Newspapers / Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.) / Sept. 23, 1965, edition 1 / Page 4
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- Editorial Opinions - YOUR HOME NEWSPAPER’S editorials are the opinions of staff members. As sach they may be wrong. Whether you agree or disagree our columns, under “The People Write” heading, are open for you to exiH^ss your own opinion. After November, Action Needed HEEL BLOt BUSTER Sometimes “wait and see” in public affairs is the excuse used for lack of having any policy at all. In the case of the new federal voting rights law this however is probably not the case. There is no one, either here at home, in Raleigh or in Washington, who is exactly sure what the new law means or requires or what its ultimate effect will be. Especially is this true in areas like the Roanoke-Chowan where there has been little or no complaint with voter registration procedures in many years. It is not too hard to know what the effects of the new law will be in areas of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana where Negro registrations for voting have been systematically discouraged and denied for many years. It was these, areas and their un-American, unfair attitudes toward registration which brought on the new federal law. In these areas wholesale registrations of hosts of people who had every right to be regis tered years ago are being put on the voter rolls every day now. But here in the R-C, even though all four counties are subject to the trigger ing provisions of the law there have been no denials of the right to vote. And the supposition at all levels of government is that no federal registrars will be sent here, that nothing much will change as a result of the new law because nothing much in the way of voter registration needs changing. Under these circumstances perhaps the announced policy of waiting until after the November road bond referen dum to take any action toward getting out from under the new law is well founded. At least it will strengthen the legal case which can be made for re moving the R-C counties from the law. But then the case does not need strengthening. There is ample justifica tion already for the contention that our house is in order when it comes to voter rights. As soon as the November experi ence is behind us, action ought to be initiated to have each county in this area taken out from under the law. It would be a sad day indeed for this area to have to accept illiterates on its voting rolls in order to get added all those who rightfully belong on the registration books. It was a bad law to start with, de signed to accomplish the national will that the Negro in the deep south have his rightful right to vote. Since this' poorly conceived force bill is unneces sary here, each county should take the needed steps to have our area taken out from under it. Use Of New TV Channel Urged The Roanoke-Chowan area has just this past week begun to receive televi sion reception from a station destined to improve the general public idea of what television is all about and can be about. The University of North Carolina educa tional television station, channel 2 from Columbia, has just gone on the air. No doubt for many this will not mean much. But for those who have had their fill of stereotyped westerns, private eyes, situation comedies and doctor programs, the coming to our area of television pro gramming with a purpose will mean the rebirth of a medium that holds much greater promise for raising the level of civilization than it has ever delivered. Typical of the programs either al ready shown during the first days of op eration of the UNC station or scheduled for the next few days are the Buffalo and Cincinnati symphony orchestras; Aaron Copland, one of America’s greatest liv ing composers performing and telling about the music of the 1920’s; special tours of Edenlon, Washington and Eliza beth City made on a recent TV filming expedition; taped presentation of the UNC-Michigan football game; and the start of a series of programs for on-the- job training for supervisors and man agement of North Carolina industries. Until now northeastern North Caro lina, along with the southeast and west, has been left out of the television cov erage area of the state's educational tele vision setup. Within another year the NORIMAMPTON HMES-NEWS THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 23, 1965 R-C Editors Say... | Now It's Our Own Media By SHELBY HOWELL MUNITY. Ne'ws Editor So 'What will we do? The lead- Gates County Index erless conservatives will con- Gatesvllle tinue to say, I told you so. And Practically the whole country the liberals? They’re weeping in has gone liberal in politics and if silence. proof is needed, we suggest you -,iittii..TT _ » r t LOOKING BACKWARD iater«stiiig Uemi nfrinMI (nm (rid files ot The Roanoke-Chowan Ttmea By MISS ESTHER CON?«ER Editor Emeritos study the 1964 General Election returns. But even the liberals are beginning to gag on some of the facets of present government policy, just as a small boy who loves c^e but has been cramed to full of it, it sickens him. There are few conservatives in the country, also proved by the last election. There are few con servatives in the Roanoke-Cho wan area, but we predict the num ber will increase. They’re telling the liberals, “1 told you so,” but they’re just as fed up and prob ably more sick, because federal control of their every move whole state is expected to be within re ceiving distance of one of the ETV tow ers. When this time comes the state will be better off for it. It will bring all sec tions of the state closer together with its specialized programming. There will always be a place in a free society for commercial television and radio. But these media, run