Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 10. The Urban League - 11. The Commission on Interracial Cooperation
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
842 An American Dilemma
5ng as self-evident that there should be only one unified Negro move-
ment.®^
II. The Commission on Interracial Cooperation*
The Commission on Interracial Cooperation, or the Interracial Commis-
sion, as it is commonly known, like the N.A.A.C.P. and the Urban League,
is not a Negro movement proper but a joint effort by whites and Negroes.^
While the two former organizations have a national scope and their central
offices are in New York, the Interracial Commission works in the South only
and has its center in Atlanta, which is also the headquarters of the Ku Klux
Klan and the capital of Georgia, one of the most backward states in the
Union.
This is indicative of much. The N.A.A.C.P. as a militant protest organiza-
tion needs to work in an atmosphere where it can speak and act freely. The
Urban League as a social service institution for unadjusted Negroes in
industrial cities needs to be near the main concentrations of urban Negroes
as well as near the chief centers of white philanthropy. But the Interracial
Commission has set itself the much more difficult task of working from
within to improve race relations in the region they are worst. The other
two organizations can be ^^national.” The Interracial Commission needs to
be recognized as ^‘Southern.” It can receive grants from Northern phi-
lanthropy, which is an established Southern pattern, but, in order not to
have its work appear as ‘‘outside meddling,” the Commission must have
its seat in the South, its leaders and officers must be Southerners, and they
must lay stress on regional pride and patriotism.
There are more differences which should be understood in the same light.
In the other two organizations, Negroes played an important role almost
from the start and soon took over almost the entire political work. They
gradually became predominantly Negro organizations. The Interracial
Commission, on the other hand, has been much more exclusively the out-
“
In our analysis of the interracial movement we choose to concentrate on the Commission
for Interracial Cooperation and its local affiliates. It should not be inferred that we under-
estimate the other agencies for interracial work even if we do not give any specific account
of them. Much of what we have to say on the Atlanta Commission has bearing on some of
the other agencies as well. Other agencies like the Commission on Race Relations of the
Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America and the Interracial Departments of
the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. have different purposes, methods and sponsorship. (For
analyses of these agencies, see Bunche, of, cit,y Vol. 3, pp. 498 ff., and Paul £. Baker,
of, cif,, pp. 24 ff.)
**The following short analysis of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation is based
upon the writer’s own observations and upon Bunche, of, cit,^ Vol. 3, pp. 444 ff., Paul E.
Baker, of, cit,y pp. 17 ff., various publications of the Commission, information given by
Howard W. Odum, Will W. Alexander, R. B. Eleazer. Jessie Daniel Ames, Emily H.
Clay of the Commission, and Arthur F. Raper, formerly the Research Secretary of the
Commission.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
