Review: Stirring the Masses: Indigenous Roots of the Civil Rights Movement

Reviewed Work(s): The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities
Organizing for Change. by Aldon Morris
Review by: J. Craig Jenkins
Source: Contemporary Sociology , May, 1986, Vol. 15, No. 3 (May, 1986), pp. 354-357
Published by: American Sociological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2069996

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 354 REVIEW ESSAYS
Stirring the Masses: Indigenous Roots
of the Civil Rights Movement
The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change, by
ALDON MORRIS. New York: Free Press, 1984. 354 pp. $19.95 cloth.
J. CRAIG JENKINS
University of Missouri-Columbia
In the past decade, the social movement
field has witnessed a dramatic break with the
classical theories of collective behavior, mass
society, charismatic eruptions, and relative
deprivation. In their place we now have
theories of resource mobilization that empha-
size rationality, resources, networks of sol-
idarity, continuities between unruly challen-
gers and institutionalized politics, and the
central role of movements in generating social
change. Aldon Morris' pathbreaking new book
stands squarely in the center of this new per-
spective, building from its strengths and a
wealth of original historical research to illumi-
nate the origins of the the most important so-
cial movement of the past three decades: the
civil rights movement. Although there are
flaws to the book, it is clearly one of the most
important works to have appeared recently.
Future research on the civil rights
movement-as on social movements in
general-will have to come to terms with the
striking evidence and powerful arguments de-
veloped in this book.
Morris' main thesis is that indigenous Black
leaders and resources generated the civil
rights movement and independently forced the
Southern power structure to accede to their
demands. In the process of making this argu-
ment, he offers a powerful critique of the
classic collective behavior and allied spon-
taneity theories, Weber's theory of charisma-
tic leadership, and variants of resource
mobilization theory that overemphasize the
role of external sponsorship. Drawing on a
gold mine of original research, Morris demon-
strates that the major campaigns of the civil
rights movement were indigenously based in a
complex network of "local movement cen-
ters" rather than the handful of charismatic
leaders celebrated in the standard histories.
The massive Black support that eventually led
to success stemmed from the solidarity, re-
sources, and organization of the Southern
Black community, not from an explosion of
outrage rooted in relative deprivation or
personal dislocation. In short, the civil rights
movement was rationally planned, organized
in advance, led by local Black leaders
(primarily ministers of urban churches), fi-
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nanced by the Black community, and staffed
by local volunteers (students, women church
leaders, and the small Black bourgeoisie), and
it eventually succeeded by mobilizing the
Black masses for disruptive protests.
In this account, the classic spontaneity
theories that have long dominated American
social movement literature are dealt a final
crushing blow. Killian (1984) has recently re-
minded us that creativity and innovativeness
were elements in the emergence of the move-
ment, but the classic collective behavior and
discontent theories were built on the faulty
assumption of a qualitative break between so-
cial movements and institutionalized politics.
In this model, social movements were simply
a more organized form of collective behavior,
which was itself defined in terms of a polar
contrast with routinized or institutional action.
In contrast, Morris demonstrates that prior
organization created by deliberate organizing
efforts targeted at indigenous community net-
works provided the infrastructure for the exp-
losion of mass protest in the civil rights move-
ment.
In the same stroke, Morris also challenges
Weber's classic charisma theory, which em-
bodied the same assumption of an irrational
break with institutional action, by pointing to
the centrality of the institutionalized charisma
of the Black ministers in mobilizing these
protests. Martin Luther King, the prime
example of charismatic leadership, depended
on Wyatt Tee Walker's aggressive administra-
tion of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) as well as his exceptional
personal qualities.
The third target of Morris' critique is re-
source mobilization theories that emphasize
the importance of external support. These are
challenged for their underestimation of the
role of indigenous resources in both the
emergence and the successes of the move-
ment. Here Morris treads on less certain
ground, conflating this external support thesis
with resource mobilization theory in general
and at points underestimating the contribution
of external support. But his critique is well
taken on the whole, demonstrating beyond a
doubt that the civil rights movement was an
 REVIEW ESSAYS 355

