It’s up to us

The Civil Rights Movement focused almost exclusively on ending racial discrimination by establishing laws that provided victims with an opportunity for legal redress. A primary concern of the movement was also to develop more amicable relations between blacks and whites. Economic issues were essentially ignored.

Nothing illustrates this point more clearly than the apparent lack of concern with the swindle involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Black riders were required to pay full fare but they did not receive the same services as the white patrons. Blacks had to move to the rear, even if it required that they surrender their seats to whites filling from the front.

Opponents of the system focused exclusively on the damage to the human dignity of the black passengers. Little was said about blacks paying more for less. That lack of concern for economic issues which began with the Montgomery Boycott on December 1, 1955, seemed to characterize the movement from then onward.

Now there is a serious problem in black America. The Civil Rights Movement is essentially over but there is no widely organized effort to move on to the next campaigns which are essential to achieve racial equality — politics and building wealth.

The reason for this is that a number of black leaders who built their reputations during the Civil Rights Movement are reluctant to acknowledge that their time on the stage has passed. They recognize that even the term “civil rights” has great emotional resonance with the people so they are reluctant to let it go.

It is important for African Americans to realize that the Civil Rights Movement is over and they have won. Of course some minor skirmishes are yet to be fought, but there has been a major transformation in the structure of personal rights provided by federal law in the United States. The chain of racial discrimination has been broken so blacks are free to walk away from the tree.

However, blacks are well aware that their status is not yet what they had hoped. Before them lies a battle even more complex than the one they just fought. The struggle for political power and wealth requires a level of sophistication not needed in the civil rights battle. Also, there are no constitutional rights to require that blacks become politically powerful and wealthy. Now blacks must rely entirely on their own resources.

There is a strong belief among African Americans that all people are God’s children, and even those who are presently abusive because of racial bigotry must be viewed as wayward cousins for whom the hope of redemption nonetheless exists. But there is no cultural ethos for thriving as businessmen and women in America’s corporate society.

African Americans with sufficient education to understand the complex global economy must step forward as the new leadership. They must help the people to become savers and investors rather than mere consumers. And they must build an economic base to provide jobs and business opportunities for others.

African Americans cannot thrive as a significant ethnic group without such an effort.

Melvin B. Miller

Editor & Publisher
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