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At the invitation of the White House, representatives of civil rights groups began talks with the White House last month to frame a compromise bill that Bush could sign. But with the White House still having failed to put forward any alternative language, the civil rights groups are saying privately that they may withdraw from the talks, which they charge may be no more than an Administration device to delay Senate action on the bill.
As the showdown on the civil rights bill demonstrates, Mandela's presence in the U.S. throws a sharper light on domestic racial matters. At the first stop on his itinerary, the mostly black Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, the crowd needed little encouragement to draw comparisons between the problems of South African blacks and their own dilemmas. As he spoke about the inadequacy of schools for blacks in South Africa, some of his listeners shouted back, "Same here!" When he went on to complain that in South Africa whites control the education of blacks, others in the crowd picked up the chant: "Same here, same here!"
Such powerful emotional connections are likely to ensure that the U.S. keeps up the pressure as Mandela wages his battle against apartheid. But at the same time that his legend grows here, the realities of day-to-day political struggle have cut into his popularity at home, even among those whose aspirations he has spent half a lifetime representing. Were he to become the first elected black leader of postapartheid South Africa, the resulting immersion in the messy doings of government could make things still more trying for him. Knowing that he remains a hero in America could help to sustain him if those difficult days ever come.