indigenously based mass movement, built by that followed the Woolworth sit-in in
deliberate and concerted organizing, and that Greensboro, North Carolina, on 1 February
it won its major victories by mounting a 1960 has long been a puzzle. In the most de-
broadly supported campaign of Black protest. tailed previous research, Orum (1972) demon-
The most outstanding quality of this book is strated that the activists were not distin-
the wealth of new historical information that guished by their social backgrounds or sus-
Morris has unearthed, largely from in-depth ceptibility to grievances. The closest he came
interviews with the grassroots leadership of to explaining the puzzle was their greater in-
the civil rights movement. Allowing these ac- volvement in campus government and student
tivists to speak for themselves, Morris casts organizations, suggesting a loose network of
new light on several of the less understood contacts in spurring the protests. But why
aspects of the civil rights struggle. The bus 1960, a point at which the civil rights move-
boycotts, for example, actually began in June ment appeared moribund?
1953 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a full year Morris demonstrates that the sit-ins were
before the momentous Supreme Court ruling not spontaneous but actually were organized
in Brown vs. Board of Education that through the efforts of the adult activists in the
chroniclers have traditionally taken as mark- NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality
ing the initiation of the civil rights movement.(CORE), and SCLC. Actually, civil rights ac-
Although the Brown decision did stir Black tivists throughout the northern and border
insurgency, it was not the prime triggering states had been conducting sit-ins since at
event that folklore describes. Rosa Parks, the least 1958. The famous four at the Woolworth
heroine of the Montgomery bus boycott of lunch counter were members of the local
1955, did not spontaneously rebel at the indig- NAACP Youth Council, trained by Floyd
nity of sitting in the back of the bus. She was McKissick (later national director of CORE)
the secretary of the NAACP local, the adult who had been organizing sit-ins for three
adviser to the local NAACP Youth Council, years in the Greensboro area. The wildfire of
had been training her Council members in bus sit-ins set off by the Greensboro victory was
sit-in tactics for several months prior to her initially spread by the adult leaders of the
arrest, and had several years before been NAACP, CORE, and the affiliates of the
pushed off a Montgomery bus for refusing to SCLC. In short, Morris argues that this
move to the back by the very same bus driver seemingly spontaneous campaign was actually
who had her arrested in 1955. As Mrs. Parks based in the dense network of indigenous local
put it, discrediting the spontaneous combus- movement centers painstakingly built up in
tion theory that has long surrounded the event, the late 1950s by the local activists and na-
"My resistance to being mistreated on the tional civil rights organizations.
buses and anywhere else was just a regular Although the adults continually found them-
thing with me and not just that day" (51). selves "attempting to get on the student
Another discovery is the campaign of legal bandwagon" (Meier and Rudwick, 1973: 106),
repression mounted by Southern state gov- they played the decisive role in actively pro-
ernments against the NAACP in the wake of moting, training, and furnishing the resources
the Brown decision. Although the campaign (transportation, bail funds, and legal protec-
has previously been noted, its decisive effectstion) for the student activists. To top it off,
on civil rights strategies has been ignored. ByElla Baker, an adult staff member of the
outlawing the NAACP and subpoenaing mem- SCLC who was being squeezed out because of
her philosophical disagreements with Martin
bership lists for reprisals, the Southern states
forced activists to form new community orga- Luther King over the centralized structure of
nizations that later became the local move- the SCLC, was the critical figure in setting
ment centers. This also compelled them to that center of student spontaneity, the Student
abandon their faith in the NAACP's legalistic Non-Violent Coordinating Committee .(SNCC),
strategies, paving the way for the adoption of down the road of decentralized structureless-
"direct action." The wave of repression also ness.
forced the civil rights leaders to cultivate the The evidence adduced to support this
myth of spontaneity to protect their active thesis, however, is thin. The adult leaders and
supporters against another round of harass- their indigenous networks clearly played a
ment. critical role in organizing the initial sit-ins but,
Morris' most controversial findings, certain as the wildfire spread to the deep South, the
to generate further debate and inquiry, center sit-ins emerged spontaneously, seemingly rising
on the emergence and spread of the 1960 from the sheer momentum of the movement.
lunch counter sit-ins. The explosion of sit-ins Morris contends that the SCLC's failed

