Re-examination. What the Negroes expect, and what they are getting to a
degree that would have been astonishing at the start of 1963, is a change of
attitude. "A lot of people," says Chicago's Negro Baptist Minister Arthur
Brazier, "are re-examining their motives. Even if this means that a lot of
hidden prejudices have been uncovered in Northerners, good will be gained from
the fact that Americans have been forced to act on days other than Brotherhood
Days and Weeks."
Often the changes in attitudes are tiny in scope but broad in meaning. No
longer do the starters at Miami's municipal golf courses ask a trio of white
men if they will accept a Negro fourth; they merely assign the Negro, and
foursome heads onto the course. A New York adoption agency is asking white
families to take Negro children. Louise Morgan, a former Chicago advertising
executive, says: "I had conned myself into thinking I was a liberal. The rude
awakening occurred less than a year ago, when a Negro writer and his family
sought an apartment in my building and were turned down. I had met him. He was
bright and a gentleman. Yet I didn't lift a finger to help him. That's all
changed now." In California, Real Estate Dealer Richard S. Hallmark quit his
job in protest over the commonly accepted methods of restricting Negro house
buying. "I had never sold to a Negro family in my life, but it grated on my
conscience," he says. "I'm tired of people telling me they don't give a goddam
about the law and that they're just not going to sell or rent to `niggers.' I'm
not a martyr or a crusader, but they made me ashamed. The colored people are
here to stay, so we might as well get used to it."
In addition to marching in demonstrations, clergymen are welcoming Negroes
to their all-white congregations in many places, and are mounting mail
campaigns to Congress in support of the civil rights bill. Several Roman
Catholic archdioceses now require a specific number of sermons on race
relations. The National Council of Churches has budgeted $300,000 to support
civil rights activities.
A Different Image. The most striking aspect of the revolt, however, is the
change in Negroes themselves. The Invisible Man has now become plainly
visible--in bars, restaurants, boards of education, city commissions, civic
committees, theaters and mixed social activities, as well as in jobs. Says
Mississippi's N.A.A.C.P. President Aaron Henry: "There has been a re-evaluation
of our slave philosophy that permitted us to be satisfied with the leftovers at
the back door rather than demand a full serving at the family dinner table."
With this has come a new pride in race. Explains Dr. John R. Larkins, a Negro
consultant in North Carolina's Department of Public Welfare: "Negroes have a
feeling of self-respect that I've never seen in all my life. They are more
sophisticated now. They have begun to think, to form positive opinions of
themselves. There's none of that defeatism. the American Negro has a different
image of himself." Moreover, says U.C.L.A.'s Negro Psychiatrist J. Alfred
Cannon, "We've got to look within ourselves for some of the answers. We must be
able to identify with ourselves as Negroes. Most Negro crimes of violence are
directed against other Negroes; it's a way of expressing the Negro's
self-hatred. Nonviolent demonstrations are a healthy way of channeling these
feelings. But they won't be effective unless the Negro accepts his own
identity."
Where most Negroes once deliberately ignored their African beginnings and
looked down on the blacks of that continent, many now identify strongly with
Africa--though not to the point where they would repudiate their American
loyalties--and take pride in the emergence of the new nations there. Some Negro
women are affecting African-style hairdos; Negroes are decorating their homes
with paintings and sculpture that reflect interest in African culture. There
has been a decline in sales of "whitening" creams, hair straighteners and
pomades, which for years found a big market among Negroes obsessed with ridding
themselves of their racial identity.
The Lull. There has been an inevitable lull in visible civil rights
activity since the March on Washington, and this has disheartened some Negroes.
Says Richard L. Banks, secretary of the Governor's advisory committee on civil
rights in Massachusetts: "When the Negroes are not in the streets any more, I'm
awfully afraid that some of the people who responded will forget it." But the
lull is deceptive, and it is probably best described by James Baldwin. Says he,
"This lull is like a football huddle. People are reassessing. They are
planning. We will flush the villain out."
In fact, most Negro leaders are waiting for the outcome of the civil
rights still in Congress, and are counseling patience until at least the end of
this month. They are also carefully gauging the position of Lyndon Johnson. So
far, the President's resolute support of the civil rights bill has been
encouraging. Says the Rev. L. Sylvester Odom of Denver's African Methodist
Episcopal Church: "Personally I wouldn't be surprised if President Johnson gets
more out of Congress than President Kennedy could have. He may not get as
deeply into the hearts of the people, but he may do pretty well with the
Congress, and after all that is what counts." Degrees Virginia-born Social
Psychologist Thomas Pettigrew: "Johnson will be tougher with the South. He
knows them. Kennedy treated the South as if it were Boston. As a Southerner, I
know damn well you don't treat the South that way. Johnson won't play
patty-cake with them."
