30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. On the draft: Alice Lynd, We Won't Go (Boston: Beacon, 1968); “A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority" (Boston: Resist, 1967); Richard Flacks et. al., "On the Draft," in The Triple Revolution, eds. R. Perucci and M Pilisuk (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968). On the psychology of radicalization, see Kenneth Keniston, Young Radicals (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1968). On the psychological bases of legitimacy see Richard Flacks, "Social Psychological Perspectives on Legitimacy" (University of Chicago, 1968), mimeo. Norman Mailer's two recent books, The Armies of the Night (New York: New American Library, 1968), and Miami and the Siege of Chicago (New York: New American Library, Signet Book, 1968), contain excellent expressions of the attitudes of youthful rebels toward national authority and the police at the present time. Quoted in The Saturday Evening Post (September 21, 1968). On the rationale for resistance and confrontation tactics: informal interviews We have participated in and observed numerous meetings and informal group discussions among students. On the growing "alienation," pessimism and radicalism of students on the campus, a recent study of campus opinion at Columbia: A. Barton, "The Columbia Crisis: Campus, Vietnam and the Ghetto" (Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, July, 1968). A pilot study just completed by Richard Flacks, of student attitudes toward the "movement" at the University of Chicago, shows a similar pattern of disillusionment with the political system, but also a strong pattern of hostility toward SDS because of its "revolutionary" posture. On the spontaneity of major campus confrontations: Berkeley-Max Heirich, On the police as a provocative force: Cox, "Tactics for Handling Campus James Forman, Sammy Younge, Jr.: The First Black College Student to Die in This Commission has appointed a special task force to investigate the disturbances 37. The following material is adapted from Rodney T. Hartnett, College and University Trustees: Their Backgrounds, Roles, and Educational Attitudes (Princeton, New Jersey: Educational Testing Service, 1969). 38. 39. 40. Kerr, The Uses of the University. For a description of this change see Christopher Jencks and David Riesman, The Seymour Lipset and Phillip Altbach, "Student Politics and Higher Education in For an influential study of local faculty contrasted to cosmopolitan professors see Morris B. Abram, "The Eleven Days at Brandeis-as Seen from the President's Chair" For one thorough analysis, see Study Commission on University Governance, David Riesman and Christopher Jencks, “The Viability of the American College," See Study Commission on University Governance, op. cit., pp. 57-64 for an exten- Bell, op. cit., p. 95. Quoted in Newsweek, Feb. 24, 2969, p. 23. This should not be taken as a Chapter IV BLACK MILITANCY INTRODUCTION We begin this chapter with a number of misgivings. This is by no means the first official commission to investigage violent aspects of black protest in America. On the contrary, official treatments of the “racial problem" may be found far back in American history, and official investigations of racial violence have been with us since 1919.1 Occasionally, these investigations have unequivocally condemned the participants in racial disorder, both black and white, while neglecting the importance of their grievances. More often, their reports have stressed that the resort to violence is understandable, given a history of oppression and racial discrimination. All of these reports, nevertheless, have insisted that violence can not be tolerated in a democratic society. Some have called for far-reaching programs aimed at ending discrimination and racism; all have called for more effective riot control. None of them appear to have appreciably affected the course of the American racial situation. The cycle of protest and response continues. Violence occurs; it is again investigated, again understood, and again deplored. There are grounds for skepticism, therefore, concerning yet another report on black militancy. And we are faced with a number of more specific problems. Our subject is too vast and complex to be dealt with adequately in a single chapter. Black protest cannot be properly studied apart from the larger political and social structure and trends of American society. We have not been able to do a measurable amount of field research (although we have done some interviewing) due to time limitations, and also to the suspicion with which this Commission is viewed by many militant black leaders. Finally, it is difficult to add much to the recent and exhaustive Kerner Report. Consequently, our analysis is limited to certain specific issues. We have avoided generalizations about the "racial problem" and its solutions. Those wishing to understand the broad social and economic conditions of black Americans, and the kinds of massive programs needed to remedy those conditions, should look to the Kerner Report and to the vast body of literature on the subject. Much of this has been said before, and we see little point in saying it again. Our general aim, rather, is to examine the events of the past several years to understand why many black Americans believe it increasingly necessary to employ, or envision, violent means of effecting social change. This chapter is divided into three main sections. In the first, we examine the interaction between black protest and governmental response which caused many participants in the civil rights movement to reject traditional political processes. Our analysis considers the importance of anti-colonialism in providing new meaning and