Sit-ins inverted the property-rights logic that had defeated residential segregationists

Evidence

In earlier phases of the civil rights struggle, segregationists had made strong appeals to middle-class whites who felt threatened by the course of desegregation, only to find their arguments thwarted by similar appeals from the other side. During the struggles over residential segregation, for instance, homeowners’ organizations had sought to rally whites in defense of their “community” to keep black buyers out. But civil rights activists countered by asserting that an even more fundamental middle-class value, the right to private property, trumped those concerns. And as the courts agreed that the power over one’s surroundings was less important than the power over one’s belongings—in this instance, the ability to sell a home to whomever one wanted—residential desegregation gained considerable traction. With the sit-ins, however, this earlier logic was upended. Now, businessmen were told that they could no longer do as they pleased with the establishments they owned and operated. The power over one’s belongings—here, the power to do business with whomever one wanted—now had to yield to the expectations of their surroundings. Segregationists had always presented whites as the “victims” of the civil rights movement, but with the advent of the sit-ins, they could make their strongest case yet. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 417

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the private-property versus control-of-surroundings axis that defines how these interests cut both ways for different groups
• XREF: Parallels James C. Scott’s observation that the same legitimating ideology can serve opposite interests depending on which right is elevated — connects to: Freedom of association was defined negatively as the right to exclude, not positively — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 373; Maddox fused racism with individual-rights ideology throughout his career — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 444; Sit-ins finally made class privilege fail to shield white elites from civil rights costs — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 461
• DEEPTHINKING: Shows a single ideological idiom (private property rights) being fought over and switched sides as activism moved from the housing market to the marketplace itself — dense, reversible logic worth sitting with.

Broader Connections

• Sit-ins finally made class privilege fail to shield white elites from civil rights costs #expands (0.78) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 461