THE DAWNING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT - USA

                   THE DAWNING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

IN  THE USA.

by

REGINALD  YOUNG

Sociology / Politics / History

The Dawning of the Civil Rights Movement

in the USA

For  Nazma, Mo, Tatiana and Liberty  

  Copyright  ©  Reginald  Young  1995.

All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing in  Publication Data.

A Catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library.

Produced  by  Reginald  Young

March 1995

Printed in the United Kingdom

                    ISBN    1  899968  03  2                    

THE DAWNING OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN  THE USA.

            “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.    ( Part of the Declaration of independence - 4 / 7 / 1776. )

    "Whatsoever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do."  -

      ( Sara  Grinke )

"We are willing to bear the brunt of the storm, if we can only be the means of making a break in that wall of public opinion which lies right in the way of woman's rights, true dignity, honour and usefulness."  {Angela E. Grinke. -  July 25, 1835.)

INTRODUCTION

This article is dedicated to the memory of Sara and Angela Grinke, Virgina Durr - (Alabama), Anne Braden - (Kentucky), Lillian Smith and Paula Snelling - (Georgia) and all other individuals active in the civil rights movement who dared to valiantly challenge the dominant ideologies of individualism, familism, elitism, fascism, sexism, racism and nationalism, thereby risking their personal safety, lives, families and communities to be targets of physical, emotional and psychological abuse by individuals, organisations (private and public) and the state bureaucracy. Furthermore, the aspirations of these civil rights activists can be defined more appropriately by the "non-racial"  factor rather than "anti-racism".

The size and contents of this article impose limitations in providing an adequate, comprehensive and thorough analysis of the numerous complex and dialectical                                

 related historical, political, socio-economic, cultural and ecological processes that stimulated the origin and ultimate demise of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.A.

Some factors that played a role in affecting the Civil Rights Movement are: movement centres, strategic planning, organising, charisma and pre-existing institutions. (Aldon D. Morris, page 277, 1984.)

However, an attempt will be made to present a general appraisal of a few factors such as the non-racial aspect of some organisations that participated in the Civil Rights Movement, charisma, the role of the media and the cold war in order to describe the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement.

The term "non-racial" in this article is used in preference to the terms "black", "blacks", "white", "whites", "Black and white", "Black and white unite", "race mixing", "biracial" and "multi-racial", because of their inadequacy as efficient analytical tools for the following reasons:

  (a)    Because of the negatively constructed connotated meanings and common-sense interpretations associated with these terms. There is the risk, implicit in the use of these terms, of constructing the concept of differences that are  defined in a vulgar, dichotomous, over-simplistic,  essentialist, reductionist and determinist manner thereby interpreting the somatic and phenotypical characteristics of human beings as objects of consciousness hence manipulating their behaviour attitudes, and political philosophy of protests.           

  (b)  The terms "black" and "white"  are deficient in  explaining the psychological, ideological, and political aspirations, intentions, and actions of the     human individual actors who voluntarily exercised their free will to question, disobey, reject, and challenge the traditional, assumed racial, racist, elitist, sexist, and negative stereotypical notions, values, creeds, beliefs and policies of themselves, other individuals, the state (both federal and local), the socio-economic, judicial, cultural and educational institutions in a valiant attempt to deconstruct, combat and negate the negative features of advanced industrialised free Capitalism, such as discrimination, segregation, racial bigotry, prejudice, unequal socio-economic opportunities, exploitation, oppression and fear.
 (c)   Such crude construction of differences based on superficial images and forms of appearances do not contribute to the appreciation of complex dialectical social, political, economic, cultural and ecological processes that are ever present and not always visible nor obviously apparent, although experienced in everyday common-sense interactions in social life. Rather, such imprecise, emotionally loaded and negatively connotated terms are prone to ambiguities, and only serves to foster further blurring of delicate contradictions at best, and depreciates the complex power relations and potentialities of and between individuals, social movements and a multitude of political, social, cultural, and economic institutions that interact in an intricate web of changing processes at worst.                         

(d)  Moreover, since Martin Luther King, a leading  Civil Rights activist, always emphasises "non-violence", an end to unjust laws, desegregation and civil rights across the U.S.A. It is appropriate to do justice to the Civil Rights Movement by avoiding reifying the terms "black", "white" and "race". Additionally, Martin Luther King’s philosophy was regarded as “colour blind”. (Manning Marable, page 218, 1991.)

Whenever or wherever there is oppression or tyranny, there will always be a challenge for emancipation however inadequate or undesirable.

