees a causal
Connection between its own phenotypical traits and its
adfievements in culture, both material and nonmaterial.
Hum the absence of the material aspects of its own dis—
tinctive modes of life among a people of different racial
1DaCkground is taken as evidence of their biological in-
feriority.

The concept of ”race” as a biological entity is

difficult of empirical specification when applied to di—

‘Nsions of the human population. The term designates a

x;
4 .
Ibid., p. 348.

51bid.

 

set of genetic traits which are distinctive for an animal
population and breed true. But insights from modern phy—
sical anthropology, genetics, and biology have taught us
thatnmn is one of the most mongrelized animals in the
bhflogical series, due to migration and extensive inter-
Imeeding among once geographically discontinuous peoples.
Theidentification of "pure” races is thus difficult if
nM:practica11y impossible.6 The task is complicated by
Hm wide variation of forms between ideal types and our
hmbility to establish racial boundaries; that is, to de—
tenfine whether a given individual is simply a variation
muone racial type or falls clearly into the next category.
Yetit is clear that some differences of a biological na—
tue do exist among human populations. The problem is,
hOWever, whether social, and political programs detrimen—
tmLtO the welfare of one group can validly be elaborated
filthe basis of these differences.

Racial determinism as an explanation of culture
iSeven more difficult to maintain. Not much research

wmfld be required to show that the same culture can be
“~————_______i

6
C Sherwood Washburn, ”The Study of Race,” Ameri—
anAnthro olo ist, LXV, 1963, pp. 521—23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

shared by peoples of disparate racial backgrounds, such
asthe Negroes and whites in the United States, and dif-
ferent modes of life have appeared among the same racial
gnmping at different times in its history. Forde points
mn:that peoples belonging to the same racial stock have
mmupied different economic levels;just as the ancestors
ofnwdern Britons were once paleolithic hunters.7
But if "race” is nothing more than an hypotheti—

calconstruct in human biological discourse, it can have
mtaccurate referent in ordinary social intercourse or a
mfltural meaning. The members of a society may use race
(0f the dominant group) as a criterion of social ranking.
ASWagley points out in an analysis of race and class in
Brazil,

'Social race' (i.e., the way in which the mem—

bers of society classify each other by physical

characteristics) is but one of a series of values

Which give individuals rank and determine their

relations.

In the light of the above discussion the 20,000,000

Nanpes in the United States constitute a minority in
k

Daryll Forde, HabitatI Economy and Society (Lon-

don; MCHuen & Co., Ltd., 1934), p. 3.

Charles Wagley, Minorities in the Ngw World.
1934: p. 12.

American life vis-a-vis a larger group of dominants mani—
festing caucasoid features. The appearance and modes of
life of this latter group have become established as "nor—
mal" for the whole American society. Except in scholarly
circles most members ignore the modern scientific facts
about race. Even the nonprofessional who nevertheless

is quite capable of appraising the ”truth" will pretend

that the old myths are still tenable. One becomes a Negro
by birth, but biological features in and of themselves do
not determine ”race." It is largely a matter of cultural
definition. In their extended study of social stratifica—
tion in American life Warner and his associates found in

a Deep South community a caste system of white and Negroes,
each with its associated privileges.9 A white skinned man
0r woman may be socially defined as a Negro by the community,
on the basis of some previous Negro ancestry. Likewise, a
dark—skinned man or woman may be socially defined as a white
by the community, on the basis of known white ancestry and

the absence of known Negro ancestry.
\

9
C W. Lloyd Warner, B. H. Junker, and W. A. Adams,
W (Washington, D. C.: American Coun—
cil on Education) , 1941.

 

10

Negroes themselves appear to accept the esthetic
mm.normative standards of the dominant group as well as
its stereotypes of the Negro. Thus color has become of
mmitive symbolic significance among Negroes. Some Ne—
groes bleach their face to make it lighter or straighten
their hair to make it more caucasian in form. Frazier
suggests that the impact of Western civilization has been
sufficient to rid the Negro of his African cultural heri—
tage.lO There is a new middle class in the Negro commun-
ity, which has developed an obsession to be "white" in
their values and attitudes and behavior. He calls them
the "Black Bourgeousie.”ll In their rise within the Negro
Cmmmnity this elite has made every effort to forget the
Negnfs past, including his African ancestry and to adopt
thekehavior and values of the white community "in the
mOStndnute details.”12

Negroes have also accepted the material values of

flm dominant group. They want well—paying jobs, and

\

10 . . . .
E. Franklin FraZier, The Negro in the United

States (New York: MacMillan, 1949).

l
( E. Franklin Frazier, The Black Bourgeousie
New York: Collier Books, 1962), p. 235.

1
2Ibid.

 

ll

"respectable" occupations, education for their children,
some money in the bank, and the neighborhood of their
choice. Blockage of opportunity to realize these goals
and a sense of lack of redress are at the root of the
Negro revolt. Before inquiring into the background of
this phenomenon, the theoretical considerations which
informed the investigation on which this thesis is based,

is in order .

B. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Structural-functional theory provides a useful
framework for assessing the influence of group structure
on the dynamics of protest. Here the emphasis is on the
elements of the structure of the protest group and the
Consequences of their interrelations for the processes
or patterns of protest.

While the Negro has always been discontent with
his subordination and protested in some form or another
against it, this thesis will be confined to the organized
demand by Negroes and their white sympathizers for equal
Opportunity which started just after World War II and

reached an explosive stage in the summer of 1963. During

 

12

Hus period Negro protest against the consequences of
mhmrity group status seems to have intensified and

gained momentum. As if the existing political and re—
hgious institutions of American culture had proved in—
adanwte to make good the promises of democracy,13 there
haskmen a proliferation of groups of different persua-
sions, each seeking to articulate the sentiments and
aufitudes of the Negro population toward their depriva—
timland clamoring for equality of opportunity and eman—
Chmtion of people of color from the second class citizen—
shqato which white desire for power and special privilege
has forced them.

Not only is protest waged in different groups,
muzwith different techniques and emphasis. New leaders
have arisen with new perspectives on protest and a new
tempo has been set for Negro demands that America live
up to her democratic claims. How do these factors affect

Um process of protest?

 

13Even the United States Supreme Court has not

Mways been consistent on Negro civil rights. In 1890

it held that "separate but equal” schools did not violate
Um Negro's constitutional right to equal opportunity.
he famous desegregation decision of 1954 by Chief Jus-
Uce Earl Warren, of course, declared separate but equal
Schools necessarily "unequal.”

 

 

 

13

Anthropological interest in social protest for

Hm most part has been pursued under the rubric of ac-
mflturation studies,” which are concerned with analyzing
Hm processes of socio—cultural change under conditions
ofculture contact. In such investigations attention has
flmused mainly on the phantasy reactions of nonliterate
gmoples on whose way of life Western civilization has
hmflnged, and in which the subjects long for a return

Cf aboriginal conditions.l4 Approaches in these inves—
tigations range from descriptive histories of specific
mmmments to the testing of hypotheses. The ”natural
lfistory" method, typified by Cora Du Bois' study of the
1870 Ghost Dance among the California Indians, traces

Hm development of different forms of the Dance in order
tounderstand the characteristics of particular cases,

mm to isolate a range of characteristics for classes
Ofsuch phenomena in order to understand the character-
iStics of particular cases, and to isolate a range of
dmracteristics for classes of such phenomena in order

to enable developmental generalizations.15 Nash's study

 

 

l4Ralph Linton, "Nativistic Movements,” American

Muhropologist, XLV (1943), pp. 230-40.

15Cora Du Bois, "The 1870 Ghost Dance,” in Accul-
EHEEEQQ, Bernard J. Siegel (ed.)(Stanford: Stanford Uni—

\mrsity Press, 1955), pp. 3-5, 41—45.

 

 

l4

ofthe relationship between deprivation and participation
hireligious revival among three tribes on a Klamath Res-
enmtion, represents the hypothesis testing approach.l6
Useful as such acculturation studies are in illu—
ndnating a psychological aspect of culture contact, they
payinadequate attention to another significant dimension
of'flm problem, namely, the possible influences of organi-
zafibnal features on the ritual and the nature and process
Ofgmotest. Anthropologists do concern themselves with
lemkmship and its influence in starting a dance, with a
dochfine such as the imminent return of the dead and the
hmflications of this for choice of protest techniques,
but these interests are incidental to the explicit aim
Ofdescribing the origin and development of the ritual.17
Yetit is not to be expected that all Indians experienced
deprivation in identical ways. Older people probably were

more committed to the aboriginal culture than younger ones

 

 

l6Philleo Nash, "The Place of Religious Revivalism

filthe Formation of the Intercultural Community on Klamath
Reservation,” in Acculturation, Ibid., pp. 5—12, 120—24.

17In the Ghost Dance faith in the imminent return
of the dead and the end of the white man is so implicit
flmt the use of militant techniques against him is seen
as unnecessary. Only continued faith and dancing are held
as relevant. Cora Du Bois, Ibid.

 

 

 

 

15

am this fact could bring about differential responses
towhite dominance, or affect ritualistic behavior.

In the sociological literature no research is
reported under the concept of ”social protest,” but the
phmmmena comprehended by this term have been studied

under the more general rubric of "collective behavior."

Collective Behavior

"Collective behavior” refers to group behavior
thatdoes not derive normative direction from the culture
QEwhich the participants are a part. Presumably indivi-
dualmotivation to participate in collective behavior
Springs from tension linked to frustration, which in
mum is the result of a blockage or lack of means to
satisfy needs.18 As a subfield of sociology, "collective
lmhavior“ has covered a congeries of diverse crowd phe-
nomena which are only recently receiving classificatory
attention.19 Group behavior varying in regard to organ—

ization, structure, and behavior such as crowds, rioting

 

 

l8Hadley Cantrill, The Psychology of Social Move-
TEE§_(New York: Science Editions, 1963), pp. 62—64.

19Ralph H. Turner and Lewis M. Killian, Collective
m (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall), 1957;
NeiLJ} Smelser, Theory of Collective BehaVior (New York:

Free Press), 1963.

 

 

l6

mobs, screaming audiences, exstatic religious congregations,
Hm recent Beatles craze, public opinion, social movements
and violent revolutions have all come under this rubric.
Grmum in which collective behavior occurs are said to
be distinguished in addition to their lack of regulation
bytme normative system of the culture of the larger so—
ciety, by the absence of rules for recruiting members or
leaders, the lack of predetermined goals, and or regular-
ized procedures for defining modes of action. According
UDTurner and Killian, such collectivities are governed
by'emergent or spontaneous norms” rather than formalized
Principles.2

The bulk of the literature on collective behavior
Cmmerns the psychological aspects of individual attitudes
an behavior in group situations of varying degrees of
Structuralization, duration, and integration. It is held
for example that in the spontaneous and unregulated groups
hmividual behavior derives from attitudes and motives im—
Parted by other members rather than from the actor's own
Psyche and that he would not manifest them under ”normal"

Conditions. It has been the focus of study to understand

 

 

20Turner and Killian, Ibid., p. 3.

 

17

hmvthese groups arise and the process of their develop—
man from spontaneous, unstable, and disorganized collec-
tflfities to stable, normatively structured, functioning
acthntsystems seeking to affect some change in the social
order.

A tradition going back to Gustave LeBon which
viewfl collective behavior as impulsive and often anti—
smfial behavior contributed largely to a pattern of thought
whhfltrejected collective behavior as a legitimate area
ofsociological concern. The argument was made that since

sochflogy studies groups in terms of social organization

 

mm axunmative order, collective behavior, by being in—
terested in emotional or irrational and unregulated action,

lflm outside the concerns of sociology.

Social Movements

In more specific terms social protest in sociology
haSreceived attention through the study of social move—
mans. A "social movement” is a collectivity acting to
anmte change or resist change in the society or group
°fwhich it is a part. Definitions of the movement empha-
simatwo main features: its group character and its change

Orient ' . -
ation. According to Herbele, a soc1a1 movement is

k

18

a "collective ready for action by which some kind of change
is to be achieved, some innovation to be made, or some
pnndous condition to be restored."21 This is why a move—
ment could be viewed as a "collective enterprise to estab—
lish a new order of life.”22 Other distinguishing features
include reliance on organization as a means, wide geograph—
ical scope, and persistence through time. Instead of im-
pulsive and uncoordinated behavior, there is a division
of labor and action is governed by clearly prescribed role
relationships or status differentiations. The movement
extends beyond a single local community and may have na—
tional or international scope. Various units or "branches"
exist, which are related not simply by a common goal but
bYconcerted action to promote the goals of the movement.
Here again, the emphasis in research on social
Protest has been the life-cycle; i.e., a determination
0f the conditions under which social movements in which

1t finds expression arise, the stages through which they
\

1
Rudolf Herbele, ”Observations on the Sociology

a . .
(Illa SOClal Movements," Amer. Sociological ReView, XIV
949): p. 349.

22
in Alfred Herbert Blumer, "Elementary Collective Behav1or

Sociol McClung Lee. New Outline of the Princi les of
\O‘m' Barnes and Noble, New York, 1951, p. 199.

 

 

19

pass from their origin to success or their final form.
Political movements built around ideas that have revo—
lutionized the Western World, such as capitalism, social—
ism, and communism have usually been analyzed from a his—
torical and philosophical point of View, in which the
emphasis is upon the empirical truth value, logical con—
sistency, and ethical standard of the "theory."23 A
tension theory is invoked to account for the origin of
the movement. As in the case of anthropological studies
of nativistic or revivalistic movements, the participants
are presumably discontent because some social change has
rendered their cherished values insecure, damaged their
Self—conception, or their expectations of certain roles
and goals have been frustrated. The "new order" they
seek, then, is a recapturing of the past, of something
deemed theirs but now lost. Members want to play roles
WhiCh are unavailable.

Such investigations have the merit of being con—
Cerned With process, for specification of the typical
Situations in which movements arise permits generaliza-
tions concerning their causation. Yet for all their pre-

occ - -
uPation With the elements of social movements—-
.\

 

23
Herbele, op. cit-, p- 346-

hr

 

 

20

membership, leadership, ideology, cohesion, tactics-—the
dmmlopmental emphasis remains central. Shifts in the
nfles of these elements at various stages of the movement's
grmfih are noted, but little systematic attempt is made
maexamine the interrelations of the structural elements
hlterms of their implications for the process of protest
itself.24

It is clear from both psychological studies of

social structure and role theory that not everyone who

 

24In Cronon's Black Moses, for example, the rise

and decline of the Garvey Movement is discussed; but the
fOrtunes of the movement are tied to the charismatic in—
fluence of a single ”great man." While mention is made
of the social and psychological characteristics of the
People to whom the "Back to Africa” gospel appealed, the
implications of these sociocultural characteristics of
the followers for the movement are not systematically
eXplored. Edmund D. Cronon, Black Moses (Madison, Wis-
COnsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955).

The same 'evolutionary bias (life—cycle) occurs
in descriptions of Christian Science, the Ku Klux Klan,
Father Divine's Peace Mission Movement, and the criticism
regarding nonrecognition of the interrelations of struc—
tUral factors applies to them. Cf. Lyman P. Powell, Mary
Eager Eddy: A Life—size Portrait (New York: The MacMillan
Co., 1930). Stanley F. Horn, Invisible Empire: The Story
2fthe Ku Klux Klan, 1866-71 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1939).

Wendell C. King (1961) sets the stage for the
tyPe of study envisaged here. He, like Herbele and others,
recognizes the potential influence of the structural fea-
tures in their theoretical discussions, but have themselves
not studied particular movements with the aim of assessing
their consequences in mind. Social Movements in the United
States.

 

21

is exposed to a life situation of a critical nature will
experience it as frustrating or frustrating to the same
degree. Nor can it be assumed that all participants in
a collective effort to effect change are equally committed
to the goals of the group or convinced about the effective-
ness of the same techniques. In a heterOgeneous study
suCh as the United States where the members of a social
movement are likely to come from various segments of so-
ciety, each with its own sociocultural characteristics,
'recognition of this fact becomes all the more important
for its possible effects on the activities of the collec—
tivity. The Negro lawyer, school teacher, and ditch-digger
cflwiously are disturbed by different things because their
Emydhological'worlds are composed of different values and
Immives. ‘Whether any of them becomes a member of the so—
<fial movement at all or takes an active part in its pro—
Enams depends largely on his personal values and motivations,
Hmalevel of his commitment to the goals, and the extent
'Ubwhich he is immune to sanctions from others who do not
fawnrhis participation or use of particular tedhniques.
This thesis will consider Negro protest as a so—

I

(fial movement and explore the implications of its organi—j
i
zational elements for the dynamics of protest. This view

 

 

 

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22

of the collective effort seems justified by striking re—
semblances between it and social movements in certain
critical respects. First, Negro protest is rooted in

deep social and psychological frustration. As suggested
earlier, institutionalized means have proved unreliable

in securing to the Negro the success goals of American
culture. Expectations of economic success deriving from
the doctrine of the ”American Dream" have become an illu-
sion. He cannot earn on the basis of ability alone, and
if he manages to do so he cannot move about freely or live
with other Americans of his own economic and intellectual
level in a “free society.” Nor is he free as other citi-
zens to participate in representative government. Every—
Where he faces open contempt by the white world and cynical
disregard of his rights as a citizen. Strangers of a dif—
ferent skin color from abroad are preferred before him in
alend he has sacrificed even his life to defend. Even
lmvhas failed to assure the Negro that he can play the
hues he claims as a matter of right. Deprivations of
Ufls kind and the difficulty of ending them by customary
anedures (law and negotiation) have generated confusion
hithe minds of the Negro and made him apprehensive not

only Of the present but of the future. They have raised

 

 

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23

profound questions in his mind about his citizenship as
well as his status as a human individual. His self—esteem
has suffered. It is consciously to effect change in these
conditions these conditions that Negro protest commits
itself. It challenges the dominant-minority groups'

power relationships as well as the norms and beliefs

which sustain them.

In its change orientation, however, Negro protest
relies upon organization as an instrumentality. It takes
place in groups across the nation. Structured relation—
ships obtain among people of different statuses within
the protest groups-—1eaders and followers. There are
clearly defined and accepted patterns of responsibility
among categories of members.

Thirdly, Negro protest is national in scope rather
flan restricted to the narrow confines of a single com—
munity. The various national organizations making up
Um protest movement (NAACP, CORE, and Students' Non-
lfiOIent Coordinating Committee) have local chapters,

Mfile others have regional or local scope. The Southern
finistian Leadership Conference represents the former

type and the Citizens Non Partisan League of Lansing typi-
fies the latter. The universality of Negro subordination

makes such a spread necessary.

 

24

And finally, the nature of white resistance to
the extension of equal opportunity to Negroes demands
sustained protest efforts by the Negro community.25 The
protest movement or any of the groups through which it
operates continues beyond the life of any one individual
or group of individuals. Charters of incorporation em—

phasize this continuity.

Theory

Structural-functional analysis views society as
asystem of interrelated parts, in which processes go
mtthat are relevant to the maintenance of the system
asa.whole. As a variant of functional explanation, it
cm1best be understood by reference to the former.

There is no uniformity in what constitutes func—

tional analysis.26 Two postulates appear to be the core

 

25The distinguishing features of the social move—

Hwnt——change orientation, organization as a means, wider
geographical scope than other groups considered under col—
leCtive behavior, and persistence through time—~appear to
1m present in the Negro protest effort.

26Some social scientists consider functional analy-
sis as synonymous with sociological analysis itself and
see no critical difference between the two. See Kingsley
Davis, "The Myth of Functionalism as a Special Method in
Sociology and Anthropology,” Amer. Sociological Review,
HIV (1959), pp- 757—75.

I 25

of this approach among anthropologists and sociologists.
One is that a cultural or social item makes a contribu-
tion to the sociocultural system as a wholeo Thus one
may define as the function of a group (a protest group,

a family, etc.) the contribution which it makes to its

 

members or to a larger group of which it is a part. The
other is that the elements comprising the whole are in-
tegrated, or that a system is made up of interdependent
parts.

In a general account of functionalism in anthro-
pology, Malinowski declares that a functional analysis
of culture

aims at the explanation of anthropological facts
at all levels of development by their function,

I by the part which they play within the integral

' system of culture, by the manner in which they
are related to each other within the system, and
by the manner in which this system is related to
the physical surroundings . . . . The functional
view of culture insists therefore upon the prin-
ciple that in every type of civilization, every
custom, material object, idea, and belief ful-
fills some vital function, has some task to ac-
complish, represents an indispensable part within
a working whole.

Moreover, according to Malinowski the major institutions

 

Cf society correSpond to the primary biological needs of

_g

27Bronislaw Malinowski, "AnthropolOgy," Encyclo—
Epdia Britannica, Suppl. Vol. 1 (1936), pp. 132-22.

 

 

 

26

human beings, and like the latter can survive only if a
certain set of conditions is fulfilled. A functional
explanation of a social fact must therefore exhibit the

survival and thereby also the primary needs of human be—

. 28
ings.

A somewhat different statement of functionalism
tw'Radcliffe—Brown stresses the analogy between funcion—
al analysis in physiology and in social science:

If we consider any recurrent part of the life—
process (of an organism), such as respiration,
digestion, etc., its function is the part it
plays in, the contribution it makes to, the

life of the organism as a whole. As the terms
are here being used a cell or an organ has an
activity and that activity has a function. It

is true that we commonly speak of the secretion
of gastric fluid as a 'function' of the stomach.
As the words are here used we should say that
this is an 'activity' of the stomach, the 'func—
tion' of which is to change the proteins of food
into a form in which these are absorbed and dis-
tributed by the blood to the tissues. We may
note that the function of a recurrent physiolog-
ical process is thus a correspondence between it
and the needs (i.e. necessary conditions of exis—
tence) of the organism . . . . To turn from or-
ganic life to social life, if we examine such a
community as an African or Australian tribe we
can recognize the existence of a social structure.
Individual human beings, the essential units in
this instance, are connected by a definite set
of social relations into an integrated whole.

\—

28Malinowski, A Scientific Theory of Culture
“Empel Hill, N. C.: The University of North Carolina
Press, 1944), pp. 147-76.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

27

The continuity of the social structure, like
that of an organic structure, is not destroyed
by changes in the units. Individuals may leave
the society, by death or otherwise, others may
enter it. The continuity of structure is main—
tained by the process of social life, which
consists of the activities and interactions

of the individual human beings and of the or—
ganized groups into which they are united.

The social life of the community is here de—
fined as the functioninq of the social struc—
ture. The function of any recurrent activity,
such as the punishment of a crime, or a funeral
ceremony, is the part it plays in the social
life as a whole and therefore the contribution
it makes to the maintenance of the structural
continuity.29

According to Radcliffe—Brown, the two central tasks of
a science of society are to ascertain how social systems
Perpetuate themselves by maintaining the form of their
Structure, and how social systems change their type by
altering their structural form. In each case, the task
therefore requires analysis of the functions of various
Standardized modes of behavior or belief in relation to

the total social system to which the modes belong.3O

K

29A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Structure and Function

§Ae££imitive Society (New York: Free Press, 1952), pp.
79-80 0

30A. R. Radcliffe-Browne, A Natural Science of
.§muety (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1957), Part 2. For
c>ther discussions of this point of View, see Talcott Par—

30mm The Socigl Sygtem (Glencoe, 111.: Free Press, 1951),

chap. 2; Raymond Firth, "Functionalism," in Yearbook of

AEQEQleng, (ed. by William I. Thomas)(Chicago, Ill.:

Ihfiversity of Chicago Press, 1955).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28

Functionalism has been subjected to severe criti-
<fism in the last two decades by sociologists, philosophers
amianthrOpOIOgists on empirical and logical grounds.
Nbrton has demonstrated that the key assumptions of the
theory were too loosely drawn. Looking at the thesis
that cultural items uniformly fulfill functions for the
mxfiety viewed as a system and for all members of the so-
Ciety against the fact of wide variation in degrees of
integration in human societies, he comes to the conclusion
that the notion of functional unity is a question of fact
to be investigated in each case rather than assumed.31
Merton cites the divisive role which religious belief
Can play, especially in a highly differentiated society
Such as the Industrial West, as a warning against the un—
critical application of concepts developed during the
Course of studying relatively homogeneous, small—scale

I I 32 I
Scoleties to more complex structures. Soc1al usages

\

31Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social

§tructure (revised edition, 1957; New York: Free Press,
1957).

32Robert K. Merton, Ibid. Anthropologists in
their attempt to develOp a true science of culture have
tuied to apply concepts developed in their studies of
nmfliterate societies to human societies generally. Durk-
1rlaim's sociological theory of ritual is built around the
EflJeged integration of ”primitive" societies. See Emile
Ihukheim, Elementary Forms of Religion (Glencoe, Ill.:
E'I'ee Press, 1954). Also, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Andaman
lifimfiegg (Glencoe, 111.: Free Press, 1948).

. __ A— __.

 

 

 

 

 

29

or sentiments may be functional for some and dysfunctional
for others in the same society. It follows that the effect
which loss of a part will have on the particular system
would depend on the degree of integration on "working to—
gether," or the parts or the way they are related to each
other. Thus, for example, if Christianity, defined as a
belief in a supernatural and a particular ethical system,
should disappear from traditional African society it is
conceivable that no serious dislocations would occur in

the structure of that society.

The principle of "universal functionalism" becomes
Vulnerable on similar grounds. It maintains that all stan-
dardized social or cultural forms have positive functions.33
Some anthropologists took the mere fact of present survival
Of a trait as evidence of its adaptive value.

The functional implications of structure which
ConStitutes the core of structural—functional analysis
and the idea that social or cultural items perform "vital"
functions can be illuminated by the lsystematic " conception
of organisms in biology. Every organism represents a

SYStemI or "a complex of elements in interaction." These

¥

 

33 .
B. Malinowski (1936), p. 132.

 

 

 

elements are related to each other in certain fixed ways,

so that changes in one lead to certain predictable alter—
ations in others. Certain processes which go on in each
component can be analyzed, but the organism cannot be
understood in terms of the individual units, for each
part depends not only on conditions within itself, but
also to a greater or lesser extent on conditions within
the whole. By the parts interacting according to certain
general principles, certain processes (e.g. assimilation,
elimination of waste products, respiration, and reproduc-
tion) that are indispensable to the continued life of

the whole organism are carried on and it is maintained.
In this sense the operation of parts or elements can be
said to contribute to the existence of the system. If
the processes of metabolism, irritability, reproduction
or develognent did not take place in an organism, it could
not be sand to be alive. The carrying on of these separ-
auapr0cesses serves to integrate the body, making an
"organic unitY' or making it the orderly working system

it really is. As Von Bertalanffy has said of the system

coneeption:

In a system the forces balance each other, and
therefore their co-existence leads to a relatively
Stable configuration that resists destruction.

 

 

 

At the same time, every finite system is a
member of a higher one and encompasses smaller
systems. This inclusion is not merely a pas-
sive encapsulation but mutual interdependence.
Certain actions of the lower system are oper—
ative in the integration of the higher system.
Conversely, certain actions of the higher sys—
tem co—determine the lower ones. Living beings
represent the most complicated configurations
of systems of forces. Interaction is essential
to them; it integrates all partial processes to
the whole and governs their cooperation by sys—
tem laws.

Applying this model to the study of human or so-
cial groups, we can see them as organic wholes made up
of internally related members, each possessing its own
attitudes, biases, and needs. But no individual can be
understood apart from the whole, for he is a part of that
Whole. His behavior is understood not only in terms of
his individual characteristics but in terms of the prin—
Ciples of the system. The system defines his activities
as well as the nature of his relations to other individ—
uals. Although cultural definitions of behavior are not
astraight—jacket and the individual has room for varia—
timL there are more or less clear limits to which such

Vmfiation can go without facing sanctions for "boundary

Itlaintenance." All behavior in accordance with definitions

\

 

34Ludwig von Bertallanffy

 

 

should contribute toward the existence of the system or

the activities which it performs. By individuals behav—
ing within these permissable limits of variation set by
culture, their various activities are unified and the
social system continues. Without such coordinated oper-
ation of elements the system could not persist. For this
reason interaction in terms of normative expectations con—
tributes or is vital to the maintenance of the system. It
is because this statement is true that the concept of or-
ganic unity is so basic in the study of human groups.
Redfield has presented a summary of the systematic
model in modern anthropology.35 Each individual culture
and society is seen as an ”organic unit” or a whole of
parts "in describable interconnectedness," which contri-
bUte to the persistence of the whole. Malinowski's view
of each culture as an integrated whole and Radcliffe-
Brown's idea of societal organisms emphasize the syste—
matic conception. For culture, the parts are ideas and
activities; for society they are social relations. This

\

nNfion of the functional interrelatedness of parts is

\

35Robert Redfield, “Societies and Cultures as Na-

tural systems," Journal of the Royal Anthropological In—
Sti’c\ute, LXDQCV, pp. 19—32.

 

 

33

what makes it fruitful to inquire into the relations of
one part, witchcraft, for example, to the other elements
of culture in African societies. The systematic view—
point also underlies the configurationist View of indi—
vidual cultures as ”psychic constellations" in which ac—
tivities and institutions in a society cohere around a

set of dominant “psychic predispositions.” It is implicit
in those culture—personality investigations in which early
experiences ('primary institutions') are held to fashion
the individual into the characteristic adult personality
Of his society, and which in turn serve as the basis for
the development of 'secondary institutions' such as reli—
gion and folklore.

It would of course be easy to show that some ele—
ments of culture or society are functionless in the bio—
lOgical sense. Kluckhohn's well—known example of the
meChanically useless coat sleeve buttons in Euroamerican
dress is a case in point. Continued appearance of buttons
on men's coat sleeves may satisfy some men's penchant for
tradition, but it can hardly be said to be fulfilling a
I'Vital" function, or contributing something without which
Hm coat could not exist. When it is realized that the

same item may have more than one function just as the

 

 

 

 

34

same function may be served by different forms, the im—
plication of irreplaceable items or structures becomes
questionable. Here Merton’s concepts of "functional al—
ternatives,”"functional equivalents," or ”functional sub—
stitutes" deserve serious consideration in empirical re—
search. Magic and religion serve as responses to the
same prdblem of uncertainty in human life. These notions
point to the fact that, again, depending upon the degree
Of structural differentiation in a society, an item can
have functional significance for the whole system consid—
ered as a unit or only for sub—groups within it. The
Sentiment of "white supremacy" in American culture illus—
trates the point. For the vast majority of whites this
Principle of social ranking is at the heart of what they
Consider their "way of life;" without it life as they
know it (of dominance symbolized by special privilege)
wOuld not continue. It provides institutional integra-
tion for many groups and individuals among them. To Ne—
grOes on the other hand the doctrine is subversive of

the American Dream, for it denies them equal opportunity.
For them the norm of mobility is the integrating principle

amiwhite supremacy is quite dysfunctional.

all

 

35

VBut (:riticisms concerning the lack of precision
of the concepfi: of function, the uncritical assumptions
in earlier frusctional analysis that all societies are
fully integrated, that all persisting forms of culture
have functional significance, and that certain functions
are indispensable, have served to make the concept of
function a more flexible analytical tool and so to broaden
its empirical content, rather than to invalidate it. This
is patent from the incorporation of the empirical approach
into functionalist research methodology. Rather than
assuming the essential validity of the principal assump—
tions, the distinctive feature of structural—functionalist
analysis is that it makes them hypotheses to be tested.
Thus this type of inquiry seeks to determine whether and
under what conditions given cultural forms have functional
or dysfunctional significance and for whom in a society,
rather than axiomatically impute integrative meaning to
them for the whole of a society. It examines each element
for its role or the part it plays in sociocultural conti—
nuity.

That functional analysis continues to be a lively

intellectual movement in social science is evident from

the Vigor with which that is called "structural-functional"

 

 

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36

theory and will be the framework of analysis in this
thesis, is being practiced today. Developed by soci—
ologists (Merton, Parsons, and others) to overcome some

of the difficulties of classical functionalism it is
nevertheless patterned after the classical “functional-
ist model." To the structural—functionalist, culture

or society is an organization of means designed to achieve

particular ends. The rooting of this means—end thesis in

 

classical functionalism may be seen in Radcliffe—Brown's
view of structure as a correlate of function.36 According
to him, structure is the observable arrangement of parts
in a system. Functioning is "process, i.e., the result

of activity, or interaction of parts," just as 2;; nature
is process. On this View the concept of structure is im—
plied in that of function, which is the contribution which
a partial activity makes to the total activity of which

it is a part. Thus functioning tends toward preserving
Structure, i.e., assisting in its persistence. The hypo—
thesis to be tested in functional research is whether in
fact and how the interaction of elements contributes or

fails to contribute to the maintenance of a structure.

 

36A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, 1952.

 

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The means in this approach is the structure of

a social system; hence the concern of the theory with

the functioning of structure, or the study of social
function as operations or the affects of specified so—

cial structures. A social system consists of definable
groups of individuals with common interests or ends, or,

as Parsons defines it, ”a plurality of interacting indi—
viduals whose motivation is to optimize the gratification
of needs."37 In this View the social group or collectiv—
ity is a need-fulfilling instrument. Each member seeks

to realize goals which may or may not coincide with those
Of Other individuals or the avowed goal of the collectiv—
ity as a unit. Relations between the elements (actors)

0f the social system are ordered by culturally structured
SYmbols. Culture is both a product of and a determinant
Of"Systems of human interaction."38 Parsons views culture
as ideas and behavior patterns, which are learned rather
than acquired through hereditary endowment. Three elements
0f culture are recognized in his theory: 1) systems of

ideas or beliefs; 2) systems of expressive symbols, such

 

 

3
7Talcott Parsons (1951), chap. 2.

3
81bid. , p. 15.

 

 

38

as art forms, characterized by cathectic interests or
attachments to objects, both social and physical, and
3) systems of value orientations.

The individual's motivation to satisfy personal
needs is of immense importance in understanding his be—
havior in the interactive situation. His behavior de—
pends on the objective definition of his role, but largely
on how he interprets what is expected. The individual's
”definition of the situation" in turn is related to his
past experiences and the psychological needs he has de—
veloped. This is why Parsons is correct in saying that
orientation to the situation has ”motivational and value
aSpects.”39

On the motivational level three concerns occur:
one is cognitive. This is what the actor perceives in
the situation as significant for the satisfaction of his
needs, attitudes, and desires. A Negro may participate
in a protest group because he sees in it an opportunity
to express pent—up emotion against white people who sub—
ordinate him, to castigate the Negro leadership for real
or imagined failures or wrongs, to display leadership

himself, to fight for rights which his own efforts alone

 

39 .
Ibid., chap. 2.

ll.

 

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39

could not succeed in winning, for social outlet, or status
competition. These are opportunities denied him in the
larger world dominated by white man. Another is cathetic,
and involves the process of investing certain objects with
emotional significance, such as mother, a friend, or pen
received from a loved one. The third is evaluative, and
has to do with the differential distribution of energy or
effort among various interests among which the actor or
participant must choose. On the value level attention is
called to the observance of social norms or standards of
behavior considered ”right" or appropriate in specific
situations.

Since the focus of structural-functional analysis
is on the functioning of structures, empirical attention
Centers on the actors in terms of ways they are related
to each other, their goals or how they perceive the group
goals, and their behavior. By describing people who are
variously involved in the patterns of behavior in a group,
or the locating of these people in their interconnected
Social statuses we are defining the structure of the sys-
tem. Description of participants or elements in terms
0f patterns of relationship between them, i.e., roles,

statuses, and group affiliation and the interrelations

 

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40

among them provides a clue to the functions performed
by the system.40 This is because it allows the student
to discover why actors do what they do, why they empha—
size certain directions of action and not others, or the
possible connections between individual conceptions of
group goals and specific individual behavior. A basic
assumption of structural—functional theory is that ac—
tion has a subjective aspect, or is goal—oriented. The
terms "status” and "role” are to be understood here in
their Lintonian sense, in which status refers to a posi—
tion in a differentiated structure, such as father in a
family or teacher in classroom; role to the dynamic or
active aspect of position.41 The former is a definition
of appropriate or expected behavior; the latter of actual
behavior, deemed of functional significance for the so—
cial system.

Implicit in the theory is a conception of social
groups or collectivities as action systems oriented to
the attainment of ends. Goals can refer to the subjec—

tive ends of individual actors or the objective ends of

 

 

40Robert K. Merton (1957), po 56.

41Ralph Linton, The Cultural Background of Per—

sonality (New York: Appleton-Century—Crofts, Inc.), 1945.

41

I of the collectivity as a whole. The theoretical signi—

ficance of the lack of identity between individual and
group ends in functional analysis or the consequences of
this fact has been brilliantly pointed out by Merton in
his distinction between "manifest” and ”latent" functions.
By manifest function he refers to the conscious, explicit

purpose or items or collective action; latent function

designates the unintended consequences of action directed
at accomplishing the explicit ends. Since groups are made
sup of different personalities who perceive different mean—

ings (presumably for need—fulfillment) in collective ac—

tion, the system may operate in such a way that results
other than those consciously expected from group action

ensue. This is all the more likely in view of difference

in status position within the system, differences which
carry power implications for moving group action in one
direction or another. Given the broad objectives of a
protest group, for example, leaders with education and
Wealth could exert more influence on the specific pro-

.Cedures to achieve change or the specific aims of col—

lective action than followers without these social char-

Iacteristics. The nature of this influence will be affected

I

itics vis-a-vis those of their followers.

by their motivations as well as their cultural characteris-

1
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42

Merton has outlined the specific data called for
in a structural—functional analysis of groups:

1. The structure of the group~—the description
of the group in terms of their roles,
statuses, sub—group affiliations and
specification of their interrelations
in the social system;

2. The meanings (cognitive or affective) of
collective action for individual mem—
bers, or what they believe it can do
for them (whether prestige, self-aggran—
disement, opportunity for leadership,
etc. Knowledge of these provides in-
formation on the psychological functions
of group participation.

3. Motivations of participants or why they are
in the group, as distinguished from the
collective goal. Behavior contributing
or not contributing to attainment of
organizational goals could be illumin-
ated with this knowledge.
Taken together these structural considerations will help
meet the problems of functional analysis, the degree of
integration, and the functional or dysfunctional aspects
of behavior or ideals.
Some students of the logic of scientific expla—
nation have characterized the functionalist's concern
with vital processes in maintaining the social system

as "teleological analysis,” and rejected this as a form

of obscurantism. It is charged that this mode of inquiry

\

42Robert K. Merton,(l957), pp. 46-60.

 

 

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43

by invoking ”purpose” as final cause is taking the phe—
nomena to be explained outside the realm of scientific
investigation, where that very relationship (between
processes and the ends they serve) should be the object
of inquiry. The difficulty in this objection to social
research is that it confuses objectively warranted ex—
planations of social phenomena, such as anthropologists
and sociologists seek to make, with those of the subjec-
tive aspects of goals. When a structural functionalist
speaks of the function of a social system he is simply
pointing to what products or ends are achievable through
the operation of the relations between the several ele—
ments of the system. This may be equal opportunity, as
in the case of a Negro protest group, or the production
and sale of automobiles for profit as in the case of
General Motors Corporation. And when he speaks of the
iynction of any specific activity within the social sys—
tem he is pointing to the effect or consequence which it
has in strengthening (orveakening) these relations. In
a protest group, for example, conflict among leaders or
between leaders and their followers about specific goals
Or appropriate techniques could have negative effects on
the operations of the group or its movement toward its

stated goals.

 

 

44

A
Frcxn tflnis point of view, of course, as Fallding‘3

has pointexi CMlt, functional analysis is evaluative rather

than explaxuitory. But what is involved in this type of

evaluation.:is not the subjectivity based on bias or the
intuition vflnich distorts the analyst's perception; it is
rather an (ibjective judgment as to the worthwhileness of

the effort that has gone into the creation or maintenance

of a sociocultural system. If the effort is wasteful or

inefficient (for at least one level of analysis—-i.e.,

personality, culture, or society), it is dysfunctional.

If the effects are valuable in terms of the ends in view,

they are functional. Among the criteria for evaluation

integration is important, for a social system requires a
certain level or degree of integration in order to be

productive.

Implicit in any deliberate organization for the
attainment of some objective is the assumption that the
elements of the structure are so arranged as to facili-

tate realization of that goal. The adoption of bureau-

cratic principles in modern large-scale organizations
like General Motors, or Michigan State University, for

examPle, illustrate this adaptation of social forms to

x

3
Harold Fallding, "Functional Analysis in Soci—

OlOQY." Amer° Sociological Review (1963), XXVIII (No. l).

 

45

the attainment of particular ends. It is important of
course to distinguish between the organizational objec—
tives from the subjective ends of the individual parti-
cipants. The latter affect member behavior in pursuit
of the organizational goals. In structural—functional
inquiry with its view of organizational structure as an
adaptive device, however, the identifiable activities of
the parts are examined for their efficiency, or the ex—
tent to which they work or fail to work toward the rea—

lization of the established ends. The relation between

 

means and ends becomes problematic, rather than axiomatic,
and functional analysis seeks discoverable relationships
between the two. Implicit in the procedure is the recog—
nition that the function of an attitude or the behavior
Springing from it need not contribute to the intended
goals or have any utility at all for the system. A tele-
Ological explanation stultifies critical analysis pre-
‘Cisely because it ignores this possibility of the mal—
functioning of structures or items. The importance of
recognizing that the idea of malfunction implies the idea
of function becomes clear in personality research also,
as Leighton points out in the Stirling Study. If one of

the components of which personality is made up, such as

 

Halt... 1.. I --

 

 

 

46

cognition, becomes faulty the whole structure known as
personality would similarly be affected. The individual
will reflect his problem by failing to act in accordance
with the cultural norms of his society, or do so only in—
adequately.44 This is why Merton's distinction between
"manifest" and "latent” function is so useful. Functional
analysis reveals through a study of the operation of struc—
tural elements whether a social item has any effect on the
system and if so whether it is ”vital” or not vital to
attainment of its ostensible goals, and under what con—
ditions. A chief area of difficulty here is that of ob—
taining clear, corroborative data on their effects in the
absence of what is called the ”crucial experiment.” This
is a Condition of investigation, obtainable only in a
laboratory, in which the analyst has sufficient control

50 that he can observe the actual effect of one variable

on Others, without the confounding influence of extraneous
factors.

Such an empirical approach has the merit of re—

SolVing the difficult problem of functional dispensability

orindiSpensability.
\

44
Ba _ Alexander Leighton, My Name is Legion (New York:
n1 Books, 1959), p. 26.

 

 

 

 

47
C. APPLICATION OF FRAMEWORK

In applying the structural—functional framework
to the study of patterns of Negro protest in the city of
Lansing, we assume that the groups in which protest takes
place are consciously organized collectivities designed
to exert pressure for change in the culture and social
structure of the city in the direction of more equal op—
portunities for all citizens, and that the elements com—
prising the groups affect the process of protest posi—
tively or negatively. By ”process of protest” I refer
to the selection of specific goals and the techniques
used to reach them. Striving for equal economic or job
opportunities in Lansing and picketing stores that would
not hire Negroes would be an example of the process of
protest. The elements selected for consideration are
those often reported in the literature as having the most
significance in influencing collective action of the so—
cial movement type. They are: goals, membership, leader—
ship, collective sentiments or ideology, and techniques.4
All of these are interrelated in the sense that one can
influence others, as will be suggested below. This is

Mmy goal itself is regarded as a structural element.

 

 

45R. Herbele, op. cit.

48
Structural Elements Defined

All the components which make up the structure
of a protest group are interrelated in the sense that
one can influence one or more of the others, as will be
seen below. They are separated only for analytical pur-
poses, because they are part of the fabric of nature,

which is all process.

Goals

These are the ends towards which the activities
of the group as a whole are directed. They may be in
general or specific, immediate or long range. The appeal
of a group or its program to certain individuals could
depend on how pressing they experience their ”needs" and
how long they think it would take to realize its goals.
Whether interest in an organization is brief or sustained
could also depend on how participants perceive the chances

of their realization and their own capacity to wait.

Membership

This element refers to the participants and their

SOCiocultural characteristics (e.g. educational, occupational,

 

 

 

 

 

49

and economic backgrounds). The appeal of organizational
goals could depend on the segment of society from which
the individual comes. In a status conscious society such
as the United States, the mode of recruitment to a protest
group could be a factor in attracting or repelling poten-
tial members. Depending on whether it is exclusive or
open in membership, the direction of community attitudes

towards its members could be positive or negative.

Leadership

Concern here is with office holders as well as
others who informally exert influence on policy and their
sociocultural attributes, how they are chosen, and their
degree of sensitivity to follower sentiment. The ideo—
logical perspectives or sentiments which influence leaders
might depend on the segment of society from which they
come. This is also true of the techniques they are will—
ing to use. The nature or source of their authority
(whether rational—legal or charismatic) could influence
the nature of the following they command, and the controls
UDWhich they are subjected from followers. Even their

social class could be a factor in follower attitude toward

 

 

. .J . ..
w“: ill-naihturi. .

 

L

50

their activities. Included also among leaders are indi-
viduals who identify overtly with the Negro's efforts to
achieve the stated social goals of the protest groups,

whether they themselves attend meetings or not.

Shared Sentiments

Following Leighton, these are "units of thought—
feeling" among members about what ought to be, or what
is desired.46 They are the value premises or beliefs or
Philosophical justification of the goals of protest and
the existence of the group itself. These sentiments may
be written or unwritten, but they define what the group
Stands for or opposes. When African nationalist leaders
in multiracial countries like the former Federation of
the RhOdesias and Nyasaland or Kenya demanded "one man,
one Vote," they were articulating the sentiments which
constitute the justification of their organized efforts.

Similarly, when Ku Klux Klan members base their
terroristic activities on the alleged dangers of race
miXture and racial equality, they are providing a philo-
sOPhical rational for their movement. Differences among
members concerning these could have implications for con-

flict and dissension in protest activities.

 

 

46A. Leighton, op. cit.

 

 

FW

51
Tactics

There are the strategies or techniques of protest.
Too many differences about these could throw a group into
long debates. The time for this could be used in activi-

ties that would move it to its goals.

Cohesion

This has to do with the gpp;ip_g§_gp£p§ or sense
of loyalty and oneness among the members. Cohesion may
come from dedication to common values and aims, loyalty
to a common leader or opposition to certain ideas or in—
dividuals or groups. Whatever its source, cohesion serves
to integrate the members and give the group or movement
some degree of permanence. The Puritans who came to the
New WOrld‘were bound together by a belief in religious
liberty and faith in themselves as a people chosen to

found a ”Commonwealth of God" in their new home.

Selection of Study Area

In terms of the size and character of its Negro
population, another place might have been preferred to

Lansing. The Negro population for 1960 was only 6% of

 

Y’TET'

 

 

 

52

the total population of Lansing. According to the 1960

census there were only 6,745 Negroes in a total popula—

tion of 106,993. Thgpflegro population is relatively ho—
mggenegus in suCh socioeconomic characteristics as edu-

cation, occupation, and income, except for a very small

group of college and professionally trained individuals

who have settled in the city in the last 15 years. “This
lathn:group-—including a physician, a dentist, three

lawyers, and two college professors, a social worker,

two special education specialists, and few school teachers

and nurses-~makes up less than 2% of the Negro population,

with the result that distinctions between categories of

People in the community are small. Whites tend to make

a categorical evaluation of Negroes, in a way which denies

indiVidual merit, and except for about 20 families scat-
tered in changing neighborhoods (the whites are moving
mun the Negroes are confined to a Black Ghetto.

Lansing was chosen for this investigation mainly
mnzof budgetary considerations. Funds for travel and
unking in a structurally more differentiated Negro com—
munity were not available.

Yet Lansing is a "typical" American city, in the

sense that it has elaborated the biracial system whrfli

 

 

 

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53

subordinates all Negroes, to all whites in all areas of
life in varying degrees. Negroes and whites live in more
or less separate sociocultural worlds. Whites resist
economic and competitive equality with them. It is pre-
cisely these obstacles to personal freedom and equality
that Negro protest seeks to remove wherever it has arisen
in the United States. Like New Orleans and other places47
where organized Negro action for change has developed,
[j'Lansing has its core of college educated people leading
the fight.ég> The study is not a test of an hypothesis.
However, it will develop some propositions about patterns
of Negro protest whose generalizability might be deter-

mined through research in other American cities with a

clearly elaborated biracial system.

D. FIELD METHODS AND SOURCES OF DATA

Data gathered mainly through the usual anthropo-
lOgical techniques of participant observation and key
infonnant interviewing constitute the empirical core for

the analysis in this thesis. Supplementing the material

 

 

47William Thompson, Negro Leadership (1963).
“’W"”. \1é8Walter Banks,”Social Protest and the Status

Inconsistent Negro,” (Ph.D. dissertation, M.S.U., 1963).

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from these sources are material from more structured in-

terviewing involving a questionnaire, and from documen—
tary sources.

I attended regular Sunday morning services at
four of the 10 churches in the Negro community as a wor—
shipper for 20 consecutive weeks. There are 5 Baptist,

3 Pentecostal, l Methodist, and 1 African Methodist
churches. Those I visited include the largest and the
smallest and the other two fell in between. Selection
was made in order to include all types of denominations
represented in the community as well as differences in
degree of education among the ministers, in addition to
differences in congregation size. During the same period
I also attended church-related activities such as picnics
(on invitation of the pastor, a deacon, or some prominent
member), pay dances, luncheons, or suppers.

At services I was interested in discovering what
image, if any, the church might be helping the Negro de—
velop of himself, any ideological course it might be chart—
ing for him as an adaptation to his subordinate role, as
well as in the organizational aspect of church life. At
the church related activities I observed patterns of social

relations among members and status groups within the church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also observed protest group meetings for nine months

first as a visitor and then as a member. The data col-
lected through the questionnaire focused on life in the
institutional sectors of community experience (family,
education, economics, politics, and religion), on Negro
protest activities, and community reaction to them. It
is in roles in these areas that the individual partici-
pates in community life.

The questionnaire was administered to 100 indi-
viduals, of whom 65 represent a random sample of the
members of the three protest group members in the commun—
ity. The groups are the: 1) National Association for
the Advancement of Colored Peoples, 2) The Citizens Non—
Partisan League, and 3) The Greater Lansing Coordinating
COuncil: These groups together claim members to a figure
Wellabove 1,000. It was difficult to verify the figures
claimed by individual groups, first because each one's
list of members is a closely guarded secret, known only
to the presiding officer and a few officers (not all),
and second because the same individuals more or less at—
tend the regular meetings. During the 18 months in which
I attended these gatherings and kept notes on the partici-

Imnts as well as the deliberations, no more than 20 new

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56

r;faces appeared in all the groups. On the other hand,
average attendance ranged from 35 in the largest group
-(the NAACP) to 15 in the smallest (the League).

The other 35 respondents came from the community
at large and were selected by nomination of the protest
group respondents. I interviewed these people because
I wanted to have some idea of community sentiment on the
protest activities. The theoretical importance of this
is that protest takes place within a social context, and
among external factors which could affect protest, the
attitude of Negroes who are not members is important. It
could explain the size of the groups, and the revenue they
receive, and could limit what programs can be undertaken
bY these groups. Actually of course the relations between
Social protest groups and the Negro community would be an
interesting problem, but they lie outside the scope of this
theSis. Such an investigation would require more time and
fuhds than were available to me. Each protest group mem—
ber’interviewed was asked to name 5 persons not active in
prOtest affairs but who could be expected to have opinions
(DH them as well as the problems with which they are con-
Qerned. Of the 325 names mentioned the 35 receiving the

highest naminations were interviewed. They included 8

 

 

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teachers, 3 ministers, 6 factory workers, and 2 newspaper

men, 4 housewives active in community affairs, 1 chemist
in a local firm, 2 community service employers, 2 cooks,
l secretary, 1 bar attendant, l barber, 2 high school
students, and 2 truck drivers.

The information from the questionnaire, while
useful for comparative purposes, did not provide suffi-
cient depth. To discover the fuller context of these
materials I interviewed 25 key informants on aspects of
the research problem with which they were particularly
familiar. Two were white members of the NAACP. Not all
respondents were equally knowledgeable on all topics.
Thus, While most of them complained of job discrimina—
tion they could not discuss its dynamics as fully as
some factory workers who are in direct competition with
Whites for promotion. Such people were preferred to
Others not in this category. Similarly, ministers were
found to be more informed about relationship between their
professional alliance and protest, and hence were chosen.
bkfle Could be learned about the relations between various
groups or their leaders from the presiding officers of
Some groups than from their members. Negroes in real

estate have views on the economics of home buying which

u . . 1 . ~
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58

it was interesting to compare with those who blamed the
Negro's inability to move out of the Black Ghetto entirely
on white prejudice. Protest officials were used to pro—
vide additional data on the sources of group funds be—
cause they knew about the programs to be covered and were
more likely to be concerned about budget matters than
followers. While many respondents believed discrimina—
tion exists in the public schools, they did not know as
much about the problem as leaders in the schools. Many
talked about school drop outs and suggested explanations,
but their views make an interesting comparison with those
0f pupils in the schools and public school teachers. The
knOWledgeability of an individual to serve as a key in-
f0rmant was determined on the basis of what I heard him
Say On the floor during debates at the meetings, or what
othErs said of him, or what I observed of his activities
in the community. At public gatherings or at their homes,
people constantly talked about what part some individual
or group was playing or not playing and why. I took cri—
ticiSms of and favorable comments about Negro realtors

as lines of investigation and found the discrepancy be—
tween fact and imagination of interesting theoretical

slgnificance. Most of the key informants were the

 

 

59

protest group members. White members were also used as
key informants.

The participant observation took one year, while
the key informant interviewing lasted only 3 months.
The documentary sources include census material on Lan—
sing and the State of Michigan, the literature on func—
tional research in anthropology and sociology, a Negro
paper published in Lansing (it started only since the
summer of 1963L the Lansing State Journal, The State
News (Michigan State University student paper), the Re-
POrts of the United States Civil Rights Commission, the
literature on racial and cultural minorities in the United
States, national magazine articles on race relations or
Negro protest, and scholarly publications on various topics
on the city of Lansing (especially by the Community Devel—

0pment Program of Michigan State University).

