From: anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson)
Subject: Re: Historical perspective
Organization: Madison Academic Computing Center, UW-Madison
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 12:07:26 GMT


In article <4NOV92.18320288@enh.nist.gov>
aberson@enh.nist.gov (Sim Aberson) writes:

>I was wondering if some of the older motssers (or those
>knowledgeable in history could offer some information on the
>civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s, and how, if
>at all, the experience of those movements might be
>applicable to us today.

These movements have a long and detailed history, certainly.
Without elaborating much, such successes as there were
resulted, I think, from two things: effective coalitions
between major advocacy and citizen groups (Urban League,
NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Council, Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, etc.), and a relatively
enlightened Supreme Court of the United States.

>What I'm looking for is information on how the bigots
>behaved after one of their so-called victories.  Did they
>vow to take the movement nationwide?  Did they feel they
>would eventually be successful?  Is there something we can
>learn from this period in our history so that we can
>overcome what may happen in the coming years?

Particularly wrt to the last issue, it's interesting to note
the rise of a major division *within* the ranks of
African-American communities between those who still support
the UL, NAACP, SCLC and associated leaders who were active
in the 60s and before, and those who regard these core
institutions with varying degrees of contempt.  This latter
thrust includes notably African-American neo-conservatives.
Although in common white perceptions (as well as certain
practical political realities), the "black community" was
seen as pretty much a monolith, this has never actually been
the case, any more than it is for LGB communities.  But it
does seem to be the case that the racist opposition-
sponsored wedge of divide-and-conquer now has a significant
black component.

I've been somewhat horrified to discover that I was asleep
about quite a lot of this until very recently, tending my
roses both literally and figuratively since the heyday of
my own participation in high-profile activism.  Not the
smartest move on my part, I must admit.  And clearly a lot
of other people have been and still are sleeping.

There are a lot of lessons here, and a lot of history has
taken place in the last 30 years.  Certainly we can no
longer count on the Supreme Court to protect civil rights.
What's happened to the Court during the Reagan/Bush years is
nothing less than a major disaster for the hopes and
aspirations of civil rights, and not only for
African-Americans, of course.

>Sim, trying desperately to think that with Clinton in the
>White House things will actually be okay.

It seems to me desperate is an entirely appropriate word,
and I find it difficult to be optimistic.  Now that Clinton
has been elected, and even assuming he had the best intentions
in the world, every conceivable roadblock to what I would call
social progress is going to manifest right in front of him,
in the biggest possible way.  

People talk about the failures of Jimmy Carter a lot,
sweeping aside what may have been his finest achievement,
the Camp David Accords (Sadat of Egypt, Begin of Isreal).
But his presidency was destroyed by Iran and financial
disasters.  What Clinton will inherit in the way of problems,
both domestic and international, completely dwarfs anything
the last Democrat to hold that office faced.

In terms of domestic civil rights struggles, I would hope
that some progress can be made on Clinton's watch about
restoring the Court to something like its former glories
(not to exaggerate those).  In terms that affect us as LGB
people facing extinction at the hands of the Party of God, I
think we need to build grass-roots organizations everywhere
we can, to fund them with every spare dime we can muster,
and to build and support coalitions within our communities
that define common objectives while recognizing our
diversities.  Similarly, we need to form alliances with any
and all minority interests, be they delineated by race,
economic circumstances, religious affiliation, gender
issues, or whatever.

Finally, to the extent it's possible, we must free ourselves
of illusion.  This is exhausting, completely debilitating
work.  It takes anything and everything any of us can give
it, and what's worse, *more* than that.  We must not only
*do* things, we must also learn and study social and
political history.  Think what a liability we start out
with, that history is a written thing and so many of us
can't read.  Think what a liability it is that it's terribly
hard to know whether the testimony of your eyes is a
reliable witness when you watch television or read a
newspaper.

I would say, in sum, that there's really only one good thing
we have going for us at present.  There's so much to do, and
so far to go, that you needn't waste more than a minute
trying to figure out where or how to start: *anything* you
do is better than what's been happening, so my advice would
be to start moving, start waking up, start talking to the
person right next to you about what concerns you.  What to
do next will be obvious when you get there.

-- 
Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin
Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson
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