Activists and Asphalt: A Successful Anti-expressway Movement in a "New South City"

This paper applies the resource mobilization approach to social movements to a successful interracial anti-expressway movement in Durham, North Carolina in 1978 and 1979. Low-income Blacks from the Crest Street community (CSC) and young White community activists in the People's Alliance (PA) formed the core of a citywide coalition which upset the plans of Durham's conservative business-political elite to build an expressway through Crest Street. The self-interest of CSC combined with PA's dual reasons (sympathy for CSC and self-interest as city residents opposed to urban expressways) to mobilize support for the movement. The building of the coalition, the preparation of a lengthy antiexpressway position paper by PA, and PA's skilled interaction with the media are consistent with the tenets of the resource mobilization approach. However, the approach underestimates the importance of the supposedly "resource-scarce" CSC in motivating PA to build the movement. It also understates the place of emotional commitments, which were as present in the Durham case as the cost-benefit calculations stressed in the resource mobilization approach. The paper also notes the potential importance of groups like PA for the contemporary urban South: former student activists who sink local roots can help build political coalitions of Blacks and Whites unified around common economic interests and/or their opposition to the White conservative elite. Cet article applique le procédé mobilisation de ressources aux mouvements sociaux dans le but d'analyser un mouvement interracial contre la construction d'une voie de vitesse à Durham au Caroline du Nord au cours des années 1978 et 1979. La communauté de Crest Street (Crest Street Community) (CSC) est composée de Noirs avec des revenues bas et de jeunes activistes Blancs du groupe Alliance du Peuple (People's Alliance) (PA). Ces deux groupes composent le noyau d'une coalition populaire qui a bouleversé les plans de l'élite conservative en vue de construire la voie de vitesse à travers Crest Street. Les intérêts personnels du CSC joints à ceux du PA (la sympatie pour le CSC et leurs propres intérêts en tant que résidents de la ville contre une telle construction en milieu urbain) ont servi à mobiliser l'appui au mouvement. Les principes du procédé de mobilisation de ressources entrent en accord avec la formation de la coalition, la préparation d'un long article par le groupe PA traitant des avis contre la construction de la voie, et, l'