Rapport

At my first attendance of a protest group meeting
everYone seemed willing to welcome me. Some members came
arouhd after adjournment to ask what was my field of study

at the college.” On my second appearance at the meeting

 

 

60

I noticed a slight decline of interest in me. No one
welcomed me, although no one opposed my presence. At

my third meeting the reception was less than enthusias—
tic. A member (an older man) attacked me openly. Al—
though he had attended the meeting at which I had been
introduced by the presiding officer, he still asked,
"What do you want?” I was shaken by this demand, for

I thought my role had been accepted since the chairman
himself had introduced me and no one had objected. When
I recovered from the shock I explained to the man that

I wanted information for a thesis on how the group goes
about fighting for Negro rights in Lansing, but also be—
cauSe as a Negro, I am myself affected by discrimination.
"Then pay your way, he retortedl" Since no one came to
my defense, I interpreted the attack as an invitation

to take out a membership. Immediately after the meeting
I Went to the secretary's desk and paid the $2.00 member—
Ship fee and obtained my card. From that day I noticed
no objection to my presence. I talked informally with
groups of members and individuals after each meeting.

I also visited the Lansing public schools——both

thoSe with predominantly Negro and those with predomin-
antly white pupils and talked with school officials and

Students. I went to school cafeterias, attended athletic

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61

events and socials and observed patterns of interaction
among pupils.

I also visited Negro barber shops and places of
public amusement, listened to conversations and asked
questions. The weekly Lansing City Council meeting is
the occasion on which the Negro community confronts the
”white power structure” on a face to face basis. During
the period of my field inquiry, Negroes packed the coun-
cil chambers to present views when issues such as pre-
cinct boundaries and urban renewal were before the coun-
cil. I attended these sessions and kept notes. I also
attended three meetings of the Lansing School Board, at
two of which it presented new school boundary proposals
xflflch it intended to put into effect. All the Negro
(flmrches urged their members to attend these meetings
50 as to make their "voices heard." Matters of voting
lxmndaries and school boundaries involve issues of segre-
gation, at least to the Negro community, and hence were

Oflplevance to the field investigation.

Significance of the Study

MY attention was first focused on the problem of

w - -
hat might be gained from this study during the course

J..-i-h__

 

62

“—

of the field research. More than one of the college

educated among my informants wanted to know how the prob-

lem of Negro protest would help me when I returned to -
Liberia. As if to say I had no business interfering

with the Negro's problems in the United States, a less

educated one asked if we (meaning Africans) did not have

the same problems in Africa.

An organizational study of protest action has
bOth basic significance and applied utility. First,
knmflledge concerning the structure, operation, goals,
values, and members can increase understanding concern—
ing an essential component of the total social system,

Or of social organizations in general. Secondly, socio—
cultural studies of the function of protest group organ—
ization can contribute a great deal toward the more

effective operation of protest activity.

 

 

 

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CHAPTER II

WHY THE NEGRO REVOLT

 

INTRODUCTION

Not many of even the most convinced of white Ameri-
can liberals expected the determined militant mass attack
uPon the white power structure which has come to be known
as the Negro Revolt. A century of life on a separate side
Cf the wall of discrimination had given most white people
1I>believe that the Negro masses, lacking any effective
means fbr changing their subordinate status significantly,
had resigned to it or learned to lead a contented existence
With it. Actually of course organized action on the part
Ci American Negroes for first class citizenship is not new.
There had been a Niagara Movement of Militant Negro intel-
lectuals who challenged arbitrary denial of their human
and Citizenship rights in the first decade of this century.
In 1906 the group declared as follows:

We shall not be satisfied with less than our full man—
gzignrlghts. We claim for ourselves every right that

gs to a free-born American, c1v1l and soc1al, and
Until we get these rights we shall never cease to pro-

test and assail the ears of America with the stories

63

 

 

 

64

of its shameful deeds toward us. We want our
manhood suffrage and we want it now. Second,
we want discrimination in public accommodations
to cease. Third, we claim the right to associ-
ate with such people as wish to associate with
us. Fourth, we want the laws enforced against
rich as well as poor, against capitalists as
well as laborers, against white as well as black.
We are not more lawless than the white race; we
are more often arrested, convicted and mobbed.
Fifth, we want our children educated.

Although the Movement had two subsequent meetings it pro—
duced no practical changes in the status of the Negro.

Yet it was not just another passing episode in the black
man's constant struggle for equality of opportunity. The
Significance of the Niagara Movement probably lay in re-

flecting a growing differentiation among the Negro commu—

 

nity, whose members up to that time had largely shared a
Common lot. With the advent of the Movement the United
States had for the first time a genuine Negro intelli-
gentsia capable of organizing on a national scale to draw
up social protest and to work for social change.

The National Association for the Advancement of
C°l°red People, which succeeded the Niagara Movement,

ad " .
opted SUbstantially the same ”radical" demands in 1909:

\

 

l
'Ubn f0 RObert K. Jack, Histor of the National Associa—
dor Pubi-the AdvanCement of Colored People,(Boston: Mea-
l

Shing Co., 1943), p. 2.

 

k

 

 

 

 

65

Abolition of all forced segregation.
Equal educational advantages for colored and white.
Enfranchisement of the Negro.
Enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.2
Growing out of a conference called by white lib—
erals in 1909 to protest a race riot in Springfield, Illi—
nois, during the summer of the preceding year (but mainly
to check the accommodationist leadership of Booker T.
Washington which most whites accepted as representing
the Negro community), the NAACP drew upon the scholarly
talent that had been involved in the Niagara Movement and
thus provided the Negro community with a new type of na—
tional protest organization.
But the first and by far the largest mass movement
amOHg American Negroes has been the Garvey Movement, started

in the early 20's. Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican—born Negro
————______i .

2Mary WhitaOvington, "The National Association for
EfiiAdvancement of Colored People," The Journal of Negro
ffi¥&£X’-IX' NO. 2 (1924), pp. 107—116. These demands were
“asligi 1n the sense that the legitimacy of Negro protest
Aflfir thadmitted by whites at the time as it 15 today.
emphaSiSe NAACP came the National Urban League Wlth its
OfUrban i? helplng the migrant Negro adjust to the demands
fins or a }fe Ind extending hlS economic opportunities there.
ofthe genization ls not a protest group in the usual sense
mm c rm, hOWeVer, in view of its discussion, educational,

Onference approach.

.1 ,1 r

   

66

in the United States, became convinced that black men
could not expect equal treatment in the United States

and that their only hope for independence of the white

man and for economic self-sufficiency lay in uniting

and returning to Africa and there to form a state of

their own. This black nationalism called on the symbols
of race pride and race history to appeal to its followers.
Garvey's challenge to colored peoples in the United States
as well as other parts of the world was ”Up you mighty
race, you can accomplish what you will.”3 It is a measure
Of the strength of Garvey's appeal that some 2,000,000
American Negroes joined his Universal Negro Improvement
Associationand he captured the imagination of other millions
0f colored peoples outside the United States. His success
was a threat to those who stood to profit from cheap Negro
labor. He was arrested and deported in 1927 on charges
0fusing the mails to defraud in connection with a steam-
“fip line established in connection with his enterprise.
DePriVed of Garvey's charismatic leadership, the organi—
Zation deteriorated, but not until its proposals had made
adeep impression on many of the followers. Myrdal provides

this -
estlmate 0f the significance of the Garvey Movement:

 

3
Cronon, op. cit., 44.

¥

 

1&5

 

 

‘1! I...

 

 

 

For one thing, it proves that it is possible
to reach the Negro masses if they are appealed
to in an effective way° It testifies to the
basic unrest in the Negro community. It tells
of a dissatisfaction so deep that it amounts
to hopelessness of ever gaining a full life

in America.

Although the early NAACP and Garvey's black na—
tionalism laid the foundation for present approaches to
Negro protest, they did not succeed in involving the masses
in any constructive organized protest activities. Burns
attributes this to their preoccupation with the far more
immediate problem of getting a living in a day when it
was legal to discriminate against the Negro on grounds
of race.5 Frustration over the actual "bread and butter"
issues posed by the Depression often found expression in
such escapist cults as the Father Divine Movement, or the
Black Muslims in their earliest days. Occasionally the
discontent erupted into violence in the form of riots in
the urban Negro ghettos in the North.

Considering the objective gains in the direction
Of first class citizenship made by Negroes since the for—

m ‘ . . .
atlon Of these organizations and particularly during

1‘__~____________¥

Har Gunnar Myrdal, W (New York:
per & Bros., 1944), P- 749’

5
Ameri W‘ Hayw00d Burns, The Voices of Negro Protest in
“‘~433 (New York: Doubleday, 1963).

 

 

 

World'War II, the Supreme Court's historic desegregation

decision of 1954, its extension of the ban against segre—
gation to transportation, public recreation and public
accommodations, as well as its ruling sustaining the right
of American citizens to protest and demonstrate peaceably
for jobs and for desegregation of private facilities serv—
ing the public, the generally more favorable social climate
for Negro civil rights, and the legal and administrative
measures on all levels of government to sustain these
gains and facilitate further progress, it was not sus-
pected by white Americans generally that any but the most
sophisticated of Negroes would still be deeply discontent
with their status. The surprise came from stereotypes
that the Negro's needs are simple and that it takes little
to satisfy him. As will be suggested below, it is these
economic and social gains which in fact gave impetus to
the new form and pace of the current Negro protest.

The greatest and most significant protest to come
out Of the war, both in terms of what it taught the nation
about the Negro's dissatisfaction and what it taught the
bhgro about the Nature of effective protest, was the March
OnWaShington Movement in 1941, initiated by A. Phillip

R
andolph, the organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping

 

 

 

 

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69

Car Porters. The grievance centered around the fact
that many war plants with government contracts refused
to employ Negro workers. Randolph sent out a challenge
to America's Negroes, saying ”Let us march 10,000 strong
on Washington, D. C. Only force can effect enforcement,
and Negroes are getting nowhere in national defense. The
whole national set-up reeks and stinks with race preju—
dice, hatred, and discrimination."6 As a result of the
march President Roosevelt prohibited discrimination in
industries holding government contracts and established
a Committee on Fair Employment Practices, by Executive
Order 8802 on June 25, 1941.

From the foregoing discussion the Negro Revolt
will be seen as part of a continuing historical process
rather than a recent development. What is new in it is
the intensity and uncompromising mood in which it is waged
and the new forms it is taking. A brief analysis of the
Negro's social and economic advancement following the in—
stitUtional arrangements made since World War II will pro-
Vide US with perspective on the precipitants of the current

Négro militancy as well as itsspecific patterns.
\

6

i "A. Philip Randolph: The Most Dangerous Negro
n Almeric

a,” New Digest (Sept., 1961), p. 7.

 

 

 

.1

 

 

 

 

 

70
B. REASONS FOR THE REVOLT
Economic Position Today

In a decade since the Supreme Court's school de—
segregation decision was made and the passage of Civil
Rights laws, the historic pattern of Negro employment—-
Last hired, First Fired-~still persists. The Negro con—
tinues to be the Victim of job and housing discrimination.

The strides made by the Negro were in terms of
individual accomplishments and employment opportunities
and applied mainly to the relatively small number of
middle class Negroes, as will be seen in Table 1 below.
That these gains do not materially improve the subordin—
ate Position of the Negro masses is clearly understood
by the Negro press. An editorial in Ebony magazine admits
that "Upgrading Carl Rowan to Ambassador to Finland and
appointing Leslie Shaw postmaster of Los Angeles are as
laudable as the two gentlemen are qualified for their re-
spective posts;, but it does nOt alleviate the problem of
andllion jdbless Negro Americans, over half of whom are

jobl
ess solely because they are Negroes.”

 

Quef Of7EE2£ZIfJune, 1963), p. 66. Carl Rowan is now

Efiward I2 Me Unlted States Information Service, succeeding

Phat Cap; Iurrow who resigned due to health reasons. In

“W3 of: tc1tyih§ Will be the first Negro to sit in on meet—

MWro if1 he Nat{Onal Security Council, and is the highest
the Unlted States Government today.

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71

TABLE 1

PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYED MALES, /

BY MAJOR OCCUPATION GROUP AND COLOR, 1
APRIL 1940 AND APRIL 1960

 

 

 

White Non—white

Major Occupation Group 1940 1960 1940 1960
Professional, technical,

and kindred workers..... 5.9 11.3 1.9 4.0
Managers, officials, and

proprietors, except farm 10.6 14.6 1.6 2.7
Clerical and kindred

workers................. 7.1 7.3 1.2 5.1
Sales workers............. 6.7 6.5 0.9 1.9
Craftsmen, foremen, and

kindred workers......... 15.5 20.0 4.4 9.0
Operatives and kindred

workers................. 18.8 19.1 12.2 24.4
Laborers, except farm and

mine.................... 7.5 6.3 20.5 23.3

Service xnorkers, except

Private household....... 5.8 5.7 12.4 14.6
Private Ilousehold workers. 0.2 0.1 2.9 0.2
Farmers aand farm managers. 14.0 6.3 21.3 5.7
Farm lakxarers and foremen. 6.8 3.0 19.9 8.9
occupatixan not reported... 1.0 — 0.7 —

0 0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Total unemployed men. .1 . . . o 10 .
\

Sculrce: United States Department of Labor, The
Econ0mic Eiituation of Neqroes in the United States, Oct-
ober 1960, Bulletin s-3.

AS a result, the income of the average Negro fam-
i - . .
ly during 'the decade showed no progress in relation to
th

at Of the: average white family. As can be seen from
Tabl
e 2'beltnv, the income of the average Negro family

tuated between 51% and 57% that of the average white

 

 

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72

family, and in fact, declined during the last two years
of the decade. Despite expanded economic activities
during the previous ten years the median income of the
Negro family in 1960 was only three-fifths that of the
white family. In the same year almost three times as
many whites were in business and the professions as were
Negroes. On the other hand, there were three times as
many Negroes in such menial occupations as common laborer

and housework as there were whites, as Table 1 shows.

TABLE 2

MEDIAN INCOME OF
WHITE AND NON—WHITE FAMILIES, 1950-1960

 

 

 

 

FAMILIES
YEAR WHITE NON—WHITE NON4WHITE AS
PERCENT
OF WHITE
1960 $5,835 $3,233 55
1959 5,643 2,917 52
1958 5,300 2,711 51
1957 5,166 2,764 54
1956 4,993 2,628 53
1955 4,605 2,549 55
1954 4,339 2,410 ' 56
1953 4,392 2,461 56
iggi 4,114 2,338 57
1950 3,859 2,032 53
3,445 1,869 54
Come S?Urce: Current Population Report, Consumer In-
R, Series P-60, No. 36 (and prior issues in this series),
a1:

01:- the Census, U. S. Department of Commerce.

 

 

 

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73

Although their occupational levels rose consider-
ably during the last twenty years Negro workers continue
to be concentrated in the unskilled and semi—skilled jobs.
This is due largely to discrimination, though the Negro's
relative lack of training cannot be ignored. These jobs
are the ones most vulnerable to technological changes and
economic layoffs. The concentration in turn explains why
Negroes are disproportionately represented among the unem—
Ployed. In almost every way that unemployment is measured
Negroes are among those who suffer the heaviest. Thus,
for example, when joblessness climbed to alarming propor—
tions in the summer of 1963 and there was general unrest,
l OUt of every 10 Negro workers was unemployed to only 1
0111: Of every 20 white workers.8

Negroes are becoming painfully aware that their
relative economic position is not likely to improve sig—
nificantly in the immediate future. Automation will con-
tinue to eliminate manual and unskilled workers faster
than any manpower retraining program can be effective.

In fact legiSlation to provide the necessary funds is
likely to be opposed by some anti-Negro forces in power—

ful . .
pOSlthns on Congressional appropriating committees.

\

8
U- S. News & World Reports, (June 24, 1963) , pp.

 

 

37‘41 -

 

 

 

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Inadequate eéhacation aside, discrimination by private em—

ployers as Mnell as in the administration of Federal pro—
grams on State and local levels is still another obstacle
to anything even remotely approaching equal economic op—
portunity for the Negro. For example, even though the
Negro unemployment rate exceeds that for whites by 2 to
l, as of June 1963, only 2.6% of the 25,930 peoplein the
Manpower Development and Training and Area Redevelopment
programs were Negroes. Whites accounted for 81.1% of
the participants.9

The widening income gap between Negro and white
Workers is the crucial issue in the current Negro discon-

lO . . . . . .
L1v1ng in a soc1ety where material wealth 15 the

tent.
SucCess ggoal, the Negro measures his actual status in terms
Of the rerturn from his labor as a wage earner or profession-
al. on kuasis of the economic statistics cited above and
their socjgal consequences to be indicated, the Negro closed

the decade: of the fifties convinced that his dignity as an

1ndividual VVas still not admitted by the dominant white
.._____________¥

9 .
UI‘llted States Federal Civil Rights Commission An—

nual Re ort 1963.

10

 

Bhw A _.Im3uis E. Lomax, The Negro Revolt (New York: The
Inerica11 Library, 1963), chaps. 7 and 8.

 

 

 

 

 

75

people of a country he gave his life to defend. This con-
viction was deepened by the fact that it was also during
that decade that the "separate-but-equal" doctrine under
which he had been denied equal opportunity was struck

down by the nation's highest legal tribunal.

Housing Today

Housing discrimination still continues to be one
of the critical problems facing the Negro despite Presi—
dent Kennedy's Executive Order on equal opportunity in
federal housing11 and the creation of a Presidential Com-
mittee on Equal Opportunity in Housing to coordinate the
aCtivities of the Federal Housing Administration in im-
Plementing the Order. White prejudice as well as the
Poverty of the Negro resulting from job discrimination
Operate to keep him in the ghetto in every large city in
the United States. As a rule new homes are not open to
him. He still cannot get mortgage money for the purchase
of property outside the "Inner City" and when he manages
to get it his interest rates are higher than those for

'Whites. Only housing in previously all—white neighborhoods

\

11Executive Order No. 11063, 27 Fed. Reg. 11527
(1962), of Race Rel. L. Rep. 1019-22.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

76

is open to him. It is estimated that though Negroes com—
prise ll% of the population of the country they are re—
stricted to only 4% of the residential area.12 Accord—

ing to the Urban League, as of 1960 one out of every six
nonwhite dwelling units was dilapidated, compared with 1
out of every 32 white dwellings; 29% of the nonwhite dwell—
ings were deteriorating compared to only 12% for white
dwellings. Nonwhites are less likely to own their homes
and when they do the chances are one out of three the home
is substandard; two—fifths of the nonwhite dwellings lacked
some or all plumbing, compared with only one—tenth of the
white—occupied units.13 The seriousness of these problems
becomes obvious when it is realized that nonwhite families
are larger (4.4 persons) than white ones (3.6 persons).

It is true that public housing has improved the quality

0f housing available to low income Negro families, but

this has not noticeably increased the quality of good
housing available to them. The apparent contradiction

arises from the fact that public housing is developed to

 

12Lomax, op. cit., 68.

l . .
_ 3Testimony bv the Chicago Urban League to the
£flé29£§ House Executive Committee, 72nd General Assembly,
in SUPPOrt of Fair Housing, 1961.

 

 

 

 

 

. _ 4.2;

77

do away with slums, but the slum dwellers are the ones
who cannot afford the new housing.

The prejudices of whites tend to be reinforced
by the socio—cultural correlates of these economic and
housing factors. By 1960 the divorce rate for Negro fe—
males was one out of three, compared to one out of five
for whites. The mortality rate among Negro males is
higher, leading to a greater number of Negro widows and
the financial burdens associated with such a status. The
Negro crime rate, which is higher than that for whites,
normally takes the male member of the family to prison,
leaving the wife to face the burden of providing for her—
self or herself and their children. Broken homes lead
to broken morality. One out of every 5 Negroes is an
illegitimate child, to only one out of every 50 white
Persons. As a result of all these economic disadvantages

there are far more Negroes on welfare rolls than whites.

Educational Opportunity

The Negro's sense of betrayal is heightened by
law record of his educational progress in the last nine

Years. Like most other Americans he had developed a

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

78

faith in education as a channel of economic progress and
socialxndbilityu His exclusion from certain positions in
the occupational structure had long been justified on the
basis of his relative lack of education and skill. There
is little wonder, then, that most Negroes looked to the
Supreme Court's desegregation decisions as the "lever of
racial progress."14 This was that ”master key” to equal
opportunity they had long been waiting for. Congressman
Adam Clayton Powell of New York well expressed this pa-
thetic faith of the Negro in education when he declared
the Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation decision as ”a
Slreat day" for the Negro. As if America had at last
linved up to its promise of equal opportunity and thereby
blUnted Russia's most powerful psychological weapon in
tire Cold War, he called it ”democracy's finest hour” and

"Communism's greatest defeat.”

\

l4L. Lomax (1963), p. 65. Professor James B. McKee

111 his Provost Lecture on Conflict at Michigan State Uni-
IY‘arsity on February 25, 1964, called attention to an Amer—
l-<:‘-an faith in illusory panaceas as an element in what he
‘?Eills the "ideology of moderation." Education, for example,
$43 thought to be the cure for everything——racial conflict,
3‘avenile delinquency, technological unemployment, etc. The
jsact that there are many Negroes who are educated but un—
eal‘flployed or not allowed to hold jobs their training calls
Eiorbears out the point that education is an illusory pan—
cea.

 

79

Despite this and other significant developments,
however, the Negro has discovered that segregation per—
sists to a greater or lesser extent in all sections of
the country, that his rejoicing was premature and that
if the "separate—but-equal” theory has no place in Ameri—
can 1ife, there is much room for a ”separate—but—unequal”
concept in practice. Thus, almost a decade after the de—
segregation decisions the Negro child still does not enjoy
”equal protection of law” in education. As the United

States Civil Rights Commission points out in its 1963

 

Report, “Nearly ten years after the Supreme Court decision

in School Segregation Cases Negro school children still
attend segregated schools in all parts of the nation.”15
This is due largely to official resistance policies in
the South and residential segregation in the North and
West.

According to the Report, the 17 Southern and Border
States have 6,196 school districts. Negroes and whites
reSide in 3,052 of these districts. About 32% or 979 of

the diStricts have adopted some integration plan. Yet

Only 8% Of the Negro pupils in the South attend schools
_.____________¥7

United States Federal Commission on Civil Rights,

1963 Re or . p. 52.

L

 

 

 

 

80

with White children.16 It is a measure of white resis—
tance to desegregation that even this small amount of
integration occurred only in the six Border States—~Dela-
ware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, and West
Virginia-~and the District of Columbia up to 1963. The
report points out that 702 of the 979 desegregated dis—
tricts are in the Border States and 94.7% or 251,000 of
the 265,000 Negro pupils attending integrated schools in
the South are in the border states! There is no integra—
tion below the college level in such Deep South States

as South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi.17 When it
is realized that even this "token" integration was not
aChieved without the expenditure of millions of dollars

In law suits by Negro protest organizations, and, in some

 

caSeS the use of Federal troops and the uprooting of many
Negro families or their white sympathizers, the luster of
the gaill is further diminished. A total of $268,470 of
NAACP furnis was tied up in bail bonds as of Nov. 30, 1963,
in areas Vuhere local resources were exhausted and where

authoritjxes refused to accept property values and demanded
\

1
6Ibid., p. 63.
17 . . . . . . .
i ~ This statement must be qualified-—MiSSiSSippi
s no .
Vv the only exception.

L

 

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81

cash.]'8 Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, not Con—-
gressman Powell, may have been right when he predicted
that the South ”would never accept this [the Supreme
Court‘s 1954 desegregation decision] monstrous decision"
and that it would bring on " a century of litigation."1
Not even the Supreme Court is satisfied the desegregation
has proceeded with “all deliberate speed" time—table it
established in 1955, for it found it necessary to warn

in 1963 that it would not be satisfied in future with

a pace that was justified in 1954 by certain sociologi-

cal and psychological implications of its decision.2

 

To the Negro the issue in the desegregation con-
troversy in this country is not merely the turning back,
eV'en'bymob violence or threat of violence, of a few Negro
ChiLiren.from a previously all-white school. Nor is it
the;mefusa1 of a restaurant management to serve one or
two Negixaes, or a hotel to give a room to one or two Ne-
gro CUStxnners, however important these may be. These

Individxuals could go to Negro or other schools or public
\

8 I . l I
p 43 Roy Wilkins, gpggig, LXXI, No. 1 (January, 1964),

i 19 .
Lomax, op. Cit., p. 85.

20
2 526 Watson vs. City of Memphis, Tenn., 373 U. S.
- (1963).

III-II-._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

82

accommodatjxons. What is involved is the deep humiliation
which the :aystem of segregation itself symbolizes.21 The
overriding consideration is the whole question of his
status as an individual and the dignity of his person.
This is why he is resentful. The disappointment of his
hope in the law of the land as the key to treatment as a
full citizen is another reason for the Negro Revolt. Hav—
ing lost confidence in the willingness of the white power
structure to implement the laws protecting their rights,
the Negro masses now seek direct action to carry them out
themselves. They demand that white America live up to
its own revered principle of equality under the law.

But if disillusionment with education as a means
to status advancement and with law enforcement has brought
on the revolt of the Negro masses, their attack is also
aimed at the organizations which have traditionally led
their protest against subordination as well as the spe-
CifiC goals these groups have fought for. Here the cru—
cial issue is whether the customary philosophies or tech-

n' . .
lclues of protest of these organizations are relevant to

a
(iaY'when law has failed as an instrument of social

\

L

 

21
Lomax, op. cit., po 89.

 

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83

change.22 21f indeed America has given the Negro a "bad
check."23 as Dr. Martin Luther King metaphorically des-
cribed theazfailure of law to assure the Negro that equal—
ity of opportunity which was the very end of enactment,
then how realistic is further reliance on court victories
alone as a goal?

If Federal Housing can be denied him on account
of race, if arbitrary ceilings can be placed on his job
opportunities by even the biggest contractor firms with
the Federal Government despite written assurances to the
President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity
that this would not be done, and his educational and vot—
ing rights unlawfully abridged with impunity by official
.policy or mob action or threats of such action, if he is
deprived of the right to vote for officials to represent
111$ interests or against those who are not sympathetic
'tO those interests, then what is his status in a society
'that promises respect for his resentment; it is why he is
jJQPatient. The prolonged passing of actual segregation

hEi - . .
‘3 heightened the Negro's sense of frustration, stimulated
-—-i‘_

22
Ibid.
23 . .
Ev . Dr. King's oration on the occasion of the "MarCh
fishington." August 28, 1963.

L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

84

a mood of bitterness and accelerated militancy.
In calling for a re-examination of the traditional
approaches to protest the Negro masses are inspired by the

concrete gains of the nonviolent but far more militant ac-

. . . . 25
tiVities of student and other groups in the South.

The
sit-ins and Freedom Rides and street demonstrations by
Negroes and their liberal white sympathizers had succeeded
in focusing national and international attention on the
moral justification of the Negro's direct attempt to enjoy

elementary rights that other American citizens take for

gfiflrted,and in putting those who would deny these rights

Oniflae defensive. Without doubt it was the bold direct

aCticni to test the law by Negroes and whites in the Congress
Of Racial Equality (CORE), the Freedom Rides, and Sit—ins
that actually ended interstate terminal segregation in

most Parts of the South. Such action, aided by the Ameri—
can Prfess as well as economic boycotts by Negro adults
With.pturchasing power as well as a generally more favorable
climate! for civil rights, is to be credited for the actual

ex .
tenSlADn of full restaurant, lunch counter, and restroom

fa ~ . .
c11112_es in interstate travel to all, regardless of race.
\

Spe . 24R0Y Wilkins, "After Desegregation What?", Ebony,
cial Centennial Issue (Sept., 1963) .

25Burns, op. cit.

L

 

I
...____.J_.__ ..-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

85

To the national leaders of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), chained to

their conservative, middle class background, a policy of

civil disdbedience ”cannot be advocated or condoned" with-

out abandoning the "entire philosophy of operations" which

has sustained them for fifty years. This philosophy is

the legal approach. The reason for this reliance on law

is not difficult to see. The NAACP came into being at a

tiMe when the segregated institutional patterns which a1-
loWedNegroes to receive unequal treatment had legal val-
idity326 Because whites had encouraged most Negroes to
believe that the real basis for their subordination was
their relative lack of education, it is understandable
that the only Negro protest organization should define
itS.Primary goal as the elimination of the obstacle to
equal eaducation, namely, the ”separate—but—equal" doctrine.
Buttfllis theory was the law of the land, and hence any
attack: upon unequal rights had to be made on the symbol
of unekqual rights, and fought out in the courts. The

N . . .
AACP (:an justly claim many victories in this battle, of

\

fac. . 26In 1875 Congress declared that separate-but-equal
llirties did not violate the individual's civil rights.

L

 

 

 

86

46-:—

which the rejection of the ”separate-but-equal” theory
or the legal prop to compulsory segregation is by far
the most spectacular.

To the Negro masses, however, laws are not self—
enforcing. They have learned from experience that legal—
ism alone is of doubtful value, for a disjunction has
been revealed between a legal victory and implementation
0f the new principle; that litigation is time—consuming
and expensive; that it settles very little, and benefits
Only the few aggrieved parties at the time. Such persons
maY'be allowed to attend school at a previously all—white
SChool, eat in a roadside restaurant or shopping district
lundh—counter, or vote, or sleep in a hotel; but this is

no guarantee that other Negroes would enjoy these same
rights without hindrance. The principle settled is not
generalized to cover all similar cases; or, in other words,
With time result that there must be case—by—case proceed—
ings, Helpful as this slow process may be in providing
relief to individuals or small groups it does not guaran-

t
ee adeaquate remedy against widespread discriminatory

d .
enlalds of the right to equal education or enjoyment of

 

Ser - . . .
vlGas in public accommodation.

 

 

 

87

The NAACP's insistence on court battles, then,
puts it out of touch with the current mood of the rank
and file. When more militant leaders constantly remind
their followers that white peOple are out to make it
difficult for Negroes to enjoy the rights guaranteed by
the courts it becomes all the more difficult for them
to keep faith in law as the protector of the weak against
the strong. Statements such as this by a Dallas County
White Citizens Council member at a rally are particularly

effective in undermining Negro confidence in the legal

 

appr oach :

The white population in this county controls
'the money, and this is an advantage that the
<:ouncil will use in a fight to legally main—
'tain complete segregation of the races. We
intend to make it difficult, if not impossible,
for any Negro who advocates desegregation to
find and hold a job, get credit or renew a
mortgage .

Voting Rights

Despite the fact that under two civil rights laws

Passeéi in the last nine years (1957 and 1960) respectively28
liquggggg

27

 

 

Montgomery Advertiser (December 1, 1954).

8 . .
pas; 2 A third and by far the most comprehenSive was
agaéed on July, 1964. DeSpite its sweeping provisions
- Janst discrimination in voting among other areas of life,

it .
143 still too early to know what gains it will bring Negroes.

L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

88

that the Federal Government has authority to sue States
and registrars to end discrimination in voting practices,
and that preservation of voting records is required for
at least 22 months by these statutes there is still fla—

grant denial of voting rights to Negroes on grounds of

race alone. In 1961 the United States Civil Rights Com-

mission found that substantial numbers of Negro citizens

had been denied the right to votein 100 counties in 8

SGathern States.29 It should be pointed out that it was

t00 early to make a meaningful evaluation of the effective—

ness <1f'the new statutes at that time. However, such an

asmessment was possible by 1963 and is covered in the Final

Reporizof the Commission for that year. In 1956, the year

just preceding the first of the two pieces of legislation

just referred to, about 5% of the Negroes of voting—age

in the: 100 counties were registered to vote. In 1963 the

Conmli-ESSion found that despite the passage of the two Civil
Rights; acts, the institution of 36 voting rights suits by
the Deqpartment of Justice (against discrimination in the

electOral process, intimidation and reprisals, and a com-

b‘ .

inatqdan of both types of offense), and the operation of
iL‘_‘§~g
Fi 29United States Federal Civil Rights Commission,
weport - 1961, pp. 135—36.

L

 

 

 

 

 

several private registration drives, Negro registration

rose by only 3.3% in the six-year period since 1957. In
actual figures only 55,771 of the 668,082 voting-age Negro
voters in the 100 counties are registered.30 These 100
counties, while making up only 9% of the total number of
counties in the 11 states of the former Confederacy (Ala—
bama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Car-
olina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West
Virginia) contain about one-third of all Negroes of voting
age in these 11 states.
The Commission attributes the low rate of increase
111 Negro registration to four main factors: the high cost
Of' litigation, the inherently complex problem of supervis—
ing; enforcement of court decrees, intimidation and repri—
SaflLs against Negroes who seek to vote, and official poli-
ciees designed to circumvent these statutory requirements
anti the constitutional provisions on which they are based.31
Here again we have evidence of the inefficacy of
lem” in assuring the Negro equal protection in the exercise
(Dis a fundamental constitutional right. There is consider-

atble delay in reaching final decisions in the courts;
\

30l2iQpI Annual Report - 1963.

311bid., p. 15.

 

t t 771‘

 

i
r

 

 

 

 

9O

trial courts have often refused to provide the injunctive
relief asked for by Federal agents on behalf of Negro vic-
tims of voting discriminations, and where the Government
loses a case appellate proceedings to reverse the decision
require months of waiting. Even when such relief is finally
granted by a higher court, enforcement and registration
proceed on a county-by—county basis with many of the same
difficulties manifested in the more limited suits. The
Negro is thus deprived of the right to personal partici—

pation in self-government or representative government,

 

Which voting represents.

C. CHARACTER OF THE REVOLT
The Non—Violent Movement in Negro Protest

Observers of the current Negro Revolt date it from
th£a Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955—56. Actually the Negro
Ilati long suffered the deprivation and humiliation of segre-
gaizion in the city. Although he was the source of 40% of

'thua Montgomery Bus Company's income, many of the white

 

cil?ivers had long been rude, even abusive to him. Dr. King

Ireeports that it was not uncommon to hear them referring to

. .-.. ....—

Effiegro passengers as ”niggers," "black cows,” or "black apes.'

L.

 

 

I
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91

Frequently Negroes paid their fare at the front door, and
then were forced to get off and reboard the bus at the
rear. Often the bus pulled off with the Negro's dime in
the box before he had time to reach the rear door.32

But word of the arrest of Mrs. Parks for refusing
to yield her seat in the segregated seating arrangement
to a white patron aroused the Negro community of Montgomery,
which seemed to feel with her that ”we've had enough,"
Dr.King, who led the boycott and provided it with philo-
sophical underpinning, considered the action not an econ—
mnic sanction, as the term “boycott" would imply, but as

all "economic withdrawal,” a form of nonviolent protest.

It: is the responsibility of people, he insisted not to

ledid their cooperation to an "evil system." Elaborating

on, this moral theme, Dr. King expressed his belief that

'qlee Who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it

__
—_'———r‘

 

-._ z

\

as 'he who helps to perpetuate it. He who accepts evil
Wit‘hout protesting against it is really cooperating with

it - "33

32Martin Luther King, Stride Toward Freedom (New

YC>Irk: Harper, 1956), p. 40.

33Ibidfil p. 5]...

L

 

 

 

 

 

92

Harrassment, both official and non-official, were

part of the pattern of the opposition over the long months
of the boycott. Yet Negroes, who had been imbued with the
doctrine of nonviolence, did not retaliate. When the bus
company capitulated, segregation in public transportation

had come to an end in Birmingham. The Negro obtained three

specific concessions:
(l) a guarantee of courteous treatment;

(2) seating on a first—come first serve basis; and
(3) employment of Negro drivers to serve predomin—

antly Negro routes.
This victory revolutionized Negro protest in the United
States, for it focused attention on the effectiveness of
direct—nonviolent action as a means to social change and
eSi:ablished the basis for the passive resistance movements
M’hich came subsequently to offer a meaningful alternative
to the traditional NAACP approach.

The sit—ins, beginning in 1960 were a resistance

moVement in the new tradition. The Congress of Racial

Egllality (CORE) and even NAACP youth groups have ”sat—in"

atl~segregated lunch counters and libraries, museums and

aJTt galleries serving the public. The methods included

VVE‘Ge—ins, stand—ins, kneel—ins, and other forms of non—

 

34Ibid., p. 63.

 

Igor ‘ "

11211111044.

 

 

 

 

L

93

Violent direct action protest. In many cases white mobs
responded with violence, which was not returned?5 By the
end of 1960, just eleven months after the commencement of
the sit-ins, 126 cities had desegregated facilities in
their lunch counters. Many successes came through nego—
tiation, for there had been demonstrations only in 100
cities. By 1962, a year later, the number of "success
cities” had reached nearly 200. Considering the depth
to which the sentiment of white supremacy runs and the
resistance mounted, this was a remarkable record.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
formed in 1957 and CORE, a national inter—racial organiza-
tixan, have both used the direct—action nonviolent approach
tC> protest by taking active part in or sponsoring or coor-
dinating sit-in activities. The Student Non—Violent Coor—
dinating Council (SNICK) is a militant student nonviolent
mo\7ement. Started in 1960 its original concern was the
cc><I>rdination of the protest work of many student groups.
Ntxv there has been a shift to voter registration in Missi—
SS ippi.

The Freedom Rides are another effort in the non—

trjeolent protest movement. Started by CORE to test the

Effects of a 1961 Su reme Court ruling (Boynton vs.
P
ri\\¥

35Burns, op. cit., p. 42.

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94

Commonwealth of Virginia) declaring discrimination against
interstate travellers illegal, the Freedom Rides consisted
of a bus trip to the South by whites and Negroes who would
use terminal facilities equally. The interracial party
left Washington, D. C., on May 4, 1961, after notifying

the President of the United States of their plans. This
attempt to make the law meaningful was met by violence

in parts of the South. In Anniston, Alabama, the party
was attacked by a white mob and their bus bombed. In
Birmingham the Riders were beaten by another white mob.

NO police were on the scene, though the Justice Depart-
ment had warned them of the likelihood of such an attack}6
Iqle Freedom Rides continued throughout the xummer of 1961,
hcaping among other things to obtain a specific ruling from
thus Interstate Commerce Commission in the form of a direc-
'ti\7e to Southern bus terminals on exactly what would be
re><2uired under the new desegregation ruling. The non—
diAScrimination order was issued to bus companies and ter—
mi—hals throughout the country on November 1, 1961. Another

victory had been won.

 

36Southern Regional Council, The Freedom Ride: A

\les ecial Report (May 30, 1961) .

 

 

 

 

I

 

95
The Mood of Protest

Important as the objective fact of economic,
political, and social disadvantage is in providing a
basis for Negro discontent, it does not account for the
mood of militancy and boldness in which that discontent
expresses itself. Basic to the Negro's urgent demand
for social change are certain psychological factors.

Among these his discovery of a new sense of self-worth

is perhaps the most important. Martin Luther King des—

37

cribes this new self—concept as "a sense of somebodiness."

Long depicted by white writers as a symbol of inferiority
arui forced by the segregated pattern of life as well as
PCDrtrayal in books in the role of a servant to accept
t}lis stereotype of himself, the Negro has now developed

a sense of self—respect. Not only is he rejecting white
Slnhbols under the impulse of this new self image—-he is
ccInstructing his own. The "mood for blackness" expresses
itiself in an appreciation of Negro history. The works of
Ne—gro literatti and artists are now becoming objects of
Searious study. Long neglected heroes and heroines (Fred-

Gerick Douglas, Crispus Attucks, Sojourner Truth) are

 

37Lerone Bennett, Jr., Ebony (July, 1963), p. 28.

 

 

 

96

being held up as models of courage and inspiration.
A key element in the Negro's new image is the

rediscovery of Africa. The image of Africa widely held

by Americans as a land of jungles and savages and canni—
bals has long forced Negroes to resent identification

with the continent. Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of

NAACP, points up the pride of the Negro in African na-
tionalism and the impulse it has given to protest: "Ne—

groes,” he says, ”are very proud of the new African states.

This is one of the things that contribute to Negroes' un—

rest and dissatisfaction in this country." But the feel—

ing toward Africa is really an ambivalent one, for the
Nexgro's sense of frustration is heightened by the reali—
ZErtion that even with his generally superior educational
aruj technical background, he is not permitted to play
r'Oles which Africans with less preparation and experience
alfie playing. As Wilkins notes, American Negroes ”see
-piJ:tures of Negroes working in oil refineries in the Congo
arhfl doing technical work and being locomotive engineers.
Zxrhi they remember that there are very few Negroes in such

j(:D‘bs here. Why, you can't even find one Negro locomotive

GeIagineer in this country."38

38Ibid.. p. 29.

 

 

 

_.__.—._

97

A "Doctrine of Debt" also informs the burning
militancy of the Negro Revolt. One senses a feeling in
the Negro community that its members have not received
adequate credit or material compensation for their con—
tributions to the economic and social development of the
United States. It is contended that the consistent fail—
ure of white writers to accord the Negro anything but a
menial role in American history books does not alter the
Significance of that contribution. Novelist James Bald-
WiJi, Dr. King, and other speakers have not hesitated to
rennind audiences that Negroes built this country for two

Centuries without wages. "America” they maintain, "owes
tilea Negro something”—~and the debt is past due.

A final source of impetus to the burning rage of

tiles Negro is success itself. Every victory—~Montgomery,

tllee Sit—in Movement, and the Freedom Rides—~has seemed

 

39President Kennedy was asked last year whether

11$! accepts this thesis at one of his televised news con-
feait‘ences. The question was prompted by the fact that the
thfesident's committee on Equal Employment Opportunities
IIEui tried to arrange with the larger firms holding con—
-tJTacts form the Government to make special efforts to
EB“titract minorities, in view of the fact that their unem-
£33.0yment rate is far higher than that for whites. He
E3‘CJreed that the Negro has been handicapped through con—
§3<2ious deprivation at the hands of whites but noted that
3‘1: would be impossible to recapture history if this meant

Eilting the economic progress of whites until the Negro
-}1Eis caught up.

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98

to open up new vistas of opportunity to him. It has in—
tensified his hopes for the possibility of realization
of full equal opportunity. The Negro has measured his
progress not by what he has achieved since slavery, but
in terms of what it could be. His reference group is
the white middle class. Every victory has only revealed
how far he still is from first—class citizenship. As
Bennett puts it, "Every step forward has revealed the
precise nature of the American racial system: naked and
Violent power organized in the defense of special privi-

leges.”40

 

D. RESULT OF THE REVOLT
Effectiveness of Direct Action

In direct action large numbers of Negroes and
their white sympathizers are involved in protest demon—
Strations or taking advantage of certain constitutional
rights (such as use of public service facilities) which
hitherto had been denied either by local legislation or
cuStom. When ordered to desist or disband the group

refuses. But direct action as an weapon of social change

 

O
4 Bennett, op. cit., p. 30.

 

 

 

 

99

derives its effectiveness not so much from the inability
of local law enforcement personnel to cope with the masses
in the situation,41 as from certain elements in the con—
text of civil disobedience itself. Among these the desire
of the United States Government to project an image of a
country determined to live up to her role expectations as
"leader of the free world“ is important. Adlai Stevenson,
Chester Bowles and Thomas Finletter,42 President Kennedy,
and other leaders have called attention to the crucial
Psychological importance in the Cold War of squaring Amer—
ica's ideal of freedom with actual practice at home through
safeguarding the rights of minorities. Many Americans be-
litave that their country's arguments for democracy would
cairry greater conviction to the militarily nonaligned na—
tixans of the world if the gap between theoretical democracy
anti unequal rights in actual practice were narrowed.
Another element is the motivation of individual
Americans to be looked upon as a forward—looking, progres—

SiVeI and liberal people. Very few of even the most ardent
_r\‘__¥i

1Police are usually able to disperse a protest
CrOwd. In Birmingham, for example, but for domestic and
oreign criticism, the police with their dogs and fire hoses
WO111d have succeeded in putting down the revolt.
4

2
Chester Bowles, Africa's Challenge to America
CBerkely: University of California Press, 1954).

 

I I I .I I . I, .. 12... Ill-II. III. I
I.

 

 

 

lOO

segregationists are willing to be identified with the
reactionary political philosophy implicit in racism.

This is why , when attacked, men like Governors Barnett

of Mississippi and Wallace of Alabama could scream that
they are not racists, that many of their friends are Ne-
groes. Direct action efforts exploit these national and
individual motivations fully. Aided by the media of mass
communication, they seek to force issues into the open so
as to put the Federal Government and those who would deny
Negroes their rights on the defensive. Thus, for example,
When a white mob seeks to prevent a Negro child from at—
terniing a previously all-white school as a court has di—
reczted, or when police dogs are unleashed at negroes seek-
ing; to use public accommodation services, the Government
is faced with an opportunity to demonstrate its sincerity
alxaut civil rights. The choice often lies between putting
dfiWVn the rebellion, thus strengthening international con—
fidence in American "democracy;" and recapitulating and
f0rfeiting any moral right to carry the crusade to propa—
gate democracy in Africa and Asia and Latin America, be—
fore the very eyes of whose representatives in Washington
and at the United Nations these unlawful threats to free-

dC>Inare staged. The use of federal might to enforce court

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ordered school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas;
Jackson, Mississippi; and Montgomery, Alabama is an ex—
ample of how the social context of disobedience has in—
fluenced law enforcement and social change.43
The role of local businessmen in accommodating

to some integration demands in public facilities in South-
ern communities also functions in giving Negroes the rights
whose enjoyment they seek. Certain types of heavy industry
provide business with expanded market opportunities through
employment of large numbers of people. However, such in-
dustries are not likely to locate in places where their

operations would be hindered by constant racial unrest.

 

 

4 .
31 do not suggest that the American Government

acts in civil rights cases only to gain international po-
litical advantage. It is well known that the late Presi-
dent Kennedy always emphasized the moral dimension of the
issue of segregation. In more than one of his televised
news conferences he reminded the American people that they
cannot be legitimately worried about a Communist take-over
in Laos or South Viet Nam, indignant over discrimination
against African students in Bulgaria, or talk about forcibly
liberating the peoples of Cuba, while native-born Americans
here at home are being subjugated, segregated, and shot
S°le1Y because they are not white. Yet without linking

ti: need for racial justice to foreign policy objectives-—
to maitional motivation to prevent the spread of Communism
how ertarlly nonaligned countries-~it is difficult to see
force . Kennedy could win support for his use of.military
SUch to contain rebellions in defense of a speCious value
ma' as skin pigmentation, to which, however, the vast

JOrity of white Americans are so deeply committed.

L

 

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L

102

L0cal InisiJnessmen, in order to attract mills and plants,
therefore, lnave a stake in projecting an image of their
communities as ”progressive,” and as not captives of lo—
cal prejudice. The publicity given demonstrations or di—
rect confrontations with those who would deny Negroes equal
opportunity is not likely to contribute to this positive
image. The leadership local business has exercised in
compromising with Negroes in their demands is another ele—
ment in the structure of civil disobedience which has in—
fluenced law—enforcement. National civil rights leaders
in recent statements on strategy for 1964 have affirmed
their determination to continue exploiting the structural
context of civil disobedience, by bringing issues into

the open. Dr. King considers publicity as a key in law

enforcement. He sees the whole issue of segregation as
a boil, "which, if kept covered up, will never be cured.
It's Only when you open it to air and light that it can
be cured, even though it's ugly for the moment.”44
What Professor James B. McKee calls the ”ethic
of moderation” in American culture may be considered still
anether factor in the social context of nonviolent protest,
Contributing to its success.

\L
44

This is an unquenchable faith

U. S. News & World Reports (Feb. 24, 1964), pp. 60-1.

 

103

in the uJJ:imate resolvability of any conflict once the
parties bargain in good faith. He suggests that the
ideology flows from an American passion for ”pattern
maintenance" or harmony.45 Individuality may be expressed
but only to an extent consistent with the requirements of
conformity and acceptance. Lack of communication is held
to be the chief obstacle to settlement of issues in dis—
pute. Thus the ethic calls for an approach to differences
through compromise and stigmatizes rigidity of position.
That a settlement is reached at all becomes an end in it—
self, far more important than whether justice is done to
any party. Collective bargaining represents the highest
elaboration of this principle in the United States. Union
and management representatives confront each other armed
With "facts” supporting their respective positions. Pre—
sumably these ”facts” are taken into account by both sides
in modifying their positions. Each side's fear of being
Stigmatized by the public for being "uncooperative" or
unreasonable functions as a sanction bringing them closer
tQgether. The justice of the competing claims is defined
:by'the fact of settlement itself rather than the fairness

(Dr equity of their specific contents.
\

45
James B. McKee (State Univ., Feb. 26, 1964).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

104

lNegro protest may be seen as an attempt to ex-
ploit tinis American emphasis on harmony. The demonstra-
tions represent in effect an invitation to the white
power structure to come to the bargaining table. Des-
pite the impatience with the slow pace of desegregation
and the frustration over continued deprivation and token-
ism implicit in the "NOW AND ALL” tone of current Negro
demands for equal opportunity, few protest leaders rea—
listically expect that in the present structure of econ—
omic interests white people would readily surrender what
they believe to be their ”way of life” or entrenched spe-
cial privileges so long as they possess the physical power
they now have to retain them. Yet the invitation is ex—
'tended anyway through the act of civil disobedience and
'fihe courage passively to defy orders of law enforcement
cafficers, well armed with water hoses, police dogs, and
(yther riot quelling equipment. As television, radio and
the press bring this spectacle of citizens being forcibly
reStrained from protesting, flagrant violations of their
rights as citizens or required to submit to unlawful
a-rrest into almost every home in the country, public
laressuna begins to build up for a settlement. Negro

leaders have been able to meet with representatives of

 

 

III 1...]! II II I. IIII. .m . ..II III. I

 

 

 

 

 

105

the white power structure under these conditions and the
negative valuation on intransigence has operated in many

instances in driving the parties toward some agreement.

Negro Reaction to Non-Violence

 

But if non—violent protest has yielded rich divi—
dends of equal opportunity, not all Negroes are convinced
of its efficacy. Among some northern intellectuals non—
violence as an abstract principle of action is not only
unrealistic, but dangerous to the cause of freedom. Man
by nature is simply not non-violent, they contend.46 Even
in the South, birthplace of the philosophy, Negroes are
rethinking its relevance. In both regions many would
distinguish between non—violence as an approach of ex—
pediency, given the Negro's weakness in terms of both
numerical strength and control of physical force, and
non-violence as an idology to be pursued. Dr. King's
original formulation leaves no question that non-violent
action is to be pursued as an end in itself. He saw in
this type of protest an intrinsic quality of its own which

would disarm the oppressor. This is how he wrote:

 

46Bennett, 0p. cit., p. 28.

 

1
?

 

 

r-‘n‘I‘ _

106

If you will protest courageously, and yet with
dignity and Christian love, when the history
books are written in future generations, the

historians will have to pause and say, "There
lived a great people—~a black people—~Who in—

jected new meaning7and dignity into the veins

of civilization."

Commenting on the potential effectiveness of his approach,

he adds;

As I delved deeper into the philosophy of Ghandi
my skepticism concerning the power of love grad-
ually diminished, and I came to see for the first
time its potency in the area of social reform.48

Skeptics point out that in order for a value to

function as a powerful and effective social force it must

be reciprocally held. As applied to the racial situation

'they argue that for the moral principle of love to have
fists intended impact the parties in interaction must accept
11:. and point to the long domination of the Negro as evi—

deance that whites and Negroes have not been operating in

ttle same moral framework. They strongly suggest that far

fITCHm discouraging denials of equal opportunity, resigna-
tj—CDn to abuse in the name of love has been interpreted
ibY"Vhites as a sign of weakness and may have even encour—

aged them to continue their oppression of the Negro. Thus

\

47King, op. cit., p. 46.

48 .
Ibid., pp. 96—97.

 

 

 

 

 

 

107

these intellectuals demand that the Negro must now con-

sider self-defense in the form of physical retalliation

against physical attacks by whites.49

E. SUMMARY

In summary, it can be said that despite changes

in the Negro's position he still does not enjoy equal

opportunity, judging by his employment, housing, health,
educational and political Opportunities today. In all

these respects the great masses of the Negro population
rank far below the national median. Yet this principle

(of equality constitutes the promise of America, recorded

ill the founding documents of the country and reaffirmed

irl the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments

tC> the Federal Constitution. In the last decade judicial

deBCiSions have declared racial segregation in any aspect
(IE .public life as a violation of the Constitution. Fed—

eleéil and State machinery have been established to imple—

meeIltthe equality doctrine. Yet they have proved
..‘____
491n this they are not far from Malcolm X, who

has now broken from the Black Muslim Movement led by Eli-

jefla Mdhammed to found a separatist group, Which would in-
StI-Iitutionalize violent self-defense against physical attacks

by whites. (CBS Television Newscast, March 9, 1964)

 

 

108

ineffective, for the civil rights of Negro citizens con—
tinue to be widely ignored. This long denial of equal
opportunity has inflicted deep wounds upon the Negro com—
munity. The growing discontent over injustice and the
failure of institutionalized means (legal sanctions, ne—
gotiations) to eliminate it have translated themselves
into restlessness and overaction by the Negroes themselves
to implement this revered principle of equality.

