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this translates as human universalism versus racial or cultural particularism; for the black image and African American culture: damage from racism past versus triumph over racism past; for the civil rights movement and its memory: epochal changes toward e qu a l it y ver su s p er si ste nt i ne qu a l it y u nder new guises. Wrapped up in these relations are a set of nearly impossible to disentangle approaches and strategies: race pride and the comforts of community, self-help a nd t he possibi l it y of i nd iv idu a l ism, sepa rat ism, i nte g r at i o n i s m , d e s e g r e g at i o n , a c c o m m o d at i o n , brokering, militancy, rage, and so on. I n h is trip to Atla nta, where he plunges i nto th is thicket of racial politics, Naipaul oscillates between an appreciation for black communities, racial reconciliation and uplift and a sense of disappointment with the style of certain black politicians, particularly Marvin Arrington, the then president of the Atlanta city council. Along the way, the novelist becomes consumed with a news story then circulating from Forsy th County, G eorgia, a wh ite enclave outside of Atlanta with a long history of racial violence and exclusion, where the Klan had disrupted a march for racial brotherhood in efforts to keep African Americans out. He puzzles over first what he sees as the formal, ritualized character of civil rights marches and demonstrations, and second, the nature of black leadership, which he intermittently compares with Caribbean black politics. Arrington and the longtime Atlanta civil rights activist Hosea Williams figure centrally. Especially telling is Naipaul’s arrangement of his narrative in this part of h is stor y, a nd t he i nter pl ay it i nv ites bet ween
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