At times certain colleagues of mine have indulged in good-natured ribbing (at least, I hope it is good-natured) because persistently I have expressed concern over the ways that certain Southern states and private groups in those states are going about trying to ignore or violate the clear pronouncement of the Supreme Court with respect to desegregation. I should like to take a little more time on this program to explore the matter in detail, with particular reference to the citizens’ council movement.
In May 1954, the court made its decision. In June of that year the Citizens’ Council of Mississippi was formed to combat that decision. Since then the movement has spread throughout the segregated South. Unlike members of the Ku Klux Klan, members of these councils are predominately respectable business and professional people, leaders in their white communities. They disclaim any notion of violence or inflicting suffering on anyone. But the principles of the councils (whatever their name) is much the same as those of the Klan. Let us look at some concrete, individual, results.
Last August 6, Jasper Mims and 52 other Negroes in the city of Yazoo signed a petition for admission of their children to a formerly all-white school. Ten days later the Yazoo City Herald devoted its back page to a list of the signers of that petition, together with each name, address, and telephone number set forth in 14-point type. Ostensibly all this was done as a “public service.” These were not cotton-patch Negroes; in fact they were the core of the town’s middle class. In six months, Mims, who had had an income of $150 a week, was broken. Nathan Stewart, the town’s most successful grocer among the Negroes, found, after publication of his name, that no wholesaler would supply him for cash. The Delta National Bank notified him to come and draw out his money. He is now bankrupt and living in the state of Illinois. Two other grocers who signed the petition suffered the same fate. One Lillian Young signed the petition, and the lumber company fired her husband. A few days later she went into the local A&P store and the clerk refused to sell to her. Hoover Harvey, a plumber, was installing bathroom fixtures in the home of a white man, but when his name was printed, he was told to get his name off the list if he wanted to continue his work. He did, but was fired from the job. He is now in Detroit.
In the same city, there were a year ago 235 Negro voters. The council printed a list of their names, and now there are just 15 who dare try exercise their right to vote. In this case it was the chief of police who was assigned to dissuade them. No, the councils do not go in for violence. That is what sheriffs and chiefs of police are for. These are just a few of the many examples all over the South where such councils are active.
Since the people who form these councils are of dominant influence in their respective communities, it is somewhat natural that politicians of all kinds have been, and are, catering to them. No one can possibly predict how many delegates will be sent to the Democratic convention next summer because of their influence. The discouraging fact is that both the hopefuls who seem ahead in the race for the nomination have preferred to ignore what is happening. Not long ago one Adlai Stevenson was the guest of Herman Talmadge for a weekend. What went on between these two politicos is not all known, but shortly afterward, Talmadge predicted with seeming pleasure that Stevenson would be nominated. Such an announcement by a communist fellow traveler would have brought the heavens down on Stevenson’s head. It appears that the only reaction to Talmadge’s position by any other Democratic contender is one of envy. Incidentally also, Stevenson improvised into his prepared speech in Chicago last November 19 the idea that integration is no longer a political issue since it has been decided by the Supreme Court.
The other hopeful, Averell Harriman, when asked about his reaction to the acquittal of those charged with murdering Emmett Till, the young Negro boy from Chicago, in Mississippi, took refuge in the non-answer by saying that since New York has not solved its own racial problems it was a no position to preach to anyone else. Shortly afterward, Mr. Harriman went to Alabama where he addressed a farm porch audience of planters and businessmen (some of whom were members of the councils) and preached to the Russians about social decency. He did not mention civil rights.
To what does all this add up with regard to political morality, to say nothing of common decency? In 1924, the Democrats weaseled their way out of a forthright stand on the Klan issue, and lost adherents as a result. If there is a time of judgment for all of us, it must be said then that the American liberal, at a time when he should have called out to Jasper Mims and all the others with his heart, could only say, “Of course, but…” We have stumbled our way down from ”Of course, Hiroshima, but …” to “Of course, Jasper Mims, but…” and with every “but,” the liberal who has done so has lost stature. There are doubtless many realistic political reasons why the Democratic Party should avert its eyes from Jasper Mims and welcome to its councils Fielding Wright, a Mississippi planter. But no amount of gaudy gilt and crimson can make a banner raised by cowards anything but a coward’s banner. This country has survived four years of the Republicans, or almost that much, and could perhaps survive four years more. For Jasper Mims, it will be all the same; and, if it is the same for him, the least of us, it is the same for all of us, for liberty is indivisible. If there is no liberty for the least of us, there is none ultimately for the greatest. It was the Master himself who said that “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” There may be excuses and forgiveness for people like Bill Simmons, Sen. Eastland, and Herman Talmadge, because they are what they are. The tragedy is not so much them, but the fact that men who think themselves worthy of being president of the United States pant after, if not their good will, at least their neutrality, and are willing to ignore stark injustice to get it. There may be forgiveness for these individuals in their community; there can be none for the Democratic Party if it ignores what is happening. A common decency cries out against such blindness to the human issues at stake.