National Negro leaders are on the verge of accept—
ing a ”freedom—or—consequences” policy. As Roy Wilkins,
Executive Secretary of the national NAACP, puts it, ”there
will be no racial peace in the nation, in the South or
North, until segregation and inequality are gone." James
Earmer, the National Director of the Congress of Racial

Equality, is more blunt in describing the mood of the Ne—
gro. "Negroes," he says, ”are fed up." ”They are not
afraid to go to jail now. They wear jail sentences as
behiges of honor . . . .” Even white people who have taken
tiJne to understand the Negro's problem are convinced that
he: has had enough. Henry Steeger, the white president of
tiles National Urban League notes that there is a ”new mood
111 the Negro community today. The Negro is disturbed and

angry. He wants full acceptance now . . . otherwise all

 

 

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109

Americans will pay the price of exclusiveness." He adds
that "Negroes are tired of the gradualism which was too
often an apology for weak action or mere acceptance of
the status quo . . . the Negro now is a fighting man,
willing to stand up for what he believes with dignity
and courage." Concerning his rights the Negroes say
NOW and ALL. These words, the angry eyes and the heavy
hearts in which they are boldly written, Lerone Bennett,
Jr. writes, ”are refleCtions of a vast and potentially
explosive emotional upheaval in the ghettos of America?
The upheaval expresses itself on one level in a "growing
mood of defiance and despair, . . . on another level, the
upheaval takes the form of massive dissafection and a
growing "mood for blackness." However, expressed, the
mood and its manifestations are moving Negro Americans
to "a fateful eyeball-to—eyeball confrontation with Jim
Crow.”50

The uncompromising attitude of the Negro Revolt
is not restricted to adults. This eloquent manifesto
issued in three Atlanta papers sums up the mood that pre-

vails among students quite well:

 

50Bennet, op. cit., p. 27.

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1

110

We do not intend to wait for rights which are
already legally and morally ours to be meted
out to us one at a time. Today's youth will
not sit by submissively, while being denied
all the rights, privileges and joys of life.51

From ”An Appeal for Human Rights."
Atlanta Constitution,

lanta World.

In the
The Atlanta Journal, and The At—

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CHAPTER III
THE COMMUNITY OF LANSING
A. INTRODUCTION

The Negro presence in Lansing is largely a result
of that mass exodus of people from the farms of the South-
land to the cities of the North and West, which began about
1879 and reached a peak in the decade of the fifties. In
leaving the South most Negroes were protesting against
economic exploitation and social injustice which had been
their lot there. The periods of World Wars I and II were
high points in this process, for the manpower requirements
of war industry created a situation in which Negroes were
invited, even encouraged, to migrate to such industrial
cities as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis,
Pittsburg, Detroit, and Cincinnati. It is estimated that
by 1956 about 6,300,000, or about 26% of their total num—
ber in the old South, had left to settle in Northern and

. . 1
Western Cities.

 

1L. T. Hawley, "The Negro Farmer,” Fortune (Sep—
tember, 1956), p. 128.

111

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'_’ ,__.._ .... _

112

Records concerning the earliest Negro arrivals
in Lansing are difficult to locate. Even a centennial
brochure on the city Prepared in 1959 makes no reference
to the Negro community.2 Thus we must rely almost en-
tirely on data obtained from the informants interviewed
for this study for the barest information on the matter.
All of those born outside Lansing (and they make up the
majority) settled in the city between the years of 1916
and 1962.3 As Table I in the Appendix indicates, nearly
all of them (96%) came from the South directly to Lansing
or settled first in some Northern state before settling
in Lansing. Their motivations were the same as those
which inspired Negroes in other industrial centers, namely,
to obtain the goals which the dominant white culture has
established as most worthwhile--material wealth, and greater

personal freedom. There are values which flow from the

Judeo-Christian background of Western civilization and

 

2Lansing Centennial, Souvenir Historical Program
(1959).

3See Table I, Appendix. Although the individuals
observed and questioned for this study cannot be said to
be a random sample of the Negro community, they are strik—
ingly similar to Bank's random sample in the period of mi-
gration to Lansing, the level of education, income, and
occupation of the majority of individuals. An important
difference between his sample and the group I studied is
the relatively higher proportion of middle-class profes-
sionals in the latter.

 

 

__’—

 

113

the equilitarian sentiments of the American and French
revolutions. Having fallen heir to this cultural tra—
dition, the Negro was imbued with its idea of the ”good
life.”
Seen against the life of abject poverty of most

Negroes in the South up to the 1940's, this invitation
was quite a boon. Most were leading a bare subsistence
life. Most of them were poorly housed, ill-fed, poorly
paid, semi—illiterate and politically too impotent to
change their position. Under a form of land tenure in
the South they accepted land, a cabin, farm implements,
erl and fertilizers from the land owner on condition
tllat he would receive 50% of the crops. Due to the meagre
irlcome of the share cropper he frequently felt compelled
tC) ask for an "advance" from his landlord of some cash
a11d food. Interests as high as 50% have been reported
Orl such transactions, and the landlord acquired a lien
On the tenant's share of the crops. Landlords frequently
Cheated the~tenant, rationalizing this with the charge
that the tenant is lazy.4 Negro newspapers and labor

recruiters had painted an alluring picture of the North

 

4A. F. Raper and I. De A. Reid, Sharecroppers All

(1941), p. 22.

LI

 

 

 

--.-1

114

as a land of freedom. From friends and relatives also
who had earlier settled in Lansing the word went forth
that the city is a "nice" town, a place of greater free-
dom, more and better educational opportunities for chil-
dren, and, of course higher wages and steady jobs in
automobile and metal manufacturing and government service.
And the early migrants were not misleading the folks at
home. Lansing did appear to have a more liberal atmos-
phere in Negro—white relations than Dixie, and had large
auto plants-~Oldsmobile, Fisher Body, Motor Wheel, Reo
.and John Bean. As one informant put it when asked why
lie came to Lansing,

I came here so nobody will cheat me of my wages.

I was tired of them peckerwoods down there. They

rob you and beat you up if you talk. They were
a pain in the Negro's neck.

Lansing is a middle-sized midwestern city, situ—

")

ated 80 miles south of Detroit, the motor city of the
VVOrld, and is capital of the State of Michigan. Its
main industries are automobile and metal fabrication,
and is a service center for a population of 250,000.
The industrial work force is made up mainly of native

born persons from rural areas in Michigan and nearby

states.

 

 

 

L

115

Race relations are ordered by the dominant—minority
relations to be encountered in most American cities. Negroes
are restricted to one area of the city and excluded from
various segments of community life. Form and Sauer5 (1961)
have shown that most of the leaders (those who control de-
cision-making) are conservative whites who have grown up
with the city and its economic development. These "econ—
omic dominants” can boast of a wide range of institutional
participation. It is estimated that each belongs to at
least 13 organizations, in which he initiates or executes
major policy decisions. About nine—tenths of them were
born in Michigan or the nearby states of Illinois and
Indiana. They have a service record ranging from 21 to
30 years with the companies they head or are associated
with. This fact of conservative elements entrenched in
positions of power is of significance in any discussion
of change in the community and Negro protest, as will be
made clear later in the discussion of politics. They are
not visible on the scene of action, but few decisions can
be taken or implemented without their explicit or implicit

backfijfijr\\

 

\
\

g” 5William A. Form and Christopher Sauer, "Community
Inferntials in a Middle-sized City,” Institute of Commun-
ity Development Publication (Michigan State University,
1959).

 

 

L

 

116

As already indicated, a reputation for tolerance
is one of the main attractions of Lansing to the Southern
Negro. By ”tolerance” is meant that the Negro could "come
and go“ or use public accommodations nearly as did white
citizens. It is true that the areas of his contact with
whites were not as rigidly defined as is the case in the
South. But this relative freedom of movement in Lansing
was related to the small proportion of Negroes in the city.
In 1930, out of a total pOpulation of 78,398, less than 2%
or only 1,409 were Negroes. Very little growth occurred
:in the Negro population in the next decade. By 1940 it

liad risen to just over 2%, or only 1,638 out of a total

population of 78 , 753 . 6

For the most part the early Negro migrants to Lan—
ESing had little or no education. Most of the dwellings
tiley occupied were either servant quarters in the rear
013 the better homes or shacks on streets where low income
glfloups of whites also lived. Where colored peOple were
Seirvants to the well—to—do, they often moved into desir-
alble sections of the city, although seldom into attractive

01? adequate housing. The majority of the Negroes in Lansing

\.—

6United States Bureau of the Census, Census of
liagulation: Michigan - 1930 and 1940.

 

 

 

 

lived in clusters in racially mixed neighborhoods and

they were so few that a few such concentrations were ade—
quate to accommodate them. They were relatively homoge—
neous in their socioeconomic background. They held such
other traditional Negro jobs with the city as garbage
collectors, street—cleaning and general services. Few
among them were professional, white collar or skilled
workers. Only occasionally did a local Negro amass size—
able wealth, and the incomes of the rest were usually

low compared to whites. The homes occupied by these
colored residents of Lansing were seldom more than modest.
The Negro population was too small to justify the develop—
ment of many kinds of community facilities. They managed
to establish two of the churches in the Negro community
today, rooming houses, and eating places; for the rest

Of the facilities they either shared existing ones with
the whites or did without them. This is a fact to which
Old Settlers point with nostalgic pride. Social strati-
fication among them was more along place of work than

tYpe of occupation. Thus few individuals became elites

in the Negro community by becoming custodians and messen-'
gers at the State Capitol, letter carriers or postal car—

riers with the Federal Government, or waiters in prominent

-
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119

 

by asking the Mayor and City Council to deny their appli—
cation for such a business, which they did. This, he
claims, is evidence that there need not be protest activ—
ity in order for the Negro to obtain the things he wants.
"You see," he went on to explain, "these people [protest
group members] don't know how to approach the white man.
Let me tell you one thing: When a man's gat something
and you want it, you gat to go about it in a decent way.
If you try to force it from him, what's he going to do?
(pause) He will resist; he will hold fast. Isn't it?"8
So long as Negroes did not contest their status

at the bottom of the social and economic pyramid, so long

 

8This man is generally ridiculed by other Negroes
as an "Uncle Tom” or a white man's "good nigger." This
kind of Negro is believed to be pro-white to the extent
that he reports what is happening in the Negro community
to the white power structure which then uses it to plan
to manipulate the Negro residents. In return for this
he is believed to receive special favors from his white
patrons (such as hiring his truck to haul garbage) which,
however, are far less than his rights as an American citi-
zen. He rationalizes his attitude in terms of a belief
that whites mean Negroes only good, which can be realized
if Negroes would adopt the ”right" approach. The fact that
he can dangle small favors received before indigent Negroes
has implications for keeping the demoralized Negro in his
place. The "hat-in-hand" Negro, as he is also referred to,
then, can exert a competitive force in the community, pull—
ing some Negroes from organized protest. What the actual
role of this type of Negro has been in Lansing protest is
assessed in Chapter VI.

 

 

 

 

118

hotels and restaurants. Children of both races played
together in many neighborhoods apparently without inci-
dent. No one was barred from the eating places, hospi—
tals or schools as a rule. Occasionally an outstanding
Negro individual was recognized by whites. This fact
plus the relatively free participation in the limited
public facilities in the city have led most earlier Ne-
groes to assert that there is no race prejudice in Lans-
ing, even today. As one informant who has been in the
city 40 years and is retired with pensions from a local
company as well as the city, said when asked about prob-
lems of discrimination to which Negroes as a group are
subjected:

Man, where you come from? There ain't no dis—

crimination here. You ben lisnen' to Karl Keyes7

and those other agitators. You can go anywhere

here and do anything you want-~eat, sleep, and

drink if you gat the money°

Charging that Negro protest in town is therefore

unnecessary or not properly conceived, he cited his own
approach to the white power structure as far more effec—
tive° He pointed to the dividends it has paid him. One

is that he was able to stop a group including some pro—

test leaders who wanted to put a bar on his street simply

 

7Karl Keyes is President of the Citizens Non Par-

tisan League, a local protest group.

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120

as they "accepted" only the menial and low—paying jobs
usually associated with the Negro in the minds of most
white people, thus reinforcing the stereotype of the

Negro's “place,' they were tolerated. They could go

to a white church; their children could attend the same
schools with those of white parents. A Negro himself
could eat in some restaurants, refer to some white people
by their first names, or his wife or sister could try on
a hat or dress in a store before buying it, or choose not
to make the purchase after doing this, and the issue of
"social equality” did not arise.

During the last two decades, however, Negro mi—

gration to Lansing grew rapidly, reaching a peak in the

- Ian. I. .
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... “h I.‘ ~

urn—.I. . h

three years following the end of the 2nd World War, par-
ticularly between 1952 and 1955, following the Korean
War.9 In this recent group of Negro migrants were some
College educated and professionally trained individuals
Who could not be expected to accept "Negro jobs.” Al-
though this growth was small in absolute terms, it seems

Sufficient to have forced whites to View it with alarm

k

E_?Walter R. Banks, A Source of Social Protest (a
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Sociology and Anthro-
pology, Michigan State University, 1962). This is also
confirmed in the sample for the research for the present
study. See Table I in the Appendix.

 

 

 

121

and to redefine race relations in the city in a way which
called for drawing the color line with greater rigidity.
Many whites now suspected that the issue of ”social equal—
ity" would arise. White lower class people feared Negro

competition for jobs in skilled labor and clerical pursuits.

The Black Ghetto

Residential segregation represents the most obvious
and extreme expression of the color line in Lansing. Apart
from opposition mainly from laboring white classes who
saw in the Negro influx a possibility of their wages being
depressed, there was pressure from white supremacists to
confine the Negro to a partioilar area of the cfly. Negroes
have either been pushed out of predominantly white neigh-
borhoods or most whites have abandoned them and fled to
the suburbs. The clusters of colored people the older
residents had formed became the nucleus from which the
Centers of Negro concentration formed. As the following “1

map shows, more than 82% of the Negro pOpulation is con—

...IV .._...I

Centrated in Census Tracts 15, 16, and 18 out of a total

...“— H

of 37.

 

YEW".

 

 

 

 

TOTAL POPULATION AND NEGRO POPULATION

 

 

 

 

IN LANSING BY CENSUS TRACTS: 1960
Total Negro Percent
Tract Population Population Negro
1 3,166 0 O
2 2,453 l 0
3 3,483 34 1.0
4 4,329 12 0.3
5 3,017 283 9.4
6 3,067 3 0
7 4,039 19 0.5
8 4,845 247 5.1
9 2,240 6 0.3
10 3,445 1 0
11 5,938 125 2.1
12 3,458 133 3.8
13 2,571 31 1.2
14 557 27 4.8
15 4,361 1,758 40.3
16 1,924 623 32.4
17 1,621 20 1.2
18 3,907 3,145 80.5
19 1,443 78 5.4
20 5,306 2 0
21 3,478 114 3.3
22 2,393 0 0
23 4,705 1 0
24 4,713 44 .9
25 3,824 0 O
26 2,804 1 0
27 4,592 1 0
28 3,122 0 0
29 87 0 0
30 101 3 3.0
31 300 886 11 21 3.7
32 360 7 1.9
33 4,325 o o
34 38 o o
35
36 2,893 6 0.2
37 4,902 9 0.2
Total 107,807 6.745 6.3
Source: Advance table PH—l, U. S. Census, "Popu—

lation and Housing Characteristics"

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_

 

 

 

 

123

CENSUS TRACTS IN LANSING, MICHIGAN
AND ADJACENT AREA

29

E::j none
§§§§ under 1%
m 1 — 5%

5 1 10%
113151335; 10 - 50%

over

 

 

Source: Michigan State University Continuing Edu-
cation Service, Community Development and Services,

Center, East Lansing, Michigan.

Kellogg

 

 

 

 

124

While some white families are also found in this
locale, (60%, 67% and 20% respectively) it is commonly
known to the general population as the ”Negro section of
town." Buying or renting homes elsewhere by Negroes is
very difficult if not practically impossible. Where Ne-
groes rent from whites, nearly all the buildings are in
need of some major repairs. While Negro—white neighbor—
hood relations are friendly, they are marked by little
or no social contacts between the two races.lo

Residential segregation, which reflects white op—
position to having Negroes as neighbors, has led to over—
crowding in the Negro section of Lansing, physical de—

terioration, general social disorganization, and high cost

 

1 . . .
0I observed this during the nine months of resi—

dence in the Negro community. There are white families
across the street from where I lived. Adjacent to their
houses were Negro homes. Yet I saw little visiting be—
tWeen Negroes and whites.

11 . . . . .

It 13 not assumed that white prejudice is neces-
sarily the reason for Negro overcrowding. Many Negroes,
especially impecunious early migrants, find it convenient
§° doUble up in order to cut down the rent they would pay
if each had his own room. But it plays a significant part
here for many Negroes live in the ghetto who claim they
WOUld live in another part of town if they could be allowed.
overcrowding is going to increase in view of the fact that
a Whole city block in the Negro section is to be wiped out
to allow street widening, and the victims will have to be
absorbed by the already overcrowded Negro subcommunity since

:hite neighborhoods adjacent to the ghetto would not have
hem.

 

 

 

rIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII___________________I_T____I::::Irfi“fiv'fi_—_Ii'"'

125

 

‘ of housing for people with meager resources. These figures
reflect such consequences:
The average number of persons per house in the

area of largest Negro concentration is 3.23, which is above

the city—wide average of 3.17 persons per house. This dif-
ference appears small when only two homes on different sides
of the racial wall are under comparison; but when seen in
terms of large numbers of homes on either side it becomes
significant. Slightly over two-fifths of the non—whites
are renters and three—fifths are home owners. Ownership,
by census tract, is in inverse proportion to the percent
Who are nonwhites——l7% where 81% are nonwhite (as in tract
18); 43 percent where 41% are nonwhite (tract 15); and 88
percent where 33% are nonwhite (tract 16).12

Unlike the South, the white insistence on restrict—
ing Negroes to a well—defined area of residence in Lansing
dOeS not have the backing of law, nor is it supported by
Political disfranchisement of the Negro. Yet the preven-
tioh of spread of the Black Ghetto has been very effective.

The most active promoters of racially segregated
houSing in the city are a well organized group of white
real estate dealers, home builders, and financial insti—

tutiOns. The pressure to confine Negroes of all classes

 

 

 

 

 

126

to a relatively small area of living is strongest in white
settlements adjacent to the Black Ghetto, especially in
the middle-—and upper—~income neighborhoods. Specific
areas of Negro exclusion include estates held by two real
estate companies. Between them these firms hold just
over 600 acres of land in parcels on all sides of the
city of Lansing—~east, west, north, and south. Not all
the subdivisions, as these plots into which the land is
divided are called, are fully developed. An 80—acre sub-
division on the northwest side of Lansing has 200 houses
occupied by white people in the highest income brackets.
A 68-acre plot has only 4 to 5 houses; an 80—acre plot
has 10 houses; a 40—acre plot and another 60—acre plot
With no houses whatever. These exclusive areas extend
eVen beyond the Lansing city limits to a neighboring
township (which I call D) where 156 acres are held by

one company, which is 80% developed. The Negro community
seems really hemmed in with little possibility of expan-
sion. The fact that open land is being held while popu—

latiOn pressure is going on in the black ghetto underscores
\

12 . .
. J. F. Thaden, ”Population and HouSing Character-
1Stics in Lansing Census Tracts,” Michigan Economic Record,
VII No. 3 (March, 1964).

 

 

 

127

the determination to maintain residential segregation.
Housing, which up to 1963 was the concern of mainly middle
class Negroes, is beginning to figure prominently in pro—
test programs as the city plans to convert the city block
of largest Negro concentration into street widening. The
white exclusivist policy will force the displaced fami—
lies into an already overcrowded (big city standards)

Negro ghetto. Otherwise put, more demand will be put

on the limited housing available (1,805 units) to Negroes}3

Details of the process of ”hemming in” are difficultto
discover, for, as a white informant notes, these opera—
tions take place ”under cover.” Community and neighbor—
hood groups as well as individuals who oppose Negro neigh—
bors are not willing to admit to prejudice openly. Still
les open are the real estate people who are said to arouse
White citizens to the alleged peril of Negro "invasion."
What is clear is that real estate operators, financial
institutions and title companies cooperate in this en—

deaVOr.

 

l3Some indication of the increase in the demand
can be seen from the fact that 6% of the population of
LanSing (the Negroes) now occupy only 5% of the houses.
AcCording to a Lansing Board of Education Report, in
Whlch the Education Committee of the NAACP collaborated,
about 300 Negro families will be thrown back on the al—
ready limited housing available to Negroes.

 

 

 

128
Mechanisms of Exclusion

Race restrictive covenants and the denial of
mortgage money to qualified Negroes are the two princi—
pal means for preventing the spread of the Negro commun—
ity in Lansing. In many blocks in Lansing real estate
agents and owners have understandings not to rent or
sell to Negroes on any terms. Called a "gentlemen's
agreement" and first used in San Francisco in 1890 to
keep Chinese from white neighborhoodsl4 these informal
understandings have the effect of circumventing the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment without
making the violator liable for prosecution. As applied
in Lansing, they establish racial zones which otherwise
would be illegal. According to a white informant of the
local NAACP the Real Estate Board of Lansing and a group
of property owners have firmly agreed among fi1emselves
not to sell, lease, or otherwise convey their property
to Certain prescribed classes, mainly colored people,
for a definite time. To insure that white liberals will
not Succeed in getting ”undesirable” individuals into

white neighborhoods sale contracts to whites often include

\

14
Robert C. Weaver, The Negro Ghetto (New York:
Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1948), p. 231.

 

129

a clause requiring that when the buyer wishes to dispose

of the property it would be sold back to the real estate

firm who sold it to the individual. Banks and other lend— r
ing institutions are expected or ”required"15 to support

the arrangement by not lending money to "unacceptable”

individuals for the purpose of acquiring property outside

their own racial areas.

Motivations

Motivations vary among the cooperating parties
in Negro exclusion. For the white community social and
economic considerations are paramount. In American cul—
ture a man is judged by the company he keeps. Since skin
color is a criterion of social ranking, upper and middle
class whites with their concern about status are gener—
ally opposed to close association with non—whites. This
is One reason why these groups champion and sign race
restrictive covenants. It is felt by many that the pres-

enCe of a single Negro, regardless of his income or ability
\
15 .

The term ”require” here does not mean that legal
sanctions can be brought to compel financial institutions
to COOperate. However, they face economic sanctions since
they finance the loans for the purchase of houses and can
be denied the business if they do not cooperate.

 

 

 

 

r_

 

or habits, would adversely affect their status and the

value of their property. But whites in lower income
groups, including recent immigrants, who border on the
Black Ghetto also are strongly opposed to Negro neigh-
bors. Weaverl6 attributes this to their acceptance of
the standards of the higher income groups as well or an
attempt to emulate the "respectable people.” Accepting
such values is part of the immigrant group's process of
Americanization. He indicates that a generation ago skin
color did not occupy the central position it holds today
in the thinking of white residents in poorer neighbor—
hoods.l7 Despite the preponderance of scholarly research

evidence against this View of property value decline, it

 

l6Weaver, op. cit., pp. 232—33.

17The outcome of the recent (April 7, 1964) Presi—
dential primary in Wisconsin seems to have given some
point to this explanation. Press and radio commentators
expressed apprehension that Polish immigrant communities
bordering the Black Ghetto on the southwest side of Mil—
waukee, who would be threatened first with Negro expansion
into their neighborhoods if the public accommodations sec—
tion of the Civil Rights Bill now pending in Congress were
passed, would hand segregationist Governor George Wallace
of Alabama the sizeable votes he needs in order for him
and his supporters around the country to claim (from the
votes in what is thought to be a liberal Northern State)
that the bill is an unpopular and unwanted piece of legis—
lation. Analysts say that a significant proportion of the
100,000 votes that the Governor received came from these
immigrant and other poorer white districts.

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131

remains as a myth motivating whites to resist Negro "in—
vasion." A kind of self—fulfilling prophecy takes over,
for when they resist through covenants or flee they are
responding not to the objective features of the situation,
but to their definition of the Negro's presence as having
an adverse economic effect on property. Although there
appears to be a slight favorable change in the attitude
of whites in Lansing toward Negro neighbors, as can be
seen in the increased scattering of Negroes throughout
the city singe“1950 (see city map showing proportions

of Negroes in places outside the three tracts of Negro
concentration, p. 123), colored people are generally re—
stricted to one area between two streets—”West Main and
West St. Joseph.

For realtors, economic motivations are almost
the sole interest in keeping Negroes in the Ghetto,
according to most informants. As professional advocates
of enforced segregation they have spent large sums of
money and time to propagandize the necessity and desire-
ability of resistance to the concept of Negro neighbors.
According to a Negro lawyer informant, for every dollar
Negro protest groups spend to achieve residential inte—

gration real estate interests spend four to maintain it.

 

132

Through their patronage of banks they are able to influ—
ence these lending institutions to deny mortgage money
to Negroes to purchase homes in places considered out— .
of-bounds for them. This discrimination takes place
through a regular process of evaluating the risk poten—
tial of the prospective borrower. A white NAACP leader
describes the process: "When a non-white person applies
for a loan to buy a house in the ‘wrong' area, bank
appraisers are sent to determine his assets and liabili-
ties. They find out what he owns, how much he makes,
how much he owes, and recommend a loan far below what
he needs, or simply refuse to recommend the loan." Since
very few people have enough savings to make a down pay—
ment or can get the full purchase price of a house from
anywhere else, this arbitrary action of the banks keeps
the person out of the new neighborhood.

Residential segregation has had consequences
for other aspects of community life. Of these areas
of behavior, education, economics, politics, and religion
are of particular relevance to this thesis, and will re—

ceive detailed attention below.l8

 

18A little better than 75% of NAACP members seef

residential segregation as the crucial factor, giving j
rise to most other forms of discrimination and segregaJ

tion° g

 

 

 

133

But not all Negroes are opposed to segregated
housing by race as such. The question "would you be
against a new housing development for Negroes only?" -
was used to learn Negro reaction. A journalist is not
sure segregation would not help the Negro psychologic—
ally. She feels that developing “their” area would
offer compensation for exclusion from the larger phases
of the city's life.

I am not sure that staying in his own neighbor—
hood and developing it, keeping up his property
and keeping it clean won't give the Negro a
better image of himself. You can say you want

an integrated neighborhood so your kids can
attend better schools. But white people don't
like Negroes and they'll treat you so bad or

make so much fuss about you that you feel ashamed
of yourself. Then you got to explain to the kids
why they act like that. You get embarrassed be—
cause you got to tell him that this is a white
man's country and because you can't save him

from the white man's abuse. Your child gets
confused because in the school they tell him

that this is a land of ”liberty and justice for
all'I and right there they spit in his face if

he tries to do or get what the other kids [whites]
do or have.

Few people share her view regarding community pride
as an adjustment to the situation. Some non-protest group
members define the whole problem differently. To them,
there is no discrimination save what Negroes themselves

have required. They must qualify themselves to live with

 

 

Illa-r ..II.

 

 

 

134

the white man! "Act good, stOp being loud, close that
wide mouth, cut the lawn, and keep up their property."
If the Negro would only improve himself, the white man
would accept him.19

Increasing residential segregation can be ex—
pected to have reduced the amount of "friendly" contact
between whites and Negroes who once shared the same
neighborhood. An indirect effect of spatial separation
that is often ignored by students of cultural minorities
but which has profound implications is that of creating
a more or less culturally homogenous life among people
who may have nothing in common except skin color.20

Unlike other migrants who become affluent and
move away from their ”natural area,” Negroes regardless
of increased socioeconomic position or respectability,
wear the badge of color. They are expected to stay in

the Black Belt. Thus lawyers, physicians, chemists,

 

9Responses such as this echo a conservative cri—
ticism of Negro civil rights and ignore the possibility
that the cultural attributes which are held to justify
discrimination against Negroes might in fact have resulted
from segregation in the first place, or lack of the "proper"
qualities may be reinforced by it. However, the response
is important for its bearing on protest, as will be seen.

20Even this basis of differentiation may be lack—
ing at times, as when white Negroes with high professional
skills and a $20,000 per year income are herded together
With darker Negroes with little or no education, who have
to be on relief.

 

 

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I.

 

 

 

135

social scientists and ministers with almost a Ph.D. level
of training are forced to live next door to laborers,
ditch-diggers, and truck drivers, to belong to the same
churches and participate in the same voluntary associa-
tions and protest groups. The college-trained wife of

a highly successful Negro professional with an annual
income of more than $20,000 complained that confinement
to a common area of life has forced her to send their
children to school with children whose backgrounds are
different.

Most Negroes see residential segregation by race
as a threat to their fuller participation in American
life, and have not hesitated to attach blame to certain
interests. It is perhaps a reflection of the anxiety
members of the Lansing Real Estate Board feel over ”ex-
posure” or charges concerning their real role in main—
taining racially segregated residence in Lansing, that
they have issued a policy statement of position. React—
ing to the charge by Negro protest leaders as well as
some white liberals that they are the ones who perpetuate
the biracial system in housing by raising false alarms
about the peril of property value decline when Negroes

move into a previously white neighborhood in order to

 

 

 

"I-" '

136

promote their own business interests, the Lansing Board's
statement maintains among other things that real estate
people are mere agents who, in keeping with their legal
obligations must carry out the wishes of their clients
even if the attitudes their actions represent are socially
unpopular or unacceptable. While "understanding the as-
pirations of minority groups for better private housing,"
the Board claims for its members the obligation to advise
clients on all matters which would enable the latter to
reach a rational decision. This includes giving the ra—
cial identity of the prospective buyer, so that he may

be discriminated against if the client so desires. But
Negroes contend that this information is not always re—
quired under the client-agent contract and that realtors
introduce it for their own reasons, which are: l) to limit
the supply of shelter available to minority groups of all
income levels and in this way to manipulate the housing
market; 2) to withhold a segment of the demand (that of
nonWhites) until enough vacancies can be created in white
neighborhoods. When this happens Negro expansion into
the newly opened places takes the form of a social move-
ment. The demand in such situations becomes so great

that prices can be raised and from the sales bigger

 

 

137

commissions accrue to realtors. Real estate brokers are
represented in the policy statement as mere tools of a
society that is not yet prepared to accept the implica—
tions of democratic and Christian living; that is, "as
not prepared to accept all racial, creedal and ethnic
groups as social intimates or as neighbors living in

."21 Whatever the case, the Negro

close proximity .
‘position is clear, namely, that regardless of the reasons
for Spatial segregation by race, the adverse effects for
them are the same and hence something should be done to
change the institution, or to smash its supports—~the
restrictive covenants.

For its part, the City Government has not outlawed
residential segregation. As will be shown in the discus-
sion of local politics, this failure is related both to
the legal argument raised by proponents of such a pattern
of living that under the United States Constitution the
right of a person to use and dispose of personal property
may not be taken away as well as the opposition of the

conservative elements in positions of economic power in

the city.

 

2lStatement of Poligy by the Lansing Board of
Realtors, March, 1964.

 

Vested Interests in the Black Belt

Institutions serving Negroes which were estab—
lished before the Black Belt was developed expanded and
flourished as more and more Negroes came to Lansing.
Partly as a result of habit but mainly as a protection
against white rejection Negroes turned to their OWn
churches, places of amusement and opportunities for so—
cial life among their own people. The roots of the four
largest churches—~Friendship Baptist, Union Baptist,
Church of the Lord in Christ, and Collins African Metho-
dist Episcopal Church——go back to the 1860's, while the
one Methodist and three other smaller Baptist churches
go back to more recent times-—the 1920's. There is one
converted store—front church——the Church of the Living
God, founded in 1962. All but the pastors of the three
largest churches hold factory and other jobs to supple—
ment their incomes. The pastor of the Church of the
Living God operates a barber shop in the daytime and
goes to divinity school one night a week. Two other
pastors are factory workers at the Oldsmobile Plant.

The churches expanded or new ones developed as new mi—

grants came to the city. This fact of turning to "Negro"

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139

institutions served to accentuate the separation of
Negroes and whites in the city which some Negroes were

later to oppose.

Elsi—ness

As in most other American cities, business in
the Black Ghetto is controlled by whites who live outside.
There are three supermarkets owned by absentee whites
and two smaller grocery stores owned by Negroes. Negroes
also operate two small eating houses. None of the white
establishments employs Negroes in supervisory capacities.
There is only one retail clothing store operated by a
Negro, a son of one of the Old Settler families. He
complains that Negroes do not patronize him. His reac-
tions to Negro protest expresses this concern:

I don't understand the Negroes in Lansing.
I don't see how they can talk about protest when
they don't patronize Negro business. The wives
of the leading people [those in the highest in—
come brackets] seldom buy from me, except Mrs.

. The result is that 90% of my customers
are white. As long as we don't help Negroes to
get on their feet we will always have to depend
on the white man for jobs. In fact, we may lose
everything we have, for what we earn will end
right back into his pocket. Negroes gat to buy
from somebody——if not from me, then from the
white man.

 

 

140

Asked Why he thought Negroes did not buy from him, he
suggested that status competition might be a factor.
He stated that when he recently moved into one of the
better Negro neighborhoods, he was received with some—
thing less than enthusiasm by "our folks.”22
Professional service by Negroes is limited.
There is only one physician, who has an all-Negro clien—
tele. He works in a Catholic hospital in the morning
and in his office in the afternoon. The office is usu—
ally crowded and long waiting periods are required. Two
girls work there as clerks and nurses, but neither can
boast of more than rudimentary training in both fields.
There is only one dental surgeon. Unlike the physician,
however, 70% of his patients are white. Other Negroes
attributethis to the fact that they cannot support him.
He attracts whites probably also because he offers ade—
quate service at slightly reduced costs than can be had
at white dental establishments in the city. There is
one undertaking establishment in the Negro area. Although

White funeral concerns do not usually accept Negro corpses

 

 

22He mentioned that one of his little daughters
even asked him why a small daughter of a lawyer living
there did not speak to her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the proprietor notes that some Negroes consider it more

prestigeful to be buried by white funeral directors.
Speaking of one man showing this attitude, he said: .
I can't understand our people [Negroes]. One
man told me he wants me to embalm his body
when he dies and then turn it over to a white
funeral director for burial. In other words
he wants me to do all the dirty work and let
the white man do the rest. I won't do it.
Either I am going to have to bury his body
or I am not going to have anything to do with
it.

It is difficult to get the net intake of these
businesses, for not all the proprietors were included
in our sample and the Chamber of Commerce apparently
does not have the figures on them.23 Not all ministers
are willing to reveal the total incomes of their church.
One even refused to disclose his salary. However, one
minister reported that he raised a total of $25,000 in
1963 and another estimated total Negro church revenue
at $150,000 per annum. Two churches completed building

Programs in the past four years, while two others are

now building.

 

23The Chamber points out that Negro business

makes up such a negligible proportion of business that
records are not kept by race.

 

 

 

142

Far more important than retail business in terms

.—- — “—'—

of control by colored entrepreneurs and wealth to indi-

viduals are barber shops and hairdressing establishments, r
of which there are five. According to three of the pro-

prietors barbers have an annual income of about $6,000

or a total of $30,000. Although these businesses result

from the whole system of color segregation in the United

States rather than from residential segregation alone,

their owners, operators, and employees identify the busi—

ness with the Negro community and develop a strong vested

interest in them.

The Negro physician, dentist, and lawyers are
looked upon as leaders of the Negro community and are
associated with it in the minds of their clients. One
advantage which these professionals enjoy is association
With their white counterparts. In larger Negro communi—
ties in the country the tendency is for them to be ex—
C1uded from such contacts. The National Medical Asso—
ciation, for example, is the Negro counterpart of the
American Medical Association. A National Dental Assoc—
iation also exists for Negroes alongside the American
Dental Association. The privilege of association in

Lansing does not derive so much from a breakdown of

 

 

143

the color line as from practicality. As a colored lawyer
explained the situation:

We [Negroes] have no illusions about our accep-
tance. They [white lawyers] know that we three
Negro lawyers can't belong to a group of our
own. This is the only reason why we are in

the national.

There is reason to expect that along with socio—
economic position skin color is also important as basis
of social ranking in any Negro subcommunity in the United
States. A Chicago Negro physician provides the deep psy—
chological basis for this:

Any Negro who is honest will admit that he is
dominated by the standards of the society he

is brought up in. When we are little children
we use story books in which all the characters
have long blond hair. When we go to church
we're taught that God is a white man. The
Virgin Mary is white. What can you expect?

All our early concepts of desirable physical
attributes come from the white man. It is a
sociological rule that people are pulled into
the standardized ways of thinking. The average
Negro may say that he's proud to be black. This
mis more or less of a defense mechanism. People
in America don't black their faces and make
their hair kinky. They would be laughed at;

it would be too different from the American
standard. The whole situation is easy enough
to understand.24

 

It is interesting that not one Negro in my sample

admitted preference for light skin color. Asked “what

 

24 .
St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton, Black Metro—

‘ polis (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948), p. 85.

L -1

 

 

144

color of person would you like for your son or daughter
to marry?" everyone expressed indifference. Yet when I
turned from verbal remarks to the projective system, the _
physician's argument received consistent support. A 10—
cal Baptist Church celebrated such occasions as Men's
Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Children's Day during
the period of my participant observation. A mimeographed
program for each of these days featured a drawing of the
category of church members the occasion draws attention
to on the front cover. Without exception the Caucasian
model was presented. The hair form, nose shape, and pro—
file were unmistakably caucasoid.25

It is also of interest that most women dyed their
hair brown; few even turned it blond. Cosmetics for
make—ups and other facial treatments tend to make the

female lighter, never darker.26

 

251 called the attention of several adult members
to this fact and asked whether the drawings reflected their
own ideas of men, father, and children. Their answers
ranged from statements that it is the artist's idea and
his alone, to remarks that the drawings have no signifi—
cance.

26These observations were made at Negro beauty
shops. Because of this preference in Lansing as well as
the general positive symbolic significance of light skin
color in Negro communities through out the country I asked
a New York Negro young lady who visited me last week about
it. She explained that Negro women now are preferring
brown skin, as opposed to very light or dark.

 

 

 

 

145

Until 1961 Negroes had no place of entertainment
which they could call their own. Young adults gathered
at a small dilapidated building across the street from
the Oldsmobile where, to the blare of loud music they
danced their worries away, at least for a while. The
proprietor was the Negro Elks Club of Lansing, which
charged a 50—cent admission fee. This was low enough
to allow most people to visit the ”Elks.” The property
has since been acquired by the General Motors Corporation
as part of its Oldsmobile plant extension program.

A far more modern night club has now been estab-
lished (since 1961) by a Negro and is called "Tropicana.”
All sorts of drinks are sold there as customers listen
to live orchestral music. There is no entrance fee,
but prices for drinks and the demands for neat appearance
are high enough to discourage some of the people who
flocked to the ”Elks.” Both white and Negroes visit
the Tropicana. So far, no racial incidents have been
reported.

Social life is led mainly through a number of
voluntary organizations. These include the Masons, Elks,
Esquires, the Torch Club and a number of Negro counter—

parts of the American College fraternities. None of

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146

them are exclusivist in their membership, although the
college associations and the Torch Club tend to select
college educated and middle class people. The Masons,
for example, number lawyers, the dentist, and physicians
among their members. Compared with other people the
level of participation of professionals is of course
low, except in the Torch Club, but for the purposes of
validating their leadership image they support the ser—
vices the lodge performs for the Negro community° Pro—
viding scholarships to enable intellectually deserving
but financially needful Negro youth to go to college is
one of the most important of these services° Apart from
this the Masons are a burial insurance association. Mem—
bers subscribe money to a fund from which withdrawals
are made to defray funeral expenses of brethren. On
special occasions like Christmas the widow and minor
children of deceased brethren receive presents from the
Lodge.

Aside from the social contacts it provides, the
Torch Club is a forum of literary communications among
college educated people. One member speaks on a topic
of the day at each monthly meeting—~from race relations

to Negro literature-—and discussions are held° The

I FILL...

 

 

 

 

 

presentations are written and have all the trappings of

formal presentations at scholarly conferences. A Sep—

tember 18, 1963, paper written by an MSU biology graduate '

typifies the level of these discussions. Called ”An Issue

of Our Times,” it draws attention to alleged failures of

the City of Lansing to respond positively to the challenge

of the social revolution which represented by the Negro's

determined effort to obtain his rights of citizenship

which have been denied for more than a century. Evidence

of de facto segregation in the public schools and job

discrimination against Negroes as well as their social

and psychological consequences is cited.27
The only Negro newspaper in Lansing is less than

a year old. Founded by a 29—year old Michigan State Uni—

versity part—time history and pre-law student, Herbert

Hill, the ”Post” seeks to provide a means of communica—

tion on the one hand among Negroes, the lack of which

he feels is the main obstacle to their developing a

single and consistent program of protest, and communi—

cation between the Negro and white communities in Lansing

 

27The author of this particular Duncan is David

Duncan, a Michigan State University biochemistry M. A.
degree holder, who works for the State of Michigan.

 

 

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148

on the other. To this end the "Post” comes out monthly
and reports developments in race relations not only in
the city but also in the State of Michigan. Like the
Negro press in the country generally the Post also con-
tributes to the building of race pride by reporting pro—
fessional and occupational advancement of Negroes, as
well as civil contributions made by them. The moving

of the first Negro family into previously all-white
Churchill Downs in Lansing, the appointment of a former
NAACP President as an Executive Secretary at the College
of Education at Michigan State University, write—ups on
the promoter of a program called "Negro Heritage Week"
in Lansing and Lansing Urban League Drive—nthese are
some of the topics which a content analysis of Post
reports for the past seven months has revealed.28 Present
circulation is 3,200 and plans for the near future call

for a weekly rather than a monthly publication.

B. PATTERNS OF EDUCATION

As indicated in Chapter II, Americans have great

faith in education. They look to it as a means to economic

 

 

28The Lansing Post (October, 1963 to April, 1964).

 

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security and increased social status, as well as a pre—

paration for active, intelligent participation in social

and political affairs. To the Negro population, whose
participation in American culture has been effectively
limited in the name of lack of adequate training, or

shose members suffer in terms of both their life chances

and having to adjust to an ”inferior“ status, education

is even more of a panacea. It is avidly sought by middle
and upper class Negroes for its economic advantages as

well as its psychological importance. A ”good” education
not only increases earning power, but enhances self—respect.
High academic attainment is seen among Negroes as an effec-
tive way to combat the myth of their innate inferiority

to whites. For these reasons many are willing to go to
great lengths to afford their children the opportunity

for an adequate education. This implicit faith in educa—
tion is not new in the Negro community in the United States.
MOre than fifty years ago Myrdal noted how the masses

showed a "naive, almost religious faith in education."29
Negro leaders are constantly emphasizing the importance

Of education to their people.

 

29Mrydal, op. cit., p. 884.

 

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150

In Lansing, many Negroes see education as the
key to their enjoyment of equal job opportunities, in-
deed to the first class citizenship which they seek.

A newcomer to the City in professional business is con—
vinced that ”the Negro's only hope is education-~and
more of it.“ Despite this pathetic faith in academic
attainment, however, Negro education has lagged behind
that for whites. This statement is true even though
significant progress was made by Negroes to raise their
level of schooling during the twenty—year period 1940-60.
In 1940 the mean number of years of adult education for
Negroes in Lansing was seven. Twenty years later the
figure had climbed to nine. This rate of increase was
more than that for whites in the same period. The fol—

lowing Table reflects the disparity in levels of school—

ing between the two groups:

Levels of Schooling by Percent of the Adult Population
(25 years and over) by Race in the City of Lansing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1940 1960
Negro White Negro White
% % % %
N9 formal schooling 6 .6 1.9 3 .9 o .7
H1911 school graduates 3 . 8 17 . 5 10 . 5 21 .0
COllege graduates 2.1 7 .0 4.1 12.3

 

 

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151

It is apparent that in 1940, 6.6 percent of all adult
Negroes had no formal schooling, compared with 1.9 per-
cent of whites in this category. Again, only 3.8 percent
of adult Negroes had completed high school, compared with
17.5 percent of the white adults. And what is even more
striking, in an industrial society with an increasing
need for white collar, technical, and professional com—
petence, is the fact that in 1940 only 2.1 percent of
the Negro adults had graduated from college, compared
with 7 percent of the white adults.

By 1960 Negroes in Lansing had reduced their il—
literacy rate to about 3.9 percent, while whites accom-
,plished comparably little in this regard (although only
0.7 percent of the white pOpulation was classified as
.illiterate). Also, by 1960 Negroes had increased the
Iproportion of high school graduates to 10.5 percent.
ZXt the same time the proportion of high school graduates
118d increased to 21 percent. And, finally, according to
1flae last census report whites in Lansing had increased
tkue proportion graduated from college to 12.3 percent,
Vfllile Negroes had doubled the proportion they had in

1940.30

 

 

30These figures were computed from United States
Efiflflggg of Population (1940), General Social and Economic
Characteristics of Lansing, and United States Census of

-§QDnl§;ion and Housing (Lansing, Michigan, 1960).

 

 

 

 

152
Public Schools and Dominant—Minority Relations

Like children elsewhere in the Northern states,
those in the city of Lansing attend schools which are
located near their homes. Because Negroes are forced
to live only in certain districts of the city, the schools
in these neighborhoods come to be composed primarily of
one race. Lansing has 42 elementary schools(Kindergar-
ten through 6th grade) and 8 secondary schools, of which
five are Junior High Schools and three are High Schools.31
Under the neighborhood concept three of the elementary
schools have become predominantly Negro schools (Lincoln,
IKalamazoo, and Main)32 and one junior high school (West
IJunior) is rapidly becoming so. About 85% of Lansing's
44,500 Negro pupils attend these elementary schools, which
Eire separate and apart from almost the entire white school
Loopulation. One of them, Lincoln, already has an all—Negro

istudent body. The Junior High Schools average 1,200 pupils

Efiach, while Senior High Schools go as high as 1,700 each.

x

31Report of Education Committee of Lansing Chap—
tern NAACP.

32A Negro school by definition of the Lansing
I3Oard of Education is one in which at least 75% of the
Pupils are Negroes.

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153

Elementary school enrollments range from as low as 100

and 170 in Community and Lincoln schools respectively

to more than 800 in North School. The teacher-pupil ’
ratio ranges from 1 to 27 in the elementary schools to

l to 29 in the junior and high schools. (Get distribu—

tion in Negro—white schools.)

Schools are built to insure that the children
served by a school can reach it without undue hardship
and to minimize the hazards of walking to school. Thus
elementary schools are so located that young children
will not have to walk more than a half mile. Junior
high schools are located not more than l—l/2 miles from
the majority of pupils attending one. The high schools
lie within.a radius of not more than two miles from the
llomes of the children. Pupils living beyond these limits
Eire transported to school by the School Boardo Similar
Iprovision is made for young children who do not have
ijie walks to travel on to school.

From time to time school boundaries are shifted
bY' the School Board in response to population movements,
3&3 when large numbers of white people leave the city for
the suburbs, proximity to service centers, and accessi-

bility to the homes of the children to be served. School

 

154

buildings vacated by the children of these families

....a..- w;.

come to be occupied by Negro children and those of lower
income whites who do not flee. ,
Most white parents approve of the neighborhood
concept of school districting, both for the easy access
to a school it provides for their children and the pro—
tection it gives them against mingling with ”undesirable"
persons. However, this principle does not give full pro—
tection to every white child and, as often happens, some
of them fall into predominantly Negro districts and have
to attend school there. Some parents of children so "vic—
timized" have protested and used both overt and subtle
pressures to get a change. The School Board has responded
by either of two procedures: ”bussing” or transfer. It
has either transported white children from other school
districts to the predominantly Negro schools in order to
correct the racial imbalance, or else permitted students
to transfer to other sdhools upon presentation of medical
Or psychiatric evidence that attendance at a particular
school would adversely affect the physical or mental
health of the pupil. The latter plan has enabled many
White parents to trahsfer their children to what they

consider more desirable schools. (According to the

 

155

School Board the direction of the flight has always been
to the white schools.) But the pupil transfer plan turns
out to be a two—edged sword, for some Negro parents who
perceive it as a mere instrument for segregation, or a
more tolerable excuse for allowing prejudiced white par-
ents to take their children from predominantly Negro
schools, have also used it to transfer their children
from segregated Negro schools to more racially balanced
schools where, they believe, educational opportunities
are better. A lawyer explains how he did it:

They [the School Board] make it easy for whites

who are prejudiced to take their children from

the Negro schools simply by presenting a cer-

tificate from some doctor saying that it is

against the child's mental or physical health

to attend the school he is in. I too just went

U3 my doctor and got a certificate and moved

my kids from school.
Children may also be transferred from one school to an—
other for disciplinary reasons. Thus if in the opinion
of the teachers and principal of one school a child has
become incorrigible, he may be sent to another school.
Officials of the Lansing School Board report that such
transfer has been effective in changing the behavior
Of the pupil.

The system of "permits” is not a cure against

segregating Negro children, however, for not every Negro

 

156

w -

family can take advantage of it. Those who seek to trans— ,
fer children must undertake the responsibilities for
transportation to a school outside a child's neighbor— r
hood. Most Negro families find the making of such arrange-
ments either inconvenient or the cost prohibitive. Their
stake intthe segregated schools prevents them from actively
supporting any move by their leaders to fight the system.

A case is reported in 1963 in which the Lansing School
Board gave the parents of overcrowded West Main (predom—
inantly Negro) elementary school the option to use mobile
classrooms or have their children ”bussed” to other schools
that were less overcrowded. Under the bussing program a
family with more than one child might have their children
in two widely separated schools, attending at different
hours of the day. And the parents have to bring such
pupils back from school, since the School Board provides
only one—way transportation. For working mothers of fam—
ilies with small means, bussing presented difficult prob—
lems, for it meant that arrangements had to be made for
babysitting where children had to attend school at differ—
ent hours; for one way transportation of each child at
inconvenient hours of the day. Furthermore parents felt

that special psychological problems would be posed for

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157

children of one family who once attended one school, but
each of whom must now go his own way where the emotional
fortification derived from having a brother or sister
around was lost. Based on these considerations the ex-
ecutive ccmmittee of Main Street School PTA (Parent-

Teacher Association) voted for the mobile classrooms.

Reaction to De facto Segregation

Because of the intimate relationship parents see
between the acquisition of skills and the ability to com-
pete successfully in the job market in an increasingly
complex industrial economy, they are deeply concerned
about the schools their children attend. Within the
limits of their awareness they are deeply sensitive to
influences which might impede maximum exposure to what
they consider the best educational resources of the city.
INegro parents-~especially those of the middle class—-
Object to the confinement of their children to "Negro"
schools which, following the United States Supreme Court,
they see as necessarily inferior in their offerings to
those available to white children. Thus 70% of the in-

formants questioned hold that Negro schools are inferior

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158

to "white" ones in Lansing. One mother questions the
whole logic behind separate but equal schools:

If they [the School Board] say one school's

as good as another, why won't they let white

kids into Negro schools? Why won't they let

our kids into their schools? Something's

wrong somewhere. Somebody's fooling somebody.

Me, I know what's happening and they can't

fool me. Their schools are better.

The facilities in the schools most Negro children
attend are older, just as the buildings themselves are.
This comes from the fact of confinement in the central
city and having to use buildings vacated by children of
white families fleeing to the suburbs. A successful man
in private business voiced the main discontent with sep—
arate schools. ”Negroes,” he notes, "are getting in one
area and so their schools are becoming Negro. And as a
school becomes more Negro there is a decline in mainten-
ance." Respondents point to the older and inadequate
recreational facilities—~the smaller playground space
and the older athletic equipment and buildings--as ex—
amples. The conviction about inadequate facilities is
based also on a belief that Negro schools are overcrowded.
They are so since, as one informant put it, the facilities

have been subjected to ”greater wear and tear by more

People." A larger teacher-pupil ratio is also taken as

 

 

159

an element in Negro school overcrowding, as is space in
relation to numbers of pupils. It is difficult to con—
firm this charge, in view of the fact that the school
board does not keep or publish figures on pupil distri—
bution by race in individual schools. But it is a well—
known fact that mobile classes have been used at one of
the predominantly Negro schools (Main Street School)
while, according to four teachers and protest group
leaders, there were vacant classrooms in two nearby
predominantly white schools (e.go Verlindent). The
suggestion is that the School Board preferred using
mobile classes at Negro schools in integrating them
into white schools. But my investigation shows that
mobile units operate in at least one white school also
~~Wainwrighto33

Negro opposition is directed not only against
Segregated schools, but the principal condition which
'brings them about—~segregated housing patterns. There

is concern among most informants that life in a black

 

33The use of mobile classes in both "Negro" and

”white" schools is, of course not an argument for the
absence of segregation. On the contrary, it could in—
deed support the charge, for unwillingness to mix “races'
could lead to a preference for such mobile units in face
of objective conditions of overcrowding.

 

 

160

ghetto has a limiting impact on Negro children, in that
it does not allow them to develop skills for relating
effectively to members of the white world, with whom
they can expect to be working all their lives. Present
adult Negroes recall with some bitterness the crippling
psychological effects of growing up in a black ghetto,
as this statement by a successful professional indicates:

I came from the hills of Virginia, where I

lived in segregated surroundings all along

till I finished high school. Then I went to

the University of Pennsylvania for college,

where I was thrust among whites and had to

compete. I felt an inferiority complex for

a very long time. I had to struggle hard

to overcome it.
Above all, segregation from whites is feared for the
Social and economic deprivation it entails and the in—
feriority complex which this in turn fosters in the "cul—
turally" deprived Negro children.

Not every member of the sample accepts these
Suggestions. At least 15% either maintain that the
schools are comparable or disclaim adequate knowledge
0f the situation to have an opinion. A retired army
officer is of the firm opinion that the alleged disad-

vantages of the segregated Negro school stem more from

What the child itself brings to the school situation

 

 

 

 

161

from its own background than the structure of the sep—

arate school as such. On this View Negro parents must
take responsibility for what learning difficulties their r
children experience in the schools.

Drop-out records are not kept by race, according
to the school board, but there is widespread belief that
the rate is exceedingly higher among male Negro pupils.
Most people in our sample insist that this is the case
and explain it on the basis of a sense of hopelessness
generated by the fact of job discrimination against Negro
high school graduates. Negro youth who do not wait to
finish school can have little motivation for continuing
to put time and money into an effort that may not be re—
warded. This is what one father of four children meant
When he explained that "they [Negro pupils] become over-
pOWered by a sense of hopelessness. They say to them—
selves, 'Why spend time and money getting a training when
We can't get a job?'" The average factory wage of $2.50
per hour seems a more meaningful goal to many drop—outs.
When they realize that their parents and friends with
no more than elementary school background are earning
as much as $7,500 a year, at Oldsmobile and Fisher Body

factories, the goal of finishing high school becomes all

 

 

 

the more unrealistic. Few jobs outside the plant can

bring this level of income to people with even a high
school education.

