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Martin Luther King, Jr: Charismatic Leadership Jr.

Leadership 2 7 Major dailies like the New York Ti mes and th e Washington Post, b asically sympathetic to civil rig h ts a nd racial equ ality, though more gradualist than the activ ist o rgani zati on s, have congratulated the nation upon its good fortune in having a 'responsible and moderate' leader like king at the head of the nonviolent action m ovement (tho ug h they overesti mat e his power and underesti mate the sym bolic nature of his role). It would b e more appropriate to congratu late the civil ri g h ts movement for its good fortune in having as its sym bolic leader a man like king . The fact that h e has more prestige than power; the fact that h e not only criticizes wh ites b u t explicitly believes in their redemption; his a bility to arouse creative tension combined wit h his inclinatio n to sh rin k from carryin g d e mo nstrations to the point where major bloodshed might result; t he intellectual simplicity of hi s philos-ophy; hi s tend ency to compromise and exert caution, even his seem ing indecisiven ess on some occasio n s; t he sparing use he makes of going to or staying in jail h imself; his friendsh ip with the man in the White House - all are essential.

tioned the bodily resurrection of Jesus in his Sunday school class.3 His sub ... Rather than seeing an amorphous mass of discontented blacks acting out strategies determined by a small group of leaders, we would recognize King as a major example of the local black leadership that

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Transcription of Martin Luther King, Jr: Charismatic Leadership Jr.

1 Leadership 2 7 Major dailies like the New York Ti mes and th e Washington Post, b asically sympathetic to civil rig h ts a nd racial equ ality, though more gradualist than the activ ist o rgani zati on s, have congratulated the nation upon its good fortune in having a 'responsible and moderate' leader like king at the head of the nonviolent action m ovement (tho ug h they overesti mat e his power and underesti mate the sym bolic nature of his role). It would b e more appropriate to congratu late the civil ri g h ts movement for its good fortune in having as its sym bolic leader a man like king . The fact that h e has more prestige than power; the fact that h e not only criticizes wh ites b u t explicitly believes in their redemption; his a bility to arouse creative tension combined wit h his inclinatio n to sh rin k from carryin g d e mo nstrations to the point where major bloodshed might result; t he intellectual simplicity of hi s philos-ophy; hi s tend ency to compromise and exert caution, even his seem ing indecisiven ess on some occasio n s; t he sparing use he makes of going to or staying in jail h imself; his friendsh ip with the man in the White House - all are essential.

2 To the role he plays, and invaluable for t he success of t he move-ment. It is well, of cou rse, th at not all civil rights leaders are cut of the same cloth - t hat Kin g is unique amon g t h e m. Like Randolph, w h o functio n s very differently, king is reall y an institut ion. His most important functio n , I believe, is that of effecti vely communicating Negro aspirations to white people, of making n o n -vio lent direct actio n respectable in the eyes of the white majo rity. I n addition , h e functions within the movement by occupy-ing a vital center position between its 'conservative' and ' radical' w ings, by symbolizin g direct act io n and attracting people to participate in it wit hout dominating eithe r the civil rights movement or its activist wing . V iewed in thi s context, traits that m any activists criticize in king actu-ally function not as sources of weakn ess, but as the foundations o f hi s strength.

3 Martin Luther king , Jr: Charismatic Leadership in a Mass Struggle Clayborne Carson The legislat ion to establish Mart in Luthe r king , Jr. 's birthday as a federal holiday provided official recognition of king 's g reatness, but it remains t he responsibility o f those of us who stud y and carry on king 's work to define his historical sig nifican ce. Rather th an e n gaging in officially approved nos-talgia, our rememberan ce o f king should reAect t h e reali ty of his complex From ]011ruat of American History 74: 2 (September 1987): 448- 54. 28 Martin Luther K ING, JR & THE CIVIL R IGHTS MOVEMENT and multifacet ed life . Biographers, theologians, political scientist s, socio-logists, social psychologists, and historia ns have given us a sizable litera-ture of king 's p lace in the Afro-American protest tradition, his role in the modern black freedom struggle, and his eclectic id eas regarding n o n violent activism.

4 Althoug h king scholars may benefit from and may stimulate the popular interest in king gen erated by t he national holiday, many will find t h e mselves uneasy participants in annual o bservances to honor an innocuous, carefully cultivated image of king as a black heroic figure. The king depicted in serious sch o larly wo rks is far too interesting to be e ncased in such a didactic legend. king was a controve rsial l eader who chal-lenged authority and who on ce applauded wh at h e called 'creative malad -justed n o ncon formity .' ' H e sh o u ld not be transformed into a simplistic image designed to offend no one -a black counte rpart to th e static, heroic m yths that have embalmed George Washington as t h e Father of H is Country and Abraham Lincoln as t he Great Emancipator. One aspect of t he e merging Kin g myth has been the depiction of him in the mass media, not o nly as the preem in ent leade r of t h e civil rights move-m ent, but also as t he initiator and sole indispensible element in the south-ern black struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

5 As in othe r historical myths, a Great Man is seen as the d ecisive factor in the process of social change, and the unique qualities of a leader are used to explain major historical events. The Kin g myth departs from historical reality because it attributes too much to king 's exceptional qualities as a leader and too li ttle to the impersonal, large-scale social factors that made it possible for king to display his singular abilities on a national stage. Because the myth emphasizes the individual at the expense of the black move ment, it not only exaggerates king 's historical impo rtance but also distorts his actual, considerable contribution to the movemen t. A major example of this distortio n has been the tende ncy to see king as a Charismatic figure who sin gle-handedly d irected the course o f the civil rights movement throug h t he force of his oratory. The c harismatic label, however, does not adeq uately d efine king 's role in the southern black struggle.

