
          The Organization Behind the Man.
          
            
              Chalmers, DavidDavid Chalmers
            
          
          Vol. 9, No. 3, 1987, p. 21
          
          To Redeem the Soul of
America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin
Luther King, Jr.  By Adam Fairclough.  (Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1987.  505 pp. Paper, $17.95. Cloth, $35.)
	       
          Arriving coincidentally with David Garrow's overwhelming work on
the same topic, this thoroughly researched, thoughtful, and
well-written study by a British historian is likely to life under the
shadow of being "the other book," yet there is much that can be
learned from it.  Fairclough uses Garrow's earlier writing, expresses
appreciation for personal sharing, and does not basically disagree
with his interpretation of King and what happened in and to the
movement.  The difference in emphasis is indicated by the ordering of
the sub-titles.  Garrow names King first, and Fairclough, the SCLC.
Both authors are in agreement on King's achievements, on the
centrality of religion and non-violence in King's life and King's
centrality in the SCLC, the collapse of the civil rights movement
after the Voting Rights Act, and King's growing radicalism, but
Fairclough is writing organizational history, not biography.
          Although recognizing housing as the "bedrock" of school and job
segregation, neither author has much favorable to say about King's
1966 campaign in Chicago, which may underline how difficult the basic
problem was.  In the face of white backlash, a hostile coalition in
Congress, black nationalism, urban rioting, the Vietnam war, and the
loss of presidential backing, there was little hope for new gains.
Fairclough seems to suggest that King and the SCLC might have fared
better by concentrating on voter registration and political
organization, but the "movement phase" of change was probably over.
Movements are hard to organize and difficult to maintain.  It is not
easy to repeatedly face possible injury, arrest and job loss,
particularly when one has a family to support.  People have other
personal priorities and lives to live.  Problems beyond the defeat of
legal segregation were too deep to be touched by non-violent
demonstration in the streets.  Coalitions were fragile, and
maintaining unity was difficult.  Even during the "great days" in
Birmingham, only about ten percent of the city's black ministers
actively supported the campaign.
          Fairclough gives less importance to Birmingham than Garrow does and
offers a more favorable picture of Birmingham minister Fred
Shuttlesworth.  He particularly admires the political sophistication
of the older left activists Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, and Stanley
Levison, but even they had no real path to offer after the middle
sixties.
          Because of his focus on the organization, rather than King,
Fairclough often gives a much broader picture of what was going on.
He begins with a brief description of the bus boycotts in Baton Rouge
and Tallahassee which set the scene for Montgomery and explains what
went on during the fatal Memphis garbage strike in 1968.  He offers
useful thumbnail biographical sketches of James Bevel, Wyatt Walker,
Harry Wachtel, James Lawson, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, C.T. Vivian
and other movement leaders, and he carries the story through the
Abernathy years after King's death.  In summing up, Fairclough comes
back to King again.  Desegregation and the ballot did not end
discrimination and poverty, but it did knock away major props of
institutionalized white supremacy and helped black people achieve
dignity.  With idealism, dedication, and courage, Martin Luther King,
Jr., understood the history and culture, and expressed the aspirations
of black Southerners.  "SCLC itself was far more than King,"
Fairclough concludes, "but his death revealed how completely he
dominated it through intellect, personality, moral example, and
organizational skill."
        