Rothman/Miller to Editor of Commentary Letter [Undated, c. 1965]
David M. Rothman and Loren Miller, Jr., write to the editor of Commentary concerning Robert Penn Warren's 1965 article "Two for SNCC." They critique remarks by Stokely Carmichael that appeared in the article, claiming Carmichael misrepresented a 1962 article by Loren Miller, Sr. They discuss black nationalism and white liberalism. They also comment upon a quotation by Robert Moses in Warren's article.
Note that Warren's article "Two for SNCC" is largely based upon the interviews with Moses and Carmichael that appear on this site.
Rothman/Miller to Editor of Commentary Searchable Text
CollapseTO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
In his article, "Two for SNCC," {Manuscript supralinear addition: "[April]"} Robert Penn Warren
quotes Stokely Carmichael on the subject [words deleted]
of an article by Loren Miller, Sr., in the October 20,
1962, issue of The Nation ("Farewell to the Liberals,
a Negro View"). Carmichael characterizes the article
as "ridiculous" and alleges that Judge Miller, a Vice-
President of the NAACP, got "hopped up with this Black
Nationalism"; he implies that the article shows how
everybody is afraid to attack Malcolm X.
These comments are not only unfair to Judge Miller,
but have no relation whatever to the article he wrote.
Nowhere in the article was Malcolm X mentioned, directly
or indirectly, and only once was any reference made to
black nationalism or a black nationalist organization.
Nothing in the article supports Carmichael's characterizations
of it....
The Nation article deals with the position of the
present Negro leadership in the civil rights revolution
vis-a-vis the white liberal. Judge Miller variously
refers to this leadership (led by King and Abernathy,
et al.) as "the young Negro militants" and the "direct
actionists." (Carmichael may have misread these references
as references to black nationalist movements.)
Judge Miller states what he believes their positions
to be, and sums up the point of the article, in his
[Page 2:]
-2-
last paragraph:
Their message is plain: To liberals a fond
farewell, with thanks for services rendered, until
you are ready to re-enlist as foot soldiers and
subordinates in a Negro-led, Negro-officered army
under the banner of Freedom Now."
One of the more interesting points of Warren's article
was the comment by Robert Moses concerning the Negro
student's resentment of the Whites (liberals?) who go
into command positions in their, the Negroes' movement.
This is the essential point of the Nation article,
written by Loren Miller, Sr., in 1962, and White liberals,
to which group one of the undersigned belongs, do not,
even now, fully realize or accept the importance of
this idea in the civil rights movement.
David M. Rothman
Los Angeles, California Loren Miller, Jr.