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During the past few years, liberals have been accused of being negative; of being against, rather than for, something. We have been told it is better to build rather than tear down. Yet, sometimes it is easier to define what we do not mean than what we do, what we do not believe in than what we subscribe to believing. Some critics of negativism have gone so far as to think that liberalism has no content of its own, but is merely a form criticism of what it sees. Partly as a reaction and partly because it has a good sound, we have been told to “think positive thoughts” (a la Norman Vincent Peale, e.g.) There are those who seemingly object to criticizing anything for fear of being negative. Such people are not even with Cal Coolidge’s preacher, “agin sin.” This sort of thing has become something of a fad.
Yet, actually, it is impossible for anyone with any convictions at all not to be against some things and opposed to some people. For example, most of us, at least us teachers, believe in free public education, teaching the plain truth to all children. Good. That is positive enough. Yet, when we express that conviction and try to put it into practice, we sometimes immediately find ourselves in opposition to a number of persons and organizations who do not want free, unbiased education. There are people who look upon the school as propaganda media, and we are opposed to them. Call that destructive, critical, negative, or whatever you will. There are many things and persons we are against simply because there are persons and things we are for. And the two groups of persons are opposed to each other. We cannot be positive toward both groups and have any consistency. The human mind works by making comparisons and contrasts. Any religion which rises above mere sentimentality will be against some things as well as for others. So, many of us who like to think of ourselves as liberals plead guilty in advance to being against those who oppose the goals for which we are working.
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Paul Crouch, traitor to friends, violator of confidences, breaker of oaths, false witness, and wrecker of reputations, yet protected by government immunity is dead. He lived unworthily and died detested by all patriots plus those who in high places used him to cast him aside. Blessed is the man who is not employed by the council of the wicked nor testifies in the way of sinners.
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New York: The Methodist Church says it is releasing to television stations a series of 13 religious films. The films were produced in Hollywood at a cost of $250,000. At a news conference in New York, Donald Harvey Tippett, president of the church’s radio and film commission, describes the series as “probably the most elaborately produced TV series ever undertaken by a religious organization.”
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Quito, Ecuador: The Ecuadorean government has warned missionaries not to try to penetrate the country of its savage Indian tribes. The government says the murder of five American missionaries who landed their small plane on a sandbar in the [Ohl Gahn] river this week was to be expected. The Indians of the fierce Huaorani tribe are intractable and the Ecuadorean government does not have the money to attempt pacification of the Auca country. The missionary party was led by Edward McCully, Jr. of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
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Yuba City, California: Officials of the Mormon Church said the church’s welfare program was a success in the recent west coast flood disaster. The president of the Gridley, California, stake of the church says that emergency supplies requested were unloaded at Gridley within 24 hours by an appeal to church headquarters at Salt Lake City. The president of the Sacramento, California, stake says more than 1,200 members put in at least 10,000 hours of volunteer work.
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St. Louis: The president of Boston University has been elected president of the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the Methodist Church. Dr. Harold Case was named president at the group’s annual meeting in St. Louis, to succeed Dr. Nelson Horn, president of Baker University.
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The Laymen’s Leadership Institute, at Louisville, Kentucky, had been told religion is a full-time job, especially for the layman. The comment is from a Texas food store chain executive, Howard Butt, Jr. At 28 years of age, he is an internationally known lay leader. He says every layman is responsible for the propagation of the gospel.
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The end may be near for a long controversy about the rectorship of a Brooklyn, New York, Episcopal church. Seven years ago, the regular rector, the Rev. Dr. John Howard Melish, was removed by the bishop of Long Island because of the alleged left-wing activities of his son and assistant minister.
Bishop James P. De Wolfe then refused approval to the vestry’s installation of the son as rector. But the vestry declined to name anyone else to the pulpit of Holy Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church. It kept the younger Mr. Melish as acting rector. Now the vestrymen have nominated a new rector. The Rev. Dr. Irving S. Pollard is expected to get the bishop’s approval and then be formally elected by the vestry. Dr. Pollard is on the staff of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan.
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One of the most eminent Protestant theologians in the U.S. sees today’s younger generation as characterized by its search for a faith. That’s the view of the Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dusen, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He also told about 400 women at a seminary lecture series that it is religion, not morals, with which the younger generation is preoccupied. He thinks the current younger generation lives far closer to the deep, aboriginal springs of life than its parents or grandparents. He also notes current youth has never known a moment of the golden days before the epoch of the World Wars or the hopeful and confident days between the Wars. Yet he sees it as, among other things, gay, carefree, relaxed, and good humored. But he further believes today’s youth is characterized by listlessness. He says they suffer from lack of worlds to conquer.
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Again this year the Minnesota Jewish Council is cooperating with the University of Minnesota Agricultural Extension Service in a statewide radio speaking contest for 4-H Club members. In this 14th year of the competition, the 4-H’ers will have the topic of “What can I do today to make the world better tomorrow?” The Jewish Council is providing some $1,500 in awards for county, district, and state winners.
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A U.S.-born Roman Catholic priest with a sudden fame has been honored by his church and state. He is the Rev. Canon J. Francis Tucker, a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and now chaplain to Prince Rainer III of Monaco. He was guest at a dinner in Wilmington on the 50th anniversary of his religious profession. Father Tucker is the first U.S. member of the order, which is devoted to the secondary education of boys and mission fields. He also founded and was for 25 years pastor of St. Anthony Church in Wilmington. Now he is pastor of St. Charles Parish and canon of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, both in Monte Carlo.