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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 37. Compromise Leadership - 10. In Southern Cities - 11. In the North
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Chapter 37. Compromise Leadership 777
Office in New York in order to make it possible for its staff to attack prob-
lems on the national front.*
The present writer once interviewed the president of the N.A.A.C.P.
branch in one of the smaller capitals of the Deep South. He was a distin-
guished, elderly gentleman, a postal clerk who for many decades, upon the
basis of his economic independence as a federal employee, had led a
cautious fight for Negro interests in his community. During our conversa-
tion I asked him whether they had any other similar organizations in the
city, and the following conversation ensued:
‘‘Yes, there is the League for Civic Improvement.”
“Why do you bother to have two organizations with the same purpose of trying to
improve the position of Negroes?
”
“Sir, that is easily explainable. The N.A.A.C.P. stands firm on its principles and
demands our rights as American citizens. But it accomplishes little or nothing in this
town, and it arouses a good deal of anger in the whites. On the other hand, the
League for Civic Improvement is humble and ‘pussy-footing.’ It begs for many favors
from the whites, and succeeds quite often. The N.A.A.C.P. cannot be compromised in
all the tricks that Negroes have to perform down here. But we pay our dues to it
to keep it up as an organization. The League for Civic Improvement does all the
dirty work.”
“Would you please tell me who is president of this League for Civic Improve-
ment? I should like to meet him.”
“I am. We are all the same people in both organizations.”
This story revealed much of the political shrewdness by which the difficul-
ties are sometimes met.
In a few places in the South there arc appearing a few Negro labor
leaders in new mixed unions, primarily in Birmingham and Baltimore and
in other areas where Negroes are in mining and building construction. These
Negro leaders usually keep faithfully and cautiously to their specialty.
Toward the white union leaders they ordinarily act out the traditional
accommodating Negro leader’s role, though with considerably more back-
bone since they have an organized body of Negro workers behind them.
The future of the Negro labor leader in the South, as well as the answer
to the question whether he will have influence in broader spheres of
politics and culture, remains uncertain.
II. In THE North
In the North the protest motive has a much freer scope and can come
out into the open. Negro power in politics and in trade unions is more
substantial. White people are not united, as in the South, in a systematic
effort to keep the Negroes suppressed. The Negro community, therefore,
demands a display of actual opposition from its leaders.
• Sec Chapter 39.
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