Arthur Maisel
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Yes. There are a lot of difficult things to sort out with King. I read a history of the SLC once sometime in the mid-1990s. The book, wish I could remember the title, laid out a thesis that most of the concrete organizing in black churchs across the south was done in the ladies auxillary groups and often in conflict with the deacons. What SLC did was make contact with these churches through their deacons and organize them first. There was a fair amount of resistance because getting involved was dangerous. So there as an internal battle going on between the women and men associated with the church and their joining the movement. There was a system of visiting preachers, which is what the SLC provided to make the sales pitch, but it was the women's social groups that provided the more concrete level of support through the Sunday pinics, lunches, and church social gatherings... King emerged as one of the best of these traveling preachers so they saved him for the big closing pitch and rally, after targets for a demo and local groups had organized the participants.
The point was the book painted a much different picture than I had in my mind. On reflection, the post-WWII civil rights movements mobilized the most conservative and traditional part of the black communities and that had a lot to do with their successes in contrast to the pre-war left attempts. The later mobilization already built on the past, but lacked the more politically radical involvement. The consequence was there were no commies to find in the ladies auxillary groups, the local deacons, or the SLC (except maybe the lawyers?) and therefore completely neutralized efforts by the police and FBI to paint these as foreign or alien or commie inflitrated and led ... etc.
This level of US history provides a lot to think about and consider, particularly in relation to the rise of the right and the Obama phenomenon...
CG