I've been thinking about that whole 'those who forget history are doomed to repeat it' thing. And, I've been thinking about the Civil Rights movement, and what parallels might be helpful as we wrestle with today's painful progressive complexities:
The mobilization and logistics of the actual march itself was administered by Bayard Rustin, a civil rights veteran and organizer of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, the first of the Freedom Rides to test the Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel. Rustin was a long-time associate of both Randolph and Dr. King. With Randolph concentrating on building the march's political coalition, Rustin built and led the team of activists and organizers who publicized the march and recruited the marchers, coordinated the buses and trains, provided the marshals, and set up and administered all of the logistic details of a mass march in the nation's capital.
more below the fold...
The march was not universally supported among African-Americans. Some civil rights activists were concerned that it might turn violent, which could undermine pending legislation and damage the international image of the movement. The march was condemned by Malcolm X, spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, who termed it the "farce on Washington".
from Wikipedia
in fact:
Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement.[81] He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment and said that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a "chump".[82][83] He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington".[84] He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive".[85]
from Wikipedia
Wow. That struck me. It's instructive to think that if Malcolm were a Kossack and the Civil Rights movement was happening in the same way now, he would be derisive of the effort, frustrated with its peaceful intentions in the face of the consistent violence from the right wing of that day (and this). He may not have acknowledged the importance of working within government at all.
I don't have some grand strategy to help bring folks together. I just found this to be an interesting look back. Actually, for more than the obvious reasons, I've always been fascinated by the March, because my parents took me to DC with them, as a very small girl. I don't remember it at all. But I always talk about it proudly, just as I do the fact that I sat on Eleanor Roosevelt's lap...Of course, that had more to do with the goodness and savvy of my parents than it had to do with me;-)
Anyway, so, how did Dr. King and other non-violent activists feel when being castigated by Malcolm and other passionate separatists? I can't imagine it felt particularly motivating, even if they may have been able to understand the reasonable 'eye for an eye' nature of Malcolm's disdain. I mean, Black people were treated in a way that is absolutely unconscionable for humans to treat each other, supported by the system/people in the American mainstream and backed with enormous national denial. Separatists' anger at a nonviolent approach that was incremental and legislation-focused was understandable.
People at the varying ends and in the middle of the movement got angry at each other, and that had its justifications, too.
I just can't shake the feeling, though, that if we could find a way to work together more tightly, we'd waste less time and get more done.