Without oppression there is no fear, racism, sexism, and elitism.

There is no essential gender, race, class, nor nation.

The problem is sin not skin.

Socio-economic injustice and inequality are not because of skin pigmentation or ethnicity, it is in spite of ethnic categorisation and racialisation of the specifications of the human body.

The discovery of America although motivated by the loftiest of noble ideals and sanctioned with the best of civilised intentions with an impeccable constitution that is envied all over the world, was unsuccessful as a project that aimed at fulfilling and satisfying the hopes, dreams, basic needs for all, civil rights, social, economic and political justice and aspirations of human dignity for the majority of its citizens.

The capitalist model of development was celebrated and extolled in the U.S.A. as the panacea of socio-economic insecurity, alienation and human degradation.

 In other words, for ex-slaves, migrants and colonisers the U.S.A. was the "New World", "the land of opportunities, milk and honey", "liberty", "equality", "happiness"  and "the melting pot".

Ironically, the Civil Rights Movement was launched because of the failures of the democratic political, economic, social, cultural and media institutions of the U.S.A. to satisfy the needs of American citizens.

    THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Civil Rights Movement was not a single issue campaign. It embraced the politics of the person, family, community, culture, ecology, environment, state, media, youth, gender, class and global development.

 The  Civil Rights Movement was part of the historical process of protest, reform and change to liberalise or humanise the socio-economic environment of the U.S.A.

  As Andrew Young  stated on January 1990.

 “The issue (is) not class or poverty, Martin Luther King appealed to justice not the class   struggle” ( Marable, page 185,
1991.)

As a form of and part of the protest tradition in the U.S.A., the origin of the Civil Rights Movement has been alleged to have begun during the mid-1940’s passing through various stages of development lasting approximately two decades and reaching its zenith in the mid-1960’s.                                        

Periodically, the Civil Rights Era has been identified as:

(a)  (1945-54 )  The initial period of slow change.

       According to M. Marable, 1984.
“Blacks and an increasing sector of liberal white America came out of the war with a fresh determination to uproot racist
ideologies and institutions at home”. - (Cited by Tony Lancaster,  page 19, 1990.)

(b)  (1954- 60) The period of growing resentment.

       Louis Lomax: ‘The Negro Revolt’ - 1962, described the mood of a particular family as:

[The Browns, a Topeka, Kansas, Negro family, got fed up. Their daughter was a student at an inferior all-Negro  school;
she had been denied admission to the ‘white’ school . . . . they sued for the right to send their daughter to attend the
‘white’ school.]   - Cited by Tony Lancaster 1990.

(c)  (1960-65 ) The appearance of non-violent sincere robust action despite violent attempts to oppose the movement.                                      

As Marable  brilliantly narrates:

[Thirteen persons, including Farmer and SNCC activist John Lewis, travelled to the South, leaving Washington D.C.  
on 4 May 1961. Predictably, the biracial group encounters violent resistance Lewis and another Freedom Rider were assaulted in Rock Hill, South Carolina on 9th of  May.

 White mobs in Anniston, Alabama, attacked and burned one bus. In Montgomery, Alabama, white racists pulled Freedom Riders of the bus and administered a brutal beating. In Jackson, Mississippi, Farmer and a group of 26 other Freedom Riders representing SNCC and  SCLC  were given 67day jail sentences for sitting in the whites - only sections of the city’s bus depot.]  -  Marable, page 64, 1990.

Some of the main organisations involved in the battle for Civil Rights illustrated how complex and varied the origins, interests, and political complexion of the different participants of the Civil Rights Movement were:

These organisations and their policies were;

(a) NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

Founded in 1909 the NAACP aim was to promote civil rights through peaceful means, especially through the courts.

(b) NUL -National Urban League.

Formed in 1911 NUL demanded equal conditions and opportunities for black workers in  trade
unions and employment.

(c) CORE-Congress of Racial Equality.

 Founded in 1942. CORE advocated strong pacifist aims and non-violent protest.

(d) SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Formed in 1957 SCLC objective was the promotion of non-violent methods of protest, led by Martin Luther King.

(e) SNCC - Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee.

Founded in 1960 SNCC promoted black and white non-violent student protests and sit-ins.

(f) Black Muslims: Formed in 1930, they advocated a version of Islam that was fused with belief

 in black nationalism, self defence against violence and the establishment of a separate black state.