ideological substance for contemporary black protest. We have found it particularly important to stress that for many black militants, racial problems are international in scope, transcending the domestic issue of civil rights. The urban riots have been a second major influence on contemporary militancy, and this section concludes with an analysis of the meaning of riots for the black community and for black organizations. The second section considers some major themes in contemporary black protest, and examines their origins in the history of black protest in America, the anti-colonial movement, and the present social situation of black Americans. Many of these themes are most clearly expressed in the actions of militant youths in the schools. The final part of this section analyzes the nature and extent of this increasingly significant youth protest. We conclude with an analysis of the extent and direction of ghetto violence since the publication of the Kerner Report, and the future implications of the political response to that violence. Two related points should be understood. First, this chapter does not attempt to encompass the entire spectrum of black protest in America. Rather, it is concerned with new forms of political militancy that have recently assumed increasing importance in black communities. Its general outlines are fairly clear, even though, as we write, new militant perspectives are being generated. We regard what follows as an introduction to a phenomenon whose importance has been inadequately appreciated. Second, it is important to keep the violent aspects of black protest in perspective. The connection between black militancy and collective violence is complex and ambiguous. There has so far been relatively little violence by militant blacks in this country-as compared to nonviolent black protestdespite the popular impression conveyed by the emphasis of the news media on episodes of spectacular violence (or threats of violence). This is true historically, and it is largely true for the contemporary situation. It must also be remembered that much of the violence involving blacks has originated with militant whites-in the case of the early race riots and the civil-rights movement-or from police and troops, in the case of the recent ghetto riots. On the other hand, we cannot be optimistic about the future. Recent developments clearly indicate that black Americans are no longer willing to wait for governmental action to determine their fate. At the same time, we find little that is reassuring in the character of the present governmental response to black protest. We can only agree with the Kerner Commission that "this nation will deserve neither safety nor progress unless it can demonstrate the wisdom and the will to undertake decisive action against the root causes of racial disorder."2 THE ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY MILITANCY Introduction Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, You show me a black man who isn't an extremist and I'll show you Malcolm X Black men in America have always engaged in militant action. The first permanent black settlers in the American mainland, brought by the Spanish explorer Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon in 1526, rose up during the same year, killed a number of whites, and fled to the Indians.5 Since that time, black protest has never been altogether dormant and militant blacks have experimented with a wide variety of tactics, ideologies, and goals. No simple linear or evolutionary model covers the complexity of those developments.6 It is inaccurate, for example, to suggest that black protest has moved from peaceful use of orderly political and legal processes to disorderly protest and, finally, to rejection of nonviolent means. Leaving aside the history of Southern slave insurrections,7 a number of black writers before the Civil War called for violent action. David Walker, in his An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829), called white Americans "our natural enemies" and exhorted blacks to "kill or be killed."8 The abolitionist Frederick Douglass, discussing the kidnapping of escaped slaves and their return to the South under the Fugitive Slave Act, argued that "the only way to make the fugitive slave law a dead letter, is to make half a dozen or more dead kidnappers." In supporting John Brown's armed raid at Harper's Ferry, Douglass advocated the use of any and all means to secure freedom: "Let every man work for the abolition of slavery in his own way. It would help all, and hinder none." There is a remarkable similarity between Douglass' statement and the more recent dictum of Malcolm X: "Our objective is complete freedom, complete justice, complete equality, by any means necessary. "10 At the same time, the use of legal argument and of the ballot is far from dead in the contemporary black protest movement. The history of black protest is the history of the temporary decline, fall, and resurgence of almost every conceivable means of achieving black well-being and dignity within the context of a generally hostile polity, and in the face of unremitting white violence, both official and private. Where black protest has moved toward the acceptance of violence, it has done so after exhausting nonviolent alternatives and a profound reservoir of patience and good faith. This is the case today. In this section, we examine the events leading up to the most recent shift in the general direction of militant black protest-the shift from a "civil rights" to a "liberation" perspective. Civil Rights and the Decline of Faith From the decline of Garveyism11 in the 1920's until quite recently, the dominant thrust of black protest was toward political, social, economic and |