Organization, Rationality and Spontaneity in the Civil Rights Movement

Abstract

So-called classical collective-behavior theorists have been charged with placing too much emphasis on spontaneity and the emergence of new norms and structures in social movements. Empirical support for this charge and materialfor constructing an alternate model have been offered in recent revisionist studies of the Civil Rights Movement. This alternate model emphasizes the importance of deliberate planning and pre-existing social structures in the development and growth of bus boycotts and sit-ins between 1955 and 1965. Reexamination of the Civil Rights Movement in Tallahassee, Florida, shows it to be a case which does not fit the alternate model in important respects. It is concluded that while organization and planning are key variables, social movement theory must take into account spontaneity and emergence, and the transformation of pre-existing structures.