Parental pressure on the children to contribute
to the family economy is also a factor forcing many male
Negro pupils out of the high schools. Parents who have
so little education and skills that they are vulnerable
to technological lay—offs can derive security from the
economic cooperation of a son who may be holding down
a job. This is one reason why more boys drop out of
school than girls.

Still another explanation of the relatively high
drop—out rate among Negro pupils is that many of them
live in homes where models of educational or professional
success are absent. They are not exposed to the books
and other cultural stimuli which are taken for granted
in some white homes or those of more comfortable Negroes.
Their parents do urge them to go to school, but rarely
PrOVide positive enCOuragement. Indeed this kind of en—
couragement is foreign to many parents, coming as they
do from poor farm backgrounds themselves. The failure
does not stem so much from lack of interest on the part

Of parents in the future of their children as it does

 

163

from innocence. Most members of the sample irrespective
of socio-economic status desire that their children will
follow professional occupations or get a "good" education.
Typical of this parental aspiration is the view of a
factory worker who said he hopes his children ”would

not follow my footsteps.”

The suspicion that Negro schools offer inferior
education also rests on a widely held belief among Negroes
that most Negro teachers in the Lansing public schools
are segregated in the predominantly Negro schools. It
is believed that this concentration stems from a convic—
tion that most white people do not want Negroes to teach
their children. Negro teachers generally deny this,
POinting out both that teacher recruitment and assign-
ment are made on a nondiscriminatory basis and that white
teachers are found in even the all-Negro elementary schools,
just as Negro teachers are found in many ”white" schools.
They are content that only qualification and certain com-
Petitive factors may limit a Negro's chance of getting
hired as a teacher in the Lansing public school system.

AS a teacher in a predominantly white school explains:
This charge had some validity about 15 years
ago, for neither Negroes nor Jews were being

hired. When I came here in 1948, I had a
Bachelors degree in , but I could not

 

 

 

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get a teaching job even though my field was
needed and continues to be in demand even to—
day. Despite my college degree I had to work
as a laborer in the factory for 11 years to
support my family. Today, however, a Negro

can get hired as a teacher if he is qualified
and is in a field that is needed. You see, in
things like Social Studies, English, or Physi—
cal Education there are too many people, so
that any one applying will have to face a tough
competition. He will have to be tops. But in
fields like science and mathematics where the
need for teachers is still great, there is al—
most no competition. But it is in these areas
that applicants are few. So if a Negro doesn't
get hired, he can't just accuse somebody of dis—
crimination.

Negro teachers are almost unanimous in denying discrim—
ination in the wage structure. In conversations with
fifteen different teachers, including some not included
in the sample, my attention was constantly called to the
fact that the wage plan is no secret, and that once hired
a teacher's educational and professional experience are
the main conditions for advancement. Thus, of two tea—
Chers with the Bachelor's degree the one who has more
hours toward the M.A. degree is more likely to have the
higher pay.

No Negro is on the School Board, but Negroes
are employed in professional and non—professional capaci—
ties on the non—teaching staffs in some of the schools.

Some holding advanced graduate degrees are counselors

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and special education specialists in the public schools.

Not only are there Negro teachers in mixed schools in
the city, but two Negroes are administrators in the school
systemo One heads an elementary school as principal,
while another is assistant principal of one of the Junior

High schools.

White Teachers in Negro Schools

 

The role of the white teacher in predominantly
Negro schools has become controversial. On the one hand
his mere presence on the staff is seen as something de—
sirable or evidence of the integration trend. On the
other hand, he is also considered another factor con—
tributing to the higher Negro drop—out rates. Rumors
Circulate that white teachers are not interested in Ne-
gro pupils, that white counselors do not encourage them
to choose vocations in which they are likely to find
employment after school, such as typing, shorthand,
accounting, filing, and other commercial subjects. There
appears to be some merit to the claim that Negro pupils
are not being pointed to those occupational directions

that are likely to be in demand in the job market they

*—

 

 

 

166

will be entering after graduation. Yet the conspirator—
ial theory of white-teacher failure to give Negro pupils
the ”right” advice appears too simple to account for the
Negro drop—out problem.

Advising Negro high schoolers to choose sports,
recreation and other aspects of physical education could
be due to the white counselor's realistic estimate of a
Negro's life chances in the community, rather than a con-
scious desire to ”keep them down,” or point them to "Ne—
gro" jobs. Every Negro in the sample is convinced that
a white graduate of the Lansing high schools has a better
chance of getting a job than his Negro counterpart. Know-
ing white prejudices against hiring Negroes, white coun—
selors may actually be unable to see any reason for
_pointing Negro boys and girls in directions which are
Iiot likely to yield any results. This is the rationale
one Negro school administrator sees in Negro pupils'
lack of readiness for jobs that are now opening to high
SChool pupils, including Negroes, rather than any delib—
erate intention by white teachers to keep Negroes from
qualification for better opportunities.

Michigan Bell of Lansing has notified us [the
school] that it has openings for three Negro

girls, but we have been unable to contact any-
one who can take advantage of the opportunity.

 

 

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167

But who can you blame? The counselors——yes£
But the attitude of the very people who are

now asking for Negro applicants is also to
blame for the lack of qualified girls. Until
very recently they didn't hire Negroes, and
counselors know this. In failing to point
Negro pupils toward jobs that are now opening
to them white counselors might simply have been
taking into account what was a fact of life in
the city. Of course they could be a little more
optimistic.

Student Interrelationships

Relationships between white and Negro pupils

are generally good, if not close, White pupils tend

 

to accord their Negro schoolmates the same degree of
respect, honor, and friendliness given to white students.
Negroes hold some positions of honor in the schools.
For example, during the academic year of 1962—3 a Negro
was co—captain of the football team at one of the city
high schools, on the vote of his white and Negro team—
mates. A teacher of ten years' experience in the public
SC1nools is confident that many white pupils do not hesi-
tate to vote for a Negro athlete to become a team offi-
cer if he has distinguished himself as fit for the posi—
tion.

No pupil is excluded from Junior Proms or any

other school dance On account of skin color, although

 

168

at such gatherings Negro boys tend to dance only with
girls of their ”race.” Mixed dating is rare. Negroes
have been Presidents of the Junior Class. In a few
cases they have won scholarships to go to college. The
daughter of one of my informants is presently enrolled
at Michigan State University on a four—year scholarship
grant from a city high school. A daughter of another
informant has recently completed college at Michigan
State University on a similar scholarship grant. A Ne-
gro minister's son is now studying music at Michigan
State on a scholarship from his high school in Lansing.
Other honors are bestowed on Negro pupils, apparently

without any discrimination.

Parent—Teacher Associations

Both Negroes and whites belong to most of the
PI%Js. The officers tend to be of ”one race" or the
Other, depending on whether the school is predominantly
White or Negro. Thus Negroes are Presidents and Vice
Presidents of the four ”Negro” elementary schools—~Kala—
mazoo, Lincoln, West Main, and West Michigan. Negroes
Whose children attend predominantly white schools belong

to the PTA of such schools, but are not officers. Members

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169

of the PTA's are motivated by a common interest in their
children, expressed in pointing out the needs of the
schools they attend to the Lansing School Board.

The problems dealt with by these associations
vary from school to school, but the major concern of pre-
dominantly Negro schools is to get the School Board to
recognize the fact of de facto segregation and to take
some steps to remedy the situation. The West Main Street
School PTA, for example, has approached the School Board
with such specific proposals as bussing some Negro pupils
to other schools and bringing in more white pupils in
order to correct the racial imbalance at Main or make
the student body a more heterogeneous group, and locating
new school buildings nearer the boundaries of school dis—
tricts rather than in the center of such districts?4 The
School Board recognizes school segregation but attributes
it to neighborhood patterns. It refuses to accept that
it has a clear responsibility to integrateethe schools

irl view of the prevailing residential arrangements.

 

34Communication with the President of the group.

35A recent court decision in Gary, Indiana, to the
effect that a school board does not have such responsibil—
ity where it did not gerrymander school boundaries to
achieve racial segregation, has been cited by the Lansing
School Board in support of its refusal to take responsibil—
itY for integrating the public schools.

 

170

Negro parents are satisfied that their white
counterparts do not look upon them with any condescend—
ing attitude, as far as this can be inferred from white
behavior.

Like those in most other American cities, the
response of the Lansing School Board has been that there
is no prejudice, no discrimination, no inequities based
on race in the school system. It maintains that such
"imbalances" as might exist are a result of social and
economic forces (residential segregation) which lie en—
tirely outside the control of school administration offi-
cials. This thesis the Negro Protest groups reject, and
link the School Board with efforts to perpetuate the bi-
racial social system which subordinates the Negro by
arbitrarily limiting his educational opportunities,
as will be seen in the (next) Chapter on protest activi—

ties.

C. ECONOMIC LIFE

One of the most important tests of American
citizenship is access to equal economic opportunities.
MOSt Negroes came to Lansing to escape the denial or

jUSt this access in the South and other communities in

 

 

the United States. In order to understand the amount

of their "share" in the economy of Lansing it is impor-
tant to consider some salient features of that economy.
An individual's share in this context is what he receives
in return for his labor, and occupation is the most re—
liable index of income. Some consequences of the Negro's
economic position will also be considered.

As already indicated, Lansing is primarily an
industrial community. As can be seen from the following
Table, manufacturing constitutes the largest single cate—
gory of economic activities, and, correspondingly, pro—
vides the largest single source of employment. There
are about 184 manufacturing establishments, providing
a higher proportion of durablewgoods than non—durable
ones. Their principal products include automobiles,
automobile bodies, trucks, plastics, stationery, oil
burning and hot waterheating units, agricultural imple—
4ments, lawn mowers, tools and dyes, forgings, stampings,
'etc., for automobiles, airplane and railroad industries.

Prior to the first World War the automobile plants
were locally owned. Now, most of the large ones—-Oldsmo—

sentee owned. However, most of the forges and automobile
III-V“

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172

\\\_ parts plants are still locally owned and employ 40% of

the industrial labor force.

TABLE 3

INDUSTRY OF EMPLOYED, BY COLOR, FOR
LANSING, 1960

 

 

Industry of Employed Non—white White
Agriculture, Forestry,

Fisheries 8 0.3% 107 0.3%
Mining - — 13 0.0
Construction 104 4.2 2,321 5.8
Manufacturing 701 28.3 10,818 27.0

Transportation, Communi—
cation, Public Utili—

 

ties 82 3.3 2,217 5.5
Wholesale & Retail 259 10.4 8,274 20.6
Finance, Insurance,

Real estate 15 0.6 1,957 4.9
Business & Repair

Services 56 2.3 863 2.2
Personal Services 387 15.6 2,035 5.1
Entertainment & Recre—

ation Services 28 1.1 191 0.5
Professional Services 368 14.8 5,862 14.6
Public Administration 141 5.7 3,752 9.4
Industry not reported 330 13.4 1,673 4.1
Total: 2,479 100.0 40,083 100.0

 

Source: U. S. Census of Population, 1960: Mich—
igan. General Social and Economic Characteristics. PC
(1) 24c, Table 78.

The Oldsmobile Division of General Motors is the

citst largest industry and employer. Its work force

numbers about 13,500 men and women.36 Fisher Body ranks

 

36Interview with the Public Relations Director at
Oldsmobile, Lansing, June 23, 1964.

*u——.

 

173

second, with 8,000 employees. Lansing boasts of a diver-
sified industrial complex, and is the home of some of

the best known products in the automotive field: Olds—
mobile cars, Reo trucks and buses, Duplex trucks, Motor
Wheel and Fisher Body products, and John Bean Division

of Agricultural equipment.

Retail trade is another important sector of the
city‘s economy, for all Lansing is also a trading center,
attracting shoppers from five counties with a population
total of over 300,000.37 Morevoer, three railroads—~New
York Central, Chesapeake & Ohio, and Grand Trunk—~airline
connections to all parts of the United States, and truck
transportation in all directions make Lansing an active
trading and distribution center. The 1960 United States
Census estimated the city's retail trade for 1959 at more
than $286,927,752. Lansing is also one of the leading
convention cities of Michigan. Over 150 trade associa-
tions and professional groups have chosen it as their
headquarters, their annual meetings bringing revenues
in the millions of dollars.

There has been a construction boom in Lansing

(including East Lansing). Projects started in 1962 alone

 

37Polk's directory for Lansing, 1963.

 

 

 

“My

174

are estimated at more than $20,000,000. A larger pro-
portion of government offices and employees is yet an—
other significant feature of the economy. Lansing is

of course the seat of Michigan state government. But

the city also has a large contingent of Federal employ—
ees. There is a United States District Post office and
several other Federal offices, including Internal Revenue,
Social Security, Interstate Commerce, Labor Department
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, etc.

Education is a third major facet of Lansing's
economy. About 26,000 of Michigan State University's
more than 30,000 students and its 2,500 faculty and non—
academic staff are on the campus at nearby East Lansing.
A large proportion of the budget of the University thus
goes into salaries, which are shared with Lansing for
the purchase of homes or food and other items in its
stores.38

Financial institutions in Lansing include three

state banks (including one in East Lansing), one national

 

38This is particularly true of Negro professors

and other non—academic people. In the course of my field
interviews I encountered one such professor in a house in
Lansing. I told him I had been under the impression that
he lived in East Lansing. He said, ”Oh, you know they
[East Lansing whites] didn't rent to Negroes when I
started teaching at MSU."

 

 

175

bank, with eight branch offices, and three savings and

loan associations (one in East Lansing), employing more

 

than a thousand people.

The Labor Force

Lansing has a civilian work force of about
115,800,39 which is relatively stable. Unemployment
is only 3.1% for the city, a figure lower than the state—
wide total of 5.4% as well as the national level of 5.1%40
It is a mark of stability that Oldsmobile, for example,
the largest employer in the city, has enjoyed an unpre—
cedented record of industrial peace. Company officials
take pride in pointing out that no picketing or wild—cat
strike has ever occurred in their plant. The same is
true of Fisher Body and most of the other economic or—
ganizations in Lansing. Only in the academic year 1958—
59 did Michigan State University experience faculty re-
signations as a result of failure to receive their pay

when it became due. The State Legislature was caught

 

39Michigan Employment Security Commission, Labor
Market, XIX, No. 4 (April, 1964).

40Ibid., these figures are for March, 1964.

 

 

 

176

up in a political wrangle between the two major political
parties, whose members could not agree on fiscal policy.
But confidence in the financial solvency of the State and
the University was quickly restored through appropriate
legislative appropriations. There have been no more
"payless pay days” in the six years since. A mark of
success in the return of ”normal” conditions is the fact
that faculty losses each year have been amply balanced
by gains from other universities. This is true despite
the fact that Michigan State University's faculty pay
structure ranks ninth among the Big Ten Schools.41 Tea—
chers in the Lansing Public Schools have never staged a
strike, as has been the case in Utah, East St. Louis,

and other places in the country.42

Economic Prospect

The operations of the manufacturing companies
contribute to a large industrial payroll, augmented by
that of Federal, state, and city governments, and of

Michigan State University. All these factors combine

 

41Michigan State University State News (May 6,
1964.

42 . . . .
The National Education Assoc1ation, Reporter

(May 15, 1964) .

..—..

 

177

to give Lansing a thriving economy, expanding job oppor—
tunities as well as a healthy economic outlook for the
future.43 An Oldsmobile executive, explaining the sta—
bility of the city's labor market, pointed out that these
economic activities mean that ”we have here a large juicy
plum, from which each of us can get a good bite." A Ne—
gro worker for the company goes even further in his assess—
ment of the economic implications of these enterprises

for the Negro. ”There is no place like Michigan, no place
like Lansing," he insisted. "A lot is going on here. One
can go as far as he wants if he is qualified, and the Ne-

gro should take advantage of it, instead of going round

11ere with a chip on his shoulders, making trouble."44

43 . . . . .
The Michigan Employment Security Commiss1on's

Zkrea Labor Market Highlights for April, 1964, states that
"Expansion hiring in manufacturing slightly outweighed
losses in non—manufacturing and government. As a result,
employment edged up to 100. Staff additions of 300 in
Inotor vehicles and equipment and increments totaling 100
in miscellaneous nondurables, partly offset by reductions
in.primary metals. Private non—manufacturing fell off 200,
Cliiefly because of cutbacks in retail trade. Government
(flipped 100 seasonally in the local sector. Unemployment
declined 500 to 3600."

44He is one of few Negroes in a craft union working
at Oldsmobile, and has been with the company 12 years. He
is an electrician. While insisting that if the individual
is qualified, discrimination need not be a barrier to ad—
Vancement he forgot that 90 minutes earlier he had complained
how before he joined Oldsmobile, he was prevented from wiring
hOuses in Lansing for which he had contracts, by representa—
tives of the Electrical Union on grounds that he had not

 

 

 

 

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178

Unemployment as such is hardly a problem for the
city of Lansing Negro. As can be seen from Tables 3 and
4, more than twenty-eight (28.3%) percent of the Negro
labor is employed in industry, although as Table 5 shows
Negroes account for only 5% (2,697) of the labor force.
This figure compares favorably with that for whites who,
while making up 96% of the entire labor force have only
27%.of their number of 10,818 in industry.45 Yet this
high volume of Negro employment tends to obscure the real
position of minority groups in the economy until the spe-
cific types of jobs held are analyzed. More than 97% of
the Negroes in manufacturing are concentrated in unskilled
and semi-skilled jobs. The fact that Negroes with their
smaller numbers in the work force make up 12.1% of the
laborers to only 3.9% of whites in this category lends

supporttn this View.46

 

gone through their apprenticeship program and hence was
presumed to be unqualified to practice the trade in Lan-
sing. He said at the time of the incident he was a fully
trained electrician. He blamed the actiOn against him to
discrimination.

5These figures were obtained by adding civilian
labor force figures for whites and non-whites,male and
female.

46See Table 3.

 

 

179

TABLE 4

EMPLOYMENT STATUS OF NON—WHITE AND WHITE FOR
LANSING, 1960

 

Employment Status Non—white White

 

Males, 14 yr. old & over 2,126 100.0% 33,456 100.0%

Civilian Labor Force 1,648 77.5 26,734 79.9
Employed 1,541 93.5 25,465 95.3
Unemployed 107 6.5 1,269 4.7

Not in Civilian Labor 478 22.5 6,653 19.9
Force

Females, 14 yrs. old

and over 2,065 100.0% 37,649 100.0%
Civilian Labor Force 1,049 50.8 15,052 40.0
Employed 938 89.4 14,618 97.1
Unemployed 111 10.6 434 2.9
Not in Civilian Labor 1,016 49.2 22,597 60.0
Force

 

Source: U. S. Census of Population, 1960: Mich—
igan. General Social and Economics Characteristics. PC
(1) 24C, Table 77.

The whole pattern of employment in the city re-
veals a consistency in this picture. Confinement of
Negroes to menial jobs is evident from the fact that
16.6% of them are in personal services, as compared to
only 5.1 in the same category for whites. In the laborer
category, for example, they make up 12.2% to only 3.4%
for whites who constitute 95% of the work force. In
construction, the Negro employment level of 4.2% com—

pares favorably with that for whites, which is 5.8%.

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181

But here again the mere volume of employment
obscures a basic fact. While the prOportions uphold
the notion that unemployment is not the major problem
it is in Detroit and other cities in Michigan and else-
where,47 it remains true that the jobs Negroes hold
are the strenuous and undesirable ones whites do not
want. This is why the construction union in Lansing
is able to boast about nondiscrimination. A Negro ex-
plains why construction unions serve workers on a first—
come—first-sepve basis:

Construction work is heavy work. Whites are
not used to it. They've been getting by on

our blood and sweat all along, so they are
soft. You find only a few of them are in there
[the construction jobs]. The union is open to
everYbody not because the white man has changed
his heart. He is the same old oppressor of our
people. If he could do heavy work, he'll get
the Negro out of there too.

In 1960 Negro unemployment was more than three
times higher than that for Whites: 8.6% to only 2.8%.
There has been a slight decline since then, but it is

still more than double that for whites. The rate for

April, 1964, was 5% for Negroes and 2% forw'hites.48

 

47In Detroit, unemployment has averaged 5.6% in

the last 10 years.

48Michigan Economic Record (The Michigan State
University School of Business, April, 1964).

182

Table 5 represents occupational distribution by
color for 1960. It becomes immediately apparent fi1at as
in most other American cities, the range of job Opportun—
ities for Negroes was very narrow. The vast majority,
about 81.3%, were in unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.
Only about 34.6% of white workers may be so classified.
Almost one—half (315) of the Negro blue collar workers
(laborers, service people) may be designated as menial
laborers. They hold what has been traditionally consi-
dered "Negro jobs"-—jobs that pay the lowest wages and
provide the least security. Negroes are indeed "the last
hired and the first fired.” Negro blue collar workers
are almost invariably employed in jobs where there are
white supervisors, and however competent they may be,
there is little Opportunity for advancement. A Negro
at Oldsmobile who feels he should have become foreman
but was passed over in favor of a white man, complained
as follows:

I have been here 18 years. I was here six

years before that peckerwood [the white fore-
man] came. I had one year of college; he only
went to high school. When he came we had to
show him what to do round here. But where is

he today? He's my boss. He tells me what to

do and I can't get a raise if he doesn't apprOve

of it. Why? His skin is white. That's how
they run this place.

183
Recent Economic Position of the Negro

With these general statements as a background, we
turn now to some specific enterprises in Lansing, to ex-
amine the position of the Negro in them. They are repre-
sentative of the major sectors of the economy: manufac-
turing, education,retai1 trade, and government service.

It is difficult to talk white business executives
into releasing figures on the occupational distribution
of employees by race. Attempts to get such information
are frequently rebuffed with the plea that race is not a
relevant factor in employment and hence record of the ra—
cial identity of employees is not maintained. For example,
a 45—minute interview with the Public Relations Director
of a leading corporation (representing the manufacturing
interests) failed to yield any clues on Negro occupational

4 . . .
levels. 9 In the absence of systematic information I sought

 

491n the face of loud, widespread criticisms by

Negro protest groups that the Company Operates a citadel
of racial discrimination, the official most responsible
for promoting the image of the company disclaimed any
knowledge of even the hourly wage at the "plant," let
alone occupational distribution by color. He was very
familiar with the history of the firm, expecially the in-
crease in the output of cars over the years, but not how
many foremen are with the company in 1964, their racial
classification, or the number of Negroes in secretarial
and other white collar positions. Asked to refer me to

184

to check the inferences made earlier in the 1960 United
States Census as well as impressions gained during inter-
views with Negro informants and through personal obser-
vation on job sites. For this purpose I took part in

a guided tour of the plant. Although an accurate esti-
mate of employees could not be made, it seemed clear that
non-whites were under-represented. I counted 33 Negroes

out of a total of some 2600 whites.50 These few Negroes

 

someone who might know or could make even an educated guess,
he called Mr. of the Personnel Department and informed
him that a gentleman in his office from MSU wanted the in—
formation for a thesis. After their brief talk the Public
Relations Director stood on his "ignorance."

50 . . .

This is a rough estimate, not an accurate count,
for I was in a moving train and could not have included
everyone on both sides of the aisle. Our guide would call
attention to some operation on the left or right side be-
fore we got to it. While looking in that direction it was
quite possible that I missed several workers on the Oppo-
site side. Furthermore the plant is filled with machinery
and the men tending them could not be seen from the train,
for the rear View is obstructed by the front machines.

Often I heard voices from behind some of the installations
but could not see the workers. Yet where I was able to see
large groups of workers I had to look hard for non—white
persons. I saw no one--neither Negroes nor whites-~sweep-
ing the floor or performing other menial tasks. It was of
course the middle of the morning work shift and perhaps such
tasks were performed at the end of the previous shift or the
end of each. But if the first shift is representative of
occupational distribution, then it is reasonable to assume
that Negroes are far less than 6%.in the work force and
certainly do not figure prominently in white collar jobs.

 

1‘4-

 

“an..—

185 ;{

I

did semi—skilled work on the assembly lines. I observed i‘
I

no Negroes doing office assignments. This picture, though

not altogether accurate, lends support to a Negro union

official's estimate of Negro numbers in the ”plant" as

. ”51
only ”a drop in the bucket.
The following Table shows the occupational status
of the nonacademic staff52 at Michigan State University

(respectively representative of education) by color:

 

 

 

Type of Work Total No. Number of % Negroes
of Negroes
Employees
Secretarial 1,189 7 .005 or 1%
Service 895 218 24%
Crafts 346 1 .003 or %%
Professional 150 1 .007 or 1%
Technical Services 434 4 .004 or 1%
Total: 3,014 231 8%

 

lHis estimate of the entire work force is 15,000,
which is slightly more than that quoted by the Public Re—
lations Director. The union leader suggested a ratio of
one Negro to every 100 whites. If this were correct, then
there would be 500 Negroes with the company. And more than
150 Negroes would be expected in each shift. On the basis
of my observation it is likely that this ratio is highly
inflated.

52 . .

The Personnel Director expressed surprise that
more Negroes do not apply. This suggests that discrimina—
tion in the low paying jobs at least is low, if it exists
at all. Whether he would feel disposed to promote them as
far as their qualifications warrant is a matter I did not
inquire into. But it is clear that there is a readiness
to absorb more Negro labor.

186

The proportion of Negroes in the total nonacademic
personnel of the University is 8%. This is higher than
the proportion of Negroes in the City of Lansing—~a fact
probably explainable in terms of Michigan State University
being an academic institution. Yet while Negroes make up
only 8% of this work force, they account for 24% of the
service personnel. Here too the concentration of Negroes
in less paying jobs is confirmed, although this fact can-
not be attributed to discrimination or that alone.

Retail trade has been slower in recruiting Negro
personnel in Lansing. Up to 1956, no Negroes were employed
in retail trade. By 1958 the five major retail firms had
a total work force of 1600, but only one had made any sig—
nificant progress in hiring people on merit. It had 18
Negroes in supervisory, clerical, sales, and maintenance
positions. The other firms combined employed only 14 Ne—
groes-mall in a maintenance (dishwashing, sweeping, garbage
disposal, etc.) capacity.53 Except for the fact that a
few Negro girls have been hired in these stores as sales—

women and in clerical work, the Negro's position in retail

 

53 . . . . . .
The Michigan Fair Employment Practices Commiss10n,

A Study of Employment and Training Patterns in the Lansing

Area (1958), prepared for the Lansing Advisory Council.

 

 

187

sales remains substantially the same despite the increase
in the number of employees to 1800.

One store manager, who was transferred to Lansing
from another state, said that before coming to Lansing,
it was common practice to hire sales and clerical personnel
without regard to race, religion or national origin. But
when he arrived in Lansing, he said it was evident that
the same practice did not obtain among a majority of Lan—
sing's retailers. He indicated that he thought it unfor—
tunate that certain groups are excluded, but that he did
not want to be the one to change the pattern.

In the Lansing city government, too, the picture
is hardly different. Negroes remain under—represented in
white collar work and confined to the least lucrative jobs.
Out of 950 city positions in June of 1964, Negroes occupy
175, primarily in the Parks and Public Service Departments.
Within these two departments of city government, there are
different skills levels among Negroes employed. A prepon-

derance of the group is classified as unskilled. However,

. . . . 4
the Public SerVice Department utilizes Negroes as foremen,5

 

54According to the Personnel Director for the City
Government in an interview on June 17, 1964, there are two
Negro public service foremen. In thatcapacity they super—
vise road crewmen-—both white and Negro.

' “If?! "

'm

188 3%

and in the Public Parks Department, Negroes are utilized l

as equipment operators. Up to 1958 minority groups em—
ployment outside these departments was almost non—existent.
During the last four years some progress has been made.
Nine Negro girls have been hired in clerical positions

in city government. Whereas in 1958 there were no Negro
males in the Police and Fire Departments, there are now
two in these two departments.

The highest positions Negroes hold in city govern—
ment are those of members of boards,55 which, however,
have no policy making functions, and service on them is
voluntary and temporary.

From this brief sketch and figures the basic econ—
omic subordination of Negroes becomes apparent. Protest
leaders describe the recent progress in hiring few Negroes
in retail trade and in supervisory positions in city govern—
ment as ”tokenism,” designed to blunt criticisms of protest
groups and to circumvent the law against discriminatory
practices in hiring. As one NAACP leader has said,

They'll put one Negro here, and another there,

and they'll say they are integrated; that they
are not against Negroes. But for every black

 

55Some of the boards on which Negroes serve are

Park & Recreation, Human Relations, Traffic, Planning,
etc.

 

 

189

face they'll have a hundred whites. That's
integration——white style. It's nothing but
tokenism.

Median income for the Negro family in Lansing is $5,243,
which is more than a thousand dollars less than the city—

wide median income of $6,477.56

Reaction to Job Discrimination

 

The fact that most Negroes are confined to work
as common laborers is well understood by the informants.
Everyone is convinced that this is due mainly to racial
discrimination. No one in the sample has any doubts that
Negroes and white people do not have equal employment op—
portunities in Lansing, not even when they have comparable
educational background and training. Sample members are
sure that discrimination is the major limitation on Negro
economic advancement. They see a kind of job-ceiling be—
yond which Negroes cannot advance. Asked whether Negroes
and whites have equal chances of getting a promotion or
status increase, a protest group member replied that the

Chances are,

 

56U. S. Census of Population, 1960 — Michigan,

Table 86.

 

 

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.
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190

equal up to a point. As long as he [the Negro]
is satisfied to remain the little man——yes.
But if it is a supervisory job—~Nol If he has
to go to the South to set up an office or join
the country club and make speeches——Noi Here
the Negro is weak.

A Negro beautician born in Georgia, who was raised
in Florida, has lived in Albion, Michigan, where she worked
as a maid, rejects the concept of lack of adequate prepar—
ation as the real basis for the limitations imposed on Ne-
gro employment opportunities. She notes that:

Negroes have taken jobs in only one or two stores
in Lansing. White people say they want the quali—
fied Negro——the one who can do the job well, but
the Negro hasn't had the chance. They won't take
her until she can prove that she knows all about
the job; but they'll take on illiterate whites,
who have the kids outside [of wedlock].

But a factory worker on a skilled job is not sure that
all is discrimination. He subscribes to a kind of boot—
strap theory of Negro advancement.

There is some discrimination-—yes, but the Negro him~
self is also responsible. He should qualiiy himself.
If he is prepared, he can always get a job in Lansing.
In Oldsmobile, where I work, promotion depends on the
mgp and what he can do. If he is not qualified, he
can't blame the white man for not hiring him. I won't
take a man on either if he couldn't do the job. Don't
care what color he is-—red, yellow, white, or green.

 

57Earlier in the extended interview I had with
this informant he complained that before he joined the
union he obtained a contract to wire 15 houses in Lansing.
He felt he was a well trained electrician. He said when
White members of the electrical union saw him at work

 

 

 

 

191

Sheer lack of interest may be added to the above
considerations in accounting for the Negro's failure to
advance. The wages for unskilled work are often tempting
enough to make some individuals either lose sight of the
risks involved or willing to take them. Thus, when another
factory hand with only high school education was asked whe—
ther he was satisfied with his job or would consider a white
collar position, he replied that he made $10,000 on his job
in 1962, and that if he went to college, obtained a degree,
and took a white collar job he was not sure that he would
make much more to justify the ”waste of time.” According
to him, "this would be leaving certainty for uncertainty."

Labor unions have a part in the indictment. Negro
attitudes toward them is an ambivalent one. On the one
hand they are seen as one of the chief obstacles to Negro

job advancement in Lansing. It is charged that by keeping

 

they demanded an end to his activities because he had not
become a member of their union. Even though he was fully
qualified, he said they wanted him to go through the ap-
prenticeship program before he could be certified. Yet

as a Negro, and not having any friend or relative he did
not have anyone to recommend him for the program. In other
words, he felt that even if he had the time to spend five
or six years in training, whites would not recommend him
for the apprenticeship program; yet they did not want him
to work. He said he felt they were discriminating against
him.

 

 

 

 

192

Negroes out of their apprenticeship programs the craft

unions of the building trades—~electrical, plumbers, car-
penters, bricklayers, etc.——prevent Negroes from getting
into skilled occupations and therefore from the more lu—

crative positions.58 A study in 1958, for example, reports

 

58Apprenticeship training is a form of specialized
training found in the community. Individuals in this type
of training are of post-high school age (18-25); and are
indentured to an employer, labor union, or joint management—
1abor committee for the period of their training—~varying
from four to six years. Unlike cooperative training, an
individual must be an employee before he can be admitted
to a training program. The training program consists of
on—the—job experience and related class room instruction.
Related instructions are offered without cost to the em-
ployer or apprentice at the local high schools. At the
conclusion of his training, the apprentice receives a cer—
tificate from the State Board and Bureau of Apprenticeship
Training, as well as journeyman status in his union. Access
to employment in the skilled trades, especially the build—
ing trades, is dependent upon successful completion of a
bona—fide apprenticeship program. Due largely to racial
discrimination, not many Negroes can achieve the employee
status which is a condition for admission to a training
program, protest group leaders maintain. Furthermore, the
individual must be recommended or sponsored by a member of
the union he hopes to join. Since few Negroes are members
of craft unions this means that the chances of a young Ne—
gro getting into the program are very slim. A Negro offi—
cial of the union at Oldsmobile (UAW) insisted that Negro
exclusion is not a simple matter of racial discrimination.
Arguing from the assumption that the range of abilities in
a ”normal" group depends on the size of the group, he pointed
out that for every white person who gets accepted, ten or
more are usually rejected. Admission, he held, is by pass-
ing an aptitude test, consisting mainly of arithmetic. Most
Negro applicants, due to lack of adequate educational back-
ground, fail to pass this test. The chances of Negro selec—
tion is less, he thinks, because only few Negroes apply, and‘
then only in small groups. He explains Negro exclusion on

 

193

that out of a total of 216 persons in apprenticeship
classes in the Lansing area, only two were Negroes. The
most knowledgeable informants are agreed that no substan—
tial change has occurred in Negro recruitment to the pro—
gram since that time. On the other hand, unions are cred—
ited with having ”done a lot to reduce discrimination in
jobs and pay in the factory.’I Union—management contracts
specify wages for categories of employees, and union offi—
cials are in the ”plant” to insure that the agreement is
kept or not violated. In this way labor—unions protect

Negro workers from wage discrimination.

Negro Professionals

Negro professionals are usually circumscribed within
the Negro community. In Lansing, as in most other American
cities, traditions operate to prevent them from earning a
living as equal competitors of whites. Their white counter-

parts are expected to compete with them for economic

 

the basis of lack of educational background and smallness

of the groups in which they apply. His view is that if

more Negroes applied, the chances of selecting more of

them would increase, and blames Negro charges of discrimi—
nation in recruitment to the apprenticeship program largely
to a lack of understanding of the relationship between the
size of the group applying and the probability of acceptance.
Other Negroes do not accept this explanation.

I I
I"
.15
.I'
l
'.
I
I
.
I
I

 

194

opportunities in the Negro community, but they are not ex—
pected to compete with their white counterparts in the gen-
eral economy. This situation, of course, puts Negro pro—
fessionals at a distinct disadvantage. Therefore, compared
with the white population,,relatively few Negroes are engaged
in professional activities in Lansing. For example, accord—
ing to the 1960 Census, which followed a period of Negro
population growth and general economic expansion in the

city and unusual emphasis placed upon education in American
life, the proportion of Negroes engaged in professional pur-
suits lagged behind the prOportion Of white professionals.
Only 4.3% of all employed Negroes were professionals com—
pared to 12.2% for white workers. This is due largely to
the small size of the Negro community and the support it

can give independent professionals as well as the fact that
the range of opportunities for Negro professionals in Lansing
is relatively as narrow as it is for other classifications
of Negro workers. Actually, about 85% of all Negro pro—
fessionals in the city are teachers and ministers, the
Opportunities Open to them being mainly in Negro institu-
tions. During the period of research for this study, the

independent Negro professionals—~two lawyers,59 a physician,

 

59Lansing has three Negro attorneys. The latest

arrival is working as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney
for Ingham County.

l "L
2,]
I,
I

I. .

1,
I
I

.-

 

 

195

and a dentist-~were asked to express their feelings about
the competition they experience from white counterparts.
Although all of them agreed that such competition is whole-
some because it makes for constant improvement in standards
of service to the Negro community, they did not admit being
handicapped by having to compete with whites for Negro
clients. One lawyer and the dentist reported that about
90% of their clients are whites. The physician has managed

to retain enough Negro clients to stay in business.60

 

60This is not the usual pattern of Negro-white

competition in American communities. In the South, for
example, Negro professionals are handicapped in that cus—
toms and law forbid them to compete with white professionals
for White clientele. New Orleans is a case in point, as
Thompsons' study (1963) of the Leadership Class, has shown.
Negro professional success among whites in Lansing is also
an unusual phenomenon in view of the fact that many Negroes
are convinced that white professionals are better qualified
than Negro ones. This is the main reason that Negro pro—
fessionals in American communities feel obliged to "prove"
their relative competence. It is my understanding that it
is just such proof provided by one of the Negro lawyers in
Lansing of his skills in court that accounts for his attrac—
tion to a large number Of white clientele, and which enables
him to retain their following despite his higher fees. An
additional factor in the ability of Negro independent pro—
fessionals to draw upon white clientele is what appears to
be the absence of genuine competition among such professionals
in the city. I selected four dentists at random from the
Lansing telephone directory, and called their Offices for

an appointment. In no case could a booking be arranged
before two weeks except for an emergency. This suggests
that white dentists havemore clients than they can readily
handle. The excess clientele is available to be drawn upon
by any dentist—dwhite or Negro-~who has the time to serve
them. The Negro physician faces no competition either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.
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- - f ' "’U"
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.. ~ - ~
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196
Conclusions

There is ample evidence that Negroes in Lansing,
except the independent professionals, are severely re—
stricted in their efforts to earn a living. Most Negro
workers hold blue collar jobs and are frozen on the very
bottom of the occupational ladder. They are paid the
lowest wages, and most are subject to the greatest degree
of insecurity. Negroes who qualify for white collar po—
sitions can hardly expect to secure such jobs in enter—
prises controled by whites. Tradition seems designed
to protect whites against Negro competition; yet Negroes
on most occupational levels find themselves in direct
competition with white counterparts.

How consistent this pattern of Negro economic
subordination in Lansing has been is revealed when we
examine the following facts about occupational distri—

bution, called from the 1950 United States Census:

 

He has full staff privileges at the city's two hospitals.
His patients are predominantly Negro probably because of
the nature of the service involved. This is the factor
which most determines whether there would be discrimina-
tion. Since medical services require more personal real
relations between physician and client, it is likely that
white men in Lansing do not want to take their wives to a
Negro doctor or confide in him, which is what giving phys-
ical examinations and treatment implies. See J. Daniel
Thompson, The Negro Leadership Class (Englewood-Cliffs,

N.J.: Prentice—Hall, Inc., 1963); Meyer & Marden, American

Minorities.

 

 

 

197

— 21% of the whites, as compared to 30% of the
Negroes, were employed as Operatives and kin-
dred workers.

— 9.4% of the whites were employed as sales
people, compared to 1.1% of the Negroes.

— 17% of the whites were employed as clerical
workers, compared to 4.8% of the Negroes.

— 9.6% of the whites were employed as service
workers, compared to 27.8% Of the Negroes.

Business Exclusion

Although there are no available data according
to which Negro and white business potentials and successes
can be compared, any serious observer can readily see that
Negro business enterprises in Lansing are proportionately
Imuch fewer and occupy a considerably more limited range
in types than those Operated by whites. Since the suc—
cessful Negro businessman is still a rarity, compared
'with white businessmen, all protest group leaders in-
cluded in this study eXpress deep awareness of the rela-
tive lack of progress Negroes have made in the field of
business. As a rule, they feel that Negroes have made

less progress in this area than in any other. Even Negro

;

lThese computations were made from the 1950 Cen-
sus — Social & Economic Characteristics of Population for
Lansing, Michigan.

 

198

businessmen themselves agree that this is so.

Many explanations are offered for the unimpressive
success of Negro business in Lansing. All informants
were emphatic in their denunciation of racial segrega-
tion as most deleterious to the development of Negro busi-
nesses. Some pointed out that, unlike white businesses,
which might be located in more favorable sections of the
city, Negro business usually must locate in all-Negro or
predominantly Negro neighborhoods. They cited instances
in which real estate companies refused to sell or lease
property to Negro businessmen in predominantly white
neighborhoods or adjacent to similar white Operated en-
terprises.

Others called attention to unfair competition
'with white businessmen. Unlike white businessmen who
are protected from competition with Negro businessmen
by a complex of traditions, Negro businessmen have no
such immunity. They encounter competition from white
businessmen in every phase of their business activities.
In the first place white businessmen are not contained
in the white community as are Negroes in the Negro com-
munity. It is expected that white businessmen will 10-

cate in any section of the city calculated to be profitable.

 

 

 

199

Consequently, nearly all of the most desirable business

 

locations in the Negro community are occupied by whites.62
These businessmen do not encounter volunteer boycotts by
Negroes, as do Negro businessmen from whites.

Perhaps the mostserious kind of competition Negro
businessmen experience in Lansing is centered around lack
of sufficient capital to compete with wealthier white
businessmen. Lending institutions controlled by whites
are generally unwilling to extend Negroes anything but
very limited credit. On the other hand the relatively
low level of income of most Negro workers does not allow
any considerable saving after buying the wants pushed on
them by high—pressure advertising, to be invested in a
savings and loan association of their own. In fact, most
of them live on credit, their future wages to a great ex-
tent pledged for consumer wants and luxuries in the pres—

. . . . . . 63
ent: teleViSions, hi—fi radios, and refrigerators.

 

62This is true of gas or filling stations as it

is of supermarkets, groceries, and dry goods stores. These
are absentee owners who trade on the main streets in the
Negro community and go away at night. They hire a few
Negroes, but management is in the hands of white employees.
63These items, together with furniture, are usually
bought on the credit installment plan covered by chattel
mortgages. Clothing is bought on credit. The automobiles
that line the streets of the Negro community in Lansing-—
Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles, Mercuries and Chevrolets and
Fords-—are purchased, in most instances, on the credit plan.

 

 

 

 

200

Managerial experience is even limited among Negroes, not
having been allowed to hold anything but subordinate po—
sitions in those few banking institutions in Lansing or
elsewhere that would hire them. Negro protest group
leaders see this lack of Negro financial enterprises

as the main reason why white efforts to confine them

to a small area Of living in Lansing is effective.

A Negro cloting retail dealer finds himself in
competition with white retail peOple. As indicated in
the first section of this Chapter, he laments the fact
that most Negroes do not patronize him. The fact is that
his store has a more limited line of merchandise and is
much less attractive than the ones operated by white
owners. He cannot sell a wider variety at cheaper prices,
as his white competitors can, and this because he cannot
get enough credit to expand his business. Thus whites
in competition with him get the Negro customers. This
type of ”unfair“ competition is experienced by all Negro
businessmen in Lansing.

Another disadvantage of the Negro businessman is
his exclusion from business associations. Unlike the few
Negro professionals who are members of integrated local

and national professional organizations, Negro businessmen

 

.' ‘ Iv-QME-fln

 

 

 

201

in Lansing are severely handicapped because they are
isolated from the real world of business. They have
no opportunity to get in on the planning of the economic
life of the city. For example, there is no Negro member
of the Lansing Chamber of Commerce or any other organi—
zations where economic trends, opportunities, and plan—
ning are discussed by experts.64 Thus the individual
Negro businessman has little or no opportunity to benefit
from the thinking and experience of other businessmen.

It may be concluded, then, that by and large,
Negro businesses in Lansing are located in predominantly
Negro neighborhoods, where they must generally compete
with better—established and more efficiently operated
white enterprises. Most remain extremely simple and
small—scale. Negro-owned establishments provide few
or no jobs at all outside of those held by family members.
Thus their economic status and social influence are sel—
dom sufficient to inspire public confidence in the Negro
community. It may thus be said that, like Negroes in the
city of Lansing, Negro businesses are ascribed second—class

citizenship status.

 

64

A Negro high in state government recently told
me that he and another Negro have been invited to join
the local Rotary Club; hence this statement needs to be
qualified to some extent.

 

 

202
D. POLITICAL RELATIONS

A recent approach to the examination of political

relations in American society is in terms of ”Who Has

"65 . . . .
Payer. Power 15 understood in its Weberian sense,
as the ability of an individual or group to obtain its

. . 66

Will on a soc1al problem of common concern. The Amer—
ican community is said to be composed of different inter—
est groups which compete for control of social decisions
on what constitutes the most appropriate means to commun—
ity objectives. Each group defines the solution in terms
of its own particular interests. The notion that "what
is good for General Motors is good for America" illustrates
this point of View. Groups are considered powerful if

. . . . . . 6
community deCiSions favor their own particular interests.
Labor, management, the American Civil Liberties Union and

the White Citizens Council, the American Medical Association

 

65 .
David Riesman, ”Who Has Power?", in Class, Status
2£Q_39fl§£1 R. Bendix and M. Lipset (eds.), (Glencoe, 111.:
The Free Press, 1953), pp. 155—62.
66

H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber:
E§§§Y§ in Sociological Theory (Routledge and Paul Kegan,
London, 1952), p. 180.

67 .
Riesrnan, op. cit.

203

and the Social Security Agency of the Federal Government,
the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Civil
Rights Movement—~these are collectivities seeking to in—
fluence national or community decisions favorable to
themselves. Several groups may coalesce to espouse a
common cause, but their community of interest does not
continue beyond the particular issue.68 Labor and manage—
ment who usually have conflicting interests may join to
seek protectionist tariffs from Congress to minimize for—
eign competition or to oppose tariff reduction. Thus the
power structure at any point in time is something amor—
phous rather than structured and permanent.

Lansing has its share of interest groups, such as

business, labor unions, the Parent—Teacher Association,

 

68Those who were once on the side of an issue
may find themselves on quite opposite sides on another.
Labor and Civil Rights groups may be together in asking
Congress for measures which would require management to
accept proposals to cushion the effects of automation's
elimination of jobs, but labor refused to go along with
the comprehensive Civil Rights Bill of 1964. Specific—
ally, 1abor refused to endorse the bill or its section
banning racial discrimination in unions, and in hiring
practices based on race. The View of an unstable or
loosely organized power structure represents a reaction
to the monolithic conception of power put forward by
Warner, the Lynds, and by C. Wright Mills in his well—
known book, The Power Elite (1956).

 

 

I . .
_, ,
. _ _ ,
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204

churches, the NAACP, and the Farm Bureau, but the main
cleavage is between ethnic groups. Within the white

population specific groups tend to view "the Negro” as

 

a competitor. Broadly defined, the issue between whites
and Negroes is that of equal citizenship rights. To Ne—
groes this concept means realization by every citizen

of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of ”equal pro-
tection of law,“ and requires the removal of arbitrary
barriers to equal job, housing, and educational oppor-
tunities, as well as free enjoyment of public accomoda—
tion and fair treatment by police and legal tribunals.

TO many groups within the white population, however, the
constitutional guarantee of equal opportunties does not
apply to non-whites. Although they give verbal assent

to Negro rights, they engage in semantic finagleing; that
is, they pay lip service to equality of rights, but in
the face of specific programs to implement the principle,
they tend to equivocate. They would admit that housing
should be free, but if a Negro moves next door to them,
they object and rationalize this by shifting to a differ—
ent frame of reference. The Negro's insistence that the

guarantee applies to all citizens makes him a threat to

many white people's privileged access to the rewards and

 

205

opportunities provided by the city, and their interest
is in keeping him from competing with whites on equal
terms by maintaining a job ceiling for non-whites and
confining the Negro to a ghetto. It has already been
shown that, notwithstanding continuing progress in civil
rights, the overwhelming majority of white residents,
whether directly affected by Negro competition or not,
have drawn the color line rigidly at the point of social
intermingling, and continue to have Negroes concentrated
mainly in a single area of living in Lansing, and in the
unskilled and semi—skilled and least paying jobs.

The Negroes' chances for achieving first class
citizenship depend on the influence which they can exert
on city affairs. But ”voice” in community decisions de—
pends on the amount of sanctions which a group can impose
on decision makers in the formal positional structure of
city government. Votes constitute an important weapon
in its arsenal of power. This section will briefly ex—
amine the structure of city government as the agency
through which the will of the community is formulated
and implemented and the Negroes' relationship to it.
Some attention will be given to police and court treat—

ments of the Negro.

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206

Lansing has a Mayor—City Council form of govern—
ment. Elected for a four-year term by popular vote, the
Mayor is the chief executive and administrative official
of the city. He is aided in executing the will of the
people by eight city department heads, appointed by him
(with the consent of the Council) and responsible to him.
They are the City Clerk, City Attorney, City Comptroller,
Finance Director, Personnel Director, City Assessor, Chief
of Police, City Director, and Market Master and Sealer of
Weights and Measures. As far as the city—s day—to—day
affairs are concerned the Mayor and these officials con-
stitute the highest policy and administrative group in
city government. No Negro holds any of these executive
posts.

Next in order of importance in the administration
of city affairs are a number of Boards. These include
Park, Public Service, Traffic, Electrical Examiners,
Plumbing, Air Pollution, Appeals or Zoning, Water and
Light, Planning, Police and Fire, and Civic Center. These
are interracial agencies which determine policy for the

services under them, but the execution of such policies

is in the hands of an official appointed directly by the

 

 

 

207

. . . 69 .
Mayor or the CiVil SerVice. While there are Negroes
on some of these Boards, they are a minority and no Negro

heads any of the services under them. .

 

In addition to the Boards, there are Committees
of the Mayor appointed by him from time to time. Unlike
the Boards, Mayor's Committees have no policy—making
authority. Their function is to study some community
problem and recommend solutions to the Mayor who must
obtain city council approval before putting them into
effect. They too are biracial. The Mayor's Committee
on Human Relations is an example.

Lansing has eight councilmen. Formerly, the
political system was based on a large number of wards
usually drawn to conform to the racial, nationality or
religious character of the neighborhood. There were
eight wards, with two councilmen being elected from each,
making a total of 16 members. As along as Negroes were

few and lived all over the city (they did until the

 

69The formation of biracial committees is a recent

development in American race relations strategy. Estab-
lished on the assumption that integration of Negroes as
full participants in American society cannot be achieved
without a social conflict of almost a catastrophic propor—
tion, these committees are a device for establishing a
”communication” between the two groups, so as to facili—
tate an orderly transition to an integrated society. Lewis
Killian and Charles Grigg, Racial Crisis in America (Engle-
wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964), pp. 24—26.

 

 

208

mid—forties) there was no threat of a ”Negro vote.”

With the influx of Negroes between the end of World War
II and 1955, residential segregation began. It soon be-
came apparent, however, that with Negro confinement to
specific areas of the city their numbers would increase
sufficiently to enable them to send one or more of their

number to City Hall.70 In 1952 the city was redistricted.

H

”w-- -

In place of the eight wards with two councilmen coming
from each, the present arrangement was made for four
larger wards with only one councilman to be elected from
each, and four other councilmen to be elected at-large.
The implication Of this change in political
boundaries for Negro exclusion is not difficult to see.
Where there were two councilmen to be elected from each
of eight wards, a ward with a high concentration of any
racial, nationality, or religious group could elect one

of its members to the City Council. Such a prospect was

 

70It was precisely the basing of politics on a

large number of relatively small wards usually drawn on
racial, nationality or religious neighborhood lines that
early enabled Chicago Negroes to gain elective office in
the city. As early as 1915 they elected a Negro to the
City Council. They elected another by 1920. By 1928
they had elected a Negro to Congress. See James Q. Wilson,
Negro Politics (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1960),

p. 26.

 

 

 

209

seen as a distinct possibility when a local Negro attorney
ran and came near to winning a seat on the Council in

1 . .
1952.7 Some Negro leaders are conVinced that it was

realization of this implication of demographic concentra—
tion along ethnic lines which prompted the City Fathers

to adopt the redistricting arrangement now in force.

Under the present boundaries the Negro vote issplit be—

.._\

tween the third and fourth wards, with Negroes constitut—

ing only a small minority in each. According to the City
Clerk's Office, Ward boundary changes are made according

. . . . 2
to population shifts in the City.7

The Legislative Process

Although Lansing has been a Republican stronghold

in state and national elections, its politics are said to

 

71The former political aspirant himself agrees with

other Negroes that there was a connection between the in-
creasing concentration of Negroes in the smaller wards and
the change in ward boundaries, but he thinks there is no
way of proving the connection.

2 . . . . . .
7 The information was given during a ViSit to the

City Clerk's office at City Hall. The records there show

a systematic following—up on population increases or changes
in the City. It was revealed that precinct boundaries
change from time to time, but those of the wards themselves
are relatively permanent.

 

 

210

be non-partisan. Candidates are not chosen along party
lines. A candidate for elective office gets on the ballot
by securing a nominating petition signed by not less than
1% of the electorate that voted in the last election of
a Michigan Secretary of State. 73 Yet individuals and
groups with party loyalties do support particular candi—
dates who, once in office, tend to be responsive to the
sentiments of people with party philosophies. It is also
said that no political appointments are made, in view of
the civil service,74 yet politicians do not fail to offer
patronage rewards for campaign support. A Negro member
of our sample reported that his son was given a "good”
job with the State Highway Department through the instru—
mentality of a white official there whose unsuccessful
bid for Mayor of Lansing he had supported.

Proposals come before the City Council through

either the Mayor or the Councilman of the particular

 

73State of Michigan, Laws Relating to Elections
(1962), p. 91.