NUL, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC (before 1966) were non-racial to the extent that race, racial exclusiveness or the racialising of civil rights was not prioritised on their political or policy  agenda  to combat discrimination, segregation  and human degradation.

It is ironic that those organisations such as the Black Muslims and early organisations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association under the leadership of Marcus Garvey advocated race awareness, race polarisation and racial segregation while other organisations such as NUL, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC have been mobilising a highly successful campaign to desegregate civil society, thereby encouraging political participation, and creating socio-economic opportunities by heartening various individuals irrespective of their "racial" or "ethnic" specification without compromising, fraternising or championing policies that coincide with those of arrant racists, bigots, segregationists and the right.

         The "non-racial" factor.

This non-racial factor was imperative in not marginalising, stigmatising and eliminating individuals indiscriminately categorised or labelled negatively as belonging to an identifiable ‘racial’ or racialised ethnic group. Also the non-racial factor gives exposure and recognition to the role of women, youth, working class  individuals, students, democratic socialists, conservatives, Marxists, peace campaigners, idealists - both religious and atheists, the audience and sympathies  of the various numerous nation states all over the world.

The non-racial factor revealed the structural, environmental, subjective processes that reproduces, maintains and perpetuates unequal power, resources and treatment that is so often concealed under public, political and cultural discourses of oversimplified vulgar dichotomous reified terms designed to describe differences.

In other words discourses on differences do not adequately reveal nor explain the relations of power between and among individuals and institutions state or private, that is a prominent feature of social existence.

As James Baldwin  asserts
[What I find appalling- and really dangerous - is the American assumption that the Negro is so contented with his lot here that only the cynical agents of the Soviet Union can raise him to protest. It is a notion that contains an insult, implying as it does that Negroes can make no move unless they are manipulated.]   -  James Baldwin - ‘Nobody Knows My Name’, 1961.

An historical example that brilliantly illustrates the non-racial factor was demonstrated by the tenacious feet of hundreds of thousands of "powerless", "nameless" members of the “silent majority” and Civil Rights campaigners who were inflamed with the pulsating rhythms of the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement ascending to an exhilarating crescendo “We shall overcome. We shall all have peace one day. We shall all be free one day. Deep in our hearts we do believe that we shall overcome someday”.

These were some of the words of the poetry that expressed the passions, aspirations and desire for change as over 200,000 protesters ( including over 30,000 so-called whites ) celebrated on the famous “March on Washington”  on 28 / 8 / 63.

On arriving in Washington the Civil Rights campaigners bear witness to the magnificent oration of Martin Luther King - his best speech ever recorded. Part of which was;

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.                                        

If being "non-racial"  is good enough for Martin Luther King’s “four little children”, it is undeniably good enough for the hundreds of thousands of human beings who joined him on the historic “March to Washington”.

 The charismatic factor

Regarding the charismatic factor, Max Weber reasoned that leaders with charismatic powers were able at definite epochs on history to stimulate multitudes of people not because of organisations or organisational abilities but because followers were attracted to their visions, missions and personality in generating forceful movements capable of challenging and disrupting the normal functions of bureaucratic institutions of modern society, thus creating revolutionary changes.

The emergence of charismatic leaders to legitimise leadership status was according to Weber, due to their exceptional personalities and talent to preach and initiate new challenges and duties from followers.

Furthermore Max Weber stated that charismatic movements lose their charismatic procedures in the latter stages of the movements’ development, and if or when such movements do continue to exist they lose their distinct qualities and eventually subordinate their operations to the uniform rationalised processes prevailing in modern society.   (Aldon D. Morris page 278-9, 1984.)

Weber’s theory is of limited significance in recognising and explaining the emergence of the “Southern Civil Rights Movement”  and the role of Martin Luther King as founder and leader of the “Southern Christian Leadership Conference” (SCLC), in asserting the autonomous significance of charisma as a core factor.

However, Weber’s charismatic theory declines to reveal concerns such as organisation and resource mobilisation which was in motion in the Civil Rights Movement.

Nevertheless Resource Mobilisation Theory stresses the value of resources essential for the origin and development of the Civil Rights Movement, such as informal and formal organisations, leaders, money, people, and communication networks.                      

In other words the success of any social movement engaging in protests depends on the ability, skills, competence of individuals and groups to obtain access to control, manage and mobilise precious resources.

The SCLC which was led by Martin Luther King and other community leaders was developed from its inception on the basis of charisma and organisational resources. In fact the culture of charisma in the form of the church was already pre-eminent in various local communities predating the formation of SCLC.

