DISENTANGLING RACE AND POVERTY

The Civil Rights Response to Antipoverty Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID24315885
AuthorsCatherine M Paden
Year2008
Volume5
Issue2
Pages339-368
Publication date2008-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDu Bois Review Social Science Research on Race (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1742-058X • E-ISSN: 1742-0598
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1742058x08080156
OpenAlexW2058229646
LanguageEN
References cited66

Abstract Throughout their histories, civil rights organizations have chosen to advocate on behalf of the poor, despite disincentives. This paper examines SNCC's and the NAACP's activities concerning the Economic Opportunity Act during the early and mid-1960s. First, I establish the level of attention SNCC and NAACP devoted to the War on Poverty. Based on analysis of the groups' archives, I find that both groups increased their attention to antipoverty policy during a period when other issues were salient to all African Americans. Second, I assess why these shifts in organizational priorities occurred. My findings indicate that competition among civil rights organizations drove the NAACP and SNCC to commit attention to antipoverty issues, and to focus attention on grassroots organizing concerning the War on Poverty. Differences in the organizations' structures mediated what form this attention would take.

African American poverty · civil rights organizations · Economic Opportunity Act · grassroots organizing · NAACP · organizational priorities · Organizational structure · poverty reduction policy · race and poverty · SNCC · War on Poverty · American Political and Social Dynamics · Race, History, and American Society · Social Movements and Cultural Identity