Civil Rights Advocacy on Behalf of the Poor by Catherine M. Paden

Author:Catherine M. Paden [Paden, Catherine M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Civil Rights, Political Advocacy, Political Science, Political Process
ISBN: 9780812222678
Google: MCbvFr89UuoC
Goodreads: 17134133
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

The case studies of organizational priority shifts to anti-poverty policy during the 1960s indicate the importance of both external and internal factors to decision-making. Specifically, the case studies point to the importance of organizational structures, and the relationship between national and local offices, to determining how and whether each organization would increase its attention to anti-poverty policy during the 1960s. The NAACP, which was very centralized, responded to the activities of SNCC, an external group working at the grassroots level. For CORE, the NUL, and the SCLC, groups that had maintained autonomous affiliates, this influence came from each organization’s affiliates.

For each civil rights group, structural change interacted with external factors to determine priority shifts, indicating that organizations consider the activities of other groups within their issue niche as they determine their priorities. During the mid-1960s, each organization’s position within the issue niche determined its response to the War on Poverty. However, as the civil rights issue niche experienced a period of upheaval during the late 1960s, neither CORE nor the SCLC were particularly concerned with other groups in their decisions to increase their attention to anti-poverty policy. Instead, both organizations increased their anti-poverty activities as part of organization-wide campaigns driven by changes in the political environments.

The NUL was influential in the drafting of the EOA, and maintained its influence with government officials throughout the War on Poverty. The League’s relationship with political elites certainly influenced its priorities and its decision to commit itself to the War on Poverty. Additionally, the Johnson administration’s declaration of the War on Poverty moved SNCC to staunchly oppose the federal programming, particularly because of its ongoing suspicion of federal government programming.

In the next chapter, I approach understanding organizational priority shifts from a different perspective. As I establish in Chapter 4, both the NAACP and NUL decreased their attention to national anti-poverty policy during the early 1970s. By the 1970s, the civil rights issue niche had re-settled after its upheaval during the late 1960s. The NAACP was secure in its position of preeminence within the niche. Once again, this position determined organizational attention to anti-poverty policy—this time, the NAACP’s decreasing advocacy on behalf of the poor. Similar to during the War on Poverty, the NUL’s implemented an organization-wide restructuring based on its receipt of federal funding. Despite its ongoing attention to poverty issues, the organization decreased its attention to national policy because of its rethinking of its strategies and purpose.

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