Inside Agitators

How did the vastly outnumbered black Southerners in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s succeed against a white power structure that seemed uniformly hostile? Contrary to widespread belief, argues David Chappell, a crucial role was played by "inside agitators" - white Southerners sympathetic to the cause of desegregation. Chappell shows how years of experience gave black Southerners unique insights into the strengths and weaknesses of "their" white folks. These insights not only helped black leaders to enlist the help of white liberals and moderates but also to manipulate hard-line segregationists into behaviour that was often politically self-destructive. In short, Chappell contends, black Southerners defeated segregation because they understood white Southerners better than segregationists did. Case studies from Montgomery, Tallahassee, Little Rock and Albany, Georgia, highlight the movement's successes and failures. Chappell then extends his analysis to the national government to show how white Southerners became the chief instrument of federal intervention for civil rights. Based on more than 70 personal interviews, as well as on previously unpublished material from the Martin Luther King papers and elsewhere, "Inside Agitators" provides a reinterpretation of the civil rights movement and the reasons for its triumph.