Book Reviews : When Negroes March. By HERBERT GARFINKEL. (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1959. Pp. 220. $4.00.)

• Published date: 01 June 1960
• Date: 01 June 1960
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300228
• Subject Matter: Articles

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these, two are of particular interest to political scientists: (1) that in the &dquo;devel-
oping&dquo; states, the prospects for non-political unionism are not good; and (2)
that the state is an important factor, if not the dominant one, &dquo;in every important
program for economic development extant.&dquo;
ALEX GOTTFRIED
University of Washington
When Negroes March. By HERBERT GARFINKEL. (Glencoe: The Free Press,
1959. Pp. 220. $4.00.)
The response of depressed groups in a society to their plight is often one
of resignation or apathy rather than of action to remove their disabilities. What
mass action does arise among such groups is usually both short-lived and irrele-
vant to the solution of the group’s problems. This was certainly true in the
case of the American Negro whose history had been one of inaction broken only
by such movements as Garveyism until, in 1941, America’s Negroes shattered this
pattern with the development of the March on Washington Movement.
The MOWM, unlike the conservative National Association for the Ad-
vancement of Colored People, was wholly Negro in inspiration and leadership
and managed to mobilize the sympathies and loyalty of virtually the entire
American Negro community. Partly in reaction against the white-dominated
NAACP and partly to prevent manipulation by Communists, the movement
barred whites from membership, undoubtedly an important element in its ap-
peal. It thus became the first all-Negro national movement to achieve a sub-
stantial improvement in the position of the Negro in American society.
When Negroes March is, in its author’s words, &dquo;primarily the organizational
history of the Negro March on Washington Movement in the genesis of FEPC
politics; tracing its dramatic rise, its brilliant success, its inevitable decline and
demise.&dquo; It is a straightforward, somewhat plodding account of a unique period
in the history of the American Negro community, which describes how, under
the leadership of A. Philip...