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356 REVIEW ESSAYS

Crusade for full-scale program and succeeded phenom-

Citizenship Camp
1960, which enally well,
was later giving the SCLC a new to
designed lease bo
ing, on life when they were
inadvertently transferred over.
created the
structure for the The Highlander Center also played abut
sit-ins, critical he
the spottiest of role. Conferences
evidence. and training sessions Onwere th
stronger argument organized there asseems
early as the mid-1950s,
to be
suggestion that and through these the SCLC leadership camestud
indigenous
structured through in contact with civil rights activists from
involvem
government and throughout the South and was exposed
student associa to the
primary channels, Gandhian tradition
plus of nonviolent
the protest. crit
The
stration effect" Fellowship
of of Reconciliation
successful also nurtured si
Morris also overstates CORE, developing a vibrant thenew cadrecentr
of
SCLC. Although nonviolent
itactivists.
was Significantly,
central the major- b
links into the ity Blackof CORE members were "outsiders,"
churches, w
the organizational primarily middle-class
backbone whites on college cam- for
mass protest campaigns, puses. The NAACP Legal Defense theFund, SC
appear to have whichbeen
provided critical legal support and
central in
Morris correctly strategic advice
notes to the directthat
action cam- the
the virtues of paigns, Gerlachwas primarily funded and by whiteHine
mentary, polycephalous, philanthropists and staffed by dedicated
and white
re
nizational structure lawyers. Although Morris
asis correct
well to score as t
tralized command Oberschall's (1973) and McCarthy and Zald's
structure cen
Martin Luther (1973) King.
overemphasis on the role of outsiders,
This com
centralized and decentralized structures his "indigenous model" errs in the opposite
direction. We need not reject the indigenous
allowed the SCLC to effectively mobilize the
roots of the civil rights movement to recognize
masses while responding flexibly to its envi-
the vital role of external support in sustaining
ronment. Yet the Crusade for Citizenship was
the challenge.
by all accounts a disaster. By 1960, the SCLC
was moribund, casting about for a new gim- A related weakness stems from Morris' fail-
ure to analyze the role of political opportuni-
mick to rejuvenate the challenge. It is simply
implausible that this failed campaign could ties. Although McAdam (1982) may have
have provided the primary networks for the overemphasized the importance of expanding
sit-in wave, as Morris contends. Although theopportunities in directly generating the "cog-
SCLC was a galvanizing force in the mass nitive liberation" underlying the emergence of
protests in Albany, Birmingham, and Selma, itthe civil rights movement, he was correct to
depended heavily on NAACP chapters, inde- emphasize the new political environment of
pendent student groups, and fraternal organi-the 1950s. The Supreme Court's Browan ruling
zations as well as SCLC affiliates. Althoughin 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and the
the Black church was the backbone of thefederal intervention in Little Rock in 1957 may
mass protest campaigns, the SCLC was not have been largely symbolic, but they clearly
the only organization with links into the Black marked a new era. In the early 1960s, the
churches. Moreover, the organization virtu- Kennedy White House did attempt to blunt
ally collapsed following Martin Luther King's the upsurge by channeling it away from direct
assassination, indicating its organizational action toward voter registration, but it is also
weakness and overdependence on King's per- true that it intervened favorably in numerous
son. instances and, at critical points, shared the
By the same token, Morris underestimates civil rights protestors' commitment to dis-
the importance of external support, especially mantling Jim Crow. This does not mean that
of the "movement halfway houses" like theelite patrons initiated the challenge, that the
Highlander Center, the American Friendsprotests were secondary, that elite support
Service Committee, and the Fellowship ofwas steady-handed, or that it was primarily
Reconciliation. From 1957 to 1961, the High- rooted in altruistic commitments. It does
lander Center received grants from the mean that the 1950s and 1960s witnessed a
Schwarzhaupt and Marshall Field foundations new political environment and that, working
to launch a voter education program called thewithin this new environment, civil rights ac-
Citizenship Schools. In contrast with the tivists were able to mobilize a mass move-
SCLC's failed Crusade, the Schools offered a ment. If the environment had been as restric-

