It’s been 51 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed at a rally for Black public sanitation workers in Memphis. That’s a long time for things to change on the civil rights front, and they have. Some argue the civil rights movement made a mistake along the way by drifting away from grassroots movements and instead favoring more elite agents of change, such as civil rights lawyers.
Author Michelle Alexander laid out the argument in her book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” saying the success of legal crusades such as Brown v. Board of Education and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 shifted public attention “from the streets to the courtroom” as the civil rights movement became “professionalized.”
To be clear, the grassroots element never totally left the movement — and debates could go on forever about what even qualifies as grassroots — but one characteristic those movements seem to share is theyspring up to address an immediate issue, although many fade quickly. Black Lives Matter is probably the most prominent current example of a grassroots movement that has withstood the test of time.
“Grassroots has the connotation of something that’s new and just coming up,” assessed Byron Ratcliffe, vice president of the Greater Indianapolis NAACP branch.
Ratcliffe said that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since certain issues do sometimes require an influx of energy, but that’s not the NAACP’s business. The 110-year-old organization has a mandate to investigate issues first, even while the larger community may react immediately to a seemingly obvious injustice. This is the kind of rigidity that irks some current grassroots leaders such as Dominic Dorsey, founder and president of Don’t Sleep, an Indianapolis civil rights group.
“The red-tape and political glad-handing involved in a lot of situations slows progress,” Dorsey said. “It becomes more about who gets a sound bite at the event and what photo ops are to be had than the work that’s being implemented or the voices that need to be centered.”
Don’t Sleep has helped organize marches and rallies, and the organization takes a broader view of justice — considering socioeconomic status beyond simply race — than what is typically ascribed to civil rights groups. Dorsey said he sees a “healthy amount” of grassroots activism in Indianapolis right now.
“In 2019, Indy residents are much more aware, much more vocal and much more activated than they’ve been in a long time,” he said.
Thomas Brown, president of Indiana Christian Leadership Conference and son of the late Andrew J. Brown, said Indianapolis shifted away from a grassroots focus when school busing began in the early 1980s. Those policies splintered Black Indianapolis, according to Brown, whose father worked alongside King in the 1950s.
“It has evolved into a condition where we have become more powerless,” Brown said. “We can’t unify because of the geography.”
Brown, who prefers the term “liberation movement” over civil rights movement, quipped that the only sure thing civil rights legislation does is guarantee money for lawyers.
One of the common criticisms from more established figures in the civil rights movement is grassroots leaders don’t take the time to learn from those who came before them, and they don’t know about some of the efforts going on right now. The result is multiple organizations and movements pushing for very similar ends, but their means are disconnected.
“[Grassroots people] are inspired and inspiring, but they don’t always take the time to learn the lessons from the past,” said Toby Miller, director of the Race and Cultural Relations Leadership Network (RCRLN) at Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee.
The RCRLN, established in 1994, is made up of business, civic and other community leaders who identify and solve racial issues in Indianapolis. Miller has been with the RCRLN since its founding and said the network wouldn’t be able to do its work without grassroots support. Just as he critiqued grassroots leaders, Miller said the other side is also lacking.
“There’s still a gulf that exists in some pockets, between what we would consider top-tier leadership and the grassroots,” Miller said. “There are people who claim to be leaders of the people, but they have no connection with the people.”
Miller said one way to bridge that gap is more “intergenerational dialogue,” alluding to the different leadership styles of older and younger generations. He said the RCRLN is doing this by including more millennials, who make up about 35 percent of the network’s membership.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
