Baldwin’s collection of essays, “The Fire Next Time,” observes at the role of the young and able bodied in the church’s quest for Civil Rights. The Student movement during the Civil Rights era was great; if you are a student and you have a few hours on a weekday to protest before a lunch counter or discriminatory retailer. Boycotts of public transportation are tremendous; if there is access to a personally owned vehicle. Yet the problem with the Baptists and the like was not vision but its reality and execution. Despite the recognizable impactful change, Baptist tactics have made in history, but it was essentially a youth movement. The undertaking ignored the predicament of working class adults, the elderly, or families; the people who schedule-wise were unable to participate or physically inhibited. Bodies should be made to be organized and mobilized constructively, especially in regards to Civil and Human Rights, but a campaign should not generationally leave behind those who came before, and those who will come after in the thirst for a “revolution.”