74 . .
There is much to this statement, for, as one
of the Department Heads told me in an interview at City
Hall, the present Mayor upon taking office sought to have
him resign in favor of a powerful political supporter of
the Mayor because he was employing minority group members;
but that he refused to do so and succeeded in keeping his
job. He justified his refusal to quit on the grounds that
the Mayor's appointing power does not entitle him to relieve

 

211

constituent. Once introduced, a measure becomes the focus
of inter-group struggle. At a particular stage of the
deliberations individuals or groups Opposed to or support—
ing it are allowed to voice their positions. A large part
of the cross—pressures that operate on Council Members
occurs in behind—the—scenes contacts. Demands for a
Councilman's vote for or against a proposal take the
form of appeals in the name of some symbols sanctified
by American culture, such as the right of private property,
and promises of support or threats of opposition at the
next election.75

In terms of community decision—making in Lansing,
the role of big business leadership is very important.
As Form and Sower have noted, these ”economic dominants"
have become entrenched in positions of influence in city
affairs through their long and continuous involvement
with organizational life and support of strong and attrac—

. . . . 76 . . .
tive ClVlC prOJects. Most of these indiViduals are top

 

75 .
A prominent Pastor of a Negro church rebuked some

Council members for refusing to vote for a Human Relations
Committee with ”teeth“ (provision for a paid Director and
staff and power to investigate cases Of alleged racial dis-
crimination in certain areas of city life) and promised
them defeat at the next election.

76 . . .

The members of this small group of deCiSion-makers
in Lansing belong to about the same organizations and have
developed a consciousness of their common interests. Form
and Sauer, op. cit., pp. 13—15.

-m’b':‘ I

 

 

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212

executives in their firms and hold positions of leader—
ship in at least thirteen civic, welfare, and social
organizations in the community as well (e.g. Community
Chest, PTA, YMCA, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Kiwanis,
Country Club, Masons, Elks, American Legion, etc.) They
have vested financial interests in most community deci—
sions, but from their positions of leadership in the
various civic groups they are able to manipulate them
away from “radical" actions.77 For the most part the
economic dominants remain off the scene of community ac—
tion, but the strength of their control is evidenced by
the fact that few projects are initiated without their
approval, or brought to the stage of action without at

least their implicit backing. Thus when Negroes press

 

77For these influentials an ordinance which would

increase taxes on business in the city would probably be
regarded as "radical;” so would be any measure adopted by
the City Council to implement the state law against racial
discrimination on hiring practices, for it would mean that
Negroes would have to be employed in managerial capacities
and mingle with whites as social equals at the Country Club.
Certainly, implementation of or adoption of an open occu—
pancy ordinance would qualify as ”radical,” for real es—
tate people who stand to benefit most from segregated
housing would lose money.

 

 

 

 

213

for open occupancy or equal job opportunities, they must 1
either secure the support of this entrenched leadership

or neutralize its influence. In view of the small number ’
of Negroes in Lansing, their almost complete economic de—

pendence on these very men of power, and their weak vot-

ing strength, the latter course is not likely to be suc—

cessful. The former is unrealistic, for as McKee has

pointed out, key leaders in the upper income and social

levels tend to be ideologically conservative and their

willingness to cooperate in efforts to improve intergroup

relations cannot be assumed.78 On the other hand the Ne—

groes' ability to move the City Council in a direction

favorable to “equal protection of law” is limited by

another factor. Their general poltical participation

is low. Their registration and voting records are un—

impressive.”79 The last Mayor of Lansing is reported

 

78On ideological conservatism of the economic

elite, see James B. McKee, ”Community Power and Strate—
gies in Race Relations: Some Critical Observations,”
Social Problems (Winter, 1958—59), pp. 195—203.

79The City Clerk's Office has a record of Regis—
tered Voters, but no racial identification of the voter
is included. Negro leaders estimate the number of reg—
istered voters at about 1500. Only about 10% of all Lan—
sing registered persons actually vote in city elections.
Applying the same percentage to the Negro population, we
can say that about 150 vote in city elections. But even
this small number is split between two wards.

 

214

to have bluntly told Negroes that he did not need their
electoral support to stay in office and hence was not
obliged to respond to their demands for more equal op—
portunities. Protest leaders were disturbed by what
they call a ”cynical disregard” of them and credit his
defeat at the last election to their denying him the
very ”Negro vote" he claimed he did not need in favor
of the present encumbent.80 Some of these leaders have
gone to the City Council and waved the finger of warning
at some of its members, promising them defeat at the next
election for not voting for an effective Human Relations
Ordinance for Lansing.

Not all white politicians write off the Negro
vote, however. In recent years candidates for city elec—
tive offices have visited various Negro groups in an effort

to get their support.

Negro Leadership

There are Negro influentials in Lansing, but they
cannot compete with their white counterparts in power to

move the city government toward desirable decisions on

 

80Most Negro informants believe this but admit
that it is difficult to substantiate it.

 

 

215

race ends. For one thing, they are not businessmen in
the usual sense Of the term and do not have the time or
resources to place at the disposal of civic enterprises
in the city as a whole or even in the Negro subcommunity
that white businessman can. The establishment of a chap-
ter of the National Urban League in Lansing has been held
up for more than three years because an initial two—year
budget amount of $50,000 could not be raised.81 For an—
other, Negro civic leadership is limited by the relative
absence of a Negro press to publicize its contributions
to voluntary organizations,82 as well as the lack of re—
sources that come with larger numbers for supporting a
vigorous civic life.

Nor is there any single “Negro leadership” or
leadership structure capable of organizing the Negro com-
munity into a political force and delivering its votes
to a politician (such a bloc vote could determine the

outcome of a close election where the votes of the white

 

81A Chapter of the League is suppsed to operate
for two years to demonstrate its viability; then the Com—
munity Chest assumes responsibility for its financial sup—
port. During the 3 years since the chapter has been planned,
only $30,000 of the estimated $50,000 needed has been raised.
Even this amount was subscribed in large part by white busi—
ness leaders.

82The only Negro paper in Lansing was started only
last year. The ”Lansing Post,” as it is called, is a monthly.
Already it is helping to fulfill this function.

 

 

 

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216

electorate were divided among two or more candidates

 

for an office). Thus, no negro controls patronage appoint—
ments from the City Hall, which in turn would strengthen r

his influence in the Negro community.

The Negro and City Jobs

As indicated in Section B of this Chapter, Negroes
are concentrated in the least remunerative jobs in Lansing.
This is no less true in city government than it is in pri-
vate industry. Of course Negroes fare better in govern—
ment service in the sense that civil service regulations
have operated to put more of them in supervisory positions
than is true in other lines of work; but the fact remains
that most Negroes in city government are in the Park and
Recreation Department, the road crew, and the garbage col—
lection crew. With few exceptions Negroes have not sought
nor received political favors.83 Some Negroes do occupy
prestigious positions on the Mayor's Committees or City

Boards, but they are few in number and in the minority.

 

83

Even if race were not a factor in employment,
it is doubtful that Negroes would get a fair share of
city jobs, in view of their small voting strength, and,
consequently, the ineffectiveness of the pressure they
could bring upon the administration in City Hall.

 

 

 

217

Lacking any backing from some effective political organ—
ization based on the Negro community itself, these offi—
cials are almost powerless in getting the agencies to
function in ways which would suggest a basic change in
the status of the Negro. At best their appointments are

merely symbolic of the Negro presence in the city as an

 

interest group.84

The Negro and the Law

Negroes do not charge anjy marked prejudicial
treatment of them to the Lansing police. At public gath—
erings one hears many, many complaints about job, housing,
and school segregation but hardly any about police brutal—
ity. A minister might point to the lack of police protec—
tion in the Negro community, contending that police patrol—
men do not go there unless there is a complaint, but no
specific charges are made. In fact, some Negroes think

the police are real nice here in Lansing.”
Nor are there complaints about court practices.

Negroes serve as jurors in Lansing and feel they are fairly

 

84Those who serve on these Boards and Committees

get no financial reward for their work. Most of them are
either already employed or are independent professionals
in business for themselves.

 

judged by their

218

Political Impotence

Members
painfully aware

are eager to do

something about it.

peers when they are on trial.

 

of the Negro community are themselves
of their political impotence and some

Replies to questions

on their estimate of the Negro's political fortunes in

Lansing are presented below:

TABLE 6

NEGRO REACTION TO THEIR POLITICAL POWER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Questions Responses
great very
deal some little little none
1. How much say do
you think the Negro
in Lansing has in
matters of spending
his tax money? 0 15 10 65 10
2. How much say do
you think Negroes have
in making the ordin-
ances by which Lansing
is governed? 0 5 13 8O 2
O 20 23 140 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

219 I

The Table makes it clear that almost two-thirds i
of the sample—-65%—-are convinced that in fiscal matters
the Negro's influence is insignificant. An even bigger
majority—~80%——feels his ”voice” in the making of city
ordinances is negligible.

Among the reasons offered in explanation, lack
of unity among Negroes and their lack of interest in
following up developments in City Hall are important.

"I wish we Negroes could get together and take more in—
terest in what happens at City Hall,” one professional
person suggested. ”We must unite,decide what we want,
demand it and put a Negro on the City Council.” This

is the view of a minister. The obstacles to unity are
seen as lying in the lack of sophistication on the part
of recent migrants from the rural South who either do
not know the value of the ballot as a weapon of protest
against injustice or feel their vote will not change the
Negro's position materially, and apathy on the part of
others who have steady jobs and therefore feel they have
no gripes. Unity meetings have been called of various
groups to try and discover the reasons for disunity. At
least one independent professional has advocated contri—
butions to the campaigns of the Mayor and the Councilmen

as a way out of political weakness.

 

 

 

220

Conclusion

It must be concluded from the above discussion
that the Negro has very little political power in Lansing.
The splitting of his vote, his small numbers in the elec—
torate, his general apathy toward voting and keeping in—
formed on city affairs, as well as the lack of leadership
capable of organizing the Negro community into a single
effective pressure group, make it difficult to manipulate
elections; i.e. to evict a rascal from public office and
prevent unwelcome officeholders or candidates who support
the status quo from coming to political power, or oppose
issues deemed by him to be contrary to his welfare as a
citizen. Lack of consensus on political objectives oper—
ates to keep his right of dissent from being translated
into an effective weapon. Short of surrendering to second—
class citizenship the Negro's only realistic alternative
is to join with enough like—minded voters or groups and
be a threat to the politician's prospects. Yet such allies
are few and not easy to find. His interest in equal citi—
Zenship rights sharply conflicts with those of a powerful
White majority, most of whom cannot emotionally accept

the doctrine of racial equality and who, therefore, are

'J
i.
-

 

‘ _
l h _ '

221

willing to go to great lengths to deny him the very so—
cial, economic, educational, and political opportunities

which the concept of equal citizenship implies.

E. RELIGIOUS LIFE

Religion may be considered as the search for
meaning-—the meaning of life—condition or environment
and man's place in it, or, as Howells puts it, “The ac—
tive attitudes of men to those parts of their life and
environment which do not to them appear to be wholly
controlled, conditioned or understood by human agency,
and all that they do, say or think in virtue of such
attitudes.”85 What is the focus of Negro religion in
Lansing, and what explanation does faith provide of his
place in society? What course, if any, is religion chart—
ing for him? These are the main considerations to which
this section is addressed.

The Negro church originated in a revolutionary
movement, as the first form of nonviolent protest by

free Negroes against racial discrimination ”in the sight

 

85William Howells, The Heathens (Garden City,
N. Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1962), p. 15.

 

 

222

of God." It has been referred to as the first institu—
- u ”86
tion for Negroes, by Negroes and of Negroes. Today
it is reinforced by residential aggregation.
Of Lansing's 12 Negro churches, two are Methodist

(Collins African Methodist Episcopal, and Mass Memorial),

 

six are Baptist (Friendship, Union, Galilee, Mount Zoin,
Prince of Peace, and True Light), one church of God in
Christ, one Church of the Living God, and two (Original)
Church of God (Holiness). Together, these churches claim
about 2000 members. According to the Negro Ministerial
Alliance three churches have 400 - 500 members each, one
300 — 400, two have 100 — 200, one from 150 — 200 members,
while three range from 25 - 100 members. One out of every
four of these church—affiliates is a Baptist. Three churches
are ”store-front," or dwellings converted into worshipping
edifices.

Church—goers represent a cross section of the pop—
ulation, though differences obtain in respect to degree
of active participation. Even the casual observer can
notice that women outnumber men by almost 2 to l in their

involvement in church and church—related activities.

 

86Lerone Bennett, Jr., ”Pioneers in Protest:
Richard Allen,” Ebony (May, 1964), pp. 143-152.

 

 

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223

Although Host of the Negro churches have a counter—
part in the white community, less than 20 Negroes attend
white churches. Apparently the ”Everyone is Welcome" sign
in front of these churches does not mean exactly what it
says or does not include Negroes. Relations between Negro
and white churches have been limited almost entirely to
the exchange of pulpits by ministers on Good Friday or
other special occasions.87 Interracial worship by the
congregations themselves occurred in the past but no longer
do. The nearest approach to a significant relationship
between the churches is through what is called the Inter—
faith Council, an organization of the religious community
in Lansing that is concerned with achieving open occupancy.

There is some evidence that relations between mem—
bers of integrated churches have been fairly good. A Ne-
gro Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and
the wife of the only Negro physician in the city are mem-

bers of the Catholic Church and sit on the Board of Directors

 

87Even this limited contact does not involve every

Negro minister. The college—trained pastor of the AME Church
is the only Negro minister who exchanges pulpits with white
clergymen° I have seen the white Presbyterian minister in
his church° He took part in the Good Friday services of 1964
at the white First Baptist Church and is credited with de-
livering the most profound meditation on one of the Seven
Words of the Cross. The vast difference in this Negro Min—
ister's level of education from that of his grade school
colleagues in the Negro Ministerial Council is one of the
sources of strain in the organization, as will be mentioned
later.

 

V ‘_.

 

 

 

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224

of some of its charitable organizations. The Judge also

belongs to the Board of the State (Michigan) Catholic

 

Charities. A Negro official of the Michigan Civil Rights
Commission teaches a Sunday school class at white St.Paul's
Episcopal Church. An African student on the staff at
Michigan State University has been on the Board of Deacons
of the First Baptist Church, where he has responsibility
for the integration of new members of either race into
the life of the Church. His wife sings in the choir and
belongs to a number of groups concerned with missionary
and other activities. Three Negro families and two indi—
viduals attend the Central (white) Methodist Church.88

Not many Negroes object to nonwhites attending
predominantly white churches, although they are convinced
that the Negro feels more comfortable in separate churches.
Sixty percent of the sample oppose ”racial” churches as

a mockery of the Christian concept of the brotherhood of

 

88The assignments of these Negro members imply
more than ordinary toleration. Their work brings them
into close contact with white church—goers and extend to
even visits to the homes of these white people. Whether
this is acceptance of the idea of an integrated church as
such, or only of the particular Negroes in the churches is
an open question. But it is interesting that most of the
Negro attenders of white churches are ”important" middle
class people. A State Supreme Court Justice, an official
of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, and an African
doctoral candidate at Michigan State University who is
also teaching on campus do not represent a cross section

 

 

.IIIIIIIII:______________________________________________________________________________"—'r “ l

225 ,4

man. An independent professional who reports being dis-
illusioned with Christianity passively supports ethnic
churches on the grounds that white society is not pre—
pared for an integrated church and until then "the Negro
would be better off in a separate church.” Other Negroes
favor an integrated church because competition would ”im-
prove” the Negro ministry, which they see as basically

mediocre, and do away with much of the emotionalism in

the Negro church.

Church Organization

Each Negro church, like its white counterpart,
is organized into clerical and lay personnel. The Pastor
is the chief spiritual leader of the congregation. His
primary responsibility is to conduct the worship services
and preach. In his sacerdotal functions, such as visit—
ing the sick and praying for them, he is assisted by a
body of men and women called variously Deacons, Deaconesses,
or Mothers in different churches. They, together with the

Pastor, constitute the clerical branch of the church.

 

of the Negro population. It would be interesting to see
what would happen if a more representative sample of the
Negro population became members of white churches in in-
creasing numbers.

 

 

 

226

A group of prominent members selected by the Pas—
tor, called the Trustee Board, make up the lay sector of

the Church administration. Representing the congregation,

 

their main concern is with the material aspect of the
church's life. This includes hiring the pastor and pro—
viding for his support. This is true in all the churches
except those of the Methodist denomination, for Pastors
are appointed by a Bishop who alone can remove them. Even
here, however, for purposes of effective administration
the Pastor must rely on his trustees, most of whom hold
influence in either the sub—community, the church, or
both. In the churches of the other denominations, es-
pecially the smaller congregations or the store—front
ones, the church is identified with a Pastor who either
organized it or has been Pastor long enough to have built
up a strong following for himself among the members. The
Board of Trustees approve the church's program and find
ways and means of raising funds to finance it. While
theoretically any member can be named to the Trustee Board,
in practice only those with a demonstrated capacity and
willingness for lavish spending on church projects actu—

ally get selected by the Pastor.

 

 

 

 

 

227

Except in one church, church—goers in the Negro
community and their clergy cannot be distinguished in
terms of sociocultural origins. All ministers contacted
reported that their fathers were either farmers or cler—
gymen. Eight of them have spent some part of their lives
on farms and more than one half listed farming as their
father's chief occupation. All but one were born in the
rural South, according to estimates by the Negro Minis—
terial Alliance. Another 8% were raised in working class
families in Lansing and the other 2% came to Lansing
through some place in the West or East. The greatest
disparity occurs in income. Whereas the median income
for nonwhites is about $5,042,89 that for Negro clergy
is about $6,000.90 The disparity does not hold true in
at least one case: the AME Church, which counts a highly
successful attorney, a dentist, as well as some of the
college—educated and highly paid State employees among
its members. Most of these people earn far more than

. . l
the average Negro Minister.9

 

891960 Census of Population (U. S.), p. 72 of
this thesis.

90Estimated by three members of the Negro Minis—
terial Alliance.

91While I visited 6 Lansing Negro churches for
periods ranging from one month to three months, I did not
investigate the social characteristics of church—going

 

228

Life Cycle of the Church

 

 

Aside from Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas,
important occasions in the Church calendar are the days
for specific categories of members: Children's, Men's,
Mothers', Fathers', Senior Members', etc. On its day
the particular group assumes prominence in the services
and program. Most of the roles normally performed by
the clergy and lay officials are taken over by members
of the group. In this way opportunity is proveded for
leadership roles for ordinary members which would not
be open to them in an integrated church.

In terms of elaborateness of ritual the most im—
portant religious activity is the Sunday morning worship
service. Its specific elements vary from church to church,
but invocation, responsive readings, announcements, scrip—
ture reading, prayers, hymns, Gospel songs, offering, and
sermon are common.

Sunday refigious activities begin with Sunday school

about nine in the morning, and cover 90 minutes. During

 

members as such, except those in the sample for this study.
The percentages bearing on this point were supplied by the
Ministerial Council, but they are consistent with the data
on the sociocultural backgrounds of the members of the
sample. See Appendix.

 

229

this period the children sing, study Bible stories, and
give offerings. In the newer and larger churches classes
are taught in separate rooms; otherwise everyone is taught
in the same large hall. Most parents make it a point to
see that their children attend Sunday school. They are
convinced that growing up in the nurture of the Church is
the essential basis for citizenship. A college-educated
minister puts the typical point of view thus: "To be a
good citizen one must be well rounded, and this includes
spiritual and emotional development.” A layman finds
citizenship founded on a religious background. ”The laws
of our country are based on religion. If children oppose
God, they will oppose the law and end up in jail.“ All
who send their children to Sunday School believe this.
For some successful professional people, sending their
children is only part of the family's involvement in an
important community activity, without which public confi—
dence might be shaken in the head of the family. Another
member rests his case on the psychological function of
religion. He sees faith as serving to balance the indi-
vidual in life. ”Faith gives people support when fate

is unkind to them."

 

 

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230
There are special seats for the Deacons. “Church
Mothers,” as the oldest women of the church who have dis—

tinguished themselves for church giving and faithfulness
in service to the church are called, also have reserved
seats. They wear little gray caps perched on their heads
secured by chin straps. They are chosen by the Pastor
on advice of prominent members of the congregation and
stand as examples to younger women.

The group whose day it is, in addition to taking
charge of the morning service, conducts a special program
in the afternoon which usually consists of solos, group
singing, and a message by a prominent member of their
group or some outside guest. An important feature of
the program is fund—raising. This takes the form of
rallies in which individuals and groups compete or some
prominent outsider may be invited to lift a collection.
Despite the long morning services the afternoon programs
attract sizeable crowds.92 Intakes as high as $500 have
been reCorded for afternoon programs in some churches.
Those who have responsibility for these programs or win

the fund raising rallies derive much pride from their

 

2 . . .
Crowd here 15 relative to the Size of the par-
ticular church's congregation.

 

 

 

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... . . . .. . . _. .. . - . . ... _ a .... . .
-. I.. - ' .. . a '..
, o. . . . . . . .

 

231

accomplishment as their names are singled out for praise
by the leaders of the group and the Pastor. They come
to gain favor with the Pastor and general status in the
church. Once an individual shows success in fund—raising
he is appointed to numerous committees and groups con—
cerned with similar activity. Opportunity to win recog-
nition for individual talent and leadership is a powerful
incentive for active participation in these programs.
Worship services and other church—related activi—
ties such as luncheons, dinners, and talent shows are
also occasions for fund-raising. One can hardly visit
the Negro church without noting a strong materialistic
emphasis. Two collections—~a dime or missionary offering
and a regular offering for the expenses of the Church——
are standardized for each Sunday morning service. In
at least one Baptist Church there is a third offering
one Sunday a month. In one half of the churches there
is either a building fund or a mortgage fund to which
members must contribute in addition to their regular
contribution toward the support of the church. In theory,
subscription for the support of the church or the retire—
ment of a mortgage is determined by voluntary pledges

made at the beginning of each year. In practice pressures

 

232

operate to keep most members' contributions at certain
levels. Competition for status within the church is
one. Apart from positions of leadership to which ”faith—
fulness” to the church may win the individual, his name
will usually be remembered during sickness only if he

is not a backslider.93 A ”backslider” is a member whose
church obligations have remained unmet for such a length
of time that it must be assumed that they will not be
discharged. Not to be remembered during illness by the
church due to loss of standing there amounts to a social
death which most church goers seek to avoid. Since the
church gathering is a time for news, it means that the
only avenue for keeping socially alive is closed to the
delinquent. This is a status most members are anxious
to avoid. The church expects that each member will be
tithed; i.e., make a commitment to contribute at least
one-tenth of his income for the Lord. Average weekly
income of the Lansing Negro churches range from $500 in

the larger churches to $50 or $75 in the smaller ones.

 

93This term literally means someone who has fallen

off from a religious duty or obligation, but it has become
a position in the status system of the Negro churcho Since
for many individuals the search for identity underlies
church affiliation, the willingness of the church to cast
them into this position of nonentity is a powerful reason
why they would make any sacrifice to pay their financial
obligations to the church.

233
Themes in Worship Activities

Prayers, songs, and sermons reveal a number of
themes centering on God, his attributes, his relations
to man, and man's future. God is portrayed as a just,
loving, merciful, and providing father. He will reward
good and punish evil. The weak are safe under his pro—
tective wings.94 Thus the Church is a home, ”a fellow—
ship of the faithful.” At each Sunday worship service
the invitation goes out to the newly arrived migrant to
make the Church his ”home away from home." He soon dis—
covers that this is a fellowship where the material wel-
fare of the stranger will also be of concern to the spir-
itual community, provided he will ”honor the Lord with
Thy (his) substance.” Some Pastors, through their con—
tacts with white employers, are able to help him find
a job in the new environment. The grateful stranger
thereby tacitly incurs an Obligation to become a member
of his benefactor's church.

There is a Calvinistic twist to the economic

philosophy many of the churches use in psychologically

 

94It is interesting that weakness and salvation

are joined in the teaching of these churches. Would God
still love weakness that results from evil which he will
punish?

234

preparing worshippers for church—giving. Prayers pre—
ceding an offering emphasize the view that man cannot
be saved through personal achievement but by divine grace. -
Hence material success is a gift from a loving father ra—
ther than a reward for personal industry. Sharing one's
earnings with the church, then, is merely an act of grat—
itude for which an appreciative God will give the indivi—
dual more. An Associate Pastor of one large church offered
this prayer one morning as worshippers prepared for the
third offering:

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

Bless these Thy people, 0 Lord, that they may give

Thee back a portion of that which Thou hast given

them; that they may be plenteously blessed.

The worshipper is urged to "give liberally and
cheerfully, for the Lord loves a cheerful giver.” Fre-
quently, however, the minister would contradict himself
by insisting that the individual give not what he can
afford or spare, but until he ”feels” it. ”Give until
it hurts,” he would say. ”Those who hold out on God,"
the people are warned, ”are only cutting themselves

away from him.”95

 

95Many Negroes, especially working class ones,
believe in Heaven and Hell. They would like to go to a
place where they can "lay down their burdens.” The bur—
dens are none other than the adversities of minority
group status. The means to this end they believe is

 

 

235

 

When appeals to supernatural sanctions fail to
be sufficiently effective a minister may talk bluntly
of church obligations in more practical terms. A Baptist
Pastor with some rancor in his voice reminded his people
about pledge payments one morning,
Membership in the Church carries with it privi-
leges whichinclude worshipping in a beautiful
new edifice and being visited by the minister
during illness. But it also carries with it
responsibilities for financial support of the
church. We got a mortgage to redeem, telephone
bills to pay, and quotas to pay to the General
Convention. Somebody's got to meet these obli—

gations. The Church can't go on if members don't
pay their pledges.

Transcendentalism

Although the Negro churches differ then with re—
spect to the types of values they hold to be of especial
significance, there is a common emphasis upon other—

worldly values. Most hymns and songs are prayers or

 

"living right” or doing the ”Lord's work." Discharging
church obligations is an important element in the means.
Thus the minister's warning about cutting oneself from
God in effect is a threat about going to Hell where the
woes of the present will be continued. Thus even poorer
Negroes sacrifice a great deal to pay their way to Heaven.

 

 

236

petitions for the attainment of "eternal salvation."
They represent a phantasy reaction to earthly adversity
in which the individual anticipates an ”eternal home"
free of the difficulties of the here and now. In that
other world the individual will be able to ”lay my bur—
dens down.” As one hymn expresses it,

In Thy cross, in Thy cross; Be my glory ever; 96
Till I reach the golden strand, Just beyond the river.

To a large extent sermons teach about these tran—
scendental ends and the means to attain them. God is on
the side of the right. He will never forsake the down-
trodden. But they must have faith in this and ”live
right,” and deliverance will be sure. Relevant Bible
stories are told with didactic purpose. For example,
the Old Testament tale of the slaying of the Philistine
”man—of-war" Goliath by the Jewish boy David, clad only

in "the armor of God."97 is held to prove the strength

 

9 . . . . .
6This is the ”river of woe,” as the minister

indicated. The expression is a metaphorical allusion
to the difficulties of earthly life.

97The Jews thought of themselves as a ”chosen
PeOple.” Since they conceived of God as a person who
is on the side of right, they also thought of themselves
as being right since God had chosen them. Otherwise put,
Since God is right, his people must also be right. The
armor of God is thus the psychological fortification pro—
Vided by the feeling of being "right."

 

237

which the weak can derive from trusting in God. Some
times the adverse consequences of not applying a prin-
ciple are stressed in order to point up the importance
of practicing it in daily living. A preacher said one
Sunday morning,
God spoke of deliverance to the Israelites
through his prophets, but they did not believe
him. They not only questioned his integrity;
they also disobeyed him. They became disillu~
sioned with his promises because they were not
fulfilled at the time they wanted. They sinned
against God . . . . But God moves in a mysteri-
ous way, and he knows what he is doing. He has
promised that he would destroy the wicked and
save the righteous; many Americans don't believe
this. But didn't God send Christ to redeem his
people? The Negro must never fall into the sin
of Israel, for God's promises are true.

Sermons are also concerned with the here and now,
as when a minister preaches on social relations. Occa-
sions like Children's Day, Mothers' Day, Men's Day, and
Senior Citizens' Day—~all point to this concern. Even
messages on human relations, however, link the importance
of appropriate attitudes and behavior patterns to super—
natural sanctions. On Senior Members' Day, for example,
the wisdom of age is extolled and youth urged to benefit
from it as one way to avoid displeasing God.

Sermons can also be the context for articulating

a phiIOSOphy of Negro protest, as a minister's discourse

238

on "The Sovereignty of God in the Salvation of Man" shows.
Beginning with the assumption that salvation is by divine
dispensation rather than through personal merit, the prea—
cher insisted that God chooses people because he wants to
rather than because they deserve his blessing. The Negro
was taken to be an example of this. ”We have no great
name; we are not outstanding students; we are not stars,
and we are not rich. Yet God in his all—wise providence
hasgreferred us to others.” Applying his predestination
theory to race relations, he went to compare the lot of
the Negro who has been spared physical destruction with
that of the American Indian who is virtually extinct. The
very fact that the Negro has remained alive to fight for
equality in America, the minister argued, is evidence of
Divine Providence in his favor. "We could have been ex—
terminated,” he suggested. Thus, he went on, the Negro
should be thankful and not blame God for his troubles.
”Are you complaining?" he asked. ”No; I am not,” he
answered. ”God will work out his purposes. All we ask
is a chance to prove ourselves.”

The pacifist implications of the message, that
the Negro need not fight or distrust God, for he might

struggle all he can and still lose (as did the Indian),

239

I g“...— _
3.22.2.2...

if God has not chosen him, is thoroughly rejected by

most Negroes in Lansing. Asked the question "Do you
believe that the Negro must learn to trust God in order .

to win his struggle for freedom,‘ sixty—three percent
of my sample replied in the negative. ”God helps those
who help themselves,” one person said. According to a
disillusioned professional, "We have prayed for one hun—
dred and fifty years, and what has that done for us?"

A non—church—goer is convinced that religion may even
hurt the Negroes' cause, “by making them too dependent
on spiritual strength and thus willing to endure more
suffering.” A minister's View represents the thinking
of those who accept the suggestion. ”We have marched

too long; it is time that we get on our knees too."

Emotion

With the exception of the church in which the
Pastor has a divinity degree, most sermons appeal to
emotion rather than to the intellect. They are usually
long and repetitious. They seek to build up strong sen-
timents in the congregation, which culminate in a riotous

demonstration of approval of what the minister is saying.

240

Most prayers end with the one hope of many working class '
Negro Christians: ”And when it is all done, Lord," they 3
would say, ”may we be among the number.”98 In almost
weeping tones the older members of the congregation would
answer "Amen," or ”Yes Lordl”
Sermons are interesting not for any theological
insight they present, for most ministers in the Negro
community are academically ill—prepared and know very
little theology, but for the skillful use of the psycho-
logical mechanism of suggestion in building up emotion
in the audience and making members respond appropriately
to the presentation. Presumably emotional acceptance of
the Word would lead to intellectual acceptance or moral
conviction. This is why the "good” minister usually is
the more demonstrative religious leader, one who can make
his people shout. He is the one who can make the people
respond with such emotional outbursts as ”Amenl" ”Alrightl"

or ”My Lordl” etc.

 

98Being among the number refers to the "saved"

or the heaven—bound, a place that knows no toil or
sorrow, but only joy and merriment. This is the place
many working class Negroes have been promised by God,
according to their ministers, if they "live right."

241

The Testamonial Service

In the Holiness churches there is a ritual

called ”Testamonial.” Here, participants in a service
engage in open self—accusation and admission of guilt.
The individual arises and starts singing a song. The
congregation joins. Then he begins to accuse himself
of not appreciating divine blessings by failing to meet
his spiritual obligations fully, such as payment of tithes
or coming to church regularly. In the presence of ”God's
people” he resolves to do better in the future, and asks
their prayers for help to succeed in this endeavor. Often
the confessor's voice breaks with emotion as he goes
through this cathartic experience. A 28—year old unwed
mother of two small children smote her breast as she
testified as follows one Sunday evening:

Christian Friends, I thank the Lord. He's been

so good to me. [Repeat] I came up here [Lansing]

to find me a job to help myself and ma poor Dad

in Mosspoint [Mississippi]. We are three sisters,

but the other two passed. Our mother too passed.

But ah fallen in sin. I let the devel rule ma

life and heart, so I gat two little kids with

no Daddy to support them. I follow the things

of the flesh. Now I am on ADC, and that ain't

enough for food, rent and clothes for us. A man

come visit me most every night, but he don't do

nothing for the kids. I want to leave him, I

know I shouldn't be with a man ah not marry to.
The kids cry everytime they see him, but he won't

 

242

stay away. I done told him I don't want him
but he keep coming back. I know that's the
devel, Christian Friends. He's got my soul.
I don't want to get pregnant again. I want
to live a clean, Christian life. I want to
serve my Lord [Yes Lord response from congre—
gation]. I mus find me a job so I can help
maself and pay ma tithes. So brothers and
sisters, please pray for me so I can be strong
enough to beat down the devel under ma feet
just like Jesus did on the pinnacle of that
mountain. I want to save ma soul; I want to
see the Lord's face, for Christ's sake. [Con—
gregation responded with long ”A....men1"]

Closely associated with emotionalism in religion
is flexibility. Though most churches have a set program
for each service,nany items are allowed which are not
scheduled. Notices of rallies or special meetings are
announced by non—clerical people at almost any stage of
the service once they tell whoever is conducting the ser—
vice.99 Some ministers rationalize this effect of flexi-
bility by pointing out that members spend much more time
in “sinful” concerns than the few additional minutes they

are ”spending on the Lord."

Interchurch Relations

 

If the relations of Negro churches with their

'white counterparts are distant and cool, those between

 

99This can be the Pastor or any of his Associates.
Whether this flexibility grows out of ministerial need to
please everyone or not to offend anyone or is part of the
emphasis on spontaneous expression is not clear to me.

 

243

the Negro churches themselves are hardly any warmer. I
There is a Ministerial Alliance in the Negro community, E
but personality and value conflicts as well as economic
jealousies operate to keep the members apart. While

they all think Negro protest is worthy of support by

the church, they differ considerably in respect to how

far that support should go. Three ministers in our sample
saw a lack of fellowship among the ministers among the
main faults of the Negro church in Lansing. One went

so far as to charge that some ministers are concerned

only with what their members put on the collection plate
on Sunday morning but now with how they get money for

that purpose. The Pastor of one church wrote a letter

to a colleague announcing a formal break in the bonds

of fellowship that had existed between his congregation
and that of his colleague. He charged that the other
minister was allowing individuals from his church to

sing at services of the other minister's church, con—
trary to ”church discipline.” He promised that none

of his members would henceforth be allowed to partici—
_pate in any activity of the other church. The minister
receiving the letter read it to his people and proposed

a prayer meeting of their two congregations to restore

244

fellowship, but the aggrieved minister did not cooperate.l'00
Hostility between individual ministers reflects in large
part the keen competition among members of the Alliance
for the allegiance of church—going Negroes. When the
members of one church take interest in participating in
the activities of a church other than their own, it may
mean that their own church does not offer them the outlet
for the expression of talents and emotions which they
need, and their minister may feel threatened at the pros—
pect of losing their membership with all the economic
implications this entails. Loss of members to a colleague
may tempt the losing minister to the suspicion that the
colleague is actively plotting to rob him of a source
of needed revenues.

Most churches hold an annual picnic, to which
they extend polite invitations to their "sister” churches.
Whatever other contacts obtain between the various churches
are on an individual basis, as when the friends and rela—
tives of an individual visit his church during the marriage,

funeral, or other rite involving him or his immediate family.

 

100The minister with whom the break was made pointed

out the impracticability of the action. He showed that in—
dividuals in each church have relatives and friends in the
other, and could not be prevented from attending a wedding,
a funeral, or other church activity involving their loved
ones in the other church. It is for this reason as well as
the poor example of disunity among the Negro churches that
the proposal for reconciliation was made.

 

l
l
f
T
‘ )
l

245

Minister—People Relationship

As already indicated, the minister is a friend
of the new—comer and the unfortunate. But this role has
implications for his influence especially in the non—
hierarchically structured churches. In the Baptist tra—
dition, for example, where the minister is responsible
only to the congregation, his ability to keep his job
or get as much as he can for his services depends on his
personal standing with members. Where many relatively
uneducated members owe their jobs to his intervention
he can wield a powerful influence over them. Aware that
they can be laid off and they will need his help again
in finding a job, they are likely to yield to almost
any pressures from him. In 1963 one Pastor collected
$1,500 on his ”Appreciation Day.” This is an annual
occasion on which members of a church raise a special
"purse” over and above his regular pay in expression of
their lOve for him and appreciation of his services. The
receiving of such a large gift is widely criticized in
the Negro community not only by non-church—goers, but
also by some members of the minister's own congregation.
A member of the African Methodist Church suggested that

such a thing could happen only in a Baptist Church in

 

246

Lansing, since ”such churches are full of uneducated 4:
people." Another said the receiving of such gifts was I
a scandal and represented the kind of abuse of minis—

terial influence which is winning them the distrust of

the people and alienating many from the church. A pro-

gram sponsored by the Deacons to raise funds to send

the Paster of the AME Church to his first General Convo—

cation of the denomination meeting in Cincinnati in 1964

was opposed by many segments of opinion in the congrega-

tion on the grounds that it was an attempt to introduce

”Appreciation Day” which, many members felt, would be an

aberration in African Methodism. Support was given only

after public assurance had been given that the program

would not set a precedent for Pastor's Appreciation Day.

This is an example that some Negroes are coming toolook

upon their ministers not as the ”angels” they were once

thought to be, but as men motivated by the desires and

selfishness of ordinary mortals.

The Negro Minister and the Middle Class

The Negro minister has a different type of rela-
tionship with middle class communicants. As long as the

church was made up mainly of working class people he was

 

..-.

247

a leader in both the church and the community. With the I
influx of college—trained, middle—class professionals in
the last sixteen years into the city, however, the minis— ,
ter finds himself in competition for leadership in the
community. He can no longer speak and be sure his voice
alone will be heard. The ability of the new ”elite"
with more education than the minister to formulate in—
telligent protest proposals and present them to white
men of power threatens to break the ministerial monopoly
on community leadership. It is a source of strain which
has implications for social protest, as will be seen in
the next chapter. The extent of ministerial support of
protest action will be shown to be related to this strain.
A recurrent theme in criticism of ministers is
that they do not take an active part in Negro protest.
There is a growing feeling among Lansing church—goers
that the meekness preached by many ministers as repre—
senting Christianity has been demoralizing to the Negro,
making him unwilling to do anything in his own defense.
It is contended that ministers speak of protest but do
not encourage their people to take an active part in it.
Criticisms like this come usually from middle class Ne—

groes and younger people. But most Ministers view active

248

participation in protest activities as inconsistent with
the priestly role, which is that of ”peace-maker." En—
gaging in protest struggles to them is ”politics," which
they see as something sordid, as synonymous with manipu—
lating others to behave in ways in which they would not
otherwise do. Middle class Negroes scoff at this narrow
conception of politics as due mainly to ignorance on the
part of the Lansing clergy. It is their contention that
civil rights fights concern issues of right and wrong,
and hence cannot be divorced from religion which also
is concerned with morality. Middle class people see the
argument for ministerial apathy towards the civil rights
of Negroes as an attempt to mask selfish economic inter—
ests of the ministry behind a legitimate excuse.lOl
Young people too share in these views of the middle
class, although they do not articulate their argument
as elaborately as college graduates.

Young people's criticisms are directed at more

than ministerial apathy and selfishness, and focus on

 

101There is a theory among middle class Negroes

that most ministers refrain from encouraging their com—
municants to take active part in social protest for fear
that their white employers would fire them or lay them
off at the earliest opportunity. Unemployment among
members would affect church income.

 

249

1
the real significance of the church for them. They com— ii
plain that despite Children's Day programs the church [
has little to offer them. They contend that in most ‘p
churches the sermon is still directed largely to the
older people, many of whom prefer the good ”old time
religion.” Younger people do not shout. Their emotional
reaction to religion is much more subdued. Many find it
difficult to understand why their parents should shout

all the time.

Conclusion

If the Negro church was planned as an escape
from white supremacy, many Lansing Negroes have not found
it the citadel of freedom it was intended to be. It is
true that the Church continues to be the outstanding so—
cial institution in the Negro community, having wider
functions than the mere bringing of spiritual inspiration
to its communicants. It still provides an effective or—
ganization in the subcommunity, a place for social activi-
ties, an outlet for emotional expression, and an opportun—
ity for parading leadership or management and other talents
in program participation and planning, song, recitations

and speaking. Its doctrine of otherworldliness provides

fi————_—_’ " V "”7" “F

250

an essential escape from the tensions of second class ]
citizenship. The relative economic homogeneity of the

church has provided some degree of cohesion, at least ,
in the past.

Yet there is a growing awareness that the way
to "heaven" is financial, costly, if not indeed prohib—
itive, and is getting more so all the time. Ministers
are seen as no longer the ”holy,” serene men they were
thought to be, but mortals imbued with all the desires
for self—improvement of ordinary men. The Church ex—
ploits the needs of the Negro for status to place on
him a heavy financial burden. Thus the freedom the
church provides from white control outside becomes a
burden from which the individual would like to escape.

The Church's indifference to current social
issues, especially civil rights, and its emphasis on
the values of a future life, put it out of touch with
the mundane aspirations of the members. This apathy
toward the material needs of the religious community
has come in for considerable criticism as the Lansing
Negro has seen the possibilities of change through di—
rect protest action and other self-help efforts such

as education and political participation. In a day

251

when the legitimacy of Negro protest is accepted by even
white society a doctrine which insists on the passive
endurance of the status quo in preparation for some fu-
ture life of happiness is not likely to appeal to any

but the oldest Negro.

CHAPTER IV

THE STRUCTURE OF NEGRO PROTEST

For most nonlocal Negroes, Lansing turned out
to be the Promised Land they came looking for. More
than 75% of the sample are convinced that the city offers
greater economic opportunities for the Negro than the
places he left behind. Unemployment is lower, jobs stead-
ier, and median income higher than anywhere else they have
lived.1 Here, the Negro is a ”man,” for with impunity he
may omit the norms of race etiquette which govern dominant—
minority relations in the South. He may eat in any restau—
rant. More importantly, he is free to use his ballot to
select public officials who in his opinion will see or
favor the ends of racial justice or keep out of office

individuals who he thinks will favor the status quo. To

 

1The factors making for this economic stability
have been cited in Section C of Chapter III of this theSis.
Cities where this combination of factors do not occur do
not enjoy the economic well—being informants refer to.
Lansing is second only to Flint among Michigan cities in
economic stability. Detroit, for instance, has an average
‘unemployment rate of 6.4%. Cf. Michigan Employment securi-
ties Commission Report (May, 1964). The level of unemploy—
Inent is almost twice higher than that in Lansing.

. {...-lit. .

 

 

253

the middle class Negro Lansing is a "better” place for
other reasons too. School segregation is not the profound
problem it is in the South or some larger Northern commun—
ities and hence his children can escape to some extent the
inferior education of the ”negro school," and the adverse
psychological consequences associated with that institu-
tion. What are called "cultural” opportunities—-the Lecture
Concert Series, plays and musicales—~and the superior ath—
letic programs also constitute an added advantage. Many
Negroes find the size of Lansing and its relative freedom
from criminal elements an additionally ideal situation for
developing a family.

But Lansing is no Paradise of equal opportunity.
The Negro has no illusions about this. He knows he is
not free to live in some parts of the city even if he can
afford a house there; he is aware of a ”job ceiling” in
every white controlled establishment. He does not have
to be told that three schools in the city are 95% Negro
and that others may be added to this list soon. He knows
he is a small minority in Lansing and his vote is split,
so that he can not easily change the status quo. In short,
the Lansing Negro is aware that he faces the usual humili—

ations that have become a part of his experience. He has

 

254

is.

learned that he still has a "place"——a subordinate status,

whatever the advantage of Lansing over the place he came
from. One minister told his people,
There can be no comparison between Lansing and
Mississippi [where he came from], none whatever.
Of course Lansing is long ways from being perfect,
but I like the attitude of white people here to—
ward Negroes. I don't think we are first class
citizens yet, though.

Nearly every member of the sample can point to
some unforgettable experience of discrimination——real or
imagined—«against him or his friend or his Child. If he
has not been denied a job on grounds of race, he has had
to work far below his intellectual and professional com—
petence. If he has not been refused a second drink at a
white night club on the grounds that he has had enough,
then a white waiter has purposely assigned him a table
in an undesirable place in a restaurant. If his boy has
not been refused a haircut by a white barber, then he and
his family can not find a room in white Wentworth Hotel.
If a realtor did not fail to show or sell him a house in
a neighborhood of his choice, then white lending institu-
tions refused to finance his purchase because he lacks

“enough credit." And if he had all the money to make the

purchase or build the house, prejudiced whites clandestinely

 

255

scribbled the epithet, ”Nigger, go back to Africa" on
his lot.2

Whether the reported racial incidents represent
genuine cases of discrimination isirrelevant to this dis—
cussion. What is important is whether Negroes perceive
them as such. To the extent that they do, they feel that
humiliation is being imposed on them. The Negro's "place"
may not be precisely defined in terms of positive or nega—
tive norms of behavior; nonetheless Negroes feel it is
there and react to it. Those fully appreciating the con—
stitutional premises supporting American citizenship and
familiar with the promises of the American Dream, experi—
ence subordination as an especially frustrating experience
or arbitrary denial of their rights and are determined to
bring about change. More than 90% of the sample is con—
vinced that left to the ordinary processes of change re-
striction of Negro rights will continue indefinitely. As
a man who has been a member of the local Chapter of the
NAACP since its inception put it,

I don't think the day has come when the Negro
can sit by and count on the white man to recognize

 

2The respondent who gave this information is now
a successful professional, respected in both the white
and Negro subcommunities. He says he will never forget
that experience.

256

his rights and give them to him. He has lived [d
on the blood and sweat of the Negro so long i
that he thinks it is right for him to continue ]
riding him. The Negro must unite and demand
his rights.
Some even think the gains of the post—war years
will be lost if something is not done now by the Negro.
There is widespread belief that group action is the most
effective approach to the realization of these rights.
At one mass meeting a minister told the people that ”The
white man may not like you as an individual, but he is
bound to respect your [bloc] vote.“
Negro protest is designed to exert pressure on
the social structure of the community for change in the
direction of more equal treatment of every citizen. It
rests on the profound belief among the leaders that few
changes have come about in the life of the Negroes which
were not the result of pressure exerted by themselves.

Protest groups provide the organizational context for this

effort. As employed in this thesis, the term ”protest

 

3This lesson of history has long been learned by
the Negro. The minutes of an 1843 State Convention of
the Colored Citizens of Michigan states that "We are an
oppressed people wishing to be free. History informs us
that the liberties of an oppressed people are obtained
only in preportion to their own exertions in their own
cause." The Michigan Chronicle (July 25, 1964), Section
B, p. 16. This is a Negro paper.

257

group" will refer to collectivities that are working to “I
bring about change in the direction of more equal oppor— i'
tunity for every citizen or to integrate the Negro into

the larger American society by insisting upon public rights
for every one equivalent to those of white citizens. Such
groups employ any means that is legally valid and is seen

as potentially effective. Basically they work against

the existing power structure. On this basis a group called
the Greater Lansing Interfaith Council on Religion and Race,
though interested in open occupancy, which is a concern

also of protest groups, is excluded from consideration.

The difference is that membership is restricted to ordained
ministers of the Christian Church and change is sought
through moral persuasion rather than militant action.
Similarly the City's Human Relations Committee is excluded
from consideration. It is a biracial instrument which
though interested in equal housing is not a militant fighter
for this right. Its primary function is to keep problems

on the talking level and thus prevent a clash between the
races. In the nature of its structure (the major segments
of opinion are represented on the Committee) it works within
rather than against the power structure, as would a protest

group as considered here. The point is that the protest

258

group is concerned with the total gamut of citizenship
rights rather than just one or two as is the case with
the Interfaith Council, and explores any technique that
is legally permissible and useful. The Council scrupu—
lously avoids militant strategies.

Organized protest is a recent development in
Lansing. Although a branch of the NAACP has existed in
the city for more than four decades, it was only in the
last fifteen years that concerted direct action for change
in the Negroes' status came about. One reason for the
belated character of the Negro Revolt is that Negroes
were very few in the city—~not more than 500.4 Another
reason was that they were relatively uneducated. As in—
dicated in the chapter on the Negro subcommunity, they
could come and go to most places—~schools, neighborhoods,
parks, etc., but were confined to the janitorial and cus—
todial jobs and did not demand anything more. Thus there
was no sharp drawing of the color line.

When the manpower needs of World War II brought

a wave of Negroes to Lansing whites felt threatened and

 

4The Census of the United States up to 1940 did
not even give a figure for Negroes.

5See Introduction Section, Chapter III.

A .‘ 4:“ =. ..

259

started defining the Negro's "place," which consisted
mainly of an area of living and limited economic oppor— '
tunities. The Supreme Court's desegregation decisions .
since 1954 as well as the victories of militant protest
groups provided the immediate impetus to the present
pressures for change in the City of Lansing.
Three groups are discussed in this thesis: the
NAACP, the Citzens Non—Partisan League, and the Coordin—
ating Council.6 Concern with all areas of civil rights,
openness of membership, the use of any lawful strategy
that gives of promise of success, and a clear or direct
challenge to the structure of power relations are what
distinguish these groups from others also concerned with

civil rights but not considered here.

A. THE NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of
Colored Peoples operates in Lansing under a charter from
the National Organization in New York City. The first

Negro protest group in Lansing, it is almost as old as

 

6One may question whether a coordinating organi—
zation is a protest group, but as will be made clear
later, there is some justification for including or con—

sidering it as such.

 

260

I]

the parent association itself. It was established in 4

1918—1919. [
Membership

The Chapter does not maintain an open member-
ship list, a fact which precludes the possibility of
obtaining an accurate total membership size. However,
estimates have ranged from a low of 20 in the earliest
years to a high of 600 in 1959. At a recent meeting
the Chairman of the Membership Committee placed the
number for 1963 at only 360 but that for 1964 at more
than 600. The membership is drawn from all social
strat in the Negro subcommunity, though there is a
preponderance of middle class people. An undetermined
number of middle class whites hold memberships also.
On the average the NAACP membership is more educated,
holds more professional jobs, and earns higher incomes
than any other group in the subcommunity. (See Table

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262

Leadership

The NAACP is governed by an executive cabinet
headed by the President of the local association, and
includes three vice presidents, a recording secretary,
a financial secretary, a treasurer, and the members of
a board of directors. Executive cabinet members are
elected for one—year aterms upon recommendations of a
nominating committee. The elections may be considered

”free,’ for any candidate may be nominated for any post
from the floor at the time of election. It is the duty
of the cabinet to implement the decisions of the general
membership and coordinate the activities of all the com—
mittees.

Members of the Board of Directors are recommended
by the President and voted upon by the Association. At
the time the field investigation for this thesis was going
on, there were nine members of the Board, including two
whites, two independent professionals, two high State
officials with M. A. degrees, a labor leader, and the
Chairman of the Standing Committees of Housing, Education,
and Political Action, as well as the members of the Execu—

tive Cabinet. All but two of these officers have at least

a college degree.

 

 

 

263

The Board is the chief policy making body of
the organization. Meeting on call of the President,
this body screens proposed policies and programs be—
fore they are presented to the general membership. Thus
non-Board members who attend only the regular monthly
meetings may not know the plans and program of the Chap—
ter until they are announced for discussion and adoption.

Other officers include the Chairmen of such stand—
ing committees as Finance, Freedom Fund, Labor and Indus—
try, Youth Work, and Membership. Committee chairmen are
appointed by the President with the Implicit consent of
the Board.

Only three committees (Housing, Education, and
Political Action) were active during the field investi—
gation which provides the empirical core of this thesis.
Their work will be discussed to illustrate specific

techniques utilized by the local association.

Goals

Any chapter of the NAACP is committed to the tra-
ditional aim of the parent organization: equal opportunity

for all or full citizenship rights for all Americans,

264

irrespective of color, religion, or national origin through
legal action. Prior to the end of World War II local chap-
ters functioned merely as a ”tax base” which supported the
program of the national organization through fund raising.
Members were attracted to local chapters not so much for
what they achieved as by the appeal of the national pro—
gram, or the context of soliciting contributions. For
example membership campaigns are highly successful in the
aftermath of a bloody lynching and declined in times of
general prosperity. Local chapters till pay a percentage
of all membership dues to the national organization and
make a special contribution to a Freedom Fund of the parent
organization.7 Since 1954, however, the broad objective
has come to include the specific problems which face the
Negro pOpulation in a particular locality. Thus the goals
of the Lansing NAACP will be considered to include both
the stated objectives of the Chapter and the member's
conceptions of what those goals are.

For the Lansing Branch the struggle for full citi-

zenship rights focuses on equal job and educational

 

7Wilson, op. cit., Chapter 10. The Freedom Fund
established by the NAACP to help defray bail expense of
Negroes involved in the test of civil rights laws, where
the defendants and their local chapters cannot fully meet
the costs.

 

265

opportunities as well as equal use of public facilities.

In a recent policy statement the Rev. Joseph R. Parker l
in his capacity as the President established the follow- I-
ing priority among these goals:
Housing is recognized by this Branch as the
primary problem of discrimination against the
Negro in this community, for it has ramifica—
tions in most other areas of his life, such
as the education of his children and hence the
future economic potential of these children.
Thus, he went on, "the organization opposes the use of
Federal funds for financing housing not open to Negroes."
In addition to the three basic objectives there are sub—
sidiary goals which come into prominence in special cir—
cumstances. Thus when the City prepares for a local

election, efforts to broaden the base of Negro partici—

pation become an active interest of the association.

