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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 37. Compromise Leadership - 9. Qualifications - 10. In Southern Cities
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776 An American Dilemma
In this situation it is understandable why so many well-equipped upper
class Negroes in the South withdraw voluntarily from attempting to play
a leadership role. Bad odor around the whole activity is an additional reason
for such withdrawal besides the ones mentioned in an earlier section.® But
many cannot afford to withdraw entirely. So many of the vocations and
positions which mean an economic and social career in the Negro commu-
nity are under white control, directly or indirectly. And the influential
whites reckon on their Negro college presidents, their Negro high school
principals, their favored Negro ministers, farmers and businessmen to
shepherd the Negro community.
This may, indeed, be a blessing to the Negro community as so many of
the most devoted and capable Negro leaders in the South actually are
persons who would prefer to stay away and mind their own business, if their
position, and, especially, white expectations, did not draw them out as
Negro leaders. It must never be forgotten—in spite of what many Negro
interlocutors in their dismay and pessimism tell the interviewer to the
contrary—that there,are in the South many honest and diligent Negro
leaders who unselfishly forward Negro interests by a slow, patient, but
determined, plodding along against odds and difficulties. And an important
aspect of the changing South is that—as the general educational level is
raised, racial liberalism progresses, and federal agencies become important
—they are the Negro leaders to become increasingly trusted by the whites
in fower.
10. In Southern Cities
In the rural South only accommodating Negro leadership Is yet possible.
In Southern cities—except in the smaller ones—^the observer finds single
individuals and small groups of followers around them who use the pro-
tection of the greater anonymity of the segregated urban Negro community
to raise cautiously the banner of Negro protest.
They usually try to get the Negroes to attempt to register as voters.
Upper class Negroes seldom become active protest leaders, as they would
have too much to lose. Teachers or preachers are practically never active
protest leaders. Such leaders seldom have conspicuous success, as the ordi-
nary community leaders usually keep aloof, and as the Negro masses are
apathetic.
The N.A.A.C.P., a national protest organization, has branches in most
of the larger Southern cities. With exceptions, those branches are not active
for a protracted period and they cannot be active, since the margin of free-
dom for the Negro protest is narrow. They have a social function and, in
addition, the symbolic function of keeping the flame of protest burning in
the community, and of collecting the contributions to be sent to the National
• Sec Chapter 36, Section 6.
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