A Parting of the Ways ?

An alarming effect of recent events within the American Civil Rights movement is the apprehension that long-smouldering differences within the movement are about to erupt in an outright split. Some weeks ago, Janes eredith, the idealistic almost mygtical young nezro who "intezrated" the University of hississippi several years ago, set out on a one-man march through his native state to show negroes there that they had nothing to fear, His mission looked rather absurd when, but a few miles into the state, he was ambushed and shotgunned. heredith went b.ck home to recuperate in "dangerous" New York City but the leaders of virtually every "Rights" organisation in the nation took up the march where he had fallen, followed by increasing Hundreds of local supporters, Neredith showed signs of discontent with the way the march was going but the majop division og opinion took place on H4ghway 51 itself, The principle involved may be illustrated by pointing to the leaders of the two persuasions. On the one side is Dr,Martin Luther King who continues to insist on "non-violence" ang "integration" as the basis of the iJegro sevolution, On the other 4s a recently cianged Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee under its new president, a West Indian iumigrant, Stokely Cariichael, Carmichael's SNCC is disillusioned with "inte,ration" as a satisfactory solution to the American black man's problems. They talk of "black power", insisting upon the necessity of a solid base of political power under the direction of negro militants as the first step in the negro's redemption, It is easy to recognise in SNCC's tendency a combination of King's "Dream" for his people and the proud militance of radical black nationalism which once looked to lalcolm X as its mentor. Following Malcolm to a degree, for example, “NCC has implied that it is considering the efficacy and morality of retaliatory violence as a tactic. "Nonviolence is not dogma,", a leader said recently,"it is a tactic." Which way the movement will go is impossible to say. This was made .uite clear at a marchers' rally when a SNCC representative told the crowds "When they ask you what you want, don't say 'Inte_ration! say 'Black Power'", "Black Power" he crowd roared. A few minutes later King shouted "Don't say 'Black Fower! say 'Freedom'" "Freedom" the crowd replied. It is difficult to take a side in the dispute. ODr.King is a man of vast moral integrity and saintliness whose contribution to his people has earned him a pernament niche in American history. iis speech to the marchers on the night of June 24th when he related domestic racial violence to United States intervention in Vietnam shows that he too has broudened his understanding of the black man's plight. But one fears that SNCC may be more "realistic"(awful word). A decade of nonviolence did result in Mississippi this June, after all, in Fresident Johnson's refusal of protection on the grounds that Mississippi "assured him" that all protective measures were being taken, This after (1) Meredith's shooting; (2) Local police permitted white svectators to pelt the ¢c: owd repeatedly; (3) Speeding motorists almost ploughed into the line, in fact sideswiping a few marchers; (4) State police tear-gassed and scattered hundreds because they pitclied their tents where the police did not approve. The tragedy is that, once again, American revolutionaries frustrated by "consensus politics" will split into warring sects while still in an embryonic stage, The Civil Kights movement is, despite many of its leaders, implicitly revolutionary. The negro problem in America cannot be solved without alteration of basic social structure. It would be catastrophic if the "liberal establishment" is aided in combatting its opponents by its opponents' own suicidal actions.