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Social Capital, Resource Mobilization and Origins of the Civil Rights Movement
Author(s) -
LING PETER
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2006.00278.x
Subject(s) - social movement , resource mobilization , social capital , indigenous , civil rights , mass mobilization , sociology , political economy , civil society , political science , social rights , environmental ethics , gender studies , law , human rights , politics , philosophy , ecology , biology
This article critiques the contradictory claims of Robert Putnam and Aldon Morris in relation to the American civil rights movement. Putnam identifies the South as the American region most lacking in social capital, and argues more generally that the 1960s marked a watershed beyond which social capital in the United States declined in all regions. Morris identifies the indigenous resources of southern African American communities as fundamental to the civil rights movement’s emergence in the late 1950s and sees the social networks and cultural assets of the African American church in particular as central to the movement. The article disputes Putnam’s negative judgment of the South by highlighting the role played by various types of social capital in the movement’s launch. It also challenges Morris’s over‐emphasis on the ability of charismatic, black church leadership to deliver mass support and re‐affirms the role played by female lay figures, such as beauticians.