TO REDEEM THE SOUL OF AMERICA: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Adam Fairclough ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1987

An analysis of the SCLC from its origins to its decline in the post-1965 years. The fame that has surrounded King has tended to obscure the SCLC as an organizational entity. Fairclough here attempts to study its structure and activities as measured against its goals. Comparisons are made to other civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, CORE and SNCC. The demonstrations arranged at Selma and Birmingham number among the SCLC's great successes and were certainly instrumental in securing the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. To some, SNCC was a chaotic and frustrating organization, but to others this seeming confusion was thought of as an amazing flexibility, a virtue not a vice. Those who regarded it as a bunch of bunglers may not have understood its problems and the realities in which it operated. It was underfunded and understaffed. It relied on a rather mysterious spontaneity, which sometimes worked, sometimes did not. Its lack of apparent structure may have aided it in organizing southern blacks. Although the charismatic King tended to dominate, men like Wyatt Walker, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams and Ralph Abernathy were influential and powerful in their own right. The author attempts to place King in the context of an organization that supported and promoted him. Here, King comes across as a man who was able to deal with widely different milieus--rich and poor, black and white. SCLC's inner dynamics are worth knowing, and although complete records don't exist, the author has managed to give us a good idea of why it succeeded, and why, after 1965, it lost much of its influence. A helpful addition in all to the history of civil rights.

Pub Date: May 1, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Univ. of Georgia Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION