Perlstein's Before The Storm

In Perlstein’s novel Before the Storm, he summarizes Goldwater’s implementation of the Southern Strategy as “go hunting where the ducks are”, wherein the ducks were white Democrats in opposition of civil rights. Robinson was aware of the potential damage this realignment of white voting blocs could have on the negotiating power of blacks. Robinson believed in a two-party system of opposition, but that the black minority must always hold a place in American politics. For this reason, Robinson began to take an approach to politics like his civil rights contemporaries of the era. He began organizing the National Negro Republican Assembly (NNRA), a resistance movement contingent on getting blacks to fight the new Republican establish and

Robinson’s endorsement and chairing of the group gave the Republican party an ultimatum: embrace the civil rights movement or lose the traditional black voting bloc. The NNRA was created to advance the objectives of black voters in the Republican party, despite Robinson being a political independent. Robinson’s candor was an effective tactic which paralleled his peaceful contemporaries. Furthermore, Robinson proved to be a digestible figure for whites. For blacks, especially older blacks, he provided a symbol of pride and dignity and to whites, he, according to Tygiel, “Represented a type of black man far removed from prevailing stereotypes, whom they could not help but respect”. Integral to Robinson’s success as a leader was his use of peaceful resistance, as this widened his appeal to whites, given their stringent opposition to black militancy seen in the tactics of Malcolm X. Despite not being liked by whites in his baseball career, he garnered their respect, and that was the driving force behind his politically charged success. In an ideological way, Robinson realized Goldwater supporters were similar in how they both had to stand up for their core beliefs in the face of an ever-changing America, just in very