smash-pacifism-zine

(Montgomery) accounted for eight of SCLC's nine original
officers... as defined in terms of education, occupation,
wealth, and social standing, most of SCLC's founders came
from the relatively small upper middle class.”
(To Redeem the Soul of America, pp. 34-35)
The Civil Rights Movement's methods and goals
reflected the middle-class composition of the movement
itself. A primary example was the Chicago 1966 campaign
which focused, in part, on desegregating the housing real
estate market.
“It has often been stated that the goals of the
southern movement were the goals of a black middle class
—voting rights and the right to eat at the same lunch
counter as whites, stay in the same hotel, ride the same bus
or go to the same school. But beyond the symbolic value of
such goals, they were of little immediate use to most lowerclass
black residents of inner-city neighbourhoods in the
North...”
(Black Radicals and the Civil Rights Mainstream,
p. 51)
Reformism
Like the NAACP and CORE, the SCLC sought
reformist changes to the government and laws
(constitutionalism). They were not radicals and did not seek
revolutionary change. Nor were they anti-capitalist.
Instead, they sought integration into US society, in order to
have “equal opportunities” in employment, housing,
transportation, business, etc. These reforms actively
promoted assimilation of middle-class Blacks into US
capitalist society.
Like the Moderates of the Indian National
Congress, the entire strategy of the reformist civil rights
movement was based on the government enacting reforms.
Many of the demands of the reformist groups also reflected
their middle-class composition, including voting rights in
the South and, during the Chicago campaign of 1966,
desegregation of the real estate market.
On numerous occasions, King and other movement
leaders demanded the federal government intervene in civil
rights struggles, either with US Marshals, military forces,
and/or legislation. Many of the 'victories' of the civil rights
movement were obtained only through intervention by the
federal government and courts. This included, at times,
large deployments of US Army, FBI, and Marshals to
ensure the physical safety of civil rights protesters, and/or
to impose federal legislation over state governments.
These measures helped to portray the federal
government as sympathetic to the civil rights struggle, and
were the same techniques used to dampen the rebellion that
began with the 1963 Birmingham riots, an effort officials
described as “regaining the confidence” of Blacks.
Carmichael saw the reformist role of the pacifist
middle-class as an indication of its class self-interest:
“The reason the liberal seeks to stop
confrontation... is that his role, regardless of what he says,
is really to maintain the status quo, rather than to change it.
He enjoys economic stability from the status quo and if he
fights for change he is risking his economic stability...”
(Stokely Speaks, 170)
The legacy of Martin Luther King is today
championed by the Amerikan state through national
holidays, monuments, and streets named after him. There
are no such monuments for Malcolm X, other than those
established by grassroots efforts. As for the Panthers, if not
erased from history they are thoroughly demonized.
Despite this, it is the legacies of Malcolm X and the
Panthers which continue to have the greatest influence on
urban Black youth, evident in various forms of popular
culture (i.e., hip hop).
Besides the state, the greatest promoters of the
myth of King's nonviolent campaign are primarily middleclass
whites, who also erase the history of Malcolm X and
Black rebellion in general. Despite this, it is clear that it
was the use of a diversity of tactics that gave the movement
its real strength and forced substantial concessions from the
ruling class. Meanwhile, the most radical elements within
this movement were targeted by deadly counter-insurgency
operations by the state, while being publicly isolated and
marginalized by much of the reformist leadership.
The nonviolent campaign of the Civil Rights
movement was endorsed by the state and relied on its
armed force for protection & enforcement of rights.
Soldiers impose desegregation in Mississippi, 1962.
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