Floyd McKissick
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| Floyd McKissick | |
|---|---|
 Bill Andrews for The Worker · Public domain · source | |
| Name | Floyd McKissick |
| Birth date | 9 March 1922 |
| Birth place | Asheville, North Carolina |
| Death date | 28 April 1991 |
| Death place | Durham, North Carolina |
| Alma mater | Morehouse College, North Carolina Central University School of Law |
| Occupation | civil rights activist, lawyer |
| Known for | National Director of CORE, Black Power advocate, Founder of Soul City |
| Party | Democratic (until 1966), Republican (after 1966) |
Floyd McKissick. Floyd McKissick was a prominent American civil rights activist, lawyer, and leader of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He is best known for steering CORE toward the Black Power movement and for his later work in community development and economic empowerment for African Americans, most notably through the planned community of Soul City, North Carolina.
Early life and education
Floyd Bixler McKissick was born on March 9, 1922, in Asheville, North Carolina. He was raised in a family that valued education and community involvement. His early experiences with racial segregation in the Jim Crow South profoundly influenced his future path. After serving in the United States Army during World War II as a member of a segregated unit, McKissick attended Morehouse College, a historically Black institution in Atlanta, Georgia. He later pursued a legal education, becoming the first African American to enroll at the University of North Carolina School of Law (now part of North Carolina Central University). After being denied admission there due to his race, he successfully sued for entry with the help of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He ultimately earned his law degree from the North Carolina Central University School of Law in 1951.
Career and activism
After being admitted to the North Carolina State Bar, McKissick established a law practice in Durham, North Carolina. He quickly became a leading civil rights attorney in the state, representing participants in sit-in protests and Freedom Riders arrested during the Freedom Rides. His legal work was integral to the defense of activists from organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). McKissick was also deeply involved in direct action, helping to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and participating in the 1966 March Against Fear in Mississippi. His activism blended legal strategy with grassroots mobilization, positioning him as a key bridge between the established NAACP and more militant emerging groups.
Leadership of CORE
In 1966, McKissick was elected National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), succeeding James Farmer. His ascension marked a significant ideological shift for the organization. Under his leadership, CORE formally endorsed the philosophy of Black Power, moving away from its previous commitment to nonviolence and racial integration. McKissick articulated Black Power as a necessary step toward self-determination and political and economic control within Black communities. This shift aligned CORE more closely with other radical elements of the movement, such as Stokely Carmichael of SNCC, and created distance from more traditional civil rights groups. During his tenure, CORE focused on voter registration, community organizing, and confronting issues like police brutality.
Advocacy for Black Power and economic development
McKissick's advocacy for Black Power was fundamentally tied to his vision of economic development. He argued that political rights were meaningless without economic independence. This belief culminated in his most ambitious project: the creation of Soul City, North Carolina. Founded in 1970 in Warren County, North Carolina, Soul City was envisioned as a new, majority-Black town built from the ground up to provide jobs, housing, and economic self-sufficiency. McKissick secured a $14 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the New Communities Act of 1968. The project aimed to combat rural poverty and white flight from urban centers. Although it faced political opposition, financial difficulties, and ultimately did not achieve its full scale, Soul City remains a landmark experiment in Black entrepreneurial community development.
Later career and political involvement
After stepping down as National Director of CORE in 1968, McKissick remained active in public life. His political affiliations shifted; originally a Democrat, he became a Republican in 1966, believing the party of Abraham Lincoln might better support his economic development agenda. In 1972, he published the book Three-Fifths of a Man, which critiqued the ongoing economic and social subjugation of African Americans. McKissick was appointed a North Carolina District Court judge in 1990 by Governor James G. Martin, a position he held until his death. This appointment made him one of the first Black judges in the state since Reconstruction.
Legacy and impact
Floyd McKissick's legacy is that of the civil rights movement|civil rights movement. 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