Joseph Ellin journal; 1964

              Joseph Ellin journal
Transcript

May 6, 1964

There are so many things to be thought out in connection with this Mississippi business = moral, political, practical, philosophic, personal.

This crucial thing is not to think in abstraction esp. to avoid simple distinctions and divisions of friends and enemies. There's a sense in which we'll be everybody's friend and everybody's enemy. Most important, there's a sense in which we'll be beyond friendship enmity, outside of reality to all groups. One mustn't expect to be welcomed or even appreciated - Negro resistance is likely to be just as great as white, and we are not Saviors or Heroes.

The second thing is that we must be genuinely candid, about ourselves, everyone else and about what we're doing. The act itself is by no means its own justification. I suspect the Albany fiasco ("victory") is beginning to make this clear. There's no point in stirring things up when it can't accomplish anything to draw, or where even more likely things will only get worse. Mississippi isn't Tennessee or even Atlanta. One must be prepared to retreat; accepting defeat is not necessarily a sign of weakness or evil, and accomplishments must be measured in proportion to the cost. (how far did the CNVA marches set back the Albany Movement; to what extent has the affair left the segregationists even more determined, more wily, more careful, more confident?)

One must remember one's position as an outsider, as relatively safe, as having escape lives open, as being a novice. Bound to cause resentment, no one when unavoidable takes risks admires someone who takes them voluntarily. The program of an