ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the West Side Organization (WSO) leaders are the strong personalities with capacities for openness and for pressing their wishes on others–peaceably usually, but sometimes with threats. Turning to a broader perspective: the thoughts of WSO leaders on international relations and other aspects of the world beyond America are not well developed; their primary concerns are intensely local. The leaders of WSO emphasize nonviolence because they believe it is presently the most effective strategic theme of the available alternatives. In the minds of WSO leaders, the country is white-ruled with the acquiescence, and even assistance, of many affluent blacks, and these people manage society in order to get the lion's share of what there is of wealth, prestige, and all the other things they care about. The men of WSO view the present organization of American society as consistently oppression all blacks with a few exceptions. They come to this view through study and direct experience.
