The strategy of protest: problems of negro civic action

Abstract

The logical and empirical elements of bargaining are receiving increased attention as the effort proceeds to fashion an analytical tool useful for better understanding the nature of controversy. In many of these discussions, the focus has been on those who enter into the bargaining relationship out of either necessity or hope of gain (4, 9). The notion of bargaining is simplified if one assumes that the need for or desirability of bargaining is given. This is the case when two businessmen, for example, seek goals which are partially incompatible but individually attractive. Each stands to gain if his end can be realized, and to realize it he must deal with the other fellow. There is, in short, an inducement for each to bargain. Equally interesting is the situation in which one party seeks a goal which it can realize without obtaining concessions from a second party. The second party opposes the realization of that goal, but has nothing which the first party needs or wants, and hence finds it difficult to place itself in a position in which the first party must bargain. This might be called the problem of the powerless. It arises, for example, when a disfranchised group seeks a law giving it the right to vote but, lacking the vote, has difficulty recruiting lawmakers who will support its cause. The most important group today which must act from a position of near powerlessness is the Negro. This article will (a) sketch some of the logical elements involved in attempts by the powerless to wield power, (b) relate these elements to certain empirical factors characteristic of the Negro in large Northern cities, and (c) describe the consequences of this situation as revealed by issues implicating Negro interests which were studied in Chicago.