Alinsky Sees Organization As Key to Black Progress

The black ghetto, with "white liberals" as allies, must organize in order to assure progress, Saul D. Alinsky, founder and executive director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, said last night.

Speaking in Lowell Lecture Hall, at the first Law School Forum of the year, Alinsky said, "Organization is a synonym for power, and action is the best way to organize." He described the role of the white liberal today as "working with the ghetto blacks as partners and, more importantly, doing their own thing in the white community and creating power blocs."

Alinsky shared the panel platform with Adam Yarmolinsky, professor of Law at Harvard, who moderated the discussion; Joseph Alsop, columnist and author; and Thomas I. Atkins, the only black member of the Boston City Council.

Ballet Dancers

Alsop criticized white liberals for "sloganeering instead of getting down to facts" and compared them to ballet dancers in that "their postures are great and their music is delightful, but when the music is over, there's not a damn thing left but air."

Atkins stressed the need for blacks to set their own priorities for community action. "Ghetto development," he said, "must take place by a combination of systematic planning and exploitation of issues as they come up."

New York Schools

Atkins took issue with Alsop regarding the New York City school decentralization crisis. Alsop condemned the high position in the New York black community given to convicted murder Herman A. Ferguson, while Atkins asserted that "Ferguson's criminal record is irrelevant; the issue is decentralization."

Taking the microphone during a question-and-answer period, Dr. Pauli Murray, professor of American Civilization at Brandeis, observed that the ghetto community could learn a lesson in organization from the American labor movement.

Alinsky agreed heartily, saying, "The law comes in as a rationalization after you have the power all set up."