Social Structure and the Negro Revolt: An Examination of Some Hypotheses

An attempt is made to examinie objective structural conditions in order to provide a sociological interpretation of the current Negro revolt. The sociological literature is examined and five structural hypotheses are derived. Data on the changing positionl of the nonwhite in the United States are examined. Nonwhites are found to be improving their position in terms of level of education, type of occupation, and amount of income. They are found to be improving their pOsition relative to whites in level of education and in holding middle status occupations but not upper status occupations. They are falling further behind whites in incomiie. It seems likely that the proportion of status inconsistents among Negroes is increasing. The data are inconsistent with two of the derived hypotheses and are consistent with the other three. These latter hypotheses are reconciled in terms of a single common denominator: Changes in objective conditions cause feelings of relative deprivation, which, in turn, produce a tendency toward protest and rebellion. The sumimer of 1963 has been referred to as "The Summer of the Negro Revolt." Negroes lhave rebelled against their status in the United States from the earliest days of slavery to the present time,1 but this rebellion reached its peak to date the summer of 1963, wlhen it became a nationwide movement with protests and demonstrations in three-fourtlhs of our states in all mainland regions of the country.2 It is true that this revolt did not simply emerge spontaneously and full-blown in one summer. Yet, we cannot validly view this present protest as a simple continuation of the protest begun during slavery. Intense and widespread support makes today's protest basically different. Lomax chooses to date today's revolt from Decemnber 1, 1955, when Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus.3 Others miglht prefer other dates, but this seems as good as any. The major question is not the precise date of its inception but rather the reasons for its existence. *I am indebted to Elwood Guernsey for coImlpiling much of the data upon which Tables 1 and 3 are based and to the Institute for Social Research, Florida State University, for the use of g aduate assistants and machines. I have benefited f om the critical comments on earlier drafts generously given by William A. Rushing and Henry J. Watts. 1 For informationi on the slave revolts see Herbert Aptheker, Aiwerica'n Negro Slave Revolts (New York: Columbia University Press, 1945), and for a brief history of other Negro protest activity see Gunnar Myrdal, An Amiericani Dileutina (New York: Harper & Bros., 1944), pp. 736-937. 2 See files of The Newc, York Ti'uues througlhotit the period from May to August, 1963. 3 Louis E. Lomax, The Negro Revolt (New York: The New Americau Library, 1963), p. 92. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.11 on Wed, 10 Aug 2016 06:36:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND THE NEGRO REVOLT 249 Journalists lhave speculated as to these reasons.4 It is time for a sociologist to attempt a structural explanation. The present writer will attempt to do tlis by searchiing the literature for sociological lhypotheses wliclh purport to be able to explaini suclh revolts, examliniiing empirical evidence pertainiing to the living condlitions of the Negro in order to test and evaluate these lhypotheses, anid drawing somiie gelneral conlclu-