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Young argues that the U.S. Negro, having suffered centuries of injustice, requires not mere equality, but a limited period of special treatment, to enable him to accept his legal rights. He wants a massive, domestic Marshall Plan, with emphasis on slum clearance and job training. Still, Young refuses to let the Urban League name be used in the activist demonstrations going on across the nation. Says he: "You can holler, protest, march, picket, demonstrate; but somebody must be able to sit in on the strategy conferences and plot a course. There must be the strategists, the researchers and the professionals to carry out a program. That's our role."
CORE: On the Road
The Congress of Racial Equality makes claim to inventing the sit-in and the Freedom Ride. Formed in 1942, it first tried the sit-in technique that year on a Chicago restaurateur named Jack Spratt. Says CORE'S National Director James Farmer, 43: "The N.A.A.C.P. is the Justice Department, the Urban League is the State Department, and we are the nonviolent Marines."
Farmer, a World War II conscientious objector, describes himself as a disciple of Gandhi. Says he: "It's going to be a long, hot summer. These spontaneous demonstrations are going to be a problem. Our job is to channelize them constructively. I feel very strongly for nonviolence." Yet for one reason or another, violence often accompanies CORE's demonstrations.
S.C.L.C.: In One Man's Image
The Southern Christian Leadership Council owes its existence almost entirely to the inspirational qualities of its founder: the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King started S.C.L.C. to give him organizational backing after his successful Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. But for quite a while, King suffered an eclipse—and S.C.L.C. seemed almost ready to go out of business.
King came back this past April, when he organized civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. Since then, S.C.L.C. has been just about the hottest organization in the civil rights field—much to the discomfiture of other groups. "King," complains the leader of one, "is getting all the money." Yet as an organization, S.C.L.C. would probably fold tomorrow were King to leave it.
S.N.C.C.: On the Streets
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (dubbed "SNICK") was formed in 1960 at a Raleigh meeting of Southern Negro college students. That meeting was called by none other than Martin Luther King—but King was unwilling to move fast enough to satisfy the youngsters. Brash, reckless and disorganized, SNICK is headed by a 35-year-old Chicagoan named James Forman. With its shock troops heading into Southern towns to start segregation protests and voter-registration drives, SNICK counts success in terms of bloodied noses, beatings at the hands of cops, and days spent by its members in jail. The bigger, better-organized civil rights organizations shudder at SNICK'S bobtail operations. "They don't consult anybody." But for raw courage and persistence, SNICK wins grudging admiration even from its rivals.