The example of Martin Luther King stands out very clearly when the Montgomery Improvements Association nominated Rev. Martin Luther King a 23 - year old Baptist minister from Atlanta and who have been residing in Montgomery for only a year as president. (Tony Lancaster page 23, 1990.)                                      

Multitudes perceived Martin Luther King as a great leader with visions of a “beloved community”  free from racism and its causes and its effects. He gave dynamism to the Civil Rights Movement that embraced individuals across generations, social groups, and ethnically classified communities with the "non-violent", "non-racial"  tactics to implement strategic changes. Even when his life was threatened with danger during the Montgomery campaign when his house was bombed on January 1956.

Martin Luther King aptly summed up his objectives and tactics as:
[Non-violent resistance. . is not meant as a substitute for litigation and legislation, which must continue.
But  those who adhere to the method of non-violent direct action recognise that legislation and court orders tend only to
declare rights - they can never thoroughly deliver them. Only when people themselves begin to act are rights on paper
given life. . . . non-violent resistance is effective in . . . disarming opponents.
It exposes their moral defences, weakens their morals and . .works on their conscience. . . non-violence also says  you
can struggle without hating. We will not obey unjust laws ...we will do this peacefully, openly, cheerfully, because our
aim is to persuade.]  -  Martin Luther King - ‘ New York Times Magazine’. 5/8/1962. -  As cited by Tony Lancaster
page 23-24, 1990.
The charisma, flair, personality, philosophy and wit of Martin Luther King’s leadership of the SCLC's policy of non-violent protests and ultimately the successful campaigning by other leaders and organisations of the Civil Rights Movement were possible because of access to and the professional competence displayed by the intellectuals in maximising the advantages of the mass media. In this respect the Civil Rights Movement may be classified as a contemporary or ‘new’  social movement.

   New technology - The role of the media.

The socio-historical significance of the Civil Rights Movement in America was made popular at a particular historical conjuncture when fundamental changes were occurring in the political and socio-economic systems, innovations in electronic communication technologies, and the increasing expectations and the demands by less privileged individuals, social groups, and nations world-wide for a higher standard of living.

Traditionally the old social movements’ intellectuals had a direct relationship with the members of the movements mediating as interpreters, articulators and ideologists of the groups ( collectives ). The audience was limited by the range of physical mobility to the intellectual. The intellectual’s ability, skills, personal performance, and power mediating through private networks, had a significant role to play in the interaction between individual and social movement.

Furthermore, social contact between the individual, social movement and the public at large was negotiated through the printed word produced and distributed by the movement and by public appeal.

The political pamphlet was mostly understood as a way of making contact, creating spontaneous communication between activists and possible sympathisers.

In other words the written word was an instrument of recruitment creating opportunities for social movement intellectuals to improve, and demonstrate their skills at debating and presenting their policies in direct face to face communication with an immediate audience.

The new social movement intellectuals rely more extensively on the role of the mass media to gain access to a world-wide  audience. Contemporary social movements must be able to organise themselves as credible earnest and reliable representatives of change by communicating with the general public.

Image building is a marketable commodity, and in a democratic environment public opinion, consensus, or legitimacy is dependent on the majority of individuals being persuaded, or educated through the mass telecommunication media.

Since the mass media is an open currency it is imperative that a successful social movement must be able to adapt survival strategies against other interests such as the state, or private monopoly media corporations, and the internal media established by other social movements.

Modern commercialised computerised advanced technological mass communication systems reaches distant audiences, sympathisers, supporters and social movement activists globally. Mistakes are functional to the communication process. Imperatives such as edited words and actions, standardisations, routinisations and simplifications of data are required, and “right - the - first - time” impressions are fabricated to eliminate correcting.                                        

Organisations prominent in the Civil Rights Movement such as the NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC were able to exploit independently the opportunities created by the mass media. They were able to publicise, and transmit their messages successfully targeting a comprehensive audience despite the complications resulting from the different tactics and strategies of each organisation. For example, the NAACP a professional and reformist organisation oriented towards direct action, views the mass media as a means of influencing the powerful elites who control, own and run the institutions they attempt to change, that is the courts and the federal government.

SCLC and SNCC had more advanced communication networks to co-ordinate the actions of local groups and to counter the messages of the mass media.

SNCC adapted the most independent stance towards the established media, thereby pursuing alternative methods and means of communication in their attempt to operate in local communities.

