White Anti-Racism Organising in 1960S, 70S, and 80S US Social Movements

The Workshop As the Work: White Anti-Racism Organising in 1960s, 70s, and 80s US Social Movements Sarah Nicole Burgin Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds, School of History Submitted September 2013 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2013 The University of Leeds and Sarah Nicole Burgin 1 Acknowledgements Mere acknowledgements cannot relate the deep sense of gratefulness I hold for so many individuals, without whom I would have folded on this arduous, wonderful project years ago. This research project was possible because of a number of grants and scholarships that I received. The School of History at the University of Leeds, the Worldwide Universities Network, the Economic History Society, and the British Association of American Studies all provided the funding necessary to carry out this project. I was lucky to work with the wonderful librarians and archivists at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University, Special Collections at Northeastern University, and Harvard‘s Schlesinger Library. I especially want to thank Michelle Romero at Northeastern and William Lefevre at Wayne State for answering countless email requests. Several months after my research had finished at the Reuther, a wonderful, passionate archivist passed away. Tom Featherstone patiently answered my inane questions about audiovisual sources that I really knew nothing about, always pointed me in the right direction, and generally made archiving one of the coolest practices I know. Mr Featherstone‘s awesome children – Michael and Megan Featherstone and Jonathan Johnson – were among the many, many friends that made me feel at home while I was on research trips. In Madison, Professors Myra Marx Ferree and Pam Oliver sponsored my visit and got me settled into UW life, while my roommates, Stephanie and Monika warmly opened their home to me. While in Madison, I was so lucky to be able to spend time with family. Missy, Molly and Emerson Dittmer-Herrmann looked out for me, cooked me dinners, celebrated Halloween with me, made me laugh when I needed it, and in many other ways supported me. Back in the UK, my supervisors have stuck with me and this project since it grew out of my MA work in 2009. I am incredibly grateful to Kate Dossett and Simon Hall for their encouragement, advice, jokes, writing tips, patience, constructive criticism and so much more. I‘m also thankful for the conversations, debates, 2 friendship and support of a number of other individuals from my home department: Catherine Coombs, Tom Davies, Gina Denton, Shane Doyle, Moritz Foellmer, Nick Grant, Rafe Hallett, James Harris, Vincent Hiribarren, Henry Irving, Will Jackson, Rachel Johnson, Matthew Kilgour, Jack Noe, Simone Pelizza, Louise Seward Mark Walmsley, and Peter Whitewood. Júlio Decker, without you in particular, I would have been lost around here: Danke. Throughout my studies, many other friends have offered encouragement, support, insightful questions, challenging conversations, proofreading and general wonderfulness: Amanpreet Ahluwalia, Gretchen Baglyos, Daniel Bumke, Ronald Cummings, Anne Flaspoeler, Lucy Garbett, Meg Haley, Lianne Harrison, Dyi Huigj, Haley McEwan, Beatriz Miranda, Nalini Mohabir, Emily Osthus, Jon Owen, Aree Phothiyarom, Maggie Roscher, Faiz Sheikh, Muhammad Shukrat, Allegra Smisek, Aviva Stahl, Anne-Marie Stewart, Rachel Wind, Anthony Zupnik, and many others. I have been so fortunate to work with a number of incredible activists throughout this project. This is their history, and it continually amazes and inspires me: Chude Pam Allen, John Bush, Mary Campbell, James Credle, Marla Erlien, Liz Horowitz, Noel Saleh, Cliff Schrupp, David Snider, Ollie Lee Taylor, Jo-Ann Terry, Laura Tillem, and Laura Whitehorn. These last five years, I‘ve lived quite far away from home, but so many people have opened their homes up to me and, in many ways, made it possible for me to live in the UK. When I first arrived, the de Oliveira and Harrison families were beyond helpful. I owe most of my kitchen supplies, as well as a huge vote of thanks, to one of my oldest friends, Lianne Harrison, and her wonderful family. Mike Adam and Pon Stewart helped to make sure I was fed, that my computer worked, and that I knew what Eastenders was all about. All the kids at New House – Laura McFarlane-Shopes, Guy Mitchell, Matthew Kieran Dunne, Jon Owne and Anne-Marie Stewart – have been especially warm and inviting. Their house became my home away from home, and I‘m fortunate to have them as friends and comrades. Though she‘s moved as much as I have since she got to the UK, Aviva Stahl definitely makes the UK feel more like home. As my intellectual soul mate, she‘s talked to me for hours and hours about my research, challenged me, and been an incredibly supportive friend. 3 I‘m not sure how to begin to thank Shona Hunter for all the ways that she has supported, enabled, pushed, mentored and challenged me over the past five years. I‘m so fortunate to have met her and her partner Roland Mizon. I am a better thinker and a better academic for having been able to work closely with Shona and the White Spaces Research Network these many years. Anne-Marie Stewart has been unwavering in her support and love since she came into my life. She has kept me grounded, calmed me down, asked me important questions, made me coffee, made me laugh, made me think more deeply about the issues I research and write on, and helped me feel more confident about myself, my ideas, and this project in particular. I am, without a doubt, most deeply grateful to every member of my family for the ways in which they not only supported this research project, but made it possible. My brother Jerrod Jay is the original historian in the family, and my sister Amy Jo and brother-in-law Terry Loecke are our original academics. All three of them checked in on me and my research, gave me advice, played dominoes with me at Christmas and generally loved me a lot. How my amazing parents, Cindy and Jay, have supported me and this project – well, there isn‘t enough space. I know we‘ve missed each other immensely, but they‘ve shown nothing but love and enthusiasm for me and for this research project for the past four years. Without them and their support, this project simply would not have happened. Obviously, I‘ve had an incredible amount of support and guidance, but any and all errors, mistakes and misrepresentations within this thesis are mine and mine alone. 4 Abstract This thesis explores the rise of anti-racism workshops developed by white activists in various United States social movements from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. The shifting ideology of the black freedom movement in the late 1960s, from integration to Black Power, transformed white activists‘ place within racial justice struggles. While recent scholarship has begun to turn its attention towards whites‘ ongoing racial justice activities, one of the most radical and widespread of these efforts is consistently overlooked: anti-racism workshops. Increasingly prevalent from the late 1960s through to the diversity-trainings explosion of the 1990s, this thesis demonstrates that these workshops had their roots in the black freedom, women‘s liberation and gay liberation movements. White activists from these movements led these workshops in order to examine white racial domination and privilege within both leftist social movements and larger US society. Analysing case studies from the black freedom, women‘s liberation and gay liberation/rights movements, this thesis explores the foundational assumptions of anti-racism workshops. It seeks to explain how and why these efforts sought to frame race and racism as issues of knowledge and consciousness and why such efforts constituted radical praxis. It is argued that early anti-racism workshops were pedagogical projects that sought to confront the racial ignorance that structured the lives of whites in the US, including progressives and their liberation movements. This thesis draws attention to the efficacy and power of these workshops in terms of their epistemological effects, in the transformations they brought about in whites‘ understanding, or awareness, of racial realities. 5 Contents Acknowledgements............................................................................................1 Abstract................................................................................................................4 Contents...............................................................................................................5 List of Abbreviations..........................................................................................6 Introduction The Workshop As the Work...………………………...............................................7 Section 1 Introduction Detroit and the Black Freedom Movement..........................................................47 Chapter 1 Workshopping New White Consciousness: The Detroit Industrial Mission.........55 Chapter 2 To approach the problem of man‘s mind‘: The Speakers Bureau/PACT of New Detroit, Inc..............................................110 Section 2 Introduction The Women‘s Liberation and

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