Members' Percgptions of
Organizational Goals
Informants in the sample were asked to indicate
the protest organizations to which they belong and what
they take to be the things these groups are attempting
to gain for the Negro in Lansing. Among NAACP members

the goal most often cited was that of "achieving equal

266

opportunity” over a broad spectrum of citizenship rights.
Those mentioned include housing, job, and educational
opportunities. Typical statements of this view are "to
get first class citizenship,“ to secure ”better housing,
employment, and schools for Negroes." Next came ”legal
redress,” and third ”full and complete equality and the
more absolute demand of 'improve conditions in every way
for the Negro.‘” This third perspective finds expression
in statements such as ”opportunities for self—improvement
through education and fighting for equal opportunity in
jobs and housing” and ”to bring about greater participa—
tion of Negroes in all phases of community life.” It
can be seen that while some individuals emphasized the
goals themselves, others stressed the means for attaining
them. A former school teacher described NAACP members
as "just meeting," going through the ritual of coming
together and talking but accomplishing nothing.” Even
more cynical is the view of a leader of one rival group.
He thinks the organization is trying to,

steer the Negro into one vicious circle in

which they8 set themselves in the position

to speak for all Negroes at the wishes of the

white man. The white man picks them to work

for him and promises to pay them off with an

appointment to a City Board and they go to
work.

 

8Apparently he excludes himself, even though he
is a Board Member.

r "I av.-
267 l

I
These statements reveal a basic concern of the J
Lansing NAACP with securing equal opportunity in the .
following areas of community life: equal housing, edu—
cational, and job opportunities in that order. It con-
firms the priority announced by the President. Although
the organization has a Committee on Political Action,
voting is not mentioned at all, due probably to the fact
that there is no opposition to exercise of the right as
such, and the fact that the only problem is effective
utilization of it, which is seen as depending on the Ne—
gro community itself. The following table reveals the

ranks assigned to the stated goals of the organization:

TABLE 8

PROTEST GOALS IN RANK ORDER
AS ASSIGNED BY MEMBERS OF THE NAACP

 

 

Goal Percentage Rank
Education 37.3 2
Housing 55.7 1
Jobs 7.0 3

100.0%

 

Most middle class people rank housing first, edu-

cation second, and job Opportunities third, if at all.

268

’--;q 4

By contrast working class people assign priority to em-

ployment opportunities, followed by housing. Very few 8

are concerned with educational Opportunities. I

Perspectives

Four main sources of ideological justification
exist for the demands or rights Negroes claim. These
are l) the United States Constitution, b) Christian doc—
trine, c) Morality, and d) African Nationalism. The con-
stitutional claim rests on the rights guaranteed American
citizens in that document, the Bill of Rights, and the
13th, 14th, and 15 Amendments to the Federal Constitution.
It is maintained that the "equal protection of law” clause
in the 14th Amendment prohibits inequalities in public
accommodations, economic and educational opportunities.
The Judeo—Christian conception of the “Fatherhood of God
and the Brotherhood of man” is held to justify equal treat—
ment of every human being. If men are all children of the
same Father, they are brothers and cannot stand in a rela—
tion of dominant minority to each other with the implica—
tion for inequality which this implies. Moral justifica-

tion is held to derive from the proposition that human

269

beings are entitled to certain rights and the Negro is
human. Furthermore, he has contributed his life and
blood in defense of the democratic values his country
justly prides itself upon and has fought for in Nazi
Germany, in Korea, and now in Viet Nam; thus he is en—
titled to enjoy those values on equal terms with other
American citizens. In their reliance on African nation—
alism the Negroes' claim to equal treatment is to the
effect that the African struggle for independence repre—
sents part of a world-wide movement to end white domina—
tion which for centuries has prevented nonwhite peoples
from realizing their full potential, and that the Negro
Revolt in Lansing is an aspect of a "good cause” to make
the world safe for the black man's posterity. A second
element in the African nationalist sentiment is that it
has served as a catalyst for the Negro Revolt generally
and a source of pride. The fact that Africans with less
education have had the stamina to stand up to the white
man and push him out successfuly suggests that Negroes
with far better preparation can end their own domination
if they mean to. That Africans have succeeded in govern—
ing themselves despite white criticism is a source of

pride. It is also believed that the liquidation of

 

270

European colonial empires in Asia and Africa offers a
challenge to democratic America which it cannot ignore
without suffering psychological defeat in the Cold War. _,
Thus the Negro must exploit the situation now if he is
ever to attain his freedom.9
Not everyone in the sample can articulate these
arguments clearly as the college man. Middle class people
were more explicit in elaborating the democratic and moral
bases of protest. Lower class persons relied more on the
Biblical thesis. A barber who pays his dues but does not
attend meetings held that "we are all God's children and
must live as brothers." A minister maintained that "be
fore God we are neither black nor white, Jew nor Genitle.
We are either right or wrong, saved or unsaved." Not even
a factor worker missed the lesson of African nationalism.
”What the Africans are doing today," he insisted, ”is
right. It is time to tell the white man that he can‘t
have everything and others nothing. It is time to tell
him we are fed up—-we black folks. While the Africans

keep pushing him on one side we in America must push him

 

9The thinking is that American can not long carry

conviction among nonwhite peoples of the world to whom it
is preaching democracy as a better rule or philosophy of

social relations if it continues to suppress the Negro in
its own boundaries.

271

from this side. This is a fight for a good cause and
we are in it together.” An automobile mechanic put the
moral case sarcastically assfollows. ”When there is war,
they want everybody to go. They don't say ‘Nigger, you
go back to Africa 'cause you're not qualified.‘ We are
qualified to die in Germany and Viet Nam and Korea, but
we are not qualified to hold a job we can do or live where
we can buy a house. What kind of a country is that?”
Unfulfilled promises of freedom and equal oppor—

tunity lead one highly successful professional and Board
member to this painful conclusion:

I have all but lost faith in the white man.

Every time he tells us "Don't worry about

these things [civil rights]. We'll take care

of them tomorrow.” But tomorrow never comes.

He must say now if he’ll give us justice. If

he will not, then I'll join the Black Muslims

and hate him as they hate his guts. If he

will, let him do so Now.
This disillusionment with white people carries over into
a fierce opposition to organizations like the Urban League
which he sees as part of a general white conspiracy to use
the Negro's money against him. He can find no useful pur-
pose to be served by the data—gathering approach of the

League. He is convinced that the disparities between whites

and Negroes which research seeks to discover are already

 

272

well known to the whites who now support the League's
data—gathering activities. "They erected the barriers
that brought about these disparities in the first place,"
he contends. Thus, in his view, the aim of research
must be to buy time or otherwise delay giving the Negro
the rights he seeks. His thesis that through the Urban
League approach to social protest Negro money will be
used to postpone Negro rights rests on the premise that
the Community Chest, which will take responsibility for
the financial support of the League at the end of two
years,10 is a fund subscribed by the entire community,
and since the research is basically a delaying tactic,
he finds the conclusion inescapable.

Another well-known professional with a substan-
tial white clientele is equally distrustful of white in-
tentions to grant the Negro the rights which are already
his by law. He finds the white man ”treacherous and hate—
ful" as soon as the Negro begins to demand his rights.

To him the future of race relations in Lansing is prac—
tically hopeless, for equal opportunity in housing, edu—

cation, and employment is not likely to come for "another

10See Introductory Section, Chapter III.

273

one hundred years." What will bring the white man to
his senses (that the Negro is entitled to these rights
now) is "another dramatic event of the seriousness of
the assassination of President Kennedy.”ll Other middle
class people believe that equal opportunity in Lansing
is a NEVER!

Few working class persons take this pessimistic
View of the future. The majority see things getting
better all the time, both in the nation and in Lansing.
Even those who View Lansing as the same as, or worse than,
the places they came from believe that full equality is
a matter of five to ten years, or ”the next generation”
at most. Despite differences in outlook on the future,
however, there is general agreement among NAACP members
in the sample in respect to the philOSOphical justifica—
tions of their demands—~a factor attributable perhaps to
the fact that the few working class people in the sample
often hear their college educated leaders talk about the
”Constitution of the United States,” the "brotherhood of

man," what the Negro has done for the country, or that

 

llMany Lansing Negroes linked the assassination

of President Kennedy on November, 22, 1963, with his
strong civil rights stand. The respondent's views seem
clearly related to that.

274

Techniques

Several different strategies and techniques have
been employed by Negro organizations working to reduce
discrimination in the United States. The include mass
marches, conciliation conferences, boycotts, sit—ins,
interfaith pressures, picketing and public relations.

As far as the Lansing NAACP is concerned the primary
approach to protest has been legal—judiciary in the man—
ner of its parent organization. Discrimination and seg—
regation in the city have been attacked on the premise
that "separate but equal facilities” are inherently un-
equal, and that segregation on grounds of race per se

is wrong.

Technique Preferences

Members of the NAACP sample were asked to indicate
a preference for protest techniques. The most typical re—
sponse among middle class persons was that there is no
”best” way to protest and that choice of strategy should
depend on the situation. What may be effective in one
situation may be quite inappropriate in another. This

view is summed up in responses such as "a combination of

 

, TLI_r_, ,

275

 

approaches depending on the situation.” One informant 33
listed these examples of this type of technique: use

of literary media for attacks on racial discrimination

and injustice as exemplified in W. E. B. DuBois, James

Baldwin, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.12 A Michigan State

Government official believes in "several things” and

mentioned direct action, social planning, and a legal

approach. Still another included "sit-ins, demonstra—

tions, marches, and use of the ballot” in the combina-

tion approach.

Lower class people tend to favor a more militant
strategy. Insisted one, "Tell the white man what we want
and why, and if he don't give it, demonstrate: and con—
tinue until he does the right thing!” "Fight back!” a
barber demanded. To him Dr. King's concept of nonviolence
is nonsense. In the view of one middle class person the
Negro should demand his rights by militant methods. A

retired teacher believes self-preparation through formal

 

12Some of the great patriarchs of Negro protest
have been scholars. Perhaps the most prolific among them
was W. E. B. DuBois. He and other Negro writers have pro—
vided penetrating insights into the philosophical bases
of Negro protest. See his Souls of Black Folk (New York:
Premier Books, 1961); also James Baldwin, The Fire Next
Time (New York: Dial Press, 1963).

 

276

schooling is the Negro's best weapon of protest. When I
members of the sample were asked to say which technique I
would be most effective in Lansing the following results .

were obtained:

TABLE 9

TECHNIQUES FAVORED BY NAACP MEMBERS

 

 

Technique % Sample Favoring
Voting 45.7
Demonstrations 40.8
Boycotts 5.0
Picketing 6.1
Education, including research 2.4

1
Total: 100.0

 

The usefulness of education in social protest is
seen to lie mainly in the area of political action and
conciliation. If the individual is informed on the issue,
he can be trusted to make correct decisions in choice sit-
uations. For example, if Negroes knew the advantages of
spreading out, then in buying new houses hey could be
counted on to integrate white neighborhoods without caus-

ing hysteria. Thus the NAACP is interested in member and

 

 

 

277

community action. Evidence of discrimination must also
be called to the attention of white men of power, many
of whom despite formal schooling do not have more than
a passing acquaintance with Negro life.13

In terms of actual organizational policies and
procedures, the Lansing NAACP has utilized mass meetings,
demonstrations, court action and conciliation in the past.
Court suits have been filed against white restaurant and
hotel owners for refusing service and accommodations to
Negro customers. In company with other groups it has
staged a demonstration against the passage of a weak human
relations ordinance by the Lansing City Council—~an ordi—
nance that did not empower a Human Relations Committee to
investigate cases of alleged racial or religious discrim—

ination and did not provide for a full time Director and

 

l3Voting receives first place probably because
Negroes see their relations with whites in power terms
and have come to believe that with votes they can influ—
ence those who wield that power into directions more
favorable to Negro civil rights. The alleged decisive—
ness of the Negro vote in electing the present Mayor is
held as evidence of the effectiveness of the ballot as
an instrument of protest. The technique of demonstra—
tions direct local and external attention to racial "in-
justice” and project an image of a community as an unstable
place. ‘It is hoped that the threat of losing new business
would pressure men of power into making concessions toIhe
Negro.

278

staff. Despite the growing interest in more militant
strategies, the local Chapter's current protest is essen—
tially non—violent. It relies mainly on research and
education of both members of the group, the Negro sub-
community and the white power structure, as seen in the

following issues:

1. Housing

The problem in public accommodations in Lansing
is that of the denial to Negroes of equal opportunity to
live in areas where they can buy homes. The objective
of NAACP protest is to obtain open occupancy. Through
its Committee on Housing the Chapter charges that real
estate interests and lending institutions are in a con-
spiracy to exclude Negroes from so—called white neighbor-
hoods and rationalizing this with specious arguments.

The techniques used by the Association include:
a) data—gathering, b) community education, and, when these
fail, c) self—help to circumvent local resistance.

The Housing Committee advances research evidence
to shatter the image of the Negro in housing as that of
an irresponsible slum dweller, and to present him as a

financially responsible and proud homeowner. His record

279

in mortgage payments and property maintenance, comparable
to that of whites on his socioeconomic levels, is cited
in support of the argument. In more specific terms, re—
search evidence to counter the arguments such as that
property values go down when Negroes move into an all—
white neighborhood, that if one Negro moves into a neigh—
borhood a multitude will follow, and that Negroes do not
maintain their property, is assembled and called to the
attention of the opponents of open occupancy. The Com—
mittee points to such conclusions as that panic selling,
not racial integration in housing per se, causes the de—
cline in property values and a change in the face or resi—
dents of a neighborhood; that an examination of interradal
housing developments and interracial neighborhoods shows
clearly that Negroes maintain their property as well or
better than their white neighbors and that the poor con—
ditions and filth of the areas the Negro is forced to
live in are not caused by the mere fact of Negro occupancy
but by the social and economic deprivations imposed upon
him by the white community.

Some times members are exposed to experts by hav—
ing the latter discuss the evidence at a general meeting.

At other times real estate people are brought in to clarify

 

280

I
the position of their profession on the problem of pri— ii
vate housing for minority groups and submit to questions [
from the members of the Branch. It is the view of the
Branch that real estate brokers have a direct economic
stake in the maintenance of the biracial residence system
and their strict control of Negro housing is related to
this motivation for gain. Realtors reject this view as
inaccurate and insist that their refusal to show or sell
homes to Negroes in certain areas is merely in discharge
of their agency responsibilities to a community that is
still basically unprepared to accept equal opportunity
in housing, whatever their pretentions to the contrary.
The NAACP counters by presenting case material suggest—
ing that even where white property owners have not ex—
cluded any category of people from the list of prospec—
tive buyers, brokers have themselves injected the racial
element into the transaction by urging the client not to
”hurt” the neighbors or their property by selling to "un-

desirable” persons.l4

 

l4The NAACP maintains that what appears to be the

concern of the broker for the neighbors is nothing more
than an attempt to control Negro housing for the ultimate
business interests of realtors, and to hide behind the
name of the property owner to achieve this. Actually,
the argument runs, if the broker would leave matters to

 

 

281

Banks deny refusing to finance any home buying
on any grounds but the credit standing of the prospective
client. The NAACP has sought to bring evidence that white
individuals with less earning power and education and
worse records of installment payment have been able to
secure loans where Negroes on a higher socioeconomic level
and better payment records have failed to obtain one. The
fact that the weight of scholarly research evidence does
not seem to support popular fears concerning the alleged
effects of residential integration has not enabled Negroes
to achieve free and open housing in Lansing. Meanwhile
the debate continues.

The NAACP's educational technique in this area
aims at arming members as well as the general Negro sub—

community with necessary "facts" so that they might make

 

property owners, they would not be concerned with the

race of the buyer. It is alleged that.the moral urgings
of the broker are designed to control Negro housing in
such a way that subdivisions being vacated by whites for
new ones would be available to Negroes and mass invasion
into the white neighborhood would be stimulated. In this
situation demand would be high, and correspondingly profits
would mount. The NAACP also holds that use of the right
of private property in favor of discrimination is abortive,
for the right to dispose of one's property does not extend
to one's neighbors. Usually the prejudiced seller refuses
to sell to anyone on grounds that the nieghbors would not
approve.

 

282

intelligent decisions in situations where their vital in—

_ag, ..--»

terests are involved. As applied to the field of housing, ’
one such situation is an urban renewal program envisaged
by the city. The plan calls for a highway (I-496) which
would uproot 300 Negro families, including many widows

and older people who would have to sell homes where they
would have lived for years and for which they have come

to have some sentimental attachment. While displaced
persons will be paid for their property, the amounts to

be realized and expected will be far below current prices
for new homes, and they will face the difficult task of
buying homes in areas designated by the white power struc—
ture at much higher prices. The NAACP leadership is
alarmed at what appears to be apathy on the part of the
victims at this prospect and blames their attitude to

lack of knowledge of the full implications of what the
President cynically refers to as this ”Negro Removal Plan.”
Seeing itself as the protector of Negro rights the local
chapter has sought to educate the concerned families as
well as the general Negro community into the disadvantages

of regrouping after moving.15

 

15Apart from scaring resident whites into fleeing,
thus abandoning the area for another black ghetto to develop,
Negro regrouping tends to raise the demand for homes in the
area, to the detriment of Negro buyers. Real estate inter—
ests alone stand to gain from this invasion.

 

283

They are warned that buying homes in the same area would
pave the way for another Negro ghetto, and this would lead
to segregated inferior schools. Inferior schools minimize
the economic opportunities of children in the future, re—
stricts them to low paying jobs, and makes it impossible
for them to live in any but old runédown white homes.

In View of what it expects to be the lack of co-
operation from Lansing banks to finance home—buying for
these families in any but sections of the city designated
for them by real estate and other powerful interests, the
Housing Committee has also been concerned about exploring
out—of-town financing sources. It is not at all certain
whether the effort will be successful, in View of the
common Objectives which realtors and lending institutions
have concerning minority housing, but members of the Com—
mittee are optimistic.

And the extent to which education will succeed
in getting displaced families to spread into different
neighborhoods rather than regrouping can be determined
only when urban renewal actually comes to Lansing. So
far there is evidence that many of the concerned families
look upon NAACP suggestions about not regrouping as an

unnecessary interference in their private affairs, if

 

284

not with suspicion. The Housing Committee is optimistic.
however. Already it has succeeded in stimulating enough
interest in the Negro community to hold some block meet—
ings.

The legal approach to housing protest has had a
little more success. Through its insistence that feder-
ally assisted housing cannot be denied to Negroes, the
NAACP has been able to get FHA repossessed homes open to
minority group members. Already some Negroes have bought
such homes in previously all—white Churchill DOWnS on
the southeast side of the city. Efforts continue to make

even new FHA homes available on an open occupancy basis.

2. Education

Negro discontent with education in Lansing focuses
on two main issues: de facto segregation, with practical
and psychological implications for Negro pupils as well

as white ones, and the image of the Negro in textbooks

 

and other course material in the public schools. With
regards to the issue of de facto segregation the crux of
the NAACP's case may be summarized as follows:

a) that de facto segregation, whatever its
cause, is wrong;

b) that the Lansing School Board is guilty
of a specific act of segregation—~namely

285

gerrymandering or culpable failure to act;
and that the

c) Negro schools (those with more than 75%
Negroes in the student body--and there are
three at present in the city, and a fourth
one is rapidly becoming Negro) are so edu—
cationally inferior to the white schools
that they deprive their students of a con-
stitutional right.

3. De Facto Segregation

 

The NAACP maintains that school segregation based
on race, whatever its cause, is harmful both educationally
and psychologically to Negro pupils and to a certain ex—
tent their white counterparts. This is so because, as the
United States Supreme Court has pointed out, separate—but—
equal racial schools are ”necessarily unequal.” It charges
that the Lansing School Board has so drawn school boundaries
as to contain Negro pupils in a limited number of schools.
It points to relative overcrowding and inadequacies in
curriculum offerings, vocational and guidance work study
programs. As long as such conditions exist, it holds,
Negro children face a bleak economic future, in educational
facilities in predominantly Negro schools. It also lists
negative self—concept formation and apathy toward education
as adverse psychological consequences of "racial" schools.

In effect, the Chapter charges blatant discrimination

if... . willy?
I

 

 

286

against the Negro schools in per capita or per pupil ex-
penditures to the School Board. To the extent that in—
ferior education and lowered motivation for academic
achievement and reduced aspirational levels result from
segregated schools, the NAACP holds this institution re—
sponsible for not affording the Negro child the equal
protection of the law.

Basically, the strategy for change has consisted
of confronting the Lansing School Board with research
evidence that these objections are valid in specific
schools in the city, and suggesting remedies that have
been adopted in other communities in and out of Michigan.16
Higher school drop-out rates of Negro youth and their
consequent lack of preparation for many jobs that might

otherwise be available are some examples of the kind of

 

16A case in point is a presentation at the Lansing
Board of Education on July 27, 1964. It argued that three
schools have already become ”Negro" and that a third, a
Junior High School, will be so by 1970. It insisted that
the School Board can act to arrest the trend and suggested
some specific steps. The quality of the research on which
the NAACP Education Committee's arguments were based was
generally regarded as high by even members of the Board
against whom the arguments were made and was favorably
received. Lansing's newly hired Superintendent of Schools
was present and seemed impressed. Of course whether school
boundaries will be changed or other steps taken to remedy
the situation remains to be seen.

287

data the NAACP uses to document its contention that the
school system does Operate to deny Negro pupils "equal
protection of law." On the basis of the evidence it
thinks it has marshalled the local Chapter has been at-
tempting to have the School Board acknowledge publicly
responsibility for achieving an integrated school system
and see that that responsibility is defined and adminis-
tratively implemented in a manner which is in keeping
with sound educational and democratic measures. It holds
that the Board can and should work toward a more racially
balanced school system through the use of its boundary
defining authority. It suggests that overcrowding in Ne—
gro schools be met by transfers to predominantly white
schools operating below their maximum legal size of 1200
pupils rather thanty the installation of mobile units at
the overcrowded schools.17

The School Board does not deny de facto segrega—

tion or its effects but disclaims responsibility for cor-

recting it, arguing that the racial pattern of school

 

17There are mobile units at least in one white

school, but the NAACP insists that the overcrowding in
that school too could be relieved by sending the children
to any other school-~White or Negro-~that is operating
below its authorized size.

 

i

 

 

288

districting follows from the neighborhood concept rather
than from its own efforts to maintain a biracial school
system. Since areas of living tend to follow racial lines,
the School Board maintains, the solution to de facto segre—
gation lies in integrating these neighborhoods, which,
however, is a problem in social reform rather than of
educational administration or policy. The NAACP rejects
the View that the School Board is merely an innocent and
powerless bystander and warns school authorities against
hiding behind the neighborhood concept in order to escape
responsibility for a condition which they have themselves
helped bring about through their zoning practices. The
famous new Rochelle decision is cited, in which Judge
Kaufmann established this limitation on the use of the
neighborhood concept. He warns that,

the neighborhood school policy is not sacro-

sanct. It is valid in so far as it is oper-

ated within the confines established by the

Constitution. It can not be used as an in-

strument to confine Negroes within an area

artificially delineated in the first instance

by official acts. If it is so used, the Con—

stitution has b §n violated and the courts
must intervene.

 

18This statement is part of a decision by the

Judge in a case in New York early in 1964.

 

289

The NAACP maintains that desegregated schools
can be achieved by zoning “to integrate rather than to
contain," as has been done in many communities. In re-
jecting the Lansing School Board argument that school
officials merely put schools where children live and
are not responsible for housing patterns, it insists
that school officials may not be directly responsible
for housing but they are responsible for the public edu—
cating of the schools they administer. The Supreme Court
decision places upon them the obligation to operate non-
segregated school systems. The following specific plans
are proposed as an approach to the minimization, if not
elimination of existing segregation:

1. Zoning to Desegregate

 

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.\ ff

__._—--*

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.I.—— \
.——""“ 7

¥

 

M

 

 

 

I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here zone lines divide the segregated residential area. The

point is that zone lines are man—made and can be drawn to

segregate or desegregate.

 

19The NAACP makes it clear that it understands that

any plan must be adapted to a specific community situation,
taking into consideration enrollment, capacity, distance ar
other factors. It suggests that each of these plans can be

used alone or in combination with others.

 

 

 

 

 

290
2. The Princeton Plan
ixw
: 4-6
E | I
:22;

 

 

Children are assigned to school on the basis of grade.
All children in the new zone attend grades kindergarten
through three, then attend the other school for grades
four through six. Any grade combination is possible and

the plan is effective despite housing segregation.

3. School Reorganization

 

[:1

 

 

(W
/

 

The segregated school may be converted to an administra—
tion building or other type school serving a larger area,

. . . . . 2
reaSSigning pupils and teachers to eXisting schools. 0

 

2OIn the NAACP presentation to the School Board

referred to on page 286, a proposal was made to use this
plan to prevent the Junior High School that will be all—
Negro by 1970 from becoming a ”racial” school. It was
suggested that the building now housing the school be
used as offices by the Board of Education and the pupils
distributed among other city schools operating below
their maximum size.

291

4. Changing the Feeder Patterns of Elementary to

Secondary Schools

 

 

 

 

’IT’P

 

5. Site Selection and Building—additions

 

[::]'4”‘”‘7“' Proposed site
....1._ f*“>

~~“——“‘\

Preferred site

 

 

 

Site selection and additions to existing buildings should
be planned to achieve desegregation.

The Board has not been wholly unresponsive, how—
ever. With a View to minimizing the consequences of edu—
cational discrimination it has sponsored a workshop where
experts on the problems of teaching underprivileged chil—
dren shared their experience on how to motivate such youth
with public school teachers in Lansing who handle these
youth. Another is planned in the fall of the present year.
A workshop on the rehabilitation of economically under-
privileged children stresses the need for the teacher to
see each child withintthe total context of his sociocul—

tural environment; i.e., to know the family and the

 

292

neighborhood from which he comes. It also attempts to
stimulate teachers to help such children develop posi—
tive self—attitudes and similar attitudes toward democ—

racy.

4. Political Action

The NAACP's strategy of political action has as
its immediate objective the election of a Negro to the
City Council. It seeks this end in view of what the
President of the Association describes as ”the consistent
tendency of the Council to ignore the rights of Negroes."
Victory here would warn the white power structure the
Negro element in the population of the city is now a
factor in the distribution of power and cannot be ignored.
The program tells the Negro that he is not helpless; that
he does not have to submit passively to white domination,
and that he can change his condition through intelligent
use of his ballot. Use of a ”bloc vote” is envisaged and
a voter registration program is being conducted. The Com—
mittee on Political Action is directing all its energies
to registering at least 2,500 Negroes for use against un—

friendly public officials by the 1964 November election.21

 

21The Committee feels that the present number of

registered Negroes—~l,500——is too small to be politically
effective to help elect councilmen and a Mayor who are

 

 

 

293

5. Cohesion

Most persons in the sample assign a sense of
common indignity as the reason drawing them into the
work of the NAACP. Middle class Negroes feel they are
in the local chapter to help make things better for
every Negro, but particularly for the working class ones.
Working class Negroes believe college—educated and pro-
fessionals are interested in civil rights, but despise
the ”little man.” One reason for this feeling is that
middle class Negroes do not invite them to their homes
for after—meeting drinks, as they do one another. White
members report being indignant about the inequalities in
a democratic society and express a desire to ”do something
to change things" for the better.

But commitment to theccommon problem is hardly
matched in behavior by some members. Three of the four
ministers and four working class people in the sample
have the poorest attendance record. All of them admit

being regular dues payers, but not regular attenders at

 

favorable to Negro civil rights. It is conducting a door—
to-door survey of unregistered Negroes, explaining to them
the importance of their ballot and how it can be used to
change things for them in Lansing.

294

meetings. None of the delinquent ministers have attended
a meeting in the last twelve months. Working class people

report that they attend ”seldom."22

6. Meetings

 

While the monthly general membership meetings

are conducted democratically (actions taken on the basis
of free discussion and majority vote), very little de-
cision making occurs on this level. Policies and pro-
grams are largely set by the leaders—~Executive Committee
and Trustee Board Members.23 In coming to meetings, the
ordinary member's main function has been to support the
already planned programs financially and morally. This
pattern of decision—making has rendered the NAACP vulner-

able to attack by working class members in and outside

 

2No roll of members is called at meetings, but
I have attended every one. Thus I know that these self—
reports are true.

23In the fall of 1963 the Board was expanded to
15 members, probably to broaden the base of member par—
ticipation in policy-making, although the President said
the reason was to make it possible for him to have board
members to work with at all times, in View of the fact
that some of the 9 members at the time had plural member—
ships in two or more organizations and hence were not al-
ways available to advise him or attend board meetings.
The NAACP had been under criticism for catering only to
the middle class Negro by both members and non-members.

295

the sample, but also by middle class people themselves.

It has been charged that the organization rules and from
the top. When dues—paying members are asked why they do
not attend meetings, the most typical reason assigned is
that they have nothing to say. Most people in the Negro
community have heard of NAACP in Lansing, but are hard

put to it to name its accomplishments. There is a general
feeling that it is not "getting anywhere.” Frustration
over this sense of no accomplishment was a factor in the

. . . . 24.
organization of a rival group, as Will be seen below.

7. Intergroup Relations

 

An impression of lack of coordination among pro-
test groups led me to inquire into the perspectives of
the several organizations on intergroup relations. The
philosophy of inter-group cooperation which the NAACP
follows depends on the personality of the presiding offi—
cer. Even where others hold their own views, the nature

of collaboration with other groups is guided largely by

 

4As will be seen in the discussion of the Citi—
zens' Non Partisan League, the founder states that the
League was not founded to oppose the NAACP. Yet it is
clear that at the time the NAACP did not permit militant
programs of the type the League dedicated itself to doing.
The lack of participation of all segments of the member—
ship might also have predisposed some members to join the
League.

 

 

296

his perspectives. According to the former NAACP presi—
dent, protest groups are coordinate organizations, and
cooperation consists not in unity of action as such, but
in each pursuing the goals independently according to
techniques it deems most appropriate. He traces the
present segmentation within the protest movement to dif—
fering conceptions of what constitutes the most effective
means.

Middle class people in the NAACP who form the
vast majority of the membership agree with this philosophy.
Like that president they view proliferation of protest
groups as unfortunate but unavoidable. They perceive
no objection to pluralism provided there is some coordi—
nation, which, however, does not result in the loss of
the fundamental identity of any group. One result of
pursuing this outlook in social protest is that relations
between the NAACP and the next group to be described have
been cold if not nonexistent. Since March, 1964, however,
the local Chapter has had a new executive head who has
made it a point to seek to forge effective cooperation
between the Chapter and the other protest groups in common

areas of interest.

297

Negro Image in Books

Protest in this area is in respect to the image
of the Negro found in textbooks and other reading mater—
ial in use in the public schools. The NAACP Education
Committee has repeatedly contended that some of these
materials are derogatory and tend to perpetuate popular
stereotypes of the Negro in the minds of both white and
Negro young people by ignoring or under—playing his true
role in American life and culture, or depicting him as a
simpleton who is capable of doing nothing but menial and
repetitive types of work. Here again it is the psycho—
logical consequences which provide the reason for attack.
It is held that an entirely unfavorable view of Negro life
affects the self—esteem of Negro youth and makes White
pupils who draw most of their knowledge about Negroes

from books contemptuous of the Negro.

 

25That Negroes and whites live in separate worlds

is attested by the fact that even City Councilmen express
surprise at the disadvantages Negroes suffer, when re-
search evidence of it is called to their attention. In

an argument for a strong Human Relations Ordinance in the
summer of 1963, a citizens group called attention to a
"job ceiling,” and discrimination in education and housing
Opportunities. Some Councilmen seemed amazed at the reve—
lations and asked for further investigation of the condi—
tions complained Of.

 

 

298

The Lansing School Board has responded favorably
to the Chapter's recommendation that serious considera—
tion be given to the problem of maintaining a collection
of books in libraries that do not place members of the
Negro race in an unfavorable light. It has established
a Library Committee including the one Negro principal in
the school system to identify such books or reading ma-
terial and to recommend procedures for their removal from

circulation.

B. THE CITIZENS NON—PARTISAN LEAGUE

Unlike the NAACP, which is a branch of a national
protest organization, the Citizens Non— Partisan League
is a strictly local development. The Negro electorate
in Lansing had grown rapidly but was still too small
compared with the white electorate and divided to be
politically effective. This numerical weakness had
apparently tempted many City Hall politicians into think—
ing that they could ignore the Negro community with im—
punity. In its bluntest form this attitude finds expres—
sion in a statement attributed to the last Mayor to the

effect that he did not need the Negro's vote and hence

299

was not obliged to meet his demands.26 The formation of
the League was the response to this challenge.

The primary aim of the organizers was to mobilize
the Negro vote, irrespective of party affiliation, in
order to defeat the boastful official and elect a Negro
to the City Council, thus making it clear to the white
power structure that the Negro had come into maturity
as a significant segment of opinion in Lansing, which
could no longer be ignored or taken for granted by the

serious elective office seeker.

Membership

 

It is difficult to know the full membership of
the League, for the list of those on the rolls is a
closely guarded secret by the President and his closest
associates. Not even everyone on the policy-making
councils knows accurately the size of the League's mem—

bership. A figure of over 500 paid members is claimed

 

26He is ‘Mayor Ralph Crego. Reportedly, he made
the statement in reply to frequent Negro criticisms that
he did not appoint them to City Boards or his Citizens
Committees. He was defeated in 1960 and the League claims
to have contributed significantly to this, but the extent
of its contribution is difficult to determine.

300

by the President, but there is reason to think that this
is fantastically high.27 It might have been a more ac—
curate estimate in 1960 when the League was founded or
the next year or two following that, for the prospect
of neutralizing white power was of sufficient integrative
force to rally the Negro community around the League, as
evident from the fact that even NAACP leaders became mem—
bers of it. The situation seems to have changed consider—
ably since. Members in the best position to know28 put
the size of the League's paid membership at no more than
250 since 1962. Some of these sources doubt that it is
more than 150 at present.

Table 10 shows the socioeconomic status of the

members of the League in the sample:

 

27I often asked the Secretary for the figure,

only to be put off each time, even though it should
have been known that I would not use it for propaganda
purposes. Perhaps the evasion was due to fear that I
would put the figure in the thesis and readers would
then know it. This in turn is part of the psychology
of intergroup rivalry. No protest group wants its ”ad-
versaries" to know its full strength, for they might
then work to outdo its own efforts.

28The President has a circle of close ”lieuten-
ants.” These are people who agree with him or at least
do not openly challenge or criticize his policies. One
of them acts in his place whenever he cannot come to a
meeting or will be late. The secretary-treasurer and
the Chairman of the City Affairs Committee top the list
of confidantes.

301

 

 

 

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302

It is apparent that the vast majority are working class
people. Of the 21 members in the sample only 19% hold
college or graduate professional degrees. The rest are
factory workers or doers of skilled and semi—skilled
work. Throughout the eighteen months of the field in-
vestigation only six members including the two factory
workers, a post office truck driver, and a Michigan

State University secretary, President, the Secretary—
Treasurer attended meetings regularly-~that is, every
meeting or every other meeting. A new face turned up
every fourth or fifth meeting and disappeared for another
two months or more, but the ”faithful few,” as the Presi-
dent calls them, were the same six or seven people men—

tioned above.

Leadership

In organization the League approximates the
NAACP. It has an executive cabinet headed by a Presi-
dent and includes a Secretary—Treasurer, a Financial
Secretary, and a Publicity Secretary. It also has a
Board of Directors, whose size depends on the wishes

of the President. The functions of these two bodies

 

303

are the same as in the NAACP, with one essential dif-
ference. While theoretically the Board is the chief
policy making group, in fact the President decides the
policy and expects everyone to accept it. Such decisions
are present to the general membership as those of the
Board. Dissent is frowned upon, especially when the
policy has to do with the League's relations with middle—
class based groups like the NAACP or the Greater Lansing
Coordinating Council on Human Rights. The loyalty of
those who persist in expressing contrary views is sus-
pect and, if on the Board of Directors may find them-
selves being progressively excluded from policy meetings}2
Members of the cabinet are elected for one year
by the membership upon recommendation of a Nominating
Committee appointed by the President. The present cab-
inet has held office for three consecutive years. The
League also takes a Committee approach to its work.
There are six committees on Membership, Finance, City
Affairs, Employment Opportunities Information, Housing,
and Education. Committee Chairmen are appointed by the

President just as their members are.

 

29As will be indicated below, this attitude of

antagonism toward dissent and the tendency to equate dis—
sent with disloyalty has alienated all the college edu-

cated, who no longer attend the meetings.

 

304

With the exception of the President, a teacher,
and an engineer, who have college or graduate—professional
training, the officers of the League do not differ sig-
nificantly from the general membership in sociocultural
attributes. For the most part they are individuals wifii
only a high school education or less, and live in the
heart of the Negro community.3O None of them comes from
what may be called an "established" family-—a family with
a tradition of higher or professional education. The
President and three other members including a Committee
Chairman hold membership in another protest group—~the
NAACP. And the President is the only League member who
has had the honor of sitting on a City Board——the Mayor's
Human Relations Committee.

For all practical purposes the Citizens' Non—
Partisan League may be regarded as essentially a one—
man ruled organization. The President is not only policy
maker, but spokesman for the group. The League has come
to be identified with his name. In naming the groups

working to reduce discrimination in Lansing many in the

 

30The area between two streets-8West Main and West

St. Joseph. This city block contains the largest concen—
tration of Negroes in the city.

305

Negro community including even college educated people

refer to it as ”Karl's group.” Lower class members have

great confidence in their president. They seldom ques—

tion his actions, but he has not taken on the qualities

of a charismatic leader.

Goals

The League's goal of change through understanding

of the political process is best set forth in a pamphlet

containing these propositions:

1.

To promote constructive government through
teacher—pupil relationship in voter educa-
tion and encourage our fellowmen to parti—
pate in the same.

To solicit the support of all organizations
in the promotion of education for improved
human relations.

To set up an organizational pattern by
which we might take a united stand against
any oppression.

To participate fully and whole—heartedly
in community service programs and organi—
zations, and to encourage our fellowmen
to become morglconcerned with these activ—
ities . . . .

 

31Statement of Goals and Policies — Citizens'

Non-Partisan League, 1962.

306

Other clauses in the document are more polemical, im—
plying a denunciation of NAACP procedures:

1. To make decisions together on any problems
that affect us.

2. To set up a workable communications system
by which we may be able to have direct con—

tact with all segments of the community.

3. To express the point of View of all the
people——each group.32

Member Conception of Goals

Although political action through public infor-
mation is the stated objective of the Citizens Non-
Partisan League most members see the organization as
seeking to aid Negroes secure employment. As can be
seen below, 61% of the sample named job opportunities
as the primary aim of the League. Housing ranked second,
with 29.7%. Voting takes third place with 8%. Only
1.3% see the League as attempting to unify the Negro
community for political action. There is thus a funda—
mental difference between the stated goals and the aims

of most members. (See Table 11 next page)

 

 

307

TABLE 11

RANK ORDER OF PROTEST GOALS ASSIGNED BY MEMBERS OF THE
CITIZENS NON—PARTISAN LEAGUE

 

 

 

Goal Percent Rank
Housing 29.7 2
Jobs 61.0 1
Voting 8.0 3
Uniting Community 1.3 4

Total % of Sample: 100.0

 

True to member beliefs the League directed more
of its energies to the field of employment during the
course of the field investigation than any other.

Meetings are held weekly in the Negro Masonic
Hall for which a rental is paid out of collections taken

at each meeting.

Perspectives

 

Like the NAACP, the ideological sentiments from
which members of the League derive support for ”the
rights they seek“ include morality, the Bible, and the
Constitution of the United States. The moral argument

states that the Negro was sent to die for democratic

308

values in Germany during the Second World War and sub—
sequently in Korea, and now in Viet Nam and he is en—
titled to enjoy the fruits of democratic society in
common with other Americans who also made the supreme
sacrifice. The "men-are—brothers" idea which derives
from the Christian conception of the Fatherhood of God
is strongly held as justifying treatment of the Negro
as a brother who should be able to get a job and earn
as much as his ”brother," the white man. The constitu-
tional guarantee of freedom is traced to Lincoln by work-
ing class people in the sample. They believe the Negro
became the equal of the white man when Lincoln freed
the slaves; hence he is entitled to "everything" the
white man enjoys. African nationalism does not have
the importance it holds among members of the NAACP.
“While the few college—trained leaders see it as provid-
ing impetus for the Negro Revolt, most other members
see it as insignificant. This is particularly true
among the working class members of the sample of the
League.

In terms of outlook on race relations in Lansing,
League members on the whole are more optimistic. They

see the possibility of change in the direction of equal

 

309

opportunity in jobs, housing, and education within the
next fifteen years. According to President Keyes, the
length of time will depend on how soon the Negro can
exert effective pressure on the white power structure.
Supporting this optimism is what they see as the grow—
ing cultural acceptance by white America of the legiti-
macy of the Negro's right to protest. The leadership
views members of the NAACP Board of Directors with deep
suspicion, as instruments of white City Hall politicians,
who would manipulate the Negro community into a position
acceptable to the white power structure in return for
appointments to City Boards. Thus the leadership of
that organization is the real enemy of the Negro masses,
it is the greater obstacle to their freedom. The Presi—
dent makes it a point to project an image of himself and
the League as the organization "really working for the
people, as genuinely having their interest at heart."
Thus the League, which he symbolizes, should be the one
to represent the ”grassroots" in negotiations with City
Hall. The NAACP leadership has only arrogantly usurped
functions of spokesmen for the Negro community. In re-
ality, it does not know the "little man,” for most of

that leadership live in white neighborhoods of by themselves

 

310

and do not share his problems. Any attempt by that
group, then, to speak for the ”little fellow” is merely
a pretext for using him for their own selfish status—
seeking ends. The League, which has a mass base, and,
in the Opinion of many of its members, more truly repre—
sents the "people” in socioeconomic characteristics,
should therefore fight to prevent the people who are
"selling us down the river” from exercising this self—
appointed role of spokesman or representatives for the
Negro community.

Ministers and the leadership predominate among
those who rank voting first. Factory workers and minis—
ters account for the bulk of those who prefer concilia—
tion. The militant approach of demonstrations and pic-
keting after conciliation has failed is supported mainly
by the leadership.

Despite the importance attached to voting very

little is being done in this field.

M

We turn now to an examination of the League's
program to discover what techniques are used and how

they function in specific protest activities.

_ J

 

311

Political Participation

The League's protest in the area of political
action has two main Objectives: 1) to establish the
appropriate voice of the Negro community in its rela-
tions with City Hall or the white power structure gen-
erally, and 2) to neutralize white power in those areas
of community life where it is seen as threatening the
enjoyment of equal opportunity by Negroes.

During the last three years Negro nominations
have been invited for appointment to various City Boards
or Mayor's Committees. Middle class Negroes have had a
virtual monopoly of these seats on recommendation of
NAACP leaders. The Citizens' Non-Partisan League's
reaction to this development has been clear and bitter.
It has protested against middle class leadership and
openly challenged its legitimacy. At one City Council
meeting where college—trained and professional Negroes
nominated by the Mayor for the Committee on Human Rela—
tions were to be qualified, the President of the League
called upon Councilmen to reject the nominees, arguing
that the do not typify the City's middle income class

Negroes and demanded consideration of other measures.

 

33As will be seen in the discussion of the Coor-

dinating Council as Section C of this Chapter, the League
and Negro Ministerial Alliance opposed the militant stand

 

312

He charged that only the "professional and higher in-
come group Negroes" had been selected for the seats.

In his own words, ”These people do not represent the
lower middle income group of our [Negro] population

and do not know us or realize our problems." He then
presented a petition containing 341 names on behalf of
the Citizens Non-Partisan League asking Councilmen to
"withdraw, and/or reject the names submitted by the
Mayor for membership on the new Human Relations Com-
mittee."34 The petition urged consideration of persons
"who are in close contact with the masses and therefore
better able to present them." The petition urged consid—
eration of persons "who are in close contact with the
masses and therefore better able to present them." Fin—

ally, President Keyes directly identified the category

 

of the Council and the NAACP against the Ordinance under
which the Human Relations Committee was established.
This had been a Mayor's creation and Mr. Keyes was a
member. When the Ordinance established it as a munici—
,pal body Mr. Keyes was dropped from it. It is difficult
to determine whether his strong reaction against middle
class leadership was not also a reSponse to this action.
34Whether all the signatories were members of the
League or sufficiently informed on the issues to know the
implications of their challenge to Negro protest in pre—
senting what amounted to a conflicting demand upon the
‘White power structure is not known; yet no one has since
complained of his name being used without his permission.

 

313

of Negroes he was disqualifying. They are the Negroes Jl
in "The Greater Lansing Coordinating Council on Human
Rights and in the Lansing Branch of the NAACP,” for they
have ”nothing in common with Lansing's middle income
group of Negroes."35

Three months earlier, when the City Council
failed to confirm a well-qualified Negro nominated for
the Police and Fire Board by the Mayor on the ground
that he was a newcomer to Lansing, and earned the loud
condemnation of many middle—class Negroes as well as
white liberals such as the Executive Secretary of the
Greater Lansing Area Council of Churches, the President
of the League openly congratulated Councilmen for what

he called their ”good judgment."36

 

5President Keyes is a member of the NAACP and
a member of its Board of Directors. While arguing that
members of this group do not represent the Negro commun-
ity in socioeconomic attributes and hence should not speak
for them, or say who should represent that community on
City Boards or Mayor's Committees, he presented a list
made up of ministers of the Negro Ministerial Alliance
and of his League for consideration by the City Council.
36The Rev. Dr. John Howell who is the Executive
Secretary wrote a letter to the City Council criticizing
their rejection of Mr. William Layton, the Negro who was
nominated by the Mayor and charging that their action
seemed inspired by racial prejudice. Mr. Layton holds a
graduate degree in Sociology, has much social research ex—
perience, and was at the time of his nomination employed
as Director of Education in the State of Michigan Civil
Rights Commission.

 

 

314

Efforts to neutralize white power take the form ’
of political education of members and the Negro masses. I
To this end the League's Committee on City Affairs .’
arranged for a member to attend each regular weekly
meeting of the City Council or Lansing School Board
and report back to the organization on aspects of the
deliberations which affect Negro welfare. It combines
a membership campaign and a voter registration drive
into a second phase of the struggle against threaten—
ing white power. This is handled by the League's Mem—
bership Committee. In recent months a number of mass
meetings have been sponsored by the Committee. The fo—
cus has been on working class people. Attempt is made
to interest the potential voter in League membership
while educating him into the significance of his ballot
for social change. The fruits of this effort, whatever
they might be, are less than obvious, for they are not
reflected in increased attendance at weekly meetings.
In fact, the Chairman of the Committee, who is Clerk
of a local Baptist Church, attended a meeting only once
during the entire eighteen months of my field investiga—

. 3 .
tion and was very late for even that. 7 In the meantime

 

37The meeting had ended fifteen minutes by time

the Chairman of the Membership Committee arived. She i
apologized for lateness and said she had been to a church "

 

I
I

315

attendance at regular meetings has dwindled to an em—
barrassingly low figure. At one such gathering devoted
to ways and means of stimulating community interest in
the League some members suggested that a program fea—
turing an ”eat” be given in a local church whose minis—
ter has shown willingness to have a membership campaign
conducted among his flock, to tell the people what the
League could do for them if they would support it. One
result of the dearth of members is that for months only

”informal” meetings could be held.38

Jobs

The League considered job discrimination the

most important problem facing the Negro in Lansing and

 

meeting. Yet she made no report of progress on her Com—
mitee's work-~she made not even an oral statement about
it. She made no report during the entire year nor was
she replaced.

3BIn this type of meeting the handful of parti-
cipants sit in a kind of horseshoe formation around the
Chairman. He makes some announcement and everyone talks
in a conversational style. No business is transacted.
At most times "the white man” and the middle class Negroes
are accused of treachery and deceit. The President does
most of the talking, while most members nod in approval.

 

316

hence as its primary area of concern. Employment oppor-
tunities are crucial because they constitute the key to
the other rights the Negro seeks. “Without jobs," the
Chairman of the Employment Information Opportunities
Committee argues, ”Negroes can't buy the homes they want
and can't move into new neighborhoods even if they were
open." Techniques used in this area are education and
conciliation, backed by threats of picketing. Represen-
tatives of the Committee call on responsible officials
of white establishments which do not have Negro employees
to inquire about opportunities for Negroes,39 and pass
the information gathered on to the League. If it is
determined that Negroes have not been hired because

they have not applied, or if assurance is given that
suitable Negro applicants would be considered the Com—
mittee seeks out individuals who answer to the specified
qualifications and encourage them to apply. In the last
eighteen months there appears to have been an improve-
ment in the hiring of Negroes in retail trade and other

establishments where they did not work before or did

 

9Implicit in this approach is the recognition
that the mere absence of Negroes in an enterprise as
employees does not necessarily imply racial discrimin-
ation.

317

 

only in menial roles.4O It is becoming a familiar ex—
perience nowadays to see a Negro on a cash registrar
at a supermarket or a Negro saleswoman attending white r
customers. But the League calls this development mere
”tokenism,” designed to keep away Negro pickets, rather
than a commitment to equal employment opportunities as
such. While not claiming credit for every single case
of employment of Negroes in previously "lily—white" es—
tablishments or the hiring of Negroes in non—menial roles,
it takes comfort in the belief that its technique of in—
quiring for employment opportunities for the Negro sup—
ported by threats of picketing has gone a long way to
create an attitude of accommodation on the part of most
white employers to the idea of hiring some Negroes.
Another aspect of its economic education program
involves inviting representatives of various Federal and
State retraining programs to speak to the membership on

the opportunities they offer. Members are then asked

 

40There is a Negro girl clerk at Federal De-

partment Stores; so is a Negro saleswoman. Clark's

and Packards' have Negro girls at Cash Registers. A

Negro man occupies a similar position at one of the

A & P stores in the city. A Negro girl has been at

the cash register at Shoppers Fair. A Negro is also
there in a nonmenial job.

318

to bring the information to the attention of unemployed

or interested Negroes.

Housing

Protest in housing has not developed beyond the
expression of desired actions. The nearest approach
to a concrete program has been the concern of the League
with the economic implications of Urban Renewal, partic—

ularly the "road program,' for the working class Negro
and a desire to communicate these to him. In the last
three months the Negro Ministerial Alliance, with an
eye to what it believes to be a determination of white
realtors to locate uprooted Negroes in old subdivisions
now occupied by whites at eXploitative prices, has pro-
posed a self-help formula to meet the challenge. This
is what members of the Citizens' Non-Partisan League,
the NAACP, and the Alliance itself should pool their

financial resources and acquire their own land and start

a Negro community there. The area of living envisaged

 

lRetraining Programsin Lansing find it diffi-
cult to recruit Negroes. They have had to appeal to
the Negro protest groups for assistance in locating
suitable Negroes. I have seen such representatives
pleading at both NAACP and League meetings.

 

 

319

is one that would be relatively self—sufficient, equipped
with its own groceries, supermarkets, filling stations
and stores. An initial subscription of $200 by 50 in-
dividuals is deemed enough for a healthy start of the

42 . .
new venture. The minister who revealed the plan at
a Citizens Non-Partisan League meeting one night spoke
with an air of contrition. “If we (ministers) have let
you down before,” he assured his listeners, "this will

. ”43 .

not be the case again: Three mass meetings have been

held to discuss the proposal, but community response has

 

4 . . . .
2The assumption underlying this program of With-

drawal from the white economy is similar to that which

is implied in the Black Muslim program. This is that

the Negro's enslavement lies not so much in being con-
fined to a black ghetto as in overdependence upon white
economic enterprises. If only the Negro would withdraw
to a place of his own and there establish his own busi-
nesses, he could be free from white control and the ques—
tion of integration would disappear. Frazier has shown
how illusory the idea of freedom through independence

of white business is. He calls the idea of ”Negro busi—
ness” a myth. While I do not suggest that the Rev. gen-
tleman who outlined the plan has Black Muslim sympathies,
the mere convergence of approaches to the solution of

the dominant-minority relations problem is interesting.
43In Chapter III (Section D) it was shown that
Ininisters of Negro churches are asking more and more
from their congregations and that there is a growing
feeling that they too share desires for material gain
'which used to be identified only with the worldly.

320

been mixed. Most professional and college trained Ne—
groes either dismiss the whole idea as an idle dream

of an illiterate ministry or look upon its belated in—
terest in the Negro community with suspicion.44 They
find it difficult to believe that the ministers are
motivated by anything but a selfish interest in keeping
the Negro community intact in order to maintain the
congregations which today are the source of their live—
lihood. For their part, working class people have shown
ambivalence. While most of them welcome the plan for
the security it promises, many openly show apprehension
that they would lose their investment in such a venture.
Thus the plan remains in the talking stage. Reporting
on the latest of the mass meetings on housing at the
next regular meeting of the League, the President noted
that favorable comments were still being heard about it,
but apparently hoped the plan would go forward under the

. 4
aegis of the League. 5 He suggested that members try

 

44Section D, Chapter III.

45The declining active membership has already
'been.mentioned. Following from this is an inability
to carry out any program. The League is desperately
in need of a program. A housing program that had mass
support would be a star project and thiS'WOUId focus
‘public attention on him as the leader of such a pro—
gram.

321

and get ”them [other Negroes] to join the League.”

In his View the people ”know we are interested in them
and working for them.” The League has been trying to
get themto join for four years ”and it has taken them

. . 46
that long to realize that we are Sincere.“

Technigue Preferences of League Members

No clear ranking of strategy preferences emerged
when sample members were asked to indicate their views
on techniques of protest. About 30% favored non—violent
approaches such as conciliation and voting; 30% preferred
militant strategies such as boycotting, picketing, and
mass marches. Only 10% favored court action; 20% were
for a situational approach; the other 10% suggest a mix—
ture of all the above, depending on the situation. The
picture changed when informants told their perception
of the most effective strategy in Lansing. More than
one half of the sample thought use of the ballot would

go farthest in bringing about the desired racial ends,

viz:

 

4 . . .
6Even though the League prides itself upon its
mass orientation it would appear that it too can not yet
take Negro community confidence for granted.