The mass media also highlighted the conflicting personalities between the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

When the leadership of SNCC was changed in 1966, the new leaders led by Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown advocated “Black Power” and racial separation. SNCC programmes for local control and participatory democracies were more of a menace to the political status quo of the U.S.A. than to the reformist professionalist approach of the NAACP or the church centred SCLC.

During the mass media reported speeches at the 1963 “March on Washington” John Lewis a SNCC’s  speaker created tension at the Civil Rights Movement Rally when he articulated a notorious phrase concerning “burning Jim Crow to the ground - non-violently”, while Martin Luther King’s speech was well rehearsed and read from a prepared text blended with his oratory skills acquired as a preacher.  ( R. Eyerman and A. Jamison page 143, 1991.)

Post World War Two

- The cold war era.

The era during and after World War Two signalled a more vibrant stage in the development of civil rights demands, expectations and Supreme Court Legislative decisions. For example, in a famous case “Smith versus Allwright” on 3 / 4 / 1944 the Supreme court concluded the use of the all-white primary election by an eight to one margin.

By Spring 1946 in Texas and in Georgia there were 75,000 and 100,000 “black” registered voters respectively. Also in May 1946 the High Court ruled as unconstitutional the State Laws requiring segregation on interstate buses. Finally the famous Brown versus Board of Education decision of 17 / 5 / 1954 decreed the desegregation of public schools thereby concluding our forty years of legal legitimisation of Jim Crow practices. (Robert Weisbrot page 11,1990. M. Marable  page 18,  1991.)                                      

The Civil Rights Movement is a complex socio-historical process predating the spectacular events of the 1960’s era.

The furore of anti-communism that emanated in the post World War Two period contributed to the victimisation, cajoling and demise of numerous individuals and members of organisations labelled “communist” or engaging in “un-American activities” involving in anti-racist civil rights struggles.

Anti-communist rhetoric divided various civil rights organisations along class lines, marginalising and thus repressing non-conformist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist working class leaders and activists and their ideologies of socialism and communism.

 According to Manning Marable:

“The impact of the Cold War, the anti-communist purges and near totalitarian social environment, had a  devastating
effect upon the  cause of civil rights and civil liberties”. - (M. Marable  page 18, 1991.)

Paul Robeson a staunch campaigner for civil liberties including adequate housing projects, against the poll tax, anti-lynch laws and for rights to organise trade unions, was an example of an anti-racist civil rights activist that was dishonoured by the anti-communist rage.  (Tony Lancaster  page 20, 1990  M. Marable  page 23, 1991.)

In 1949 at the CIO Convention the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union with its 50,000 strong membership was expelled for allegedly being dominated by leftist. In the following months 11 progressive trade unions representing almost 1 million workers were expelled from the CIO.

During 1949, 15 states passed ‘anti-subversive laws’.

By 1951, the state of Tennessee made the death penalty mandatory for anyone advocating revolutionary Marxist ideas.

For many industrial and rural agricultural workers experiencing powerlessness, exploitation, and racist abuse and discrimination, the communists were valiant campaigners for justice, equality, and desegregation.

However, the so-called “black” preachers denunciate the Marxists for being atheists. The so-called “black” entrepreneurs, who were committed to the capitalist free market enterprise socio-economic system wanted to embellish themselves by accepting, legitimising, and maintaining the prevailing socio-economic order.

The middle class leaders, preachers and other professionals made varied mixed responses toward the anti-communist political, public and social policies of the Cold War Era.

Some condemned communism publicly to obtain political support from many anti-communist liberals and the Truman administration.  ( M. Marable  page 21.  1991.)

The prevalence of middle class interests within the NAACP oriented the organisation’s programme towards anti-communistic pro-Democratic Party (despite the anti-working class interests of the Democratic Party) policies.

The NAACP under the leadership of Walter White persuaded voters influenced by the “Black”  vote appeal to vote for Truman in the interests of civil rights. Truman obtained 90,000 votes (70% of the “black” vote ) compared with 21,000 votes claimed by Wallace whose Progressive Party advocated a better anti-racist policy.

Truman set up a commission on civil rights in 1946 and declared that “the national government should assume leadership in our American civil rights programmes”.  (Tony Lancaster  page 19, 1990.)

The “black” vote was significant in providing the margin necessary for Truman’s victory. His promised reforms at improving race relations in the U.S.A. continued modestly at local and Federal levels after 1949.

Truman’s anti-communist strategy silenced and isolated numerous progressives and anti-racists for years and committed most so-called “black” middle class leaders to ally with the Democratic Presidents.

