The Harris Survey
Dec 1966

Poll Gives Views on Negro Leaders

By LOUIS HARRIS

Negroes and whites are sharply divided in their assessment of Negro leaders. Most Negroes feel that Martin Luther King, the symbol of the civil rights movement to both races, is helping their cause far more than he is hurting it. Whites, by a 3-to-2 margin, believe he is setting back the Negro cause.

Rep. Adam Clayton Powell of New York, whose legal difficulties have provoked a challenge to his being seated in the 90th Congress, is a highly controversial figure. Negroes rate him only 6-to-5 positive. Whites take a 6-to-1 negative view.

Other key results from the special survey among a nationwide cross section of whites and Negroes:

Stokely Carmichael, head of SNCC and the black power advocate, is felt by both whites and Negroes to he a harmful influence on civil rights progress. Elijah Mohammed, leader of the Black Muslims, is criticized most strongly by both races.
The only Negro leaders out of a list of 11 tested in the survey who received a positive endorsement from both Negroes and whites were Roy Wilkins, head of the NAACP; Ralph Bunche, serving at the United Nations and Thurgood Marshall, U.S. solicitor general.
Whites, on balance, tend to feel negatively about Whitney Young, head of the Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, elder statesman of the movement; Floyd McKissick, head of CORE; and Dick Gregory, the comedian. Negroes hold favorable views on all four.

However, many of the Negro leaders are unknown to both white and Negro adults.

The cross section was handed a card with the name and identification of 11 Negroes who have been in the news about civil rights.

They were then asked: “Tell me for each man if in your opinion you think he is helping or hurting the Negro cause of civil rights.”

WHITES ASSESS NEGRO LEADERS
	Helping Pct.	Hurting Pct.	Unsure Pct.
M L King	36	50	14
Roy Wilkins	31	16	53
Ralph Bunche	28	9	63
Dick Gregory	17	27	56
Thurgood Marshall	11	7	82
Whitney Young	8	12	80
Adam Clayton Powell	8	49	43
Floyd McKissick	7	22	71
A. Philip Randolph	6	9	85
Elijah Mohammed	3	64	33
Stokely Carmichael	2	45	53

Although he is negatively received by the white community, Martin Luther King is viewed far differently by educated and uneducated whites, as the following table indicates:

WHITES ASSESS KING
	Helping Pct.	Hurting Pct.	Unsure Pct.
Total Whites	36	50	14
8th or less	29	52	19
High School	32	53	15
College	50	41	9

As other Harris Surveys have indicated, the more affluent better-educated segment of white America is far more sympathetic with the civil rights movement than those in lower income and education brackets.

The line-up among Negroes:

NEGROES ASSESS RIGHTS LEADERS
	Helping Pct.	Hurting Pct.	Unsure Pct.
King	64	27	9
Wilkins	62	8	30
Bunche	56	7	37
Gregory	53	14	33
Young	39	2	59
Marshall	34	20	46
Powell	34	31	35
McKissick	30	9	61
Randolph	33	7	60
Carmichael	18	34	48
E. Mohammed	5	49	56

Compared to previous studies of Negro attitudes toward the leadership of the civil rights movement, there are signs of growing criticism among members of their own race. This survey also records more Negro negative response to King than before. It is mainly centered, ironically enough, among middle-income Negroes who feel he is being too militant in pressing for integrated housing.

Of course, one of the political facts of life about the civil rights movement is that probably the optimum positioning for leadership is to be just unacceptable to the white community while carrying the loyalty of the Negro community solidly. Carmichael does not do this, but Martin Luther King does. That may be the most significant finding for whites and Negroes alike.