Extra Credit: The Economist's Stokelys article

Jordan Ackerman
05-23-09
History 123
E.C. Stokely article

1. How does the article's text answer the title question? OR Does it answer the question?


There seem to be two separate questions asked before even getting into the first paragraph, only one of which is actually addressed any further than that in the body of the article. The question asked in the first title is “Just How Many Stokelys?” The structure of the question alone is a bit open ended which leads me to ask what the reporter, or the editor for that matter, was really asking; did they mean “How many Stokelys are in the U.S. at this point?” or was that just a typo that somehow slipped past the editor? The second title question asks “how long will the self-restraint last?” in reference to racial extremists in the U.S. who were keeping their cool, to a certain degree, “…despite extreme provocation on both sides.” The actual article itself talks about how disorganized uprisings are popping up and dying down off and on and have been doing so, even during King’s time, that they don’t seem to be directed particularly at whites or anyone else. And though the reporter makes it plane that he agrees that Dr. King’s assassination was a tragedy, he/she makes it clear that until congress stops alienating the Negro community it will continue to fuel petty crimes and arson by African-Americans for now and it may escalate if not kept in check. For now, there seems to be something of a level of self restraint at the time.

2. How do you think the author is viewing the fate of the American civil rights movement (the Economist is a British news magazine) in the wake of Martin Luther King's death?


According to the reporter, the civil rights movement seems to have become rather disorganized and dissatisfied if a little peeved at the notable lack of rapid progress toward passing supportive legislation for their cause. This is made evident in the fact that multiple riots and petty crimes by and among the African-American communities of the United States that seem to pass and revive as quickly as they rise up in turn.