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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 7. The N.A.A.C.P. National Office - 8. The Strategy of the N.A.A.C.P.
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830 An American Dilemma
in C.W.A., P.W.A., W.P.A. projects j
against administrational discrimina-
tion in the T.V.A., local relief, and public utilities j
and for many other
things.®^
8. The Strategy of the N.A.A.C.P.
Both for strategic and for financial reasons the Association cannot afford
to be a legal aid society for Negroes. The cases pursued are selected because
of their general importance. The N.A.A.C.P. does not, therefore, substi-
tute for institutions to enforce the laws and to aid poor people which we
suggested were needed.® This need is becoming less and less met by the
Association, as it has shifted its emphasis from legal defense to legal
offense.®^
The author has found that some conservative Negroes and most con-
servative and liberal whites in the South accuse the N.A.A.C.P. of being
“reckless” in striking in all directions against the caste order of the region
without any thought whatever as to what can possibly be attained. When,
with this criticism in mind, I have studied the actions of the N.A.A.C.P.
over the decades, I have, on the contrary, come to the conclusion that the
Association is working according to a quite clearly conceived tactical plan,
which is only more far-seeing than is customary in America, particularly
in the
South.•**
The Association has wisely avoided launching a wholesale
legal campaign against the Southern segregation system, as this would
have provoked a general reaction. It has selected its points of attack with
care and has pushed the front with caution; sometimes it has preferred
only to preserve a favorable defense position. On the other hand, when
the N.A.A.C.P. is striking—for instance, for a federal anti-lynching law or
for improved educational facilities for Negroes as in the Gaines Case—the
effect is not, as it is often asserted, an intensified reaction in the South, but,
on the contrary, a definite movement towards adjustment with the national
norms.
In this sense, the tactics of the N.A.A.C.P. are “opportunistic”—though
within the framework of a long-range policy to reach full equality for
Negroes. The Association has often accepted segregation, and in fact, has
sometimes had to promote further segregation, while it has been pressing
for increased opportunity and equality within the segregated system.® The
principle of opportunism, but also the integration of opportunism into the
long-range aims, is a conscious tactic;
\u lact d\sci\m\Tva\\oTv vs too sttotig\y ontiencVvod to bo attacked at
present, it ^the branch^ s\vou\d secure at \east equai rights and accommodatvons ioi
• See Chapter 26, Section 4.
®See Chapter 33, Section 1.
*See Chapter 38, Section 9.
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