6 The t erm charisma has traditionally been used to describe t he godlike, magical qualities p ossessed by certain leaders. Connotatio ns of the t erm have changed, of course, over the years. In o ur more secular age, it has lost many of its religious connotations and now refers to a wide range of Leadership st yles that involve the capacity to inspire -usually throug h o ra to ry -emo-tional bonds between leaders and followers. Arguing that king was not a c h arismatic leader, in tl1e broadest sense of the term, becomes som ewhat akin to a rguing that h e was not a Christian, but emphasis o n king 's ch arisma o bscures other important aspects of hi s role in t he black move-ment. To b e sure, king 's oratory was exceptional a nd many people savv king as a divin ely inspi red leader, b ut king did not receive and did not want Leadership 2 9 the kind of unquestioning support that is often associa ted with Charismatic leaders.

7 Movement activists in stead saw him as t he most prominent amon g many outstanding movement strategists, tacticians, ideologu es, and institu-tional leaders. king undou btedly recognized that charisma was one of m any Leadership qualities at his disposal, bu t he also recognized that charisma was not a sufficient basis for Leadership in a modern political movement enlisting numerous self-reliant leaders. Moreover, h e rejected aspects of the charis-matic model that conflicted with his sense of his own limitations. Rather than exhibiting unwavering confidence in his power and wisdom, king was a leader full of self-doubts, keenly aware of his own limitations and human weaknesses. He was at t imes reluctant to t ake on the responsibilities sud-denly and unexpectedly thrust upon him. D uring t he Montgomery bus boycott, for example, when he worried about threats to his life and to th e lives of his wife and child , he was overcome with fear rather than confident and secure in his Leadership role.

8 He was able to carry on only after ac quir-ing an enduring und erstandin g of his dependence on a personal God who promised never to leave him Moreover, emphasis on king 's c h arisma conveys t he misleading notion of a movement held together by spellbinding speeches and blind faith rather than by a complex blend of rational and emotional bonds. king 's ch arisma did not place him above criticism. Indeed , he was never able t o gain mass support for his notion of n o nviolent struggle as a way of life, rather than simply a tactic. Instead of viewing himself as the embodiment of widely held Afro-American racial valu es, he willin g ly risked his popularity among blacks through his steadfast advocacy of nonviolent strategies to achieve radical social change. He was a profound and provocative public speaker as well as an e motion-ally powerful one. Only those unfamiliar with the Afro-Am erican clergy would assume that his oratorical skills were u n iq ue, but king set himself apart from other black preachers through his us e of traditional b lack Christian idiom to advocate unconventional political ideas.

9 Early in his life king became disillusioned with th e unbridled emotionalism associated w ith his father's relig io us fundamentalism, and, as a thirteen year o ld, he ques-tioned the bodily resurrectio n of jesus in his Sunday school His sub-sequent search for an intellectually satisfying religious faith conflicted with the emphasis on emotional expressiveness that pervades evangelical religion. His preaching m anner was rooted in the traditions of the black ch urch, while his subject m atter, which often reflected his wide-ranging philosophi-cal interests, distinguished him from othe r preach ers who re lied on rhetori-cal devices that manipulated the emotions of listeners. king used c harisma as a tool for mobilizing black communities, but h e always used it in the context of other fo rms of intellectual and political Leadership suited to a movement containing many strong lead ers.

10 30 MARTI N Luther king , JR & T H E CIVIL R IGHTS MOVEMENT Recently, scho lars h ave begun t o examine t he black struggle as a locally based mass movement, rather than simply a refor m movement Jed by national civil r ights T h e new orientation in sch olarsh ip indicates that king 's role was different from tl1at suggested in king -cen tered biographies and jour-nalistic accoun ts. 5 king \Vas certainly not the only significant leader of the civil rights movement, for sustain ed p rotest movements arose in many southern communities in which king h ad little o r no di rect involvement. In Montgom ery, for example, local b lack leaders such as E. D . Nixon, Rosa Parks, and Jo Ann Robinson st arted the bus boycott before king became the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Associatio n. Thus, although king insp ired bl acks in Montgome ry and bl ack residents recog-nized that they were fortunate to have such a spokesperson, talented local leaders oth er t h an king played decisive roles in initia ting and sust aining the boycott movement.


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