Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky was a community organizer who worked with poor and minority groups, training them in the techniques of community organization and nonviolent direct action. He helped them organize what he called "power blocs of the poor" to put pressure on governmental agencies and corporations to change their policies. One of his better-known efforts was in Rochester, New York, where he successfully pressured the Eastman Kodak Corporation and other local employers to hire more blacks. Another well-known campaign, which was undertaken by his Chicago Woodlawn organization, pressured the city and landlords to improve slum housing.

Although trained in the fields of criminology and conflict resolution, Alinsky was more of a conflict stimulator than a conflict resolver and was incarcerated several times for his civil disobedience. Working as a facilitator rather than a leader, Alinsky recruited local people whom he trained to lead his citizens organizations. In all his organizing, he emphasized group interests but personalized social problems—showing recruits how the social problems affected them and how they could organize to effect change. Using provocative language and strong speaking skills, he heightened people's anger with a target ("the villain") and trained them to initiate conflicts in order to force social change.
In the 1960s, Alinsky began working with the middle class, because he believed that significant social change could be brought about only by a well-organized majority. In 1968, he founded the Mid-America Institute, which trained middle-class activists to organize their own communities.

In addition to organizing and teaching, Alinsky wrote several books about his approach that became classics. These included Reveille for Radicals (1969, first published in 1946), which described his advocacy strategies for the poor, and Rules for Radicals (1971), which focused on middle-class organizing tactics.