Politics: The Turning Point

In the classic pattern, revolution leads to hope, hope to frustration, frustration to fury. Thus it is that so many revolutions end by devouring their own children and destroying the goals for which they were fought. This, it was increasingly apparent last week, may prove to be the fate of the civil rights revolution in America. During a summer of insensate riots and black-power demagoguery, the Negro's legitimate struggle for full citizenship sadly lost momentum, while white reaction against Negro excesses continued to mount.

The commonly accepted—if ill-defined—name for this reversal of...

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