I have a lot of work to do tonight, but this warrants a THREAD. The obscenely distorted narrative that white people embraced civil rights leaders during the Civil Rights Movement, and activists today are just “doing it wrong” must be challenged.
Here’s Harry & his wife Harriette Moore. Mr. Moore was head of the state NAACP in FL. He organized against the wrongful conviction of 3 young Black men & killing of one by a racist local Sheriff. On Christmas Eve in 1951 racists bombed Moore’s home killing Moore and his wife. 
In 1961 John Lewis and James Zwerg were savagely beaten by white racists in Alabama when they participated in the Freedom Rides, a non-violent campaign against segregation in public accommodation.
Maybe members of Congress were willing to sit down & debate with civil rights leaders? Here’s the “Southern Manifesto” signed by 101 members of Congress, in which they vowed to use all legal means to defeat integration mandated by Brown v Bd of Ed. americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/marsh…
Maybe they were willing to “sit down and talk to” civil rights lawyers? Here’s legendary atty C.B. King in 1962 (left) after he was bludgeoned by Sheriff Cull Campbell, when Atty King arrived at the jail in to check on a civil rights protester in Cull’s custody in Georgia.
Or perhaps there was a willingness to “debate” w/women civil rights leaders? Fannie Lou Hamer was savagely beaten in Indianola, MS in 1963 for attempting to register to vote.Amelia Boynton was beaten unconscious in Selma on Bloody Sunday in 1965 at a peaceful voting rights march.
Maybe it was better in the North. And surely everyone was ready to sit down and talk with civil rts activists after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Here MLK’s aides try to protect him after he was hit by a rock at his non-violent march for fair housing in Chicago in 1966.
In Chicago, Fred Hampton, the charismatic chair of the IL Black Panther Party chair was assasinated by Chicago police in his bed. He was 21 years old.
And of course....
No matter the tactics, the region, the gender, the background, the demand - civil rights activists in the 50s and 60s were met with determined, unrelenting and often violent resistance by whites on the streets, in the halls of “justice,” in the statehouse and halls of Congress.
And for those who think it’s not worth it take on this kind of crap, I disagree. It is a monstrous affront to those who suffered and were martyred fighting for full citizenship for Black people and to make this country live up to its promise of equality.
Critiques of today’s activists that emanate from our own communities are too often a less offensive but still problematic version of the Kilmeade narrative. “If only our young ppl behaved like John Lewis!” Or “notice how well-dressed those young ppl were at the lunch counter.”
There’s no perfect way to confron the violence of white supremacy. And the pitched and often brutal response of white supremacist individuals and institutions to activists during the Civil Rights Movement demonstrates this.
