The Great Men Analysis

Furthermore, as he chooses to present a White-centered narrative that pays little attention to both the ideas and the methods of the civil rights activist, he diminishes the historical importance of African American activists in transforming the United States by making it both politically and socially more inclusive. The “Great Men” narrative that Lawson utilizes fails to present the complexity of the civil rights movement and the resilience of the activist, who, despite the numerous setbacks they suffered, continued to fight for their rights. By not paying any attention to the grassroots, Lawson creates a false picture of racial and social progress. He implicitly suggests that having a more or less amicable administration in place would be sufficient to maintain or advance the interests of historically marginalized groups. That is unfortunate, particularly because the article was published at the turn of the century, long after conservative forces had begun to dismantle some of the hard-won reforms. Consequently, a more inclusive approach that depicts the essential groundwork before and after the national leaders of the movement negotiated legislative reforms with the national government, would have been warranted. This
Moreover, Martin Luther King’s access to the presidents was not a given, and he faced criticism throughout his civil rights career, long before he publicly criticized the war in Vietnam. Hence, by focusing largely on the southern movement and its central actors, Lawson’s narrative fails to present the larger picture of “the view of the nation,” and thus ultimately fails to depict the complex considerations that shaped the government’s civil rights policy beyond southern Whites’