Negro Leadership after the Social Crisis: An Analysis of Leadership Changes in Montgomery, Alabama

Data, in 7 tables, on Montgomery leadership before & after the civil rights protests, supports the conclusion that both the white & the Negro communities favored a reversion from protest to accommodation. Aggressive Negro leadership in Montgomery was diminished as the consequence of an almost indestructible soc situation. There has been little visible alteration in the 'Southern credo' or 'Southern way of life' since the bus boycott. The white community is resistant to change. Those soc forces which have produced changes represent superficialities scarcely penetrating the important layers of resistance. Since the protest, Negro leadership has remained in the hands of those who tacitly or explicitly subscribe to the theory of accommodation. In summary: (1) protest movements do not necessarily make for permanent alterations of the Negro leadership structure from an accommodative to a protest type, & (2) where the protest leader replaces the accommodative type as a response to public demand for soc action, the symbolic representation needed often requires charismatic leadership. The realization of a limited goal may in time, however, diminish the importance of the charismatic leader. The protest leader, having served as a unifying force, is no longer needed & the accommodative leader can resume routine & perhaps a more realistic goal achievement. Leadership in the soc crisis may indeed be a r of the changing conditions of the community as well as a factor in the process of change itself. M. Maxfield.