Challenging the Civil Rights Establishment: Profiles of a New Black Vanguard. - book reviews

National Review, July 5, 1993 by Rich Lowry

Challenging the Civil Rights Establishment: Profiles of a New Black Vanguard, by Joseph G. Conti and Brad Stetson (Praeger, 240 pp., $22.95)

THE SUPREME Court nomination of Clarence Thomas brought to life for most Americans what before might have seemed an unimaginable oxymoron: black conservatism. But after Thomas's confirmation-supported by a large majority of blacks--this "-ism" vanished from the public mind. Conti and Stetson remind us it is a vital undercurrent in black America, and analyze the thought of four exemplars: Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Robert L. Woodson, and Glenn C. Loury. All four "dissidents" call for a turn from the relentlessly political thrust of groups such as the NAACP, to an "interior" activism stressing personal responsibility and a revival of the "mediating structures" of the black community, its churches, families, neighborhoods.

Many arguments in this book will be familiar to conservatives--a testament to the power of Sowell's ideas, in particular-but Conti and Stetson provide an admirable summation and instructive commentary. What's missing is an assessment of how this "New Vanguard" can move from its current rear-guard position to a leading role in the black community.