
          The Cold Hard Truth
          By 
            Chestnut, J.L., Jr.J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
          Vol. 11, No. 6, 1989, pp. 24, 23
          
          The unspeakable and cowardly Sunday morning bombing and slaughter
of the four children in Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
is like it happened yesterday. It will always remain so in the minds
of many.
          Scores of my associates cannot recall many days since that bombing
when our lives, directly or indirectly, were not in some form of
jeopardy. A black leader in Dixie whose life has not been seriously
threatened at least twice is either ineffective or a fraud or both.
          The current bombings are not a new problem for black leaders. The
attack on white judges is new but hardly eliminates racism as a
motive. A suspected drug connection also does not put racism to rest,
all other things considered.
          Since the first slave ship docked in America, it has been a
life-threatening ordeal to offer or provide effective leadership to
black_people. It is perfectly safe to mislead blacks. In fact, that is
how some blacks survive.
          Martin_Luther_King Jr. knew he could not sit safely with white
leaders in a quiet room and effectively negotiate racial progress in
Dixie. Obviously, an apostle of nonviolence would have preferred a
quiet, negotiated approach if it had held any hope of success.
          Black progress in Dixie is always seen and defined as a diminution
of white power, privilege and money; thus any black progress
immediately becomes a classic power struggle between blacks and
whites--a struggle almost never amenable to meaningful
negotiations.
          King discussed those very points in speeches and was even more
vivid in private. Precisely because he understood, this apostle of
non-violence consciously placed his life and family in serious
jeopardy by assuming effective leadership of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott. As expected, his home and many others were bombed.
          His life remained at great risk until it was taken on a hotel
balcony in Memphis. That, too, was not really unexpected.
          No person in America understood white power better than King. Few
Presidents understood it as well. King knew he could become
instantaneously rich, safe and even "honored" by every white leader in
America if he would deliberately become ineffective as a black
leader. He often laughed about it.
          Ineffective black leaders are absolutely safe in America. No civil
rights leader of late has been killed or even threatened (except the
poor black lawyer the other day in Savannah) because collectively and
singularly they are almost wholly ineffective. They surrendered our
most effective weapon (direct action) and we have been ineffective
ever since. And, of course, they have been safe. There will be no
motel balconies for them.
          If King had lived it would be as dangerous in 1989 t' be a civil
rights leader as it was in 1965, because he would be waging a struggle
as effectively now as he was then. He would not be selling his people
out for nickle jobs, empty titles and superfluous
positions.
          The next black leader who comes forward at a crucially tactical
moment to nervously suggest "bi-racial negotia-

tions" or "dialogue,"
ask him to detail his past accomplishments for black_people along
those lines. Find out how safe and secure he is with white
leaders. You might also ask what titles, jobs and positions have been
given him.
          On the other hand, unless you have lived in a cave isolated from
everybody and everything you already know the answers to those
questions.
          Peace.
          
            J. L. Chestnut is an Alabama trial lawyer and
writer.
          
        
