libcom | For the purposes of this analysis, the most salient aspects of the
black community in the segregated south lie within a management
dimension. Externally, the black population was managed by means of
codified subordination, reinforced by customary dehumanization and the
omnipresent spectre of terror. The abominable details of this system are
well known.[24] Furthermore,
blacks were systematically excluded from formal participation in public
life. By extracting tax revenues without returning public services or
allowing blacks to participate in public policy formation, the local
political system intensified the normal exploitation in the work place.
Public administration of the black community was carried out by whites.
The daily indignity of the apartheid-like social organization was both a
product of this political-administrative disenfranchisement as well as a
motor of its reproduction. Thus, the abstract ideal of freedom spawned
within the Civil Rights movement addressed primarily this issue.
Despite the black population's alienation from public policy-making,
an internal stratum existed which performed notable, but limited, social
management functions. This elite stratum was comprised mainly of
low-level state functionaries, merchants and "professionals" servicing
black markets, and the clergy. While it failed to escape the general
subordination, this indigenous elite usually succeeded by virtue of its
comparatively secure living standard and informal relations with
significant whites, in avoiding the extremes of racial oppression. The
importance of this stratum was that it stabilized and coordinated the
adjustment of the black population to social policy imperatives
formulated outside the black community.
Insofar as black public functionaries had assimilated bureaucratic
rationality, the domination of fellow blacks was carried out in "doing
one's job." For parts of the black elite such as the clergy, the
ministerial practice of "easing community tensions" has always meant
accommodation of black life to the existing forms of domination.
Similarly, the independent merchants and professionals owed their
relatively comfortable position within the black community to the
special, captive markets created by segregation. Moreover, in the role
of "responsible Negro spokesmen," this sector was able to elicit
considerable politesse, if not solicitousness, from "enlightened"
members of the white elite. Interracial "cooperation" on policy matters
was thus smoothly accomplished, and the "public interest" seemed to be
met simply because opposition to white ruling group initiatives had been
effectively neutralized. The activating factor in this management
relation was a notion of "Negro leadership" (later "black" or even
"Black") that was generated outside the black community. A bitter
observation made from time to time by the radical fringe of the movement
was that the social category "leaders" seemed only to apply to the
black community. No "white leaders" were assumed to represent a singular
white population. But certain blacks were declared opinion-makers and
carriers of the interests of an anonymous black population. These
"leaders" legitimated their role through their ability to win occasional
favors from powerful whites and through the status positions they
already occupied in the black community.[25]
...
Given the racial barrier, social mobility for the black elite was
limited, relative to its white counterpart. Because of de facto
proscription of black tenure in most professions, few possibilities
existed for advancement. At the same tune, the number of people seeking
to become members of the elite had increased beyond what a segregated
society could accommodate as a result of population growth and rising
college attendance. In addition, upward mobility was being defined by
the larger national culture in a way that further weakened the
capability of the black elite to integrate its youth. Where ideology
demanded nuclear physics and corporate management, black upward mobility
rested with mortuary service and the Elks Lodge! The disjunction
between ideals and possibilities delegitimized the elite's claim to
brokerage and spokesmanship. With its role in question, the entrenched
black elite was no longer able to effectively perform its internal
management function and lost any authority with its "recruits" and the
black community in general. As a result, a social space was cleared
within which dissatisfaction with segregation could thrive as systematic
opposition.
From this social management perspective, the sources of the "Freedom
Movement" are identifiable within and on the periphery of its indigenous
elite stratum. As soon as black opposition spilled beyond the
boundaries of the black community, however, the internal management
perspective became inadequate to understand further developments in the
Civil Rights movement. When opposition to segregation became political
rebellion, black protest required a response from white ruling elites.
That response reflected the congruence of the interests of blacks and of
corporate elites in reconstructing southern society and helped define
the logic of all subsequent black political activity. Both sets of
interests shared an interest in rationalizing race relations in the
South. The Civil Rights movement brought the two sets together.[29]
