Learning from Andrew Young: A tale of two Civil Rights Movements
Something that is evident from listening to Andrew Young is that he is a man of convictions. When he is sat down and interviewed, we as listeners are given a deep look into the formation of his convictions, starting from his youth. His sense of race pride and dignity was instilled in him from his grandmother who encouraged him to strike back in self-defense when belittled by racial slurs. From his education we learn that he went from being the only Black person on the campus of his summer program to USC to then leaving to attend Howard. We can see that he is seeking out something.
His courage was displayed in standing up to the KKK when he assisted in launching a voter registration drive in the deep south. Here in this recounting of Andrew Young we can hear him talk about a struggle between two convictions. Mr. Young has mentioned reading the works of Gandhi and being enculturated into the morals and ethics of the Black church, principals that originate from the principals of non-violence. However in a recounting of his voter registration moment, we learn that Mr. Young was not afraid to rumble. In his reflection he states “There must have been four or five hundred people in sheets. And I figured they were coming to stop this voter registration drive and we hadn’t seen anything like that before. And thats where I had my first marriage crisis because even though i believed in non-violence i'd also read Reinhold Neba which said you’re supposed to negotiate from a position of strength. So I told Gene that you know I said i’m going down here i’m going down to talk to them, but I want you to point the rifle at the guy that i’m talking to. I just want him to know if he starts messing with me that you are going to take him out”. I wasn’t expecting to hear something like this from a man who was the right hand of Dr. King, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear it.
This story of Mr. Young reminded me of a very similar, but divergent story from the Civil Rights Movement concerning the story of Mr. Robert F. WIlliams and his role as the North Carolina head of the NAACP. Rob Williams also launched a voter registration drive in the rural south and was met with intimidation from so-called law enforcement thug cliques and elements of the KKK and met them with a demonstration of dignity and force in the form of armed self-defense. This encounter with armed racists and Rob William’s ability to survive was purely contingent on him being armed, an experience which would bring him to author the book “Negros with Guns” a book about the relationship of Black people and the necessity of armed self-defense.
Hearing Mr.Young recount this element of the Civil Rights movement (CRM) made me reflective on how the Civil Rights Movement is presented to us through the education system and through popular media like films and shows. Popular depictions of the CRM are ones of unilateral non-violence, allowing oneself to be beaten and violated under the guise of a moral superiority to the aggressor - a romantic depiction of submission. However, when hearing reflections on the CRM from its participants and witnesses I always come away from the realization that the CRM was never all that non-violent, and was underpinned by the desire and ability for moral retaliation.
Mr. Young made me reflect on the frustration that I would feel as a young adult learning about the CRM and how I had felt that many of its leaders were cowards. It was because of how Black politics was taught to me as a binary which made me impatient and distrusting on non-violence rhetoric - you were either a MLK or a Malcolm X - a gradualist or a revolutionary. As I have grown, much of which from interviews and reflections like that of Mr. Young, I have come to realize that the same forces in media and education which made me frustrated with the veterans of the moment were the same ones underpinning the spectrum and pereameter of Black politics. There were plenty of those who talked the talk who would not rumble when the time came, and there were plenty who preached non-violence who would shoot a klansman for putting their hands on them. As i’ve crown i’ve come to realize that the CRM was a mosaic of activism and convictions not so cut and dry. At the end of the day it are the forces that be that try to draw distinctions between the veterans and leadership of our movement so that we may not see the convergence between them.