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 REVIEW ESSAYS

tive as during the 1930s, it is doubtful whether

ris so ably analyzes. We owe Morris a major
the campaigns would have gotten fully off thedebt for his analysis of how stirring the
ground. masses really works. 0
In the same vein, Morris underestimates the
role of these new opportunities in the move-
ment's victories. Although he correctly rejects Other Literature Cited
a simple application of Lipsky's (1968) protest
theory because of its underestimation of the Barkan, Stephen. 1983. "Legal Control of the
Southern Civil Rights Movement." American
disruptive force of the indigenous mass pro-
Sociological Review 49:552-65.
tests, it is also true that the protests occasion-
Garrow, David. 1978. Protest at Selma. New
ally worked precisely as Lipsky argued, Haven: Yale University Press.
namely, by provoking white violence and Gerlach, Luther, and Virginia Hine. 1970. People,
hence federal intervention. Although Barkan Power and Change. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
(1983) may be wrong in maintaining that a Killian, Lewis. 1984. "Organization, Rationality and
strictly legalistic control strategy by Southern Spontaneity in the Civil Rights Movement."
authorities would have muffled the challenge American Sociological Review 49:770-783.
by cutting off federal intervention, it is also Lipsky, Michael. 1968. "Protest as a Political Re-
source." American Political Science Review
true that the congressional response to the
62:1114-58.
Selma protests closely fitted the protest
McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the
theory (Garrow, 1978). Development of Black Insurgency. Chicago: Uni-
The problem with this debate is the over- versity of Chicago Press.
simple terms in which it has been posed. An- McCarthy, John, and Mayer Zald. 1973. The Trend
alysts have seen the victories as due either to of Social Movements in America. Morristown,
external support (protest theory) or to massive NJ: General Learning Press.
disruptions (indigenous theory). But reality Meier, August, and Elliott Rudwick. 1973. CORE.
was more complex. The success of the civil NY: Oxford University Press.
Oberschall, Anthony. 1973. Social Conflict and So-
rights movement rested on the interaction of
cial Movements. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
two processes: new political opportunities
Prentice-Hall.
created by the rise of a center/left government Orum, Antony. 1972. Black Students in Protest.
with an electoral stake in Black votes, and the Washington, DC: American Sociological Associ-
indigenously based mass movement that Mor- ation.

Slavery: An Attempt at Universal Definition

Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study, by ORLANDO PATTERSON. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1982. 511 pp. $30.00 cloth. $9.95 paper.

STUART B. SCHWARTZ
University of Minnesota

During the 1960s it was popular to equate phasized slavery as an economic relationship
the origins of New World slavery with racism and the nature of the slave as property as an
and to see racism's pernicious influence on the essential characteristic of slavery.
relations between Blacks and whites from the In this challenging and provocative volume
very beginnings of their contact. True, there Orlando Patterson has rejected the distinc-
had been slavery in other societies, even in tiveness of American slavery, the primacy of
Africa itself; but the argument ran that there race as a justification for slavery, and pro-
had never been anything quite as vicious and prietary rights in a person as the essential defi-
degrading as the chattel slavery of the Americas nition of slavery. Instead, by an extended
and that to equate New World slavery with cross-cultural analysis of slavery in sixty-six
the extended kinship and "pawning" of Afri- cultures, ranging in historical time and place
can servitude was at best to impose European from ancient Mesopotamia to the antebellum
concepts on non-European peoples or at worst South, he offers a whole new set of definitions
to exculpate Western societies by analogy. based on symbolic interactions and relations
The strongest critique of the racial interpreta- of domination.
tion came from Marxists and others who em- Although sensitive to variation and dif-

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