Abstract
This thesis is looking at some of the aftereffects of the Civil Rights Movement through the experiences of 8 civil rights activists. They were all active at the time and the movement shaped their lives both personally and politically. Long qualitative interviews have been made with two white Southerners from North Carolina: Sara Evans and Harry Boyte. While the movement as such has received quite some attention from scholars, the story of white Southerners who grew up outside the white supremacy sphere has seldom been told. Sara Evans moved politically and academically into the women’s movement while Harry Boyte has been a community organizer and a democratic activist. The six other interviews were done with current or previous members of the Black Collective in Tacoma, Washington. The Black Collective work to influence local politics and to inspire young Blacks to go into politics. Their story is unknown for many people, even in Tacoma itself. Within social movement theory, the resource mobilization theory gained much support after the Civil Rights Movement. It stresses that leaders, organization and funding are very important. The weakness of this theory, as more recent research shows, is that the Civil Rights Movement was much less dependent upon external resources than first assumed. Sara Evans and Harry Boyte seem mostly positive about these aftereffects, but they have a wide horizon which includes other social movements and global consequences. The Black Collective members are less satisfied with the development, but they live in the middle of the Black Struggle. The thesis deals with the political ideal of equality, and shows how it has inspired Presidents from Jefferson to Obama. A myth can disguise reality or inspire people to action. The Civil Rights Movement shook the American myths created around white men from Europe, and stressed that Black History is also a part of American history. The question is whether the Civil Rights Movement itself has become a part of the mythic history of America. The answer given is that this tension is part of American reality, and if the goal is to understand the United States as a nation, it is important both to understand the