Civil Right Groups Then and Now

As we near the inauguration of our first African American President, it would be timely to reflect upon the organizations that have played a large part in fighting for the rights of African Americans in our country's history. Darryl Fears wrote an article for the April 14, 2008 issue of the Washington Post Weekly on the state of the great civil rights groups that were so involved in the 1950s and 1960s struggles to fight to topple segregation laws, empower people through laws to protect voting rights, and overcome prejudice in the law books and in people's attitudes. Fears found that after the 1960s, when these organizations were at the peak or their influence, many of these organizations have either declined in membership, face financial problems, or have simply disappeared.

Several reasons are offered for the decline of these organizations. Many of these civil rights groups were subject to government harassment and spying. The rise of more radical groups like the Black Panthers made older civil rights groups seem timid in their efforts and attracted younger African Americans.

Some activists feel that the older civil rights organizations may be victims of their own greatest success. The laws that they fought for, like the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act or the mid 1960s, paved the way for greater opportunities for African Americans that drew away members from the more traditional civil rights organizations. Roger Wilkins, an assistant attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson, commented in Fears' article:

"Black people didn't have the opportunities in the '30s and '40s and '50s. They couldn't be mayors, so they became presidents of black colleges or leaders of civil rights organizations. But at the end of the '60s, all kinds of pathways opened up, and civil rights organizations had to compete for leadership."

Another reason for the decline in the civil rights groups of the 1960s has been their struggle to change with the times. As other groups, like the AARP and the National Rifle Association, have adopted more sophisticated marketing and membership tools and learned to use the opportunities of the internet, the older civil rights groups were ineffective in publicizing their efforts to the public at large. Roy Innis, the chairman of CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) said:

"Not enough of us had recognized change. We were spoiled by the heyday of the civil rights movement, where attention came whether we recruited or not... The lessening of attention and accurate reporting of our activities made it difficult to point out our civil rights victories and the new direction we were moving in."

Despite the decline of the older civil rights organizations, many feel that these organizations are still needed to fight the problems that African Americans face today. Darryl Fears wrote:

"With advances in education, employment and buying power, some have argued, civil rights organizations have become passe. But group leaders bristle at the notion.

A report released two weeks ago by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank, said black America remains troubled. Despite marginal advances in education and jobs, the income gap between black and white Americans has grown so large since King's death that it would take more than 500 years for black people to catch up under the current pace of change, the report said. The divide between black and white wealth is so wide that achieving parity would take more than 600 years."

Fears listed the civil rights groups from the 1960s, their fates, and the rise of new groups that are fighting for African American rights.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE was founded in February 1909 in New York by Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois and Henry Moskowitz, and others. The NAACP lead the movement to fight against lynching in the South, won the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case, and helped NAACP member Rosa Parks after she refused to give up a bus seat to organize a 381 day bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama in 1955. In 1968 the NAACP had 500,000 members listed. Its membership today is around 300,000. In the spring of 2008, a third of its administrative staff had to be cut because of budget shortfalls.

THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE was founded in January 1957 by Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, Fred Shuttlesworth and Joseph Lowery, and others. The SCLC were formed by the leaders of the Montgomery bus boycott and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was its first president. In 1968 SCLC had a membership of 250,000. In 2008 it has 125,000 members. Three years ago, utilities shut off the lights and the phones because the group did not pay its bills.

THE CONGRESS OF RACIAL EQUALITY was founded in 1942 in Chicago by students James Farmer, Bernice Fisher, James R. Robinson and George Houser, and others. The interracial group adopted Mohandas K. Ghandi's principle of nonviolent resistence and co-organized the Freedom Rides to desegregate the South in 1961. In 1968 it had a membership of 250,000. In 2008 it had a membership of 25,000.

THE STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE was rounded on April 1960 in Raleigh, North Carolina, with an SCLC grant, by students Diane Nash, John Lewis, Julian Bond, James Bevel, and Marion Barry, among others. The SNCC were the main group behind the Freedom Rides of 1961 and participated in the Freedom Summer campaign in 1964 to register African Americans to vote. The SNCC disbanded in the 1970s.

These groups have risen up to do much of the work that was once done by the older civil rights groups.

THE ELLA BAKER CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS was founded in 1996 in the California Bay Area by Van Jones and Diana Frappier. The Center has monitored police actions against African Americans and Latinos, has lead a youth initiative called Silence the Violence and Books Not Bars, and has championed the creation of green jobs for low income people to work on projects like installing solar energy panels.

COLOR OF CHANGE.ORG was founded in 2005 in San Francisco by Van Jones and James Rucker in response to Hurricane Katrina. This group delivered aid to hurrican victims in New Orleans and drew attention to the 2007 prosecution of six black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana.

THE MICHAEL BAISDEN SHOW debuted in 2003 in New York. Michael Baisden is a drive time radio host who delivers positive messages to his black listeners. He opened up his website to grass roots civil rights organizers to stage bus rides to publicize the case of the six African American teenagers in Jena, Louisiana.