 

 

—_-11~—..
“ '

r-‘r

 

322

 

Technigue $% Favoring g.

i
Voting 59.4 I
Conciliation 32.3

Demonstrations, Picketing
(but only when conciliation
fails) 8.3

 

100.0%

The League too is concerned about de facto seg—
regation but seems to lack a concrete program to combat
it. At a recent meeting attended by only five members
the President complained that at the last Housing meet—
ing,47 he had proposed that a petition be presented to
the City Council asking it to allow Oldsmobile to pur—
chase the City's only all-Negro school building, as the
Company had sought the school board's approval to do,
since it had already acquired all other property in
the vicinity of the school. The School Board had re-
fused to sell the property on the grounds that it was
not ygp ready to do so. President Keyesinterpreted
the Board's refusal to his people as an attempt to
”please“ the City's white citizens, most of whom would

oppose the presence of more Negro children in the schools

 

4 . . .
7This is one of the meetings on the New Negro

Community proposed by the Ministerial Alliance. I

323

in which their children are enrolled. He blamed lack
of support for the proposal to apathy on the part of
certain leading middle class Negroes whose children are

in white schools.

Inter—group Relations

The Citizens Non—Partisan League looks upon
the NAACP and Coordinating Council not only as rival
organizations but their leadership (Negro) as a danger—
ous enemy of the protest effort in Lansing.48 The League
President constantly points a finger of accusation at
the professionals who govern these organizations for
”selling us [the working class Negro] down the river"
by serving as tools of the white power structure in re—
turn for petty status appointments. According to him,
therefore, they are not worthy of the ”people's" confi—
dence, for they would not hesitate to compromise their
rights if this would result in prestige appointments

for themselves. He has spared no pains in impressing

 

48The League Presidents regard these two leader—
ships as one due to their plural memberships in the NAACP
and the Coordinating Council. Actually, the leadership
of the council is not free to direct things as is the
case of the NAACP, as will be seen below.

324

 

his followers that the middle class Negroes despise the
working class, and that the reason why they presume to
speak for the masses is their conviction that the"little
fellow" is stupid and does not really know what is good
for him. But he exploits white desire for dominance

also in his fight against middle class leadership, which
he accuses of radical tendencies, as interested in forc-
ing issues through demonstrations and picketing rather
than peaceful and constructive approaches. An August 19,
1963, demonstration in front of the City Hall in protest
against the City Council passage of a weak Human Rela-
tions Ordinance is frequently cited as evidence of this.
At League meetings the President seizes upon every oppor-
tunity to remind his followers that its leadership is

the real friend of the "little man” because it lives
with him and cannot be ”bought” with a City Board appoint—

ment.

 

4
9From 1961 to the summer of 1963 the League

President was a member of the Mayor's Committee on
Human Relations. When the Committee became a munici—
pal body established under the Human Relations Ordi—
nance adopted by the City Council in the spring of
1963, this gentleman was dropped from the Committee.
He is a middle class person in terms of socioeconomic
attributes.

 

325

But the League's claims to closeness to the
grassroots has not won it staunch friends among its
own members, some of the most prominent of who have
either deserted it for the NAACP or just stopped at—

tending meetings.50

 

From its inception the League has been an ad—
vocate of organizational collaboration. In a publica-
tion called “Unity in the Community: An Approach to
Community Organization,” of January 31, 1962, it makes
clear that it believes in cooperation among groups, but
as a full equal, not an appendage, of any other group.
It demands that decisions affecting the Negro's welfare
reflect the point of view of every segment of the Negro
community, and that such decisions be made ”together,”
or by “all people.” The League has demonstrated inter-
est in reaching rapprochement with other protest groups
by attending more than one unity meeting called by the
Ministerial Alliance. It would, however, not be satis-

fied until the white power structure accepts its essential

 

50Most deserters accuse the President of undemo—

cratic rule, intolerance of dissent, and a tendency to
equate honest expression of differences of opinion with
disloyalty. The active Chairman of the League's Employ—
ment Opportunities Information Committee has left and
for the past nine months has been a most effective Chair—
man of the NAACP's Housing Committee.

 

 

 

equality with other civil rights group by considering

its nominees for Negro seats on municipal boards. Other—
wise put, President Keyes demands an equal attention
from City Hall with NAACP leaders. It too wants to

call the ”shotes”; be able to nominate some of the

Negroes who sit on City Boards or Committees.

The League and the Subcommunity

 

The League lays claim to a long list of achieve-
ments for the Negro, and with some justification. As
compared with other organizations the Citizens Non-
Partisan League believes it was instrumental in:

l. helping to motivate a change in leader-
ship in the Mayor's office in 17 years;

2. getting action from the City Council in
issuing a Municipal Code of Fair Practice
for the City of Lansing;

3. getting Negroes employed in offices other
than the City Personnel Office;

4. getting follow-up and action to investi—
gate unfair practices in employment of

Negro Policemen;

5. getting the city to employ the first Negro
Fireman;

6. getting Minority appointments on City Boards;

7. instituting reconsideration of the Sky—Walk
at Lincoln School by the City Council; and I

'-='—A'~—.

327

8) negotiating and promoting employment of
sales persons from minority groups in
local stores.
Many members of the sample believe the League is really
"getting things done" for their community, although
they would not cite more than claims 1 and 5 above.

When sample members were asked to rank organizations

in order of their effectiveness, the following result

 

emerged.

Organization Percent Assign- Rank
or Agency ing the Rank

NAACP 55.3 1
Citizens' Non-Partisan League 41.1 21
Labor Unions 03.1 3
Churches 00.6 4

 

C. THE COORDINATING COUNCIL

If the Citizens Non-Partisan League is a recent
local development, the Greater Lansing Coordinating Coun-
cil on Human Rights is even more so. It came into being

only a little more than a year ago. The Council is an

 

5
1Statement of Goals, 1962, p. 4.

 

 

328

organization of some thirty religious, labor and other
social organizations and individuals “dedicated to the
elimination of racial or religious discrimination in
the area of housing, education and employment in Lan-
. 2 . . . .
Sing.”5 To this end it seeks what it defines as an
”effective” Human Relations Ordinance. Such an ordin-
ance would 1) set up a local government instrumentality
known as Human Relations Committee on which would be
represented all elements of opinion in the city, 2)
empower the Human Relations Committee to investigate
matters of alleged racial or religion discrimination
brought to its attention or initiate investigations on
its own, and 3) provide budget for a full-time paid
Director and Staff.
Member groups in the Coordinating Council in—

clude:

Alpha Theta Chapter, Iota Phi Lambda Sorority

Alumni of Alpha Kappa Alpha

American Civil Liberties Union

Capitol City Golfers of Lansing

Capitol Lodge #8

Catholic Human Relations Council of Greater Lansing

Citizens for Democratic Government

Delta Sigma Theta

Greater Lansing Labor Council

Greater Lansing National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored Peoples ‘ '

 

52The Constitution of the Coordinating Council,

329

Latin Americans United for Political Action
Independent Voters of Lansing

Ingham County Democratic Committee
Inter—Greek Letter Council

Lansing B'nai B'rith Men

Lansing B'nai B'rith Women

League of Women Voters

Michigan State Employees Union

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
Students for Democratic Society
Unitarian-Universalist Church

The Council of Churches

From this roster of participating groups it is
evident that the racial composition of the Coordinating
Council is heterogeneous.

A draft ordinance answering to the above speci-
fications had been presented to the City Council for
adoption by the Mayor's Human Relations Committee in
the spring of 1963, but the approved text failed to
carry them. Instead, it only authorized the Committee
to "examine" discrimination complaints brought to its
attention. It is to restore these features or "streng—
then" the ordinance which served as the immediate reason

. . . . . 53
for organiZing the Coordinating CounCil. The coopera-

tion of various groups interested in civil rights was

 

53The change from "investigate" to ”examine"

in the ordinance was said to be recommended by the City
Attorney. To the layman this is only hair-splitting,
but according to him there is a legal difference. The
power to investigate something is said to imply that
something will be done with the results, whereas to ex—
amine does not carry that implication.

 

 

330

sought and a ”demonstration of concern” staged in front
of the City Hall on August 19, 1963. The following mem-
ber organizations participated in the ”Protest for Jus-
tice" against what a fly sheet carrying on appeal for
community support alleged to be Lansing's dragging its
feet and denial to thousands of Negroes and other mi-
norities of their rights.

The organizers seem to have gone out of their
way to insure that the demonstration was ”peaceful."

A Negro attorney was assigned to confer with police
authorities not only to determine the legality of dem—
onstrations in Lansing, but to seek their cooperation
in keeping the performance peaceful. Monitors saw to
it that no inflammatory placards were used by anyone
connected with the demonstration and kept unruly per—
sons out of the line.

The Citizens' Non—Partisan League and the Negro
Ministerial Alliance each voted not to participate in
the demonstration and were conspicuously absent, hold-
ing that such a militant stand could jeOpardize, rather
than help, the course of civil rights for years to come.
It could provide the City Council with the excuse it

needs to shift responsibility for doing what is legally

331

and morally right but politically unwise onto the citi—
zens by putting the measure on the ballot. This, both
groups feared, would mean certain defeat for even the
weak ordinance since whites make up the vast majority

of the electorate. ”A half a loaf is better than noth-
ing," they argued; thus a weak ordinance is to be pre-
ferred to no ordinance at all. In support of this view
President Keyes of the Citizens Non—Partisan League cited
the Federal Smith Act as a case of a measure which was
bad initially, but which has since been strengthened
through citizen agitation.54 The weak ordinance should
be given a chance to operate and can gradually be streng—

thened through citizen agitation when its weaknesses

 

4Prior to the demonstrations the President of
the NAACP speaking for a group of citizens that called
itself the Greater Lansing Coordinating Council on Human
Rights had gone before the City Council and delivered a
blistering criticism of the Council for passing a weak
ordinance. He described it as distinguished by weakness
and announced rejection of it by his group. It was oppo—
sition of this kind which the League and the Ministerial
Alliance feared would force the City Council to put adop-
tion of the proposed ordinance on the ballot. But this
call for moderation or political realism seems to have
been only the ostensible reason or only part of the rea—
son for the opposition to the demonstrations. At a unity
meeting called by the Ministerial Alliance to try and bring
the protest groups together, which NAACP leaders did not
attend, President Keyes and Alliance members criticized
them for undertaking to speak for the Negro community at
City Hall. The Smith Act prohibits the preaching of com—
munists in the United States. Under this law citizens

 

became apparent to everyone. What was important, they

believed, was that some beginning should be made at
least in human relations in the city, or that some human ~
relations ordinance should be on the books.
The demonstrations failed of their objective,
at least initially, for the City Council did not restore
the expurgated provisions before implementing the ordin-
ance.55 What started as a loose combination of htero-

geneous groups interested in pressuring the City Council

 

were being arrested for even discussing communism aca—
demically. Many persons lost their jobs and reputation
for being merely accused of violating the law. The Su—
preme Court later limited liability under ti to situa—
tions where and only where there was "clear and present
danger” of a violent takeover of the U. S. Government.

55 . . . . .

The City CounCil has now prOVided funds in its

1964—65 fiscal year budget for the full—time Director of
the Human Relations Committee but, according to Coordin-
ating Council leaders the amount is not enough to attract
any but the most mediocre talent to the job. Apparently
the Council contemplated an individual with at least a
Master's degree in sociology or social work and some ex—
perience in community relations. It considers the figure
of $7,500 pitifully low for this purpose. Negro members
are open in suggesting that the amount was deliberately
fixed at that figure to prevent the hiring of anyone who
would be competent enough to initiate a really effective
program. In their view the Council took the action of
providing the budget to blunt criticisms from Negroes
and white liberals that it is not cooperating, but made
the figure low enough so that no examinations of dis-
crimination would be initiated and thus white men of
power would not be offended.

 

333

for a limited practical objective had now to decide I
whether to continue their cooperative efforts, and if
so what organizational pattern they should adopt to
further that common objective. Since members were of
different racial and religious backgrounds and their
commitment to civil rights could be expected to vary,
it Was of crucial importance to decide whether the par—
ticipating groups would operate merely as an organiza—
tion to coordinate the activities of the already exist-
ing protest groups or constitute another such group in
its own right. If the Council were to pursue its own
objective, would it confine itself to the restricted
goal of obtaining an effective ordinance, or broaden

its concerns to implementation of such an ordinance?

Organization and Leadership

This question has never been formally settled
and the doubt as to the status of the Coordinating Coun—
cil following the demonstration remains and is reflected
in its organizational structure. The Council has two
divisions: 1) an organizational division consisting
of two representatives from each of the member organi-

zations, and 2) an individual division, comprised of i

 

 

 

persons who affiliate with the Council as individuals ,

apart from their membership in any participating group.
According to the constitution of the Council
each member organization has two votes in policy de—
cisions, which, however, do not commit the group whose
representatives cast them to implementation of the pol—
icy.56 On non—policy matters each organization has two
votes. The basis of individual participation is less
than clear. Apparently individuals lack voice in policy
matters. The constitution allows the individual member—
ship division not more than 18 votes in non—policy ques-
tions, ten of which must be cast by ten representatives
of this division selected at a separate meeting by the
members. The other eight belong to the Chairmen of the
Standing Committees, of which there are five, viz: Action,

Research, Education, Housing, and Membership.

 

56The votes of delegates to a truly representa—
tive body would legally commit the constituent groups
to carry out decisions of that body. This is why the
President of the United States can enforce the Civil
Rights laws passed by Congress even though it is known
that some citizens of the several States do not like
the measure. Of course "implementation” is not part
of the original goal of the Council. Only the writers
of the Constitution later included it. Most of them
are Negroes. And the incorporation of execution as a
goal no doubt springs from grim awareness that laws have
to be enforced to be meaningful.

335

Meetings of the Council are held from place to
place on call of the President and the Executive Com-
mittee. Local Negro church buildings and the Union
Building at Michigan State University have all served

as gathering grounds.

Leadership

Unlike the NAACP and the Citizens‘ Non—Partisan
League the Council has no Board of Directors. Instead,
it has an Executive Committee made up of the President,
the Vice President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, and
the Chairmen of the Standing Committees. Negroes active
in the NAACP hold all four of the elective offices. How—
ever, three out of four at—large voting delegates are
white. The Negro officers are college graduates at
least. The President holds a Master's degree in Micro—
biology. The white officials are of similar academic
qualifications. One holds a Ph.D. in economics and is
a member of both the Labor and Industrial Relations Cen-
ter and the Economics faculty at Michigan State University.
Another holds a Master's degree in Government and has
taught at Michigan State University. Aside from their

individual duties the Executive Committee (members) E

 

336

has the task of determining what the Constitution re— i ‘
fers to as the ”policy alternates that face the entire I
group.” All officers are elected by the general member—

ship forone year terms upon nomination by a biracial

committee appointed by the President.

Goals

The Coordinating Council has not abandoned its
original goal to work toward securing an effective Human
Relations Ordinance subsequent aim of implementing that
ordinance. But it is also a coordinating organization
in some of its functions at least. In this latter ca—
pacity it seeks to keep groups and interested individuals
involved informed on mpg is engaged in whgp program and
hpw effectively in the field of civil rights activities
in Lansing. The hope in this information servicing func-
tion of the Council is that groups with similar programs
of interests would support each other. For example, in
a recent letter to members the Council not only told
what is happening in Housing in East Lansing and expressed
the view of the Housing sub—committee of its own Research
Committee that a local open occupancy legislation is the

most effective approach to open occupancy, but encouraged

 

337

East Lansing property owners to affiliate themselves
with “programs of the East Lansing Citizens Committee
for Human Rights, the Interfaith Council's Housing Com—
mittee, and the East Lansing Human Relations Commission."
Very few of those who attend meetings have any-
thing like a clear conception of what the Council is
actually doing or attempting to accomplish. To most
white participants the goal of working for an effective
ordinance is the primary concern of the Council. They
do not say Whether they would be willing to work to see
what the aims of the Ordinance are carried out. To Ne—
gro members of the Executive Committee on the other hand,
the goal is much broader'and extends to interest in im—
plementation. Rank and file Negroes, who make up about
one-half of those who attend meetings regularly see the
Council as attempting to get ”a stronger ordinance and
bring Negro groups into closer working relations.”
Attempts to define the specific action implica—
tions Of the two dimensions of the goals of the Council
have led to long and frustrating debates. What the
Council should do, under what conditions, and by what
means are problems members have refused to face up to.
Continuation of discussion on such questions has con—

vinced some whites that the Council is wasting time on

338

 

legalisms rather than ”getting down to work." They
tend to prefer shelving such questions to discussing
them.57 In an obvious attempt to limit debate on what
to him was a pointless issue, a well-known Catholic
(white) layman put the burden of defining the program
of the Council squarely on the shoulders of the Negro
members. He saw the Council as an instrument to help
Negroes primarily. Said he in a tone of irritation,
”X93 Negroes are going to be the ones to tell us what
we [white people] can do. We are here to help ypg;
you must say what you want us to do.”58 The question
has never been settled, only postponed. Apparently
some white members are willing to "work,” but not dis—

cuss What work!

Perspectives

The philosophical justification for working for

an effective Human Relations Ordinance derives from

 

57Apparently legislating what and how the Council
will do would lead to embarrassment. The debates might
force some members to accept stands they would not want
to Oppose openly, or to voice Opposition they would like
to keep to themselves.

58Paternalism of this sort has driven many middle

class Negroes to skepticism about the sincerity of the

white liberal-~the liberal who does not want the issues ,
clarified and only want to engage in programs that might I
identify him as a liberal.

 

339

democratic sentiments. The Council's Constitution recog-
nizes that "prejudice and discrimination do exist against
individuals and groups of individuals because of race,
creed, or national origin“ and that this discrimination
"menaces the peace and public welfare and is in complete
and absolute Opposition to the theory of a democratic
way of life."59
Members are drawn to the Council by a variety
of specific reasons. Most Negroes perceive a potential
source of strength in the large number of groups whose
names are associated with the organization. They feel
that both this broad base Of community participation as
well as the multiracial character ofCCouncil members
would tend to identify its goals as community objectives
rather than those of just one ethnic group and invest
them with a moral validity they would not otherwise
have. NAACP leaders in the Council who are usually

skeptical of biracial protest groups are drawn to the

Council for its coordinating potential only.60 For any

 

59The Constitution of the Council, p. l.

60The coordinating advantage they see is not that
of bringing the activities of the NAACP and the Citizens'
Non—Partisan League together. Most NAACP Board Members
feel the League has no program to begin with so there is
nothing to coordinate their own program with. One inde—
pendent professional told me when I asked if he saw a

 

\ %

 

 

340

action beyond that they want to see what part the white
members are willing to and will play. But in general
all Negro members of the Council see much potential for
effective action in the multiracial character of the
organization. Not being a "racial” group it is the

type of organization which would offend none but the
most determined racist. It would enlist more a confi—
dence on the part of whites than the NAACP or some other
"Negro” organization. Even more important than the above,
it has a greater chance of succeeding due to the fact
that it would open the channels of communication between
minority group interests and the white community and its
power structure. White members tend to go beyond the
cliches of democratic sentiment. Of those contacted,
the reason most cited for drawing them to the Council

is something related to a personal experience. Some
incident the individual has observed of injustice to

the Negro forces him or her to a realization of the
difficulties under which minority group members must

be living and moves him or her to participate in social

 

need for coordinating the work of the protest groups,
”As for Karl [the League] we have finished him up."
They are talking about coordination with white groups.

 

 

 

 

 

341

protest of the type represented in the Council. This
is how a college professor's wife became involved in
the effort to eliminate discrimination based on arbi-
trary consideration:

I came to Lansing during the Second World War.
Then I began to read of Hitler, and Mussolini
and other fascists. I was horrified by the
atrocities against the Jews. I come from a
liberal background in the state of .
There were few Negroes in the town Where we
lived. The Negro girl in the neighborhood
used to come to play with me, and my mother
never objected. So I grew up without any pre—
judice against Negroes. But when my husband
and I moved to East Lansing we learned that
Negroes couldn't live there. As the war
dragged on and I read more about Hitler and
Jews I began to wonder whether it was not the
same hatred that was preventing Negroes from
coming into East Lansing. One day I went to
see an attorney friend of ours who was close
to the Real Estate interests. He confirmed
what we had heard and the reason why Negroes
couldn't live in East Lansing. I figured that
good peOple ought to do everything in thier
power to prevent America from becoming a Nazi
Germany. I didn't want my country to have the
blot of treating a minority group the way Hit—
ler treated the Jews. So when a friend told
me of the Coordinating Council, I decided to
come in and try to do my bit to rid America

of hatred. That's the same reason I am in

the NAACP.

Other whites cite moral considerations for their
membership in the Council. They feel that segregation
is immoral and should be removed from public life in

America.

”III“.

 

342

Due to the interracial character of the Council
it seems to have been clear from the outset that certain
means of protest were out of the question.61 At least
the appropriate strategy for attaining its objectives
has never been settled in an open meeting, perhaps be-
cause the logically prior question of specific goals
following the demonstration had not been settled.

More light on the techniques of the Coordinat—
ing Council comes from the types of projects in which
it has been involved. Apart from continuing to urge
the City Council through petitions to appropriate neces—
sary funds to keep the work of the Human Relations Com-
mittee on a sustained basis (that of examining complaints
of alleged racial or religious discrimination), it has
promised continuing research into all areas of human
rights in the city in order to point up program needs
to groups interested in such information. The Council
has also sought to identify possible areas of protest
action to member groups or helped them develop such

actions. Another type of activity has been the

 

61It seemed clear enough that militant tech—

niques were not going to be relied on. Even the ini-
tial demonstration against passage of the "weak" or—
dinance was strictly "peaceful."

 

343

publication of what the council calls a "Human Rights
Calendar." This is a listing of what protest groups
are now involved in or are going to be involved in the
next month or two immediately ahead. Still another
type of approach of the Council has been to make avail-
able a total human rights activities picture or a re—
porting service on what has been done in the human
rights area, by whom, and with what results. The Coun-
cil also promotes and sponsors special projects, in—
cluding workshops in community organization for pro—
test, direct action, and legislative analysis (evalu-
ation of the legislative action of individual legisla-
tors). Finally, the Council calls the attention of
interested bodies to speakers in the area of civil
rights due to appear in the community in the near
future.

Research is by far the key tool in the Council's
data disseminating function. The Research Committee
investigates and makes a record of complaints of dis—
crimination in all areas of the Council's concern. It
carries out studies in these areas and assembles evi—
dence from published scholarly research reports on
civil rights issues and makes the data available to

interested groups and individuals.

344

Education

The Negro leaders of the Coordinating Council
see education as the key weapon in the Negro's fight
for equality. But the program on education has two
aspects. On the one hand the Council is interested
in de facto segregation. Member groups are expected-
to request the Lansing Board of Education to recognize
that the problem exists and to initiate action to re—
duce, if not eliminate, it. On the other hand the Coun—
cil is interested in education as member or community
exposure to the latest scholarly thinking on specific
civil rights problems, such as the teaching of under-
privileged children, or what school authorities can
do about segregated school boundaries. It invites
the NAACP Education Committee to share its findings
with Council members, just as it exposes members to
the Housing Committee reports of the NAACP. So far
the Council has co—sponsored a one—day Human Relations
Institute entitled "Discrimination in Greater Lansing:
The Issue of the Times,“ with the local Branch of the
NAACP, the School ofEducation at Michigan State Univer—

sity, the Interfaith Council on Religion and Race in

 

345

Lansing, the Lansing Human Relations Committee, the
East Lansing Human Relations Commission, and the Michi— ,

. . . . . 2
gan CiVil Rights CommiSSion.6

Income and Expenses

The spread of knowledge to members and inter—
ested groups involves some expense for paper, envelopes,
typing, stamps, and other materials. Funds for these
purposes are derived from voluntary contributions by
participant organizations or by individuals during each
meeting.

At the regular monthly meetings contributions

average about $3.00, according to the Financial Secretary.

 

62At the Institute three Negro leaders of both

the NAACP and the Coordinating Council outlined discrim-
ination in the areas of Housing, Education, and Employ—
ment in Lansing. Representatives of the Real Estate
interests and of the City School Administration were
present and responded. Previously assigned discussants
led a lively audience discussion on each presentation.

As part of the effort to expose members to recent per—
spectives in the area of civil rights, members were urged
to attend a Symposium on School Desegregation (commemor-
ating the 10th Anniversary of the Supreme Court's famous
desegregation decision of 1954) at Kellogg Center on the
campus of Michigan State University from May 8—9, 1964.
The symposium sought to focus attention on school deseg-
regation issues such as the role of administrative offi—
cials in reducing de facto segregation to whhh residential
segregation has largely contributed and the handling of
pupils from low socioeconomic backgrounds. !

 

 

 

346

 

This is inadequate for the paper work involved with
calling meetings and reproducing reports of NAACP com—

mittee reports which are of interest to the Council.

III1I'

CHAPTER V

DYNAMICS

We are now prepared

OF PROTEST

to suggest some answers

to the principal question concerning which this study

was undertaken.
respond to the challenge of
of groups have sprung up in
a common concern with equal
the patterns of response in

amined the structure of the

That question is how American Negroes

subordination. A plethora
the last decade which share
opportunity. To discover
the City of Lansing we ex—

groups within which the

racial discrimination and segregation imposed upon

Negroes by a dominant white majority is challenged

today.

from structural—functional analysis.

Theoretical instruction has been drawn mainly

This theory is

essentially a means—end scheme in which structural

features are examined for their functions,

consequences,

or the extent to which they contribute or fail to con—

tribute to ends they are designed to bring about. It

takes a utilitarian approach to structure, conceiving

of it as a set of elements consciously combined to

347

 

 

348

achieve a specific objective or set of objectives, such

I
l
as survival or change, or profit or anything else. In ‘
requiring investigation of the interrelations of compon—
ents, structural-functional analysis allows that such
features may have consequences which are quite unin—
tended or different from the explicit ends their com-
bination was designed to produce.
The data reported on the NAACP, the Citizens'
Non—Partisan League, and the Coordinating Council in
Lansing in Chapter IV shows that the protest groups
are elements deliberately organized to attain a goal,
namely, change in the direction of greater equal oppor—
tunity. In each group we encounter a number of indi—
viduals from various segments of the Negro community,
related in specific ways, and working toward a stated
objective. Since mere agreement on goals is not enough
to insure their realization, some division of labor is
required for the sustained activity which the struggle
for change demands. Thus members are divided into
leaders and nonleaders. Each group has a stated goal
or some dimension of the broad goal of equal opportunity.
Members feel they themselves or others have been arbi-

trarily denied opportunity to realize the success goals

 

of American culture through the unjust action of the

dominant white population of individuals in it. Com—
mitment to the organizational objective is in terms

of specific sentiments and attitudes which not only
legitimize the goal, but the collective effort to
achieve it and the concrete steps taken in this direc-
tion. Solidarity among the participants also derives
from these sentiments. For the most part the feelings
grow out of the democratic and Judeo—Christian back—
ground of Western civilization. Each group employs
specific techniques to attain its stated goals. To—
gether the foregoing considerations yield the analytic
categories of members, leaders, goals, ideological per—
spectives, cohesion, and tactics.

According to the functional model there is in-
terdependence among these Structural variables and
they together contribute to goal attainment. Yet it
assumes no invariant relationship between structure
and Specific outcomes or functions. Instead, it allows
that the best plans can go astray, althOugh men organ-
ize and plan carefully to achieve certain goals. Ac-
cordingly the interaction of elements comprising a

Protest group need not result in the desired change

 

 

or any change at all in the status quo. Unforeseen

consequences may emerge which may not be consonant
with the avowed aim, or recognized by the members.
This Chapter traces some implications of the combi—
nation of the structural elements already described
and indicates some of the general directions of Negro
protest in Lansing. Primary focus will be on how the
several features promote or hinder collective action

for change both Within and between groups.

A. THE ELEMENTS

Membership

In socioeconomic terms we may conclude that
two broad categories of Negroes are involved in social
protest in Lansing. One is a small group of college-
educated, professionally trained, and economically
better—off individuals, dwelling for the most part
in slowly changing white neighborhoods or in an area
by themselves. The other is the mass of ill-educated,
skilled, and semi—skilled and unskilled, and poorer

workers inhabiting the heart of the black ghetto.

 

351

The better-off Negro will be identified with
the NAACP, while the poorer Negro will be associated

with the Citizen's Non—Partisan League.

Goals

While there is consensus on equal opportunity
as the end toward which the struggle for first class
citizenship should be directed, it would appear that
conflicting interpretations of the concept of equal
opportunity occur between the two groups. According
to the rank ordering of the three main issues of dis—
crimination facing the Negro community, housing is
the primary problem for the middle class Negro.2 This
is because residential segregation is seen as giving

rise to the other problems: segregated and inferior

 

Neither organization is made up exclusively
of individuals from one or the other class. Each con—
tains some element of both categories of protest par—
ticipants. The division merely suggests predominance
of one or the other group in each association.

2The college-educated, economically better-off
Negro is referred to here as "middle class” while the
poorer Negro is called “working class" because histor—
ically class stratification in the United States has
been based on socioeconomic considerations. 'W. Lloyd
Warner and Paul S. Lunt, The Social Life of a Modern
Community (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941);
Seymour M. Lipset and Reinhard Bendix, Social Mobility

in Industrial Society (Berkely: University of Calif-
ornia Press, 1961).

 

.
Ta
\
. , I
. \ ....
f.-
. . . \
, l
\
\ .

352

schools, and inadequate preparation for effective com-
petition on the job market. Education ranks second

as a factor of outstanding significance because liter—
ary and educational competence have a direct bearing

on the jobs Negroes obtain, and pay they receive, and
on their participation in American life. Thus a basic
problem is to gain for themselves and for later genera-
tions all the advantages of American education. Occu—
pational position is thought to be determined ultimately
by education and this in turn indicates the level of
income, which is a key to the quality and amount of
material comfort that can be available to the indivi—
dual. Hence employment opportunity ranks third. This
explains why open occupancy and the reduction, if not
elimination, of de facto segregation, were the objects
of vigorous NAACP activity during the period of this
investigation, and why equal opportunity in employment
received little or no attention.

Working class Negroes on the other hand see
job discrimination as the central problem. Employment
is seen as the key to the solution to most other Negro
problems, including housing and education. Without
money the Negro can not buy the home which the aboli—

tion of residential segregation actually would make

 

353

possible and, in view of the neighborhood concept in
school districting, his children would not be able to
attend the integrated schools winch presumably are better
than the "Negro" school. Thus, the League devoted its
major energies to seeking employment opportunities for
Negroes. Apart from blaming the leadership of the NAACP
for not providing adquate political education to the
masses to enable them to make the ”right" choices in
their own interest, it carried out no program of action
in the areas of housing and school segregation, the
second and third problems its members identified.

These two concerns in Negro protest appear to
represent different conceptions of the content of the

concept of ”equal Opportunity, which can be referred
to the sociocultural attributes of the groups involved.
Those Negroes who assign centrality to housing may be
said to be class oriented. With better education, pro-
fessional training, and bigger incomes their primary
interest in protest is to bring about a state of affairs
in which the individual will be free to live with people
on his own economic and intellectual level, regardless

of race. Having used the institutionalized means (ed—

ucation and subordination of present gratifications to

 

 

354

future achievement) to attain the main success goal
of American culture-~money-«there is a demand for
acceptance and social recognition of status. Pre—
sumably this is what elimination of the biracial
residence system in Lansing would enable them to
realize.

The Negroes who rank employment opportunity

first may be said to be security oriented. Lacking

 

adequate education and professional training, they
face a relatively uncertain economic future in a so—
ciety where technological advance is rapidly displac-
ing human skills and where Negroes are still "last
hired and first fired." Where job opportunities are
open on an equal basis and the individual would be
able to insure himself and his family against hunger,
cold, nakedness, and disease. For him, therefore, the
struggle for equality is essentially a fight for free-

dome from basic material wants. These two orientations

 

3It follows from this that, as Professor James

B. McKee has suggested, the middle class Negro is not
opposed to the American system of social stratification
based on economic differentials as such when he partici—
pates in social protest. What he Opposes is his arbi-
trary exclusion from it. He seeks freedom to partici-
pate in the system on the same terms as white citizens.
If the biracial system were abolished this Negro would

 

355

are akin to the so—called status and welfare ends of
Negro protest. According to Wilson4 "status" ends in—
volve integration of the Negro into all phases of com-
munity life on the principle of equality, giving Negroes
access to community services, positions, and material
benefits on equal terms with all other citizens. "Wel-
fare" ends on the other hand have to do with objective
improvement of the Negro community through the provision
of better services, living conditions, or jobs. Thus,
the Lansing NAACP members in their demand for Open
occupancy and elimination of school segregation may

be said to be seeking integration as a symbol of first
class citizenship, whereas the Citizens' Non-Partisan
League in its struggle for employment opportunities is
seeking things of which Negroes have been denied, "here

and now.”5 One group—~the "have's"-éhas a futuristic

 

join with white middle class people in discriminating
against Negro and white working class people. Thus,

the middle class Negroes' interests are quite different
from those of the rank and file Negro. See Provost Lec—
ture - 1964.

4James O. Wilson, Negro Leadership (New York:
Free Press, 1960), pp. 185-199.

5These things are the material comforts which
money will buy. Lacking these, the quest for an intan-
gible such as integration is meaningless to these people.

 

— '-—_——-____

 

 

356

orientation; the other-nthe ”have—nots”-—has a Egg
concern.

The two interests are not mutually exclusive,
for as we have seen, each protest group has some con-
cern with both. The difference is largely a matter of
emphasis. Yet the mere fact of difference has affected
the operational effectiveness of Negro protest in Lans-
ing. How to attract and maintain the conflicting in—
terests of both categories of members is a source of
serious strain within the protest movement. Emphasis
on status or integrationist ends tends to alienate work—
ing class people, while security or welfare goals has
dampened the enthusiasm of middle class individuals.

The NAACP is the oldest Negro protest organi-
zation in the city. Traditionally it has symbolized
the Negro's discontent with subordination and his as-
pirations for first class citizenship. Yet the specific
dimension of the problem of equal Opportunity with which
it is most concerned—mintegration (in housing and schools)
is hardly a critical issue with the vast majority of rank
and file Negroes in and out of the protest movement. For

one thing, even though the number of persons per house

357

in the Negro community is higher than the city—wide aver—
age,6 overcrowding due to the higher density has not yet
assumed the proportions of an urgent problem.7 Thus,

the issuenof housing defined by the NAACP not as increase
in the supply available to Negroes but rather the freeing
of the real estate market—~the sale and rental of houses
—~from racial bariers, is insignificant to the majority
of Negroes in and outside the protest movement in Lansing.
For another, powerful economic factors operate to limit
any wholesale movement by Negroes into white areas, even
if home ownership in white neighborhoods were allowed.
Houses in these areas cost far more than those at pres—
ent inhabited by Negroes. The prospective Negro home
buyer in a white neighborhood would be saddled with the
problem of financing the difference between the price of
his present home and of the one he has to acquire. The
relative unsteadiness of his job and the meagreness of

the income of most working class Negroes as well as the

 

6Introductory Section of Chapter III, this thesis.

7Even the NAACP's concern with the economic im-
plications of urban renewal is about the hardship dis-
placed Negro families will face in selling their homes
for less than would be required to buy another home,
not about more space for Negroes.

 

 

‘a"." _I—Y‘” '." .

358

related difficulty of obtaining mortgage money would
discourage all but few from attempting to change resi-
dence to a white neighborhood. Aside from the factor
of economic ability there is a psychological barrier
to interracial living. Recent research8 has revealed
a preference on the part of the Negro masses to live
with their “own." Nearly a century of experience with
white hostility to Negro neighbors has forced them to
prefer the security of a nonWhite area of living. Only
the small group of middle class Negroes in Lansing will
be able to benefit from any removal of the color bar in
desirable residential neighborhoods.

Since school districting generally follows resi-
dence patterns, it is to be expected that only this small
group of better—educated and economically better—off Ne~

. . . 9
gro stands to benefit from school integration. But even

 

8Frank F. Lee, Negro and White in a Connecticut

Town (New York: Beekman Associates, 1961); Wilson, pp.
cit.

9This would depend of course on the age of the
child or children as well as the distance to be traveled.
Where both members of the family (father and mother) work,
as is the case in most lower class Negro families, ques-
tions of time for this transportation may arise. Even
Where only the husband works, the wife may need her own
transport to take the children to and from the same or
different schools, if the distance is more than one—half

 

 

359

if the neighborhood concept of school districting were
abandoned, very few working class Negroes would gain
anything from the develOpment. The cost of transport-
ing children to and from schools outside the Negro ghetto
in terms of both time and money is prohibitive indeed.
Difficulties of this kind explain the refusal of the
parents in one predominantly Negro school to adopt a
proposal for rejecting mobile units installed to relieve
their children of overcrowding rather than transferring
them to white schools operating under full size.10 Thus
the assault upon racially homogeneous schools is not
likely to strike most working class Negroes as deserv-
ing of atheir urgent support.

The internal and intergroup conflict over goals
has tended to exert a divisive influence on Negro pro—
test in Lansing, diminishing its effectiveness. The
NAACP's virtual neglect of or inadequate attention to

the daily concern of the vast majority of Negroes in

 

mile. Very few such families can afford two cars. The
fact that only few middle class families in Lansing
(Negroes) have been able to take advantage of the "Per—
mit” system is quite instructive in this connection.

0Section B on Education in Chapter III here.

360

the city - job opportunities — has encouraged working
class Negroes to identify the local branch as a "middle—
class club," serving only the interests of "those big
fellows" - the college-educated or professional Negro.
It has also made for lower internal cohesion. Both
consequences reflect themselves in the poor attendance
of ordinary Negroes, but also of some middle class
people. The "faithful few" who attend meetings regu-
larly do not include most of the Negro ministers,
public school teachers in the sample and the skilled
and unskilled workers. This neglect of the dominant
interest of the Negro community has also made the
NAACP vulnerable to attack by a rival protest group
that it is contemptuous of the masses. The common
Negro, already on the defensive for his lowly status,
finds the suggestion appealing and provides him with
the justification he needs to recoil from a middle—
class oriented organization. He feels himself "used,"
for his money is to be spent for projects he thinks
will not benefit him. The loss of faith expresses it-
self in increasing working—class unwillingness to take

out membership in the NAACP. Yet the organization needs

361

members, if for no other reason than as a source of
revenue for its programs as well as evidence to both
the white community and cynical Negroes that its
promise of freedom is gaining acceptance. It also
needs an image of a group united on its goals in
order to be taken seriously both by its adversaries
and apathetic Negroes. A movement torn by dissension,
unable to present at least an appearance of internal
tranquility to outsiders can hardly convert others.11
No small part of a trend toward fragmentation
of protest groups in Lansing, with its implications
for duplication of functions and dissipation of re-
sources, is due to disagreements over ends. This is
evident not only in the working class appeal which
the League enjoys but also in the concern which each

protest group shows in the areas of housing, education,

and job opportunity.

Leadership

 

Negro protest in Lansing is dominated by

middle class Negroes and white liberals. If major

 

lKing, pp, cit., p. 77.

 

362

decisions are largely in the hands of executive and
board members, as has been pointed out in the des-
cription of the protest groups, it becomes obvious
that the ordinary mass member has little or no voice
in planning programs. In the NAACP, for example, he
is necessary primarily as an active participant in
supporting the planned programs, financially and
otherwise. Member exclusion is even more total in
the Citizens Non—Partisan League, which claims to be
closer to the "grassroots" and accuses middle class
Negroes of holding the "little fellow" in contempt by
arrOgating to themselves the right to decide or tell
City Hall What is good for him. In this organization
not only are the rank and file excluded from policy

12 . . .
making, but dissent from any source, including the

 

12The logicof this exclusion is clear. If

the League is the one organization which is supposed—
ly close to the ordinary Negro, and the League will
automatically seek the welfare of the "little fellow "
{here is no necessity for him to take part in decision—
making since his "friend" knows his needs and is work-
ing to serve them. Any disagreement with him he
interprets as an argument about the needs of his con—
stituents, which he knows. Those who disagree may not
be friends of his constituents and may leave the
League.

 

363

few college educated members who have remained, is
vigorously checked by the lone decision-maker of the
League.

In either case the consequences have been

 

similar - loss of faith in the leadership, lack of
cohesion and identification with group goals and
ideology, and declining membership. In the NAACP
suspicion has derived mainly from the usual working
class apprehension that the college—educated, suburb—
dwelling Negro lives so high above them as to be out
of touch emotionally with the day-to-day problems
common Negroes face. There is a growing conviction
in the ghetto that the interests of the two groups
are so radically different that the absentee middle
class leadership must be engaged in a cynical attempt
to use the inhabitants of the Negro community for
their own status advancement. The suspicion is
deepened by the facts that major policy decisions

are made behind their backs and independent profes—
sionals and other highly educated Negroes are the
ones who generally get appointed to biracial city
boards. A postal clerk explains the basis of the

skepticism of the working man:

364

When those big boys (the lawyers, dentist, high
government officials and other professional
Negroes) ask you to join a line and march for an
ordinance and the City Council doesn't listen,
and the Mayor puts them on this or that Board to
shut their mouth, you call that fighting for the
common man? Those fellows are no longer with us.
They got their names in the papers and for the
little position they shut their mouth. What have
I gained? Nothing. I have been used. They don't
even know what we want.

The middle class element in the League is
bitterly critical of one—man rule. Resentment over
opposition to dissent or the tendency to question the
motives of the dissenter has expressed itself in a
reduced level of participation in League deliberations
during meetings, an occasional quarrel with the Pres—
ident followed by two to three consecutive absences
from meetings, and then permanent withdrawal from the
meetings accompanied by open criticisms of the Leader-
ship. Some of the most active and effective members
of the League have been lost as a result of these
disagreements.

Withdrawal of middle class people has crip—
pled the League, for they are the ones who are

familiar with the issues, lead the delegations that

interview White employers about job opportunities for

365

Negroes, and generally take the most active part in
the discussions at League meetings. In their ab-
sence the League has been robbed of its most important
resource - much needed talent in prOgram planning
and execution and therefore its potential as a func-
tioning and effective instrument of social change.
Discontent over leadership style apart, the
major goal of the League is itself a source of
strain. Middle class participants already have
steady jobs in their own fields of educational prep-
aration, and the responsibility of going around to
explore job opportunities for others is a source of
disaffection. With this potential for estrangement
built into the structure of the League, only the
blockage of opportunity for self—expression is
required to trigger a middle class withdrawal,
leaving the League a mere collection of ill-
educated followers whose confrontation with the
white power structure is not likely to add prestige
to the civil rights effort in Lansing. Working
class Negroes tend to stay in the League, for its

meetings provide them with an emotional outlet and

366

they have a unique opportunity to identify them-
selves vicariously with a fighter for a cause he
has taught them is theirs, even though they play
no active part in it. They are in friendly ter-
ritory. They may interpret the motives of the
white power structure and of the Middle class
Negro and condemn them without challenge. They
console themselves in the belief that if only they
would be on their guard against these two enemy,
their troubles would soon be over.

There is nothing unusual about excluding
the majority from policy direction. Nor is this
necessarily dysfunctional. After all, the leaders of
any protest movement are those best qualified to
make decisions concerning the movement's program.
As Barber has observed, "no matter what interest
any particular association represents, we find

the existence of an active minority in control."13

 

3 . . .

Bernard Barber, "PartiCipation and Mass
Apathy in Associations," in Alvin Gouldner, (ed.)
Studies in Leadership, 1950, p. 484.

 

 

 

 

367

By virtue of their education middle class [
members of the Lansing protest groups are those
best qualified to understand and analyze the subtle
legal and political issues involved with the rights
Negroes are seeking, to assemble the relevant re—
search evidence and to confront white men of power
with it.14 But the "inactive majority" in the NAACP
and the League apparently are far from conceding
responsibility for developing goals, coordinating
internal effort and decisions about external situa—
tions as executive functions to their leaders, as
one would expect in any organized group. Neither
do they grant to their functional leaders legitimate
authority to make adequate diagnosis of organizational
needs occasioned by changing conditions and to adjust
protest goals and techniques to meet these needs, as
can be seen in the constant criticism that the NAACP
is not doing anything. In the absence of clear con—

fidence in the leaders to articulate the aspirations

 

l4 .
Middle class Negroes have spear-headed every

organized struggle for first class citizenship since
the Emancipation, although motives have been regarded
with suspicion by the common man. Thompson, pp. cit.

 

 

 

368

and hopes of the Negro community, open criticism of
that leadership and disavowal of their goals have I
become the rule. The leadership has become immobilized,

unable to adopt any course of action with confidence or

pursue it with vigor, not knowing what programs will

win mass backing. A garbage truck driver expresses

the dilemma of the middle class leadership.

When people who get the education and the
proper training to lead us run away to live out—
side (meaning the suburbs), they cut themselves
away from the rest of us. It don't make no dif—
ference what's the reason. They are gone. A
man can lead other people in a fight only if he
knows and they know what they are fighting for.

How can a man lead a group of people if he don't

live with them and don't even know their worries?
Little wonder that of the nearly 7000 Negroes in Lan—
sing, less than 650 are connected with any protest
group, and why not more than 150 actively participate
in the civil rights struggle.

Apathy has taken an even greater toll in the

Citizens' Non-Partisan League. The "faithful few"
have become so few that formal meetings are impossible.
In the "informal" meetings which have become popular in

the League a handful of disciples made up mainly of

women and unskilled workers hold conversations on a

369

wide range of topics, criticize middle class Negroes,
sometimes prais their own leader, sometimes quarrel
15 .

over small matters, but always come to no concluSions
about action on anything. Yet the handful of followers
continue to attend meetings. Faith in the sincerity of
their leader tells them the rights they seek will sooner
or later be realized. Some of the League's most educated
and effective officials have gone over to the rival

16 . . . .
NAACP, where collective leadership obtains, or Simply
withdraws from protest activity altogether. They were
involved as leaders in the League‘s most important area
of concern — job opportunity information gathering. This

work has come to an abrupt halt with the departure of

 

5One evening a fist fight nearly developed
between a woman and a man over the difference between
disagreeing with a person and telling that person what
to do. The man said something. The woman disagreed.
The man accused her of telling him what to do. She dis-
agreed with his interpretation and the shouting con-
tinued for about five minutes. NO one intervened or
took any side. They simply quarreled until they stopped.
16This situation must strike the head of the
League as particularly distressing, although he does not
openly comment on these departures. Yet it is difficult
for him to escape feeling that the NAACP is winning if
those who have once joined him in criticizing that or-
ganization now desert to join it. He must wonder what
effect this has on the morale of his working class
followers.

 

370

these individuals. Yet the style of leadership has
not changed. It fails to realize that internal co—
hesion is greatly affected by the distribution of
power within a movement.

Support of the Negro ministers has been a
source of strength for the League. While not actively
participating in its programs, the ministers do not
oppose the organization. Many have given approval
for membership campaigns to be conducted among their
congregations. As long as ministers who have the
largest following in the Negro community give the
League at least implicit backing, it will continue
to be potentially strong. It would strengthen or-
dinary Negro confidence in it.

Isolation has made for suspicion among
ordinary Negroes against the middle class leader—
ship. This separation plus the socioeconomic differ-
entials inhibit feelings of mutual identification and
of solidarity of interest in both groups. This is
why a ”big" Negro‘s stepping down (returning to the
ghetto) to lead the masses is considered by lower

class persons as deserving of careful scrutiny.

371

Dissatisfaction with a more or less absentee
leadership that is comfortable, complacent, and sup—
posedly uncommitted to the advancement of the masses
is partly responsible for the establishment of the
rival Citizens Non-Partisan League and its hold on
the common man, according to some informants. This
phenomenon - discontent with a leadership and the
goals it is seeking - leading to the formation of new
groups - has a parallel in the Negro Revolt on the
national level. Lomax (1960) notes that part of the
problem is mass discontent with what he calls "Negro
leadership organizations" represented by the NAACP,
whose middle class Negro and white liberal leader-
ships' attack on segregation reflected "class" rather
than "mass" concerns. CORE, SNCC, and the Southern
Leadership Conference and their programs of resistance
represent this reaction. 80 long as the Lansing
NAACP focusses on class concerns it is difficult to
see how it can avert the trend toward working class
disaffection and further fragmentation in the civil
rights movement. Considering the present political
impotence of the Negro growing out of his small num-

bers in the city as well as the splitting of his

 

 

 

 

372

votes and as the apathy of the masses, such a develop—
ment would be a serious danger to the cause of social
change. It would have a paralyzing effect on the
movement.17

It is perhaps a reflection of the ineffective—
ness of the oldest protest group in Lansing that most
Negroes know only of its existence but cannot credit
it with any specific accomplishment. Some even claim
that it "ain't doing nothing." The NAACP has of course
been functioning, but what the criticism suggests is that
it has not been giving adequate attention to the over—
riding problem of practical concern to most Negroes.

In terms of leadership type, two of Wilson's
four categories appear to be represented in the Negro

. . 18 . .
protest movement in LanSing. Competition between

 

17Even if the new organizations do not become
as active as the NAACP, the statement would still be
true. Once formed and seeking members, this fact alone
means that already existing protest groups are robbed
of potential sources of members and revenue. And such
new groups would almost certainly be concerned with
problem areas in which the established organizations
already are interested in some way.

18The other two are the "token leader,“ who is
handpicked by the white power structure for his modera-
tion, to "represent" the Negro community on biracial com—
missions. He is not outspoken and is not a member of
groups demanding Negro rights. The fourth is the "New
Negro."

373

them for status has been a source of unremitting in-
terorganizational conflict, which has adversely affected
the effectiveness of the struggle for civil rights.
These are the "prestige" and the "organizer" types.
Within the Negro community "prestige" leaders repre—
sent high personal achievement in business and pro—
fessional life. While not wealthy by white standards,
most of these "self-made" men are financially com—
fortable. They are said to have not only respectability
but also wide contacts among influential whites. In
civic activities they tend to avoid the controversial,
preferring to remain in the background and allowing
front—men to manipulate the organizational machinery
in accordance with their wishes, in the manner of the
economic dominants of which Floyd Hunter writes in his
well—known Community Power Structure.

In Lansing one lawyer, a dentist, and a col—
lege—trained minister come closest to the definition
of the prestige leader, although other Negroes also

19 . . . . .
qualify. The main variation from Wilson's formulation

 

19Two bureaucrats of Michigan State Government
certainly qualify in terms of general reputation in and
outside the Negro community, income, occupational level,
and place of residence. However, the three leaders
named above are identified in the mind of League offi—
cials as "that group," the enemy of the common man.

 

 

374

is that the Lansing leaders are in the forefront of
protest action and are quite militant integrationists.
One is the President of the NAACP and the other two are
members of the board. Even though most Negroes re—
fuse to recognize a Moses who would solve their prob-
lems or whose influence cuts across the total gamut
of Negro life, they will invariably refer to these
individuals as representative of the "big" Negro in
Lansing. The minister lives in a pastorate in an
area of the city that must have recently changed to
Negro; the dentist lives in suburbia and the lawyer
in the part of the city with the largest concentra—
tion of comfortable Negroes. Most clients of both
the lawyer and the dentist are white, while the min—
ister is the only Negro clergyman who exchanges pul-
pits with his white counterparts.

Unlike the prestige leader the "organizer"
is an initiator of activities. He is always stimu-
lating action by raising issues, setting goals and
sustaining organizations. But he does not match
the status, the income, or power of the prestige

leader, and this is a source of constant frustration

for him. Civic organizations become the context for
acquiring that status. His chief resource as a :
leader is dedication, expressed in the time and

energy he devotes to protest programs. As a type,

organizers are distinguished by a commitment to

specific ends. The head of the Citizens Non—Partisan

League typifies this mode of leadership. He is

widely recognized in the Negro community for his

untiring devotion to Negro betterment as well as the

zeal and consistency with which he works toward

these ends, even by his rivals; yet no one credits

him with the stature of the ”big" Negroes.

The contest is over leadership of the Negro
community — defined as who should command the al—
legiance of the Negro community or be heard in City
Hall as the appropriate spokesmen of that community.
As far as the prestige leaders are concerned, leader-
ship is hardly a matter of debate or competition.
Middle class Negroes have the education, background,
understanding of the issues surrounding the unfair
treatment of this minority group, as well as the

independence or leisure it takes to be spokesman of

 

376

the Negro community in its struggle with the dominant
white population for social change. They have the
long history of Negro protest to validate the claim.
Formulating protest proposals and proposing subcommun—
ity action for change has traditionally been a natural
and inescapable middle class responsibility.20 The
Lansing prestige leaders are of course aware of work—
ing class imputations of selfish motives to them, but
ignore this as an aspect of minority group psychology,
trusting that actual gains will impress the majority
in the long run more than any efforts now to convince
them of their sincerity. In their view any recognition,
any hearing accorded them in City Hall or by the
masses as members of biracial city agencies or prom—
inent citizens - is a mere adjunct to a leadership
role which has fallen to them by virtue of their oc—

cupational and economic standing. Otherwise put,

 

0Even in these days of mass disillusionment
with conservative middle class leadership, the state—
ment is true. Middle class Negroes are the ones who
today lead even the direct mass action to implement law
or for social change. Dr. King, James Farmer, and
others of the nonviolent direction action groups are
all middle class people.

 

377
their status is seen by them as incidental to a role
to which talent and already earned prestige has en-
titled them, and does not derive from that role as
such. One independent professional rejected sugges-
tions that his participation in protest is inspired
by a desire for status. Said he,
Nonsense! These people are crazy. What do
some of us really get out of this thing (protest)?
We are already comfortable. Yet we take time out
to work for it. We just want to help our unfor-
tunate friends, and, of course, ourselves too. We
too are Negroes.
We share in some of the disabilities of being
Negro. We have children to make things better for.
But we don't have to throw away hundreds of dollars
just to gain status you know.
The middle class appeal to established socio-
economic status as a basis for community leadership
is not accepted by the organizer type leader of the
League. Lacking the high economic and occupational
status of the prestige leaders, he redefines the rules
in terms which make it possible for him to compete
more successfully. Identification with the masses
and their aspirations becomes for him the appropriate
source of any right to speak for the Negro community

in City Hall. On this basis he can justifiably rest

his claim to leadership on the untiring energy he has

378

 

devoted to getting jobs for the ordinary Negro, to
the crusading zeal to save them from being "sold
down the river." No prestige leader can point to
such specific involvements.

