Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky (January 30, 1909 - June 12, 1972) was a socialist writer. He is credited with the term "community organizer." His most well-known accomplishment was the book Rules for Radicals. He achieved a doctorate in archeology from the University of Chicago and was awarded a fellowship in sociology, which he never completed.

Community Organizer

In 1931, he went to work as a sociologist for the Illinois Division of Juvenile Research. It was through this work that he attributed much of America's criminal activity to poverty. In 1936 he left the Division of Juvenile Research in order to form the Back-Of-The-Yards Neighborhood Council. This was his first act of "community organizer," and cemented his position as a radical reformer. He went on to found the Industrial Areas Foundation, which was largely responsible for most of the liberal community groups throughout the country.

Alinsky had a tendency to rub the sores of a community raw. During the Great Society campaigns of Lyndon Johnson, he pushed the Eastman Kodak Company to hire more black workers. However, his hard-knock, do-anything techniques rubbed many leaders the wrong way, and in 1967 he found himself without a contract. This led him to label Johnson's "war on poverty" as a political pork barrel.

The Black Panther movement in the 1960s made it hard for Alinsky to organize the black populace; they had a difficult time dealing with white leadership. He finally settled with organizing middle-class white Americans to protest against the deterioration of the suburban markets.

Literary Works

• Reveille for Racicals, 1946
• Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals, 1971