Black Political Organizations in the Post-Civil Rights Era

11. Where Do We Go from Here? Facing the Challenges of the Post–Civil Rights Era

202 Valerie C. Johnson 202 As a critique of Black politics in the post–Civil Rights era, the preceding chapters address numerous factors that challenge the effectiveness of Black political organizations. Key to this assessment is the general acknowledgment that Black political organizations and institutions have been constrained in their ability to promote lasting solutions to the problems affecting Black people, particularly the urban poor. As a result, despite the major successes of the Civil Rights Movement (the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965), many Blacks face serious difficulties. An examination of any socioeconomic indicator would confirm this conclusion. In 1967 the ratio of Black to White median family income was 0.59. In 1990, despite the growth of the Black middle class, the ratio had declined to 0.58. In 1998, 28 percent of Black families had incomes over $50,000, compared to 52 percent of White families. The median home value for Blacks was $50,700 in 1990, compared to $80,200 for Whites. In 1999 the poverty rate of Blacks was 23.6 percent and 7.7 percent for Whites. Although 12.3 percent of the population , Blacks accounted for 26.5 percent of those in poverty in 1996. The Black infant mortality rate is 15.2 deaths per 1,000 live births and 6.3 for Whites. In 1998, 37 percent of Black children lived in poverty, compared to 11 percent of Eleven Valerie C. Johnson Where Do We Go from Here? Facing the Challenges of the Post–Civil Rights Era Answering those who asked him to help Cleveland’s poor in the first decade of the twentieth century, the mayor, Tom Johnson, said that while it was a noble thing to help drowning people out of the river, it might be more useful to “go upstream . . . to see who is pushing the people in.” —William W. Goldsmith Where Do We Go from Here? 203 White children. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 26.4 percent of the Black elderly lived below the poverty line, compared to 8 percent of White elderly people. Twenty-one percent of Blacks do not have health insurance, compared to 11.6 percent of Whites. Fifty-one percent of U.S. prison and jail inmates are Black. There is a 10.3 percent disparity between Black and White high school graduation rates and a 10.7 percent disparity between Black and White college graduation rates. And, even when holding for region and job experience, academic degrees do not pay as well for Blacks and other minorities as they do for Whites. The differential between the average incomes of Black and White males with a bachelor’s degree is $19,295. For professional degrees the disparity increases to $32,606. Although life chances have increased for all Americans , Blacks continue to lag behind, particularly the Black poor. Although the primary objective of the Civil Rights Movement was to eliminate racial discrimination and socioeconomic inequality, solutions appear elusive at best. While Black political organizations in the post–Civil Rights Era face a number of obstacles, their limited success in addressing these issues may be more the result of their unwillingness to go upstream—to attack the more resistant and root causes of racial and class inequality. This chapter examines Black issue articulation in the post–Civil Rights era by contrasting the strategies of mainstream Black political organizations and Black nationalists and radical organizations and leaders, the dominance of strategies promoted by mainstream Black political organizations, and the effect of these strategies on the lives of Blacks. Lastly, this chapter sets forth some suggestions on how Black political organizations and institutions may revive and renew their commitment to eliminating racial and socioeconomic inequality. The basic argument is that the mainstream (moderate reformist) Black political organizations presented in the preceding chapters have largely promoted the agenda of the Black middle class and in the process have demobilized its largest constituency —the Black poor—by failing to address the fundamental factors associated with racial and socioeconomic inequality. Chief among these factors is the nexus between racism and capitalism. Black Issue Articulation in the Post–Civil Rights Era The National Black Political Assembly (the Gary Convention), held in Gary, Indiana, March 10–11, 1972, stands as the earliest post–Civil Rights era attempt at Black unity and reconciliation nationally. Prior to the Gary Convention Black nationalist leaders and organizations had long soured on the efficacy of integration as a solution...