ABSTRACT
Thousands of black-owned small farms go bankrupt every year across the South, as the rural poor flock to urban areas of employment. Despite the growth of new industries and human service-oriented businesses, black joblessness rates in many Southern towns rival those in Harlem and Chicago's South Side. The acceleration of systematic attacks against blacks has produced a variety of suggestions for the future of black political activism. In general, black political debate in the 1980s is characterized by its focus on three theoretical and strategic points. Owen Brooks, the Director of the Delta Ministry of Greenville, Mississippi, represents one current of black contemporary protest thought. He argues that black Mississippi "leaders such as Aaron Henry and Charles Evers have used the movement to advance their own political careers. To resolve the paradox of reform, black political activists must advance an "inside-outside" strategy for social reform.
