Community Structure and the Role of the Negro Leader-Agent

As the Negro (Ne) revolt grows in strength, there are increasing instances of confrontation between Ne sub-communities & the larger, white (Wh) dominated communities of which they are segments. Certain structural characteristics of the Ne community affect the role of the Ne leader as an agent in negotiations with white leaders. They may, in turn, influence the nature & extent of desegregation. The Ne community is a true community in that it is characterized by locality & community sentiment. It lacks the formal structure of the larger community & most of its assoc's are weak, inferior & relatively powerless imitations of the assoc's of the Wh-community. Moreover, they are not integrated into the powerful & complex instit'al structure of the Wh community. Thus most Ne leaders have had little experience in the past as real rather than `make-believe' community leaders. When confrontation leads to negotiation, the Ne leader-agent speaks as a charismatic leader in a soc movement to Wh agents who are experts in a bur'ed soc structure. He is often handicapped by speaking as a 'non-expert' to Wh experts in such areas as employment & housing. He may be frustrated by the conservatizing influence of the complex, bur'tic community structure & the diffuse nature of the Wh decision-making structure. Hence he tends to mistake the tactics of bargaining for expressions of personal bigotry & to break off negotiations. He also tends to oversimplify the community structure & demand more of one sub-system, gov, than it can accomplish. His major handicap, however, is that he is not yet a part of the decision-making structure of the community & has difficulty in establishing the legitimacy of his role as spokesman for the Ne segment of his community. Lack of experience as a negotiator further handicaps him. But paradoxically the only people who can legitimatize his role & soc'ize him for it are his Wh antagonists. Until Wh leaders accept the Ne leader as a legitimate bargaining agent & permit him to gain competence in this role, he will respond almost exclusively to the strident demands of the Ne protest movement & scarcely at all to the complexity of the problems of a changing soc system. AA.