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Filling the gap left by King is no easy task. King was not only a superb orator, but he also had credentials—such as the Nobel Prize—that impressed the white power structure. Though Abernathy's assets are far less gilt-edged and his speaking style retains brimstone Baptist elements, he grows more sophisticated as he emerges from the comparative obscurity in which he lived under King. Says Mrs. Abernathy: "I guess you could have called him the man in the shadow."
He is not yet out of the shadow. Before King was slain, there was strong rivalry at the second-echelon level of the S.C.L.C. The shock of his death brought the new leaders together, but the organization may fall into disarray. There are no obvious, immediate challengers to Abernathy. S.C.L.C.'s executive vice president, the Rev. Andrew Young, is more nearly on King's intellectual level than is Abernathy, but he is light-skinned and strikes some Negroes as too remote. Another aide, the Rev. Bernard Lee, is so outspokenly hostile to whites that his accession might dry up S.C.L.C.'s funds.
Unless Abernathy settles down to some long-range planning in place of the pulpit vagaries he has relied upon so far, he could conceivably be supplanted—or the organization could follow its founder to the grave. For the time being, though, Abernathy is plainly relishing his new position. "We are going to stay in Washington," he declares repeatedly, "until Congress decides to put an end to poverty in this country."