Uncommon Ground: The Image and Reality of the Congress of Racial Equality's Interracialism During the Long Civil Rights Movement

Abstract

This study examines the Congress of Racial Equality?s (CORE) adoption, practice, and rejection of the strategy of interracialism during the long civil rights movement. In examining interracialism, it reassesses one of the cornerstones of traditional interpretations of CORE and civil rights. It argues that interracialism, instead of being a pillar of the movement, was an uncommon and highly contested organizing strategy. Despite this, the media coverage of CORE obscured the shifting nature of the group?s membership and strategy, making room for the political misuse of an image of the civil rights movement.