Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Chapter 1

Summary

In Chapter 1 of this book, King walks us through a few elements of life after the historic decade of civil disobedience and protests. The general theme from this first chapter is this: With the progress we made in the past decade, we cannot fall into the trap of thinking this was the end of our journey in dismantling oppression against black people. The majority of our white counterparts in this country will need to do more than what they’ve done in the past to bring true equality. Black people will have to understand that progress does not move in a straight line, and cannot fall into the snares of apathy at the sight of white backlash.

Resonating Excerpts

“With selma and the voting rights act, one phase of development in the civil rights revolution came to an end. A new phase opened, but few observers realized it or were prepared for its implications….White America was ready to demand that the Negro should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination”

“When Negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared”

“Overwhelmingly America is still struggling with irresolution and contradictions. It has been sincere and even ardent in welcoming some change. But too quickly apathy and disinterest rise to the surface when the next logical steps are to be taken. Laws are passed in a crisis mood after a Birmingham or a Selma, but no substantial fervor survives the formal signing of legislation. The recording of the law in itself is treated as the reality of the reform.”

“The long-range costs of adequately implementing programs to fight poverty, ignorance, and slums will reach one trillion dollars….[achieving that] is as simple as this ‘“The poor can stop being poor if the rich are willing to become even richer at a slower rate”’ furthermore, he predicted that unless a “‘substantial sacrifice is made by the American people,”’ the nation can expect further deterioration of the cities, increased antagonisms between races and continued disorder in the streets.”

Taking a look at the size of the problem through the Negro’s status in 1967:

• Half of all negroes live in substandard housing and have half the income of whites.
• There are twice as many unemployed
• The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites
• There were twice as many Negroes as whites in combat in Vietnam, and twice as many Negro soldiers died in action (20.6%) in proportion to their numbers in the population.
• In elementary schools, Negroes lag on to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student.
• Of employed Negroes, 75% hold menial jobs.

King, at the airport following the March to Montgomery:

“After the march to Montgomery, there was a delay at the airport and several thousand demonstrators waited more than five hours, crowded together. As I stood with them and saw white and Negro, nuns and priests, ministers and rabbis, labor organizers, lawyers, doctors, housemaids and shop-workers brimming with vitality and enjoying a rare comradeship, I knew I was seeing a microcosm of the mankind of the future…”

“But those were the best of America, not all of America. Elsewhere the commitment was shallower. Conscience burned only dimly, and when atrocious behavior was curbed, the spirit settled easily into well-padded pockets of complacency. Justice at the deepest level had but few stalwart champions.”

“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.

“For the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.”

“The great majority of Americans are suspended between these opposing attitudes. They are uneasy with injustice but unwilling yet to pay a significant price to eradicate it.”

Two important facts to consider before losing your confidence:

“Meanwhile frustration and a loss of confidence in white power have engendered among many Negroes a response that is essentially a loss of confidence in themselves. They are failing to appreciate to important facts”:

1. “The line of progress is never straight.The inevitable counterrevolution that succeeds every period of progress is taking place. Failing to understand this as a normal process of development, some Negroes are falling into unjustified pessimism and despair. Focusing on the ultimate goal, and discovering it still distant, they declare no progress at all has been made.”
2. “A final victory is an accumulation of many short term encounters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process of achieving full victory. It underestimates the value of confrontation and dissolves the confidence born of a partial victory by which new efforts are powered.”

Against the claim that no progress has been made in the decade of turbulent efforts:

“The struggles of the past decade were not national in scope; They were Southern; they were specifically designed to change life in the South. and the principal role of the North was supportive. It would be a serious error to misconstrue the movement’s strategy by measuring Northern accomplishments when virtually all programs were applied in the South and sought remedies applicable solely to it.”

“There could be no possibility of life-transforming change anywhere so long as the vast and solid influence of Southern segregation remained unchallenged and unhurt. The ten-year assault at the roots was fundamental to undermining the system. What distinguished this period from all preceding decades was that it constituted the first frontal attack on racism at its heart.”

“For the first time in his history, the Negro did not have to use subterfuge as a defense, or solicit pity. He came out of his struggle integrated only slightly in the external society but powerfully integrated within”

Freedom is not given, it is won.

“By 1967 the resounding shout of the Negro’s protest has shattered the myth of his contentment. At the same time it had become clear that though white opposition could be defeated it remained a formidable force capable of hardening its resistance when the cost of change was increased”

“The daily life of the Negro is still lived in the basement of the Great Society. He is still at the bottom despite the few who have penetrated to slightly higher levels. Even where the door has been forced partially open, mobility for the Negro is still sharply restricted.”

“Civil rights leaders had long thought that the North would benefit derivatively from the Southern struggle. This was a miscalculation. We forgot what we knew daily in the South: Freedom is not given, it is won.”

“Freedom is not won by a passive acceptance of suffering. Freedom is won by a struggle against suffering. By this measure, Negroes have not yet paid the full price for freedom. And whites have not yet faced the full cost of justice.”

“Though millions of Negroes were ardent and passionate supporters, only a modest number were actively engaged, and these were relatively too few for a broad war against racism, poverty and discrimination. Negroes fought and won, but our engagements were skirmishes not climactic battles.”

“The Negro has been wrong to toy with the optimistic thought that the breakdown of white resistance could be accomplished at small cost.”

Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

“It is understandable that the white community should fear the outbreak of riots. They are indefensible as weapons of struggle, and Negroes must sympathize with whites who feel menaced by them. Indeed, Negroes are themselves no less menaced, and those living in the ghetto always suffer most directly from the destructive turbulence of a riot.”

“Yet the average white person also has a responsibility. He has to resist the impulse to seize upon the rioter as the exclusive villain. He has to rise up with indignation against his own municipal, state and national governments to demand that the necessary reforms be instituted which alone will protect him.”

“Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention. There is no other answer. Constructive social change will bring certain tranquility; evasions will merely encourage turmoil.”

“Negroes hold only one key to the double lock of peaceful change. The other is in the hand of the white community.”