Walter White as leader of NAACP conducted a ruthless opposition crusade towards the American left including the famous historian, and sociologist W.E.B. DuBois at the outbreak of the cold war.    ( M. Marable  page 22, 1991.)                                      

Ironically NAACP publicly pretends to represent the interests of so-called “black” but during Cold War, as DuBois’s case clearly illustrates, this policy unfortunately did not include those who challenged the structural causes of exploitation, oppression, socio-economic inequality, racism and segregation.

Harold Cruise  brilliantly declares:

[There are class divisions among Negroes, and it is misleading to maintain that the interests of the Negro working and
middle classes are identical. To be sure, a middle-class NAACP leader and an illiterate farm-hand in Mississippi or a
porter who lives in Harlem all want civil   rights. However, it would be enlightening to examine why the NAACP is not
composed of  Negro porters and farmhands, but only of Negroes of a certain type]  -    Harold Cruise, ‘Rebellion or
Revolution’ cited by M. Marable  page 13, 1919.

Conclusion.

In general, for hundreds of thousands of individuals and many organisations, the "non-racial"  factor polarised and sustained solidarity within the Civil Rights Movement with an understanding that the real enemy is sin not skin.  In terms of "commonsense" the civil rights activists who did not pursue "racial"  rights were not "colour blind" (as alleged contemptuously by the"race"  conscious activists) for they were aware of the obvious superficial differences of the colours of their skins, clothes and environments but the colours of these biological, cultural and ecological specifications were not used as objects of consciousness to colour (perverse)   the aims of the campaign for democratic, social, economic, political, cultural and personal rights with social responsibility, security, equal treatment without privilege or discrimination, justice, health and safety, happiness and peace as promised by the ideals of the American Constitution.

The charismatic factor explained the role of Martin Luther King played in demonstrating his oratory skills and his vision supported by non-violent organisational tactics.

In addition the media factor illustrates the advantages of developing the potential success of a new social movement in expanding, reaching, and motivating activists, supporters, and adversaries world-wide providing the social movements’ intellectuals are competent professionally to obtain a media friendly posture, while maintaining a credibility as agents for change.

 Furthermore, the autonomous nature of the mass media imposes some alienating conditions on new social movements such as editorialship, simplification, narrowing of perspectives to attract a non-initiative audience, indirect and impersonal relationship with the audience, and competition from other mass media interests attempting to reach the same public.

Moreover, the Cold War era factor help to explain the process of excluding individuals, social movements and communities representing, belonging or sympathising with the ideologies, demands and interests of the exploited, oppressed and powerless working classes of the various ethnic, racial, gender and national groupings from the mainstrean reformist political culture that legitimised the prevailing status quo under the so-called anti-communist hysteria "reds under the beds"  cleansing policy.

The consequences of this anti-communist policy were:

(1) Ultimately created the foundations that paved the way for the development of the conservative, 
right wing and neo-fascist ideological orientations and polices of the non-working class organisations
that survived the cold war era to the present.

(2) The individuals, leaders and activists of non-working class organisations were legitimised,

protected and enjoyed certain benefits from their patronised legal status especially from the social

policies that were implemented (including affirmative action) to manage "good"  race relations

that resulted from the passing of civil rights legislation during the mid-nineteen sixties.

(3)  Most significantly the exclusion, undermining, penalising and contemptuous treatment of

individuals, organisations and social movements labelled as participating in "un-American" activities
from main stream popular political culture and discourse.

Additionally, the post war factor phenomenon highlights the concessions the U.S.A. administration
was prepared to make by reforming, liberalising and humanising the negative vulgar overt features of
its social policy regarding race relations to achieve a respectable credible status as the new
hegemonic power in the post World War Two world order, thus, mobilising public opinion within the
U.S.A. and striving to secure the support from the elites of the newly emerging independent Asian,
African, and Latin American Nations in a crusade for freedom and democracy while challenging the
evil empire of  the U.S.S.R. for global supremacy.

Bibliography.

Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison (1991) 'Social    Movements' ,  Polity press.

Deepak S. Gaikwad (1987), 'Civil Rights Movement in America', Deep and deep publications, New Delhi.

Tony Lancaster (1990) 'Civil Rights in America', Macmillan.

Aldon D. Morris (1984) 'The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement',  The Free Press.

Robert Weisbrot (1990), 'Freedom Bound', W.W Norton and Company.

Manning Marable (1991), 'Race Reform, and Rebellion',  University Press of Mississippi.

Sara Evans (1979),  'Personal Politics'  Knopf,  New York.

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