I've often heard Thom talk about how we shouldn't obsess about political leaders, because in our particular system of democracy we don't elect leaders, we elect representatives. It's not the leader, it's the parade, he likes to say.

He was on Clout with Richard Greene, and Greene brought up Martin Luther King as a counterexample, a leader as opposed to someone who joined a parade. In fact, the case of Dr. King and the Montgomery Bus Boycott is a prime example of the validity of Thom's way of thinking.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began when Rosa Parks refused an order by a bus driver to move further back in the bus to give up a seat for a white man. Rosa Parks was not just a seamstress going home from work, she was an active member of the Montgomery NAACP. The boycott was already planned. The NAACP had been trying to provoke an arrest of a black woman, to test the law in court and get the ball rolling for action by the black community. Rosa Parks wasn't the first woman arrested, but they decided she was the most likely to make a good impression in court. As Thom would say, tag, she was it.

E.D Nixon, the head of the Montgomery NAACP, decided to form a leadership committee, the "Montgomery Improvement Association", made up of clergymen who would represent the boycotters. Nixon wanted King to head the committee, largely because he was new in town and so had not yet been compromised or demoralized by collaboration with the local white power structure.

When Nixon told the ministers about his plan, they were extremely reluctant to support the campaign. Nixon accused them of taking advantage of the poor people who gave them money every Sunday, and said he was going to go public and tell the world they were a bunch of cowards.

At this point King spoke up, said he was not afraid, and agreed to head the committee. Tag, he was it.

So King, a young, inexperienced minister who was new in town, was more or less shamed into leading the parade set up by the local NAACP. His leadership qualities were already recognized , but he had nothing to do with starting the boycott which would start his career as a national figure. It was local organization and local leadership.

So next time someone uses MLK as a counterexample to Thom's theory of democratic leadership, he can tell the story of how MLK first became a leader in the civil rights movement.

As an active member of the National Action Network, outpost in New York, I agree with this blog. I might add that Mr. Hartman commands several subjects. He brings all this to his sound judgments. Since MLK, however, the content of civil rights activism has new content, a chance to dream BIG! Maybe, it should have been that Ms. Rosa Parks, acted on her own, that day in segregated Alabama. She then had received a good seat, a free ticket, and the drivers sincere apologies for the oversight!
The dream is now not only upon us, it calls us to action. Tag, your it!!!