If energy in initiating activities for the
masses is the legitimate ground for leadership, then
the demand for recognition of the "little man's voice,"
for consultations with him as a basis for community
decisions on how to relate to the white community,
must be understood in effect as a call for recognition
of his own status as a force to be reckoned with
in Negro-white relations in the city, since he leaves
the impression of leading the organization that is
closest to the "little fellow" and working in his
interest. Rejection of socioeconomic status as a
valid criterion for leadership and his substitution
of loyalty to the cause of the common man makes it
possible for him to rank as even more deserving of
community respect as a leader than his rivals, whom
City Hall has honored by appointment to some important

city agencies, leaving him out.

 

l .

The memberships of these people on several
boards or in various organizations leaves them no
chance to tackle important individual projects, as
he can.

The need he feels for the status and in—
fluence of the prestige leaders accounts for his bois— I
terous demand that the City Council reject the middle
class nominees22 and on the Mayor's Human Relations
Commission and substitute them with people in the
"middle income group." If his argument for rejecting
the economically better—off Negro on the ground of
psychological separation from the masses were ac—
cepted, then he would indeed be the one to call the
"shots," to name the presumably more typical nominee,
since he considers himself the only mass~oriented
leader. His enthusiastic support of the City Coun—
cil's rejection of a well—qualified Negro nominee
for the Police and Fire Board is also accounted for
in terms of his need to force acceptance of himself
as an important factor in Negro—white relations,

thereby serving notice on rival middle class Negroes

 

22
His elimination from such an important
agency as the city‘ s Human Relations Commission must

be a blow indeed. He must interpret this as withdrawal
of recognition by the City of his leadership and at—
tribute it to conspiracy between the Mayor and NAACP
leaders. He submitted a substitute list of ministers
and League members who support him.

 

380

whom he suspects of despising him and engineering 5’1
his elimination from the biracial agencies of the

City and the city administration, that he cannot be
successfully ignored in Negro politics in Lansing.
Thus, the thrust of the League‘s protest under him is
aimed as much at his rivals as it is against the

white power structure.

It might be asked why the desire for status
would be expressed in a way which thwarts the efforts
of the civil rights movement in Lansing. Why would
a leader in the movement endorse the rejection of a
well—qualified Negro for a biracial city agency
which has been criticised for years for not employing
Negroes? Would not the presence of a Negro on such a
body suggest that the white power structure is begin-
ning to take the Negro community seriously, and is
not giving Negroes a bigger voice in city affairs one
of the ends of protest? Does not the challenge give
comfort to the adversaries of Negro equality, and does
not such an open break expose disunity among the
leaders and thus defeat the objectives of social change

protest groups are seeking?

381

Not much has been written about the motives
of civic activity by Negroes; hence it is difficult
to provide an adequate explanation of this behavior.
But the psychology of leadership might illuminate
the problem.

Having projected an image of himself as their
legitimate leader, the head of the League must demon—
strate that his leadership is firmly anchored in in-
fluence at City Hall in order to uphold that image
in the eyes of his followers and rivals. If he is
truly the "man of the people," then the masses should
flock to his banner.

But his own name had been dropped from the
important Human Relations Commissiai following the
adoption of the City's controversial Human Relations
Ordinance which he supported, and the drop-out rate
among his members had risen to such an embarrassingly
high rate that a whole meeting had been devoted to how
to interest potential members in the League. It was
important that he salvage his declining prestige and
be seen still as the friend or "savior" if he was

going to maintain the allegiance of his handful of

 

382

followers. If he himself could be eliminated from an
agency that is directly concerned with communication
between the dominant and minority groups on the issue
of discrimination, if representatives of the Negro
community could be chosen without reference to him,
this would constitute an enormous discrepancy between
the status he has assigned to himself and his actual
position. The open challenge to the Mayor's nominee
was a final desperate attempt to assert his authority
as a leader. Circulating a petition with 300 signa-
tures was aimed at demonstrating that he had community
backing for his action. And submitting the petition on
behalf of the League was an attempt to use the organi-
zation as a context for carrying on what is essentially

. 23
a crusade for a private end.

 

23The actual results of his leadership are

meager in prOportion to his efforts. While this is not
necessarily due to any deficiencies of his, he never-
theless feels anxiety concerning the possible reaction
of his followers. The constant blaming of "that group"
is actually a rationalization for an unproductive
leadership. Wilson (op.cit.. p. 227) states that since
the ends of the protest leader are so infrequently at—
tained, he finds it necessary to explain the reasons
for failure. In the search for such explanations, he
frequently is led to a concern with the motives of
others.

 

 

Further insight into the dynamics of this kind

of behavior is found by examining the psychological I
dimension, utilizing what McDougald called the "sen-
timent of self—regard." This concept refers to the
human tendency to be proud of oneself. An individual
is constantly evaluating himself in the light of the
opinion of others and trying to enhance his own
feeling of self—regard by conforming to social ex—
pectations. It is as though there were a "force pro-
pelling the Ego upwards." He has internalized certain
values which now constitute his ego. Unless he can
maintain respect for these values his personality
suffers. His self—esteem is maintained largely
through recognition from others. As Cantril puts it,
Since self—regard, for most people is so of-
ten achieved through social recognition, through
status, a good deal of behavior is motivated by
the attempt to preserve or to enhance status so

that it will be recognized objectively for what

it is felt to be or desired to be subjectively.24

For American Negroes self—esteem maintenance

is a particularly difficult problem. They live in a

 

24
Cantril, 9p, cit., p. 46.

384

culture which deprecates or denies the values they
have accepted implicitly, such as their fundamental
faith in their own worth, their yearning belief that
they are at least as good as whites if not better.
Yet until passage of the 1964 Federal Civil Rights
Act they could not enjoy many privileges of citizen-
ship which white Americans took for granted. Such
deprivations and the failure of law enforcement
agencies to insure their enjoyment raised questions
in the minds of most Negroes about their status as
citizens and their dignity as human beings. Negro
organizations constitute one of the few opportunities
American culture offers the individual for the res—
toration of his stature, for exercising leadership,
demonstrating talent, and winning the social recog—
nition which comes from this. Any event that denies
this outlet is viewed as particularly threatening

and is aggressively resisted. Leadership in any seg-
ment of community life offers an opportunity for social
recognition which the individual will not easily forego.
When ordinary Negroes accuse their leaders of being

motivated by a desire for notoriety or getting their

 

 

 

names in the papers, they are speaking from a deep
insight into the frustrations of being a Negro in
a white America. This desire for recognition in a
rejecting white world, this eagerness for identity,
or to be "something," probably accounts for the ap—
parent readiness of protest leaders to sacrifice the
explicit group goals to realization of their own deep
psychological needs.25

The effect of interorganizational contest has
been to split the protest movement in Lansing into two
warring groups, whose leaders are so ego involved in
their own activities as to make coordination difficult
if not impossible. Leaders are aware that lack of

coordination expressed in the making of conflicting

 

25 .
It is not suggested of course that Negro mo—

tivation in civic life is purely for status enhance—
ment. There is every reason to believe that most Negro
leaders are conscientious about the rights protest ac—
tivities seek, such as open occupancy, the elimination
of de facto segregation and of job discrimination, and
equal enjoyment of public accommodations. In most parts
of the United States a Negro is a "Negro" as far as fair
treatment is concerned. Thus Negro leaders must be
genuinely interested in equal opportunity. But the ex—
tent to which a leader will make the quest for equality
paramount in his activities could depend on whether his
own need for recognition and status are enhanced or
further frustrated.

 

 

386

l

demands on the white power structure is a source of
weakness, but have so far been unable to get together.
The extent to which the white power structure has
actually exploited the situation cannot be accurately
determined, but it would be interesting to know how
far the refusal of the City Council to adopt an "ef-
fective" Human Relations Ordinance is related to Negro
disunity and their consequent inability to apply ef—
fective negative sanctions against those City Fathers
who Opposed these provisions.

For his part, the mass Negro finds himself
in a dilemma. On the one hand he refuses to be
represented by middle class Negroes; on the other
hand he lacks the training to formulate protest pro-
posals adequately. Furthermore, he is too dependent
on white economic support to be able to challenge
the status quo with impunity. Until this dilemma
is resolved criticisms in Lansing about lack of mili-

tancy in protest cannot be met by the masses.

387

Church and Politics

A second major line of cleavage must be noted
within the protest movement - that between the Negro
ministers on the one hand and the middle class leader—
ship represented by the two protest groups On the
other. Here again the issue revolves around who has
the allegiance of the masses or who should speak for
them in their relations with the white community.

Once the lone voice of its people, the Negro ministry
must now share that responsibility with a better—
educated and in many cases economically better—off
middle class, especially in the larger cities where
Negro politics and relations have become highly pro-
fessionalized.26 Whereas ministers‘ vested interests
in the biracial residence system made them valuable
allies of whites who would maintain the status quo,
they can no longer help anyone keep Negroes from chal—
lenging the prevailing structure of power relations.

White men of power must now bargain with a more or

 

26
Wilson, pp, cit., pp. 298—99.

388

less militant class of Negroes who believe that con-
flict is basic to social change and so do not turn
away from any opportunity to articulate that demand
for first class citizenship which is the core of the
Negro Revolt throughout the United States. The pros-
pect of losing the social reCOgnition and economic
concomitants of community leadership is frightening

to most ministers.

In Lansing this threat is a real one. Negroes
who sit on the biracial citizens committees in City
Hall are not the ill-educated conservative clergymen
of the Ministerial Alliance, but highly sophisticated,
professionally trained men and women most of whom
manifest a militant interest in Negro rights to first
class citizenship. With the exception of the college—
educated pastor of the AME Church those who demand
social change in the form of open occupancy, or elim-
ination of de facto segregation and the job ceiling
in the city are not the "men of God," but middle class
professionals and intellectuals.

Opposition to the middle-class challenge is

effective, though quiet, expresSing itself not only

 

 

;

389

in ministerial apathy toward and alienation from
Negro protest efforts, but also in increasing popu—
lar skepticism about them. True, most ministers are
affiliated with either the NAACP or the Citizens Non—
Partisan League, or both; they allow these organiza—
tions to extract memberships from their congregations,
and even verbally encourage their people to take out
memberships. Yet the extent of their participation

as religious leaders in whom the masses have great
faith — as evidenced by their mediocre attendance
record — makes it abundantly clear that ministers

are not prepared to cooperate with any organizations
which represent the "enemy," or with efforts which
have as one of their unintended consequences the
undermining of clerical influence in the community.27

In fact, ministers have on occasion joined with the

 

27Ministers have an economic stake in Negro
congregations which would be undermined if open oc—
cupancy actually resulted in the dissolution of the
Negro community. This clash of interest with the
integrationist orientation of middle class Lansing
Negro protest tends to increase ministerial aliena-
tion from organized protest but makes ministers vul—
nerable to middle class criticism about selfishness.

 

390

League in castigating the middle class Negro for pre-
suming to speak for the Negro community at City Hall.
The fact that the contest between protest and ministeri-
al leadership is often defined in terms of real philo-
sophical differences in respect to the value of conflict
and the appropriateness of church participation in it,
rather than on the desirability of social equality as
such, does not obscure the fierce underlying status
conflict or minimize its divisive impact upon the pro-
test in Lansing. Ministers still command the respect of
the masses. Mere suggestions that church members join
protest groups, without an example of active participa-
tion by themselves is not likely to persuade their fol—
lowers. Acceptance Of innovation is usually on a selec-
tive basis, and as Linton has suggested, "the prestige
level at which the new item enters the society very
largely determines the group of individuals to whom

it may spread."28 The openly expressed skepticism of

. . . . . . 2
most ministers about church involvement in "politics"

 

28 . . .
Ralph Linton, (ed.) Acculturation in Seven

American Indian Tribes, (1940).

29 . . .
See Chapter III - Section D on Religion for
the ministerial View of church participation in pro-
test and the middle class reaction.

 

391

tends to harden member view of the Church as a refuge
rather than an instrument of social change, into an
article of faith. It encourages that mass apathy which
rests on the belief that once one has paid his two
dollars to the Citizens Non-Partisan League or the
NAACP, one has already fought for civil rights and

that personal participation in the group effort is not
necessary. Without active mass support, however,

white men of power must think the ordinary Negro is
satisfied and that those who challenge white dominance
represent only a small radical element speaking for them-
selves.30 Such a view of organized protest groups
provides those who are opposed to Negro gains in civil
rights with an excuse for withdrawing cultural support
from them. This does not make the work of these or-

ganizations any easier.

 

3OSouthern‘segregationist references to those

who seek change in the structure of race relations, in-
cluding the Federal Government, as agitators or commu—
nists typify this reaction. Having intimidatedipoor,
illiterate Negroes into submission, they point with
pride to the resulting quiet as evidence that all is
well, and that without radical intervention things would
continue to be so. Mass discontent in those circum-
stances give the lie to such allegations about Negro
satisfaction.

 

392

Techniques

The protest technique manifestations which
emerge from the description of the Negro betterment
groups in Lansing do not appear to fit into current
schemes of strategy classifications. These typologies
correctly view tactics not as an independent variable,
but as related to such other structural elements as
goals, ideology, and the status system. The perspec—
tives of leaders — their outlook on the relative
power positions on the dominant and minority groups —
are held as influencing the techniques their groups
will adopt. Thus Myrdal's "compromise" type leader
sees Negro resistance as hopelessly inadequate before
white power and resorts to extravagant flattery of
whites in order to extract favors of a personal nature
which he would then dangle before the Negro community
as "proof" that "asking" for his rights rather than
demanding them is the Negro's best chance of ever

31 . . .
achieving the ends he seeks. In Wilson's militant—

 

31Myrdal, pp, cit., pp. 757—80.

393

moderate continuum the "militant” leader is distin—
guished mainly by a tendency to oversimplify complex
race problems and to demand ultimate solutions such
as legislative action, court action, or direct mass
action. In contrast the "moderate" leader takes the
larger perspective on these matters, preferring to
examine all sides, and seeks solutions through per—
suasion or access to influential whites.32
Structural factors alone do not influence
technique selection, however. Choice is also af-
fected by external considerations, particularly
where the winning of support is essential to goal
achievement. Two of these are: 1) utility with
respect to goals, and 2) realism concerning the cul—
tural setting and changing social conditions.33 Not
just any tactics will be effective in achieving any
and all organizational objectives. The means chosen
must have potential utility for goal attainment.

And given a goal, only certain means of achievement

 

32Wilson, pp, cit., p. 214.

 

33King, pp, cit., pp. 79—84.

394

 

are legitimate under the premises of the particular

culture. Thus in the United States the acquisition of
material wealth is culturally sanctified, but one may
not rob a bank to succeed. Realism demands that tech—
niques be both functionally efficient and consistent
with the values of the prevailing culture.

In Lansing, philosophies of intergroup power
do not bear directly on actual protest usages and prac—
tices. This is evident fromthe overwhelming preference
expressed for voting by both NAACP and League members
when in fact voter registration received little or no
attention in the League's prOgram during the entire
period of this field research. Even in the NAACP,
where more attention was given to voter registration,
this interest increased only as the city election for
Mayor and Councilmen34 drew near, and the time devoted
to it is far less than that given to research and edu—
cation in the areas of housing and school segregation.
Further evidence of the lack of clear relationship be-

tween ideology and techniques in use is to be seen in

 

34This is a regular election. The last one

occurred in November of 1960 and brought into office
the present Mayor and Council.

III-Il-—_________ LII-i

 

 

395

the NAACP, where voting received top ranking but no
one technique is preferred in every situation.

Nor is the militant—moderate dichotomy applic-
able in Lansing. Under criticism by the masses for
lack of accomplishment the NAACP dedicated itself to
a more militant approach in protest. Nevertheless the
conception of militancy its leaders hold specifically
excludes direct mass action, referring only to an in-
tention to make the organization's voice heard or its
influence felt in greater measure in city affairs. On
the other hand the League which threatens intransigent
white employers with picketing considers itself as
nonmilitant.

What we encounter in the Lansing protest
movement is an unwillingness to impute intrinsic effi—
cacy to any strategy for every goal on all occasions
and the develOpment of a situational view. This out-
look finds expression in the insistence that there is

no "best" way to protest, that what proves effective

 

5Picketing is generally regarded as one of
the militant techniques of protest. See Wilson, pp,
gg£5,; and William Brink and Louis Harris, The Negro
Revolution in America, (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1964).

396

in one case may not in another. This pragmatic ap—
proach grows out of the realities of the Lansing
situation. It is nearly a decade since the nonviolent
tradition in Negro protest began36 and unsuspecting
whites were stunned to the point of making conces—
sions to Negroes they would not have made in other
circumstances. Northern whites learned of the dra—
matic confrontations for equal rights with shocked
disbelief. But whites everywhere have had time to
catch their breath. Having overcome the initial
shock of a passive Negro turning on his oppressors
and demanding that he be given the rights they have
taken from him, the Lansing white power structure
has built up a will to resist. Surely, it will

allow the Negro some of his rights, but not all. It

 

will compromise but not be pushed into surrendering
certain of the privileges of an entrenched white

majority, whatever the techniques Negroes use. It

 

36The Negro Revolt understood as direct action
of the masses to implement laws protecting their rights
is usually dated from the Montgomery Bus Boycott of
1955. Lomax, 1962, Brink and Harris, 1964.

 

 

 

397

has elevated to the level of a moral principle the
right of this majority to resist compulsion to re-
store rights it abrogated on questionable grounds.
The attitude of "so far but no further," the tendency
of the white power structure to draw the line firmly
in some areas while giving in in others is seen in
the steps already taken to reduce de facto school
segregation and job discrimination, but in the stub—
born resistance to open occupancy. Demonstrations,
picketing, boycotts and other mass steps are believed
by most educated Negroes as not appropriate in over—
coming the conscious resistance in the latter two
areas, and this realization would seem to explain
the NAACP abandonment of direct mass action in favor
of research and persuasion through information dis—
semination. The August 19, 1963 demonstrations for
an effective human relations ordinance dramatized
the futility of the former course of action when it
failed to elicit from the city administration the
kind of ordinance that was the object of the per-
formance.

The fact that direct mass action is not likely

to disrupt the economy of Lansing may also explain

398

protest leaders' willingness to try other approaches.
The General Motors Oldsmobile Division, the largest
employer in the city, has too few Negroes for its oper-
ations to be adversely affected for long by a Negro
walk-out against its hiring practices. Nor would Mich—
igan State University close because of a protest march
against the under-representation of Negro secretaries
in its work force. And the volume of Negro purchasing
power is probably not big enough for any policy of
"Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" to hurt the retail
sales business as a whole in the city. And of course

0
the City Government would not be forced into raising
its job ceiling due to a Negro protest over the con—
signment of Negro employees to janitorial and custodial
work. In fact, in view of the disagreements over ends
and means the general apathy of the masses, it is doubt—
ful whether a large number of Negroes could be mus—

tered for such a form of protest.37

 

37Apart from the general apathy of the Negro
populace in respect to protest, economic prosperity
and dependence operate as factors accounting for this
attitude. Although their employment rate is not as
high as that of whites, Negroes are less plagued by
unemployment in Lansing than in most other Michigan
cities. Job stability deprives protest of issues of
interest to working class people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The relativistic approach to protest technique, I
1en, appears to be one of the few alternatives left.
iced with stiffening white resistance, the apathy of
1e masses, and the prospect of alienating some white
_berals, the protest movement has recognized that it
innot trust any one technique to be effective on every
1d all issues. That realization is a response to the
anse of powerlessness that grips protest leaders. It
aads not only to a willingness to try various tech—
Lques, but even to tolerate some proliferation of
:oups if one of them will come up with an effective
:rategy. Confrontation of the white power structure
.th research evidence concerning the practice of
-scrimination in the areas of housing, education, and
>bs may be a response to the failures of direct com—

Ilsion.

 

38The City Council's refusal to authorize the

Iman Relations Committee to investigate racial or
aligious discrimnnation in housing and employment is
Ised on that body's doubts that such discrimination
:ists. Housing discrimination seems obvious enough,

I otherwise there would be no organized resistance to
>en occupancy. Yet the City Fathers are not convinced
Iat residential patterns are based on racial discrimina—
.on.

 

Lack of firm commitment to any particular

ade of protest has the merit of freeing the move— 2
ant to adapt strategies to specific situations. In

time when white attitudes toward Negro demands are

antinually changing, this is a realistic approach.

at the ascription of rationality to white leaders or

1e willingness to credit them with a desire to respond

3 evidence in all the relevant areas of dominant—

inority conflict in Lansing is of doubtful validity,

E not indeed abortive.

Nor does flexibility fail to generate conflict.
)ciocultural factors probably limit both a group’s
ioice of techniques as well as individual commitment
3 use them. The NAACP‘s present research emphasis
Lll continue to limit the extent of participation
1 program planning and execution of the inadequately

iucated, quite apart from any arbitrary grounds for

 

NAACP leaders are the ones who have not attended
1e meetings. On one occasion the reason was a previous
ate with the city administration. On another occasion
> excuse was sent. League leaders attended both meetings.
IACP absences of this kind may have raised questions in
1e minds of League leaders as to whether their colleagues
Ike them seriously enough.

 

heir exclusion. So long as the demands for Negro i
i
I

'ights continue to be pressed through discussion

,nd argument with the white power structure, reliance
In the gathering and presentation of research facts

:an be expected to continue. Working class members

:an not but feel alienated from this activity, however.
'et discussion is one of the few techniques left that
:an not be attacked by individuals who would conceal
.heir opposition on quite other grounds to Negro
lemands on such explosive issues as open occupancy

Ind elimination of the job ceiling, behind the alleged
>elligerency of protest techniques. It is in the
merican tradition of handling controversial issues

Ind is not a protest or agitational approach. It

vould also help retain the support of most liberals

Ind probably keep uncommitted whites from becoming
Iostile to Negro protest. By the same token the in-
lifference of the ordinary Negro would onntinue. The
fact that information on job opportunity - the problem the
:hat looms largest in his mind - can be collected in
Isimple straightforward manner by committee members

:alling on white employers or casual observation makes

402

it unnecessary for him to be concerned with scholarly
research. The different levels of investigation the
NAACP and the League engaged in — exploration of the
research literature on the possible effects of Negro
increase and property values on the one hand, and
nere inquiries at white establishments for job op—
portunities for Negroes on the other hand, bring out
:he influence of sociocultural factors on technique
selection or use. The inability of the rank and file
iegro to utilize or appreciate the implications of
lerifiable data in pressing his demands means that
Jolicy decision-making must continue to be left
Largely in the hands of middle class people, and this
Ls not likely to strengthen the confidence of working
:lass Negroes in their leaders. A vicious circle
:ends to be created, severely imparing the effective—
Iess of the fight for first class citizenship: poorly
educated Negroes will be limited to certain goals and
.echniques of seeking them. This limitation keeps
Them out of the councils of policy-making in the pro-
est movement. Exclusion breeds suspicion of the

eadership and alienation from the activities seeking

 

 

403

the goals. A tendency towards proliferation develops,
with other groups forming around other ends and util—
izing less sophisticated techniques. But new groups
deny the existing organizations of potential sources
of membership and revenue. Besides, they tend to
duplicate the efforts of the already established
groups. Small competing groups weaken the movement,
and the image of the splinter protest groups becomes
that of a minority who either do not know what they
want or articulate only the grievances of a small

body of malcontents against the community.

The Problem of Coordination

Protest groups members are painfully aware
of the division within the movement and of the po-
tential for further fragmentation. Proliferation
is seen as the most serious obstacle to effective
action for change in Lansing. Segmentation is of course
regretted but seen as inevitable. Efforts at coor—
iination have been hampered by conflicting concepts
3f intergroup collaboration. As already indicated,

nost NAACP leaders view cooperation as the independent

 

404

 

pursuit of organizational objectives by coordinate
groups. This implies that consultation between g
groups is not necessary. The League on the other
hand believes that a common front on specific change
proposals developed on the basis of adequate con—
tacts between the respective protest group leaders
represents the nearest approach to effective pres-
sure on the white power structure for the desired
change. It is perhaps a reflection of the incompat-
ibility of these two philosophies of intergroup
relations that their leaders have been unable to face
each other at the unity conclaves called by the Negro
clergy. Ministerial intervention with its appeal
to racial unity has not been successful in healing
the cleavage due to at least two reasons. First,
ministers are viewed by the NAACP leaders as part

of the Negro rank and file due to their meagre edu-
cation and hence they do not have confidence in
their judgment; Their disposition to share the
League‘s opposition to the middle class leadership
makes them a party to the very interorganizational

conflict they would seek to mediate. Secondly,

405

their own suspicion of middle class leadership and
ambivalence toward protest activities places a
severe strain on how far they can go to bring the
warring factions together. It is clear that any
consolidation of the protest leadership would further
undermine the ministers' status in the community.40
And if the League's call for recognition of
the voice of the little man means anything more than
a demand for community and white acceptance of its
own leader as the equal of the rivals, then it is
not a practical solution to the problem of disunity.
It is not enough simply to have a Negro on a bi-
racial city agency; he must have the potential for
understanding the issues which come before such a body
and representing what he believes to be the voice of

4
the Negro community. 1 It is difficult to see how

 

4OMinisters must find some reason for comfort in
the weakness brought about by rivalry among the protest
group leaders. Even though ministers tend to support the
League position in disputes with the NAACP, it is doubt—
ful whether they would like to see these two factions
get together.

1No matter what such an individual does it is
possible that some elements in the Negro community will
be dissatisfied. What is important, however, is that he
understand the issues before the agency. The performance
of an ignorant person could strengthen whites in their
belief the Negro does not deserve equal treatment.

 

 

   

 

406

 

orking class Negroes can participate effectively in ‘ 4
1e discussions in the agency meetings without a col—
ege education or its equivalent, considering the re-
iance on research and evidence that is coming into
Dgue in Negro protest in Lansing.

Faced with cleavages within and between pro—
ast groups, which makes it difficult to pursue the goal
E equal opportunity with persistence and resolution, the
insing protest movement has a potential source of help in
1e Greater Lansing Coordinating Council on Human Rights.
Irough the information servicing function of this organ—
:ation a basis is provided for mutual support of pro—
:ams and the avoidance of that duplication of functions
1d dissipation of time and financial resources which has
:en the bane of intergroup rivalry in the Lansing

42
>vement.

 

2Fragmentation of protest groups occurs even on
Ie national level. National leaders have taken cogniz-
Ice of this trend and its weakening effects. To bring
>me order out of chaos they have developed an organiza-
.onal pattern to coordinate their efforts, called COFO
tongress of Federated Organizations). It is made up of
Itional leaders of the NAACP, the Urban League, CORE,
Ie Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and SNIC.
Ie leaders get together periodically to plan common posi-
.ons. The latest example was when Roy Wilkins of the NAACP
Illed his colleagues into conference to develop plans
>out implementing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Crisis,
Igust—September, 1964, p. 467.

407

The ethnic heterogeneity of the Council's mem—

ership is also of positive significance to Negro pro-
est. It confers prestige on the activities of the
mvement. It elevates the goals of protest from their
urely racial context to the level of community ends,
hereby investing them with an ideological justifica—
ion which most whites would accept, or at least not
ppose. By its mere identification with the struggle
or racial justice the Council helps allay the sus-
icions of those white conservatives who consider any
rganization concerned with change in the power rela—
ions as "too radical."43

Yet we cannot speak of the positive contribution
E ethnic plurality without recognizing the other size.
:hnic heterogeneity has also been an impediment to co-

. . 44 . .
:dination. As a Negro—led organization the Coordinating

 

43The attacks of John Birchers and Daughters of the
Ierican Revolution on organizations such as the Americans
>r Democratic Action and even the NAACP as leftist illus—
rates the point.

44This is true only in the sense that most of the

:ecutive officers are Negroes. But even though most of
.em are NAACP members the Council is anything but NAACP
aninated. Certain structural features of the Council
'eclude this.

 

408

Council invites suspicion from Negroes themselves. !
Phose who run the Citizens Non-Partisan League sus-
pect the NAACP element in the Council's leadership

3f organizing the Council deliberately to "destroy"

:he League.45 This outlook on the Council as part

>f an NAACP conspiracy leads to the view of it as a
:ival organization not to be trusted as an ally. The
geague regards it as just that. This attitude of
;uspicion explains the League's opposition to the
louncil—sponsored demonstrations against the "weak"
Iuman relations ordinance adopted by the Lansing City
Iouncil, its failure to co—sponsore the Human Relations

Institute at Michigan State University during the

 

5The paranoid tendency to see the wicked hand
If the local NAACP trying to foil every attempt (by the
Ieague) for Negro betterment is part of the psychology
)f the "organizer" type leadership. On the defensive
lue to what is felt as its inferior status to leaders
Iith whom it would like to rank on equal terms, it looks
for every opportunity to discredit them or blame them or
Iccuse them of inordinate ambition. Informants in the
>est position — those in the Council — credit the man
rho founded the League itself with originating the idea
If the Council. Reached for confirmation of this point,
:he founder said he was motivated by a desire to get a
[uman Relations Ordinance in Lansing and felt that the
lore heterogeneous the group backing the idea of an ef—
Fective ordinance, the better the chances of its adop—
;ion by the City Council. He is neither an officer of
;he Council nor a middle class person, judging by edu—
:ation, occupation and income. L

409

spring of 1963. It also accounts for the League's
disinclination to inform the Council on any of its
activities or support the programs of any other civic
groups connected with the Council. Since coordina—
tion becomes possible only through communication among
groups working toward common objectives, this task
is complicated in Lansing by the refusal of the League
"to give aid and comfort to the enemy."

The view of the Coordinating Council as a
rival group is not entirely without justification.
Its pursuit of a goal which comprehends those of the
groups whose activities it seeks to coordinate — the
adoption and implementation of an "effective" ordi—
nance — seems to establish it as a protest group in
its own right. Concern with implementation of course
reflects recognition of the fact that laws are not
self-enforcing. The whole history of the Negro Re—
volt is one of direct action by the masses to carry
out laws for their protection which whites have largely
ignored with impunity. Yet the goal of law enforcement
in such a wide area as housing, school and job discrim—

ination is a commitment as large or complex as that

 

 

410

of first class citizenship itself. Little wonder that
organizations like the League whose leaders are al—
ready on the defensive would suspect the Council of
seeking to enter the field of protest as a rival under
a false name, and its leaders of trying to capture the
spotlight for themselves.46 Those who pursue such an
objective would appear to be protest organizations in
the same sense as the NAACP is, regardless of the
label under which they operate.

The Coordinating Council finds itself in a
vulnerable position when it functions as a coordinating
instrument while partaking of some of the elements of
a true Negro betterment organization. This ambivalence,
this lack of specificity concerning its own identity,
this failure to define its role in the protest movement

has not dissipated the doubts held in some regular

 

46 . . . . .
If recognition is one of the motivations to

leadership in protest activity, then the more groups
that develop, the keener will be the competition for
status, for there are only few areas in which leader-
ship can be exercised — housing, education, and jobs,
for example. If the Coordinating Council is a genuine
protest group, then it is possible that its leaders will
capture the spotlight by accomplishing more in the areas
in which already existing protest groups are working.
This may be what the League leaders mean when they sus—
pect the Council of trying to "destroy" their
organization. [

 

 

 

 

 

protest group quarters about its real aims in the
community, or the necessity for its existence for
that matter. If the Council is to be another pro—
test group, then the effect must be to further
divide rather than unite the already warring organ—
izations. If it is only a clearing house for civil
rights programs, it must clearly abandon its active
interest in implementation of Lansing's Human Rela—
tions Ordinance if it would enjoy the confidence of
the existing protest groups.47 The Coordinating

Council has been unable to make this decision so far.

 

47If the Council is going to be just another
protest group, its effectiveness would be limited by
the same structural difficulties which now beset the
two existing organizations. Racial heterogeneity would
seem to suggest different levels of commitment to the
rights Negroes seek on part of the participating groups
and individuals. There is no reason to believe that a
white liberal who is a member of the Council would nec—
essarily welcome Negro neighbors. The relation between
expressed attitude and behavior is an as yet inadequately
understood area in social science. (See Inkeles and
Levinson, "Ethnic Prejudice," Handbook of Social
Psychology, edited by Gardner Lindzey, 1953) Thus the
establishing of goals would be quite problematic in
such a group, just as it has been in the Negro groups
themselves. Orientational differences apart, the
white liberal intellectuals, labor and religious
leaders (Catholic and Jewish) may be threatened with
loss of standing or position in their own groups by
their mere association with the cause of racial equal—
ity. This could affect their behavior in such a group

412

A Dilemma — Latpnt Function

A second major dilemma deserves notice. Even
if the protest movement were not split by different
definitions of the concept of freedom and by what
should be the appropriate goals of the change effort,
realization of equal opportunity would still be
hampered by another set of contradictory ends. This
is the simultaneous pursuit of political power by the
Negro community through the election of a non—white
person to the City Council, and of a goal which would
in effect destroy the very basis of that power. Pre—
sumably the presence of a Negro in the highest council

of community decision making would help neutralize

 

despite their individual commitment to goals. The
failure of the Coordinating Council so far to work
out the relations of the participating groups and the
actual force of Council decisions in binding these
groups reflects the strains inherent in the structure
0f a biracial group which seeks to act in the area
Of interethnic relations.

413

white dominance and at the same time provide comfort
to those who look to such a development as evidence
of white recognition of the Negro as a significant
element of local opinion. Yet under present circum—
stances the surest foundation for the election of a
Negro City Father must be political units based on
ethnic residential concentrations. The integration—
ist goal of open occupancy, if realized, would

. . . . . . 48 . .
eliminate this pOSSibility. Not even the militant

 

48Negroes who have run for the City Council so
far have come from the middle class. Yet some of these
very unsuccessful aspirants are on the NAACP's militant
Housing Committee. There is no discussion of the incon—
sistency between the two goals. Whether pursuit of open
occupancy represents an abandonment of the goal of Negro
representation on the City Council, or a belief that both
ends can be attained is difficult to determine since
there is no discussion of the problem. Yet from the fact
that efforts are being made to register more Negroes one
would come to either of two conclusions. Either the goal
of getting a Negro on the City Council is still a con—
scious desire, or there is a desire only to use the
Negro vote to elect or retain a white person who will
be responsive to Negro demands. If the latter is the
case, then this throws light on the Citizens Non-Partisan
League charge that middle class leaders are tools of City
Hall politicians, who would reward Negroes who work for
their election with support for appointment to biracial
committees. Already the chances of electing a Negro
Councilman on the basis of a Negro vote are remote in
View of the small size of the Negro electorate, the
Splitting of its vote, as well as the general apathy
Of the Negro voter. The quest for open occupancy would
make that possibility even more remote.

 

414

middle class integrationist pretends that this is a
conscious goal of his. It must be considered a

latent consequence of his particular orientation.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI
SUMMARY

The most important conclusion that emerges
from this study of patterns of Negro protest in Lan-
sing is that Negro Americans there respond to racial
discrimination and segregation as distinct social
identities rather than as members of a single bio-
logical grouping. It is true that no Negro can escape
his "Negro-ness," but the finding of the study suggests
that in the process of challenging the subordinate
position to which American culture has assigned them,
various segments of the Negro population make dif-
ferent definitions of the problem and hold different
perspectives on what the appropriate goals of social
change should be. And each group tends to identify
its own particular interests with the good of the
whole Negro cOmmunity.

Middle class protest members consider hous-
ing discrimination as the most critical problem

facing the Negro community. To them arbitrary

415

 

416

exclusion of non—whites from the real estate market
largely gives rise to most of the other disabilities
which Negroes face in Lansing, such as inferior edu-
cation and inadequate preparation to compete more
favorably in the world of work. "Let down the color
bar in housing," such a Negro demands of the white
power structure, "and we will live in the ‘right'
neighborhoods, send our children to the ‘right' schools,
and they will be prepared to hold the 'right’ jobs
later in life." The rank—and—file Negro is convinced
that while residential and school segregation may be
of some importance, they are secondary to unfair
hiring and promotion practices against them in the
factories or stores or other places where Negroes
work. Elimination of the job ceiling on Negro ad-
vancement constitutes for them the critical goal of
culture change in Lansing. They firmly believe that
integration would be meaningless unless the Negro has
adequate income to take advantage of it.

Thus, two distinct interpretations of the con-
cept of equality of opportunity or first class citizen—

ship appear to exist in the protest movement, which can

;

 

 

417

be linked to the sociocultural attributes of its
members. Integrationist ends appeal to the middle
class Negro primarily because he has or can obtain t
the resources to take advantage of them. Education
and training have not only opened up to him new
vistas of economic opportunity, but placed in his
hands the key to exploit them. With his access to
higher incomes,1 he has the resources to buy middle
class homes in any areas now restricted to whites.
Integration would constitute the symbol of his
acceptance at last as a full citizen of his country.
But it is by no means self-evident that
status (so symbolized) is also the main object of
social change among working class Negroes. It would
appear that to them improvement of the ghetto is far
more important than integration. They probably prefer
better homes for their families and better schools
for their children in the security of the Negro com—
munity than face the economic and psychological hard—
ships of moving to a white one. They would probably

be more content with having their voice heard in city

 

l . . . .
This is relative to working class Negroes.

 

 

418

affairs through politicians who owe their office to
the "Negro vote" rather than powerlessness through
integration into a vastly larger white community with
interests different to their own.2

It is a latent or unintended consequence of
protest group structure that the class interests of
the few leaders have been substituted for the rights
Negroes in general seek in Lansing. The uncritical
substitution of the interests of the middle class
leaders, who are a small minority, for the goals
of Negro protest generally has had a divisive in-
fluence on the movement, with implications for weak-
ness. It has engendered suspicion and distrust of
the leadership by the rank and file Negro and made
it easy for the rivals for status to exploit the

competitive class feelings in the Negro community in

an effort to build up personal followings or spheres

 

2Middle class leaders often express dismay,
even frustration, at the tendency of rank-and-file
Negroes to move next door to other Negroes rather than
spread out. This reaction of course ignores the psy-
chological aspects of Negro-White relations, or the
long-run effects of white hostility on the Negro.

 

419

of influence for themselves.3 Lowered cohesion and
mass apathy have resulted from both.

But identification of class interests with
community ends is not the only source of mass apathy.
Probably involved also are the factors of economic
prosperity and economic dependence. The median
family income for Negroes in Lansing is $5,243.00.
This is high when income is related to median level
of education, which is seven years. For a comparable
level of education in a city like Detroit the median
income comes to only $5,000.00.4 In the period since
the end of World War II the American economy has been
on the upward swing. In Lansing this development is
reflected in stable jobs. Although Negroes have not

participated in this prosperity on anything like equal

 

3Reference here is to statements to the effect
that, for example, they (middle class leaders especially
in the NAACP) are selling the masses down the river, or
manipulating them to vote for white politicians in City
Hall in return for patronage appointments to civic
biracial boards.

4See Chapter III, Section A, but also the U.S.
Census of Population for Michigan, (Social & Economic
Characteristics of the Population), 1960. The compula—
tion was made from this table.

 

420

terms with whites, as the difference in median income
between the two groups indicates,5 the relatively
higher level of employment and, even more important,
the fact of job stability may have reduced Negro
rank and file discontent and deprived the protest
movement of what potentially could be its most potent
issue. As one unsuccessful Negro candidate for the
City Council explained, "The Negro here is apathetic
because he has had it too good; he hasn‘t been really
kicked in the pants."6 And of course the threat of
economic sanctions can not be ignored. The low par-
ticipation of even public school teachers who make
up the largest group of Negro professionals and
working class Negroes can be explained on the basis
of their vulnerability to white economic reprisals.
The tactics that have figured in Negro pro—
test in Lansing include litigation, negotiation,

political action, direct mass action, and picketing.

 

51bid.

6The candidate was telling why he thought he
lost the election. He believed that sheer apathy on
the part of the Negro electorate about registering and
voting was responsible.

‘ ~-..——_—.‘

 

 

Although the nature of goals and the cultural climate

have been more determinant of protest strategy than
class perspectives, it is clear that socioeconomic
factors have set definite limits on technique selec—
tion. Even though militant approaches have not been
fruitful in attaining goals such as open occupancy
and equal job opportunity, alternative strategies
have been open.7 Middle class Negroes have tended

to rely on research evidence to establish residential
and educational discrimination based on race, or show
that the alleged detrimental effects of change need
not eventuate, while working class members have used
simple inquiry and negotiation at white establish—
ments. The inadequate educational background of the
ordinary Negro to utilize scholarly research evidence
in protest efforts has implied a certain degree the
exclusion of him from policy-making. This, however,
has generated discontent, suspicion, and apathy so

far as active participation in protest is concerned.

 

7Legislation and court action are examples,

although these are financially expensive.

422

A. SOCIAL CHANGE IN LANSING

In terms of concrete results it is difficult
to point to specific changes in Lansing which are the
direct outcome of Negro protest. The job ceiling
remains to limit Negro employment opportunities in
white collar assignments or promotion. There is
only one Negro policeman out of a total force of
190 officers and only one Negro out of 216 firemen.8
A Negro can be found here and there in retail trade,
but such hirings are nothing more than what has been
referred to as "tokenism". The highest level of
Negro employment with the City of Lansing occurs in
the Park and Recreation Department, where Negroes
are employed as foremen and equipment operators.
Otherwise, they are concentrated in common laborer
jobs with the sanitary department. At eating estab—
lishments Negroes serve mainly as cooks, waiters, or

dishwashers. Even at Michigan State University,

 

8Communication with the Police and Fire Boards,
Oct. 1, 1964. These figures have been confirmed by the
two Negroes in the two city agencies, in personal inter—
views.

423

which can be expected to have fairer hiring practices
due to its position as an academic enterprise and the
connection of its President with the Federal Civil
Rights Commission, one has to look more than hard to
find a Negro girl on the secretarial staff or in
other white collar jobs.

As far as influence on the community decisionm
making process is concerned, the Negro's voice is still
small. This is not only because the Negro electorate
is infinitely small and split among white-dominated
city wards, but also because of the general apathy
of that electorate. The failure of any Negro aspirant
to win election to the City Council is a testimony to
that powerlessness. Appointment to biracial agencies

has not helped much, for these bodies are not

 

The underrepresentation cannot be attributed
to racial discrimination or that alone. The Negro's
relative lack of qualification must also be taken
into account, as also his tendency to take the line
of least resistance; i.e., to assume that he will
not be hired and so fail to apply. The Personnel
Director expressed surprise that more Negroes do not
apply. Yet several Negroes told me that their names
have been on the waiting list for years, while white
girls with comparable or less formal training in
secretarial science have been hired.

 

 

 

 

   

424

policy-making entities10 and their Negro members are

a small minority. The City‘s controversial Human
Relations Committee which is recognized as having a
legitimate concern with discrimination, does not seem
adapted to improving the lot of the Negro significant—
ly. It lacks investigative authority in matters of
alleged racial discrimination. The City Council's
refusal so far to grant such power and reluctance in
appropriating adequate funds for a full time paid
Director and staff11 means that it cannot carry out
such investigations and must accept responsibility for
the consequences of offending powerful whites who may
not be interested in seeing public funds expended to
maintain it, if it undertakes to make even the most
preliminary inquiries in this sensitive area. The
different persuasions on the Human Relations Committee

make the setting and implementation of goals problematic.

 

10It is indicated in Chapter IV that biracial

committees are not agencies designed to improve the
Negro's position in American communities. Their main
function has been to keep matters on the discussion
level and thus keep the races from clashing physically.

llThis refusal must be assumed to be based on

white unwillingness to entertain any investigation
into discriminatory practices.

- é‘_—*

 

 

1 7_ _._ _ ,___,__J,-.-_

425

 

In any case even the limited funds granted for the
operation of the Committee could be withdrawn in case
of "radical" action on the part of the Committee,
since there is no legal basis for the present appro-
priation.12

In housing we encounter the most stubborn
resistance to change. It is true that a few profes-
sionals live outside the predominantly Negro areas,
but there is no evidence that this is due to Negro
protest as such. It is a mark of the lack of Negro
success in this area that not even the outside financial
sources they sought to use to provide mortgage money
for home buying in Lansing have not helped put Negroes
in any of the areas restricted to whites. Even the
areas where the better—off Negroes livel3 are slowly

changing to predominantly Negro neighborhoods. Protest

efforts have not yet succeeded in making any significant

 

12In Chapter IV, section C, it was stated that

the Ordinance approved by the City Council does not make
budgetary provisions for paid Director and Staff, let
alone expenses for travel and other investigating expenses.

13There is no one place that can be identified
as a middle class Negro neighborhood; such Negroes are
usually found in interracial neighborhoods which, how-
ever, are showing signs of change to predominantly Negro
communities.

 

 

426

dent in the real estate interests' shield against
open occupancy.

Perhaps the largest gains can be counted in
the area of education. While the Lansing School Board
has not officially accepted as its responsibility the
integrating of schools segregated along racial neigh—
borhood lines, it seems to have acceeded to some
extent to NAACP demands to work toward achieving greater
racial balance in the predominantly Negro schools. The
“busing" of pupils from their neighborhoods is evidence
of this. The appointing of a biracial committee of
educators and librarians to study the treatment of
minorities in public school textbooks is certainly an
accession to Negro demands to this effect. SO are the
workshops the Board has sponsored and plans to continue
for the benefit of teachers dealing with children from
low socioeconomic backgrounds. The so—called Permit
System, while not adopted on protest demands of Negroes,
nevertheless allows them to enroll their children in

more desirable schools on medical and psychiatric advice.14

 

14As indicated in the section on education in

Chapter IV, this pattern has been developed to accom—
modate white parents who for one reason or another
feel strongly against bussing their children to areas
outside their own neighborhoods.

 

427

The church has provided a solace for the
individual fleeing from Oppression, but has failed to
function as an instrument of social change. Vested
interests in their congregations and lack of wider
perspectives on the role of the church have driven most
ministers to an ambivalent position toward organized
protest. Many Negroes, particularly those of middle
class background, are becoming disenchanted with the
church over What is seen as its failure to use its full
influence in uniting the Negro community behind the

struggle for first class citizenship.

B. WIDER IMPLICATIONS - A PROPOSITION

Although the research for this thesis was
carried out in the city of Lansing, the findings should
have generalizability beyond the area. The conclusion
has been confirmed here that group structure, not the
Objective fact of grievance against the white community,
is the chief determinant of the general direction and,
to a large extent, the outcome of Negro protest. This
finding should hold elsewhere. Thus, for example, when

individuals from more than one social stratum participate

 

 

in a protest group or movement, we should expect them i1
to define the problems of the Negro community differ—

ently and proclaim different protest goals as crucial.

This is to be expected because, as Mannheim has noted,

social position is the genesis of truth.15 Individuals

in a particular segment of society tend to hold a

distinct conception of reality determined by their

common interests. "Interest" refers to what group

members expect, economically or otherwise.

Following from the conflicting interpretations
of the concept of equal opportunity, various groups
within the protest movement should emphasize different
dimensions of the notion of freedom or first class
citizenship, and appeal to particular segments of the
Negro population. In every Negro community with the
size and sociocultural differentiations to be encoun—
tered in Lansing, we should expect to see fragmentation
in Negro protest in response to discontent arising

from both the identification of class interests with

 

15Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (New
York: Harvest Books, 1936), pp. 77—78, 273. A
relativistic theory of knowledge is put forward arising
out of the different interests and therefore per-
spectives of different groups.

l6Ibid., pp. 57—59.

 

 

larger community goals and status rivalry among those

who lead. The divisive forces should have the unin—
tended consequence of isolation, in which the rank and
file members with different interests feel detached
from or uncommitted to the goals and beliefs which are
held by those who lead and identify with the total
group ends, and therefore impair the operational
effectiveness of the constituent groups.

The literature also suggests that these propo—
sitions have some tenability. In Chicago, Wilsonl7
discovered segmentation in the protest movement cen—
tering around the status—integrationist versus welfare—
security ends. Thompson‘s study of leadership in New
Orleans turned up evidence on deep divisions on the
question of who should speak for the Negro community.l8

Formulating the factual considerations in this
study and the theoretical suggestions contained in
already published works into a single proposition, it
may be hypothesized that the type of protest group a

Negro will participate in is related to his

 

l7Wilson, pp! cit.

18Thompson, pp. cit.

430

socioeconomic status, as indicated by his occupa—
tional, educational, and income levels. This means
that groups seeking employment opportunity as a goal
should not have a high appeal to middle class Negroes,
and those aiming at integration into American culture
and life should not have much attraction for working
class Negroes. Mannheim's notion of "situational
relativity" affords a reasonable basis for the validity
of this proposition. A group‘s perspective, its view
of reality is largely a function of its particular
position.19 Negroes who are involved in protest activi—
ties or who support them are presumably all fighting
for equality of opportunity or first class citizenship.
Yet their perceptions of the specific content of this
concept depends on their interests, which, however,
derive from their social position. Status position is
a source of truth or ideology which distorts reality.
The tendency to equate class concerns with general
Negro community goals can be due only to the distorting
influence which the perspectives of each group produce

on their outlook.

 

l9 .
Mannheim, pp, c1t., p. 272.

431

The structural impediments to the efficacy of
coordinating efforts by an “umbrella" organization such
as the Coordinating Council manifested in the Lansing
movement should be operative in protest movements
elsewhere also if for no other reason than the racial

heterogeneity of the membership of such an organization.

C. OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

Negro protest in Lansing is not on the verge
of any significant breakthroughs in the race relations
pattern. As Banks20 has shown, Negro migration has
been leveling off since the mid—fifties. Among the
few whom the city has attracted during the last decade
and a half, there has been a disproportionate number
of college—educated and professionally trained Negroes.
This trend seems likely to continue as technological
development limits jobs requiring manual skills. If
it does, social differentiation will increase rather
than decrease in the Negro community. The influx of
better educated Negroes will exacerbate the structural

strains already evident in Negro protest groups, and

 

O .
Banks, pp. Cit.

 

 

 

432

the effect could be reflected in a sharper drawing of
interest lines within the movement. The outlook, then,
is for further isolation and fragmentation along socio—
economic lines. As splinter groups arise, each will
tend to focus on a particular goal of social change.
Not all of these are likely to be viable structures,
however, unless the Negro population increases sub-
stantially so that more middle class individuals can

be in them than we see in the Citizens Non Partisan
League.

Competition is likely to be keener than now as
these splinter groups struggle to tap an apathetic Negro
community for members and revenue. Unless the ministry
becomes more sophisticated so that it can see the issues
involved in racial discrimination as ethical ones and
therefore as legitimate foci of church attack, its role
in social protest is likely to diminish, while its
opposition to the dominance of the middle class leader—
ship will increase.

But the ineffectiveness of social protest does
not imply that Lansing is approaching an Armageddon in

race relations. The Negro who has something and wants

433

more (the middle class one) is not likely to succeed
in persuading those who have nothing and want something
(the working class element) to experience current
deprivations as a critical situation and to push the
Negro community into making "radical" demands for change
or a desperate clash with the white community. The
relatively higher level of employment and job stability
in Lansing as well as working class vulnerability to
white economic reprisals will probably prevent the rank
and file from responding favorably to such an influence
attempt.21 And of course the working class suspicion
of middle class leadership which keeps the two cate—
gories of Negroes apart will also be a saving grace.
Middle class frustration is likely to increase
due to its awareness that the disparities between it
and its white counterpart, its reference group, is not

reducing as rapidly as it thinks they should, and

 

21Crane Brinton, Anatomy of Revolutions; also
Eric Hoffer, The True Epliever. In both sources the
suggestion is made that those who push revolutions or
lead them are usually not those who have nothing and
Want something, but those who have something and want
more. In showing that it is the status inconsistent
Negro who figures most prominently in social protest in
Lansing, Banks has substantiated this hypothesis. The
predominance of middle class Negroes in the protest
movement, as this thesis has shown, also provides sup—
POrt for the suggestion.

‘

 

 

 

434

realization of its powerlessness to quicken the pace
of change. Nevertheless the mere existence of protest
instrumentalities can be expected to sustain the mid—
dle class Negro and prevent his frustrations from
developing into despair. The very fact of white
toleration of protest groups or establishment of a
biracial human relations committee is likely to assure
the middle class Negro that the doors of communication
are still open and that a ray of hope may yet appear
on the horizon. White liberal participation in Negro
protest groups should strengthen this hope. For the
poorer Negro protest groups will continue to provide
another outlet for the expression of emotion which he
dare not express on the job. His organization will
continue to provide him with a forum where he may
securely criticize and satirize the white man.

Despite the failure of protest groups to bring
about the desired change, they can be expected to
continue due to their psychological functions. Their
mere existence is a constant reminder to the "oppressor"
that the Negro is not satisfied with subordination, and

white participation in them assures the Negro that the

 

435

dominant group agrees that the Negro has a legitimate
grievance and that perhaps if he works a little harder
the goal of first class citizenship will be realized.
For the social scientist looking at race rela-
tions in Lansing in the light of the structural prob—
lems in Negro protest, an equilibrium rather than a

conflict model is probably more appropriate.

 

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Banks, Walter R., A Source of Social Protest: The
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Barber, Bernard, "Participation and Mass Apathy in
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Bennett, Jr., Lerone, "The Negro‘s Mood," Ebony, July,
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Bennett, Jr., Lerone, "Pioneers in Protest: Richard
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Cantril, Hadley, The Psychology of Social Movements. New
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436

 

437

Citizens Non-Partisan League, Statement of Goals and
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Constitution of the Greater Lansing Coordinating Coun-
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