of necessity for mass tastes, leave many unserved. The great popularity of stereo-type rec ord players has filled the needs of those unable to take radio’s steady diet of rock ’n roll and country music (as op posed to true “folk music”). Until now there has been no way the many thou sands in this area of the state, disgusted with the sameness of much TV program ming, to get more utilization from their sets. Many are they who, except for cur rent events programs—like news and sports—have ceased to use their sets at all. Now with the coming of ETV to the northeast there is the possibility of a revival of interest in the medium. The state is indeed fortunate the Legislature saw fit to approve the money requests which are making the UNC net work statewide. Even those who can still take “Gunsmoke” after all these years or have the time for “Dr. Kildare” as a continued show night after night would do well to switch over to Channel 2 now and then—there’s always the in teresting possibility of learning some thing while being entertained. Carlton Morris Writes- September Makes Us Remember Passage Of Time September 25, I9l9 A Thought For the Week - A little that a righteous man hath is life goes against the grain of tetter than the riches of many their inborn temperament even wicked.-Psalms 37:16. more so than it does with the lib- * erals. The latest development doesn’t come as a surprise. It ■would have 10 years ago, but not now. Publisher Frank R. Mills of the Chronicle-Herald in Hoopeston, Ill., reports that the government has donated itself $188,OOOof our tax money to set up a federally- subsidized newspaper in Willow Run, Mich. Its avowed purpose is to provide “honest and true reporting the government feels of interest.” You’ll say, what does a small town in Michigan have to do with us? Well, just that. It is a small place that would never have been Misses Clara Lassiter and Beatrice Hunter have accepted positions to teach in Craven County under Supt. R. S. Proctor. Horses and mules - good re liable stock. If you need a horse or mule at any time we will be glad to serve you. Just let us know your wants and we will do our best to please you. If we haven’t what you want on hand we will get them for you. Holoman Brothers, Rich Square. The high school grades of Woodland-Olney High School met in the auditorium Friday aftern- Job Chances For All, All Over Somehow there was irony in the fact that job discrimination complaints were filed last week against a number of North Carolina’s larger employers while at the same time Now York City was ballyhooing its program to hire more Negro school teachers. From what we know of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act the complaints filed with the Equal Rights Commission are more for the purpose of arousing public opinion to support the cause of Negro job opportunities than for securing any court judgment against the firms involved. The procedures in volved in enforcing Title VIl are so involved that, only in the rarest of cir cumstances, do students of the law ex pect it to result in court actions favor able to a complainant. The real point of course is that more job opportunities should be opened up for Negroes—not just in North Carolina but everywhere in the nation. The fed eral government can pass new laws every year from now until the current crop of militant beatniks associated with the extremist wing of the rights move ment grow up to “family and suburb” age without much really ever changing. Only the raising of the economic level— which means in many cases new and upgraded skills being needed—will ever produce basic changes in Negroes as a group being absorbed into the main stream of American life. This proposition that at the bottom of the differences between the races is economic inequality is generally accepted b^ most North Carolinians. The efforts of the Governor’s Good Neighbor Coun cil and other groups to open more and better jobs to Negroes has fairly well been taken to be a good policy for the state. Only time will tell whether the filing of the formal complaints helps or hurts this effort. Probably it will do neither. What seems ironic about the New York City ballyhoo of its program to hire teachers from the South displaced by the Civil Rights Act coming at the same time as the job complaints is some of the statistics involved. New York City says it is making its very noble effort as a gesture on its part to increase Negro employment. This is all very well but further down in the announcement is the reason why. In 1963 in New York City 27.3 per cent of its school pupils were Negro and 18,2 per cent Puerto Rican. However only 8.3 per cent of its teachers were Negro and 0.6 per cent Puerto Rican. By contrast with this in North Caro lina where teachers are allocated by number of pupils, up until this year Negro teachers have equaled almost ex actly the number of Negro pupils. In the Roanoke-Chowan this amounted to about 70 per cent. Job discrimination it would seem is not a problem limited to our state or the South. This discrepancy in numbers of teachers, coupled with re strictive apprentice practices of most Northern craft labor unions would seem to make the question of who’s the worst offender academic. Employers in this area are not perfect by means. But they need not feel like they are alone in the matter—they’ve got plenty of com-, pany elsewhere around the country. The average person knows next to nothing about birds. As far as he is con cerned, almost any bird is an unidenti fiable /lying object. Some of the poor don’t like the way the AeftninistratiOTV is going about wag ing its war on poverty, in that it is try ing to secure jobs for those capable and train others for work. It seems strange for snow to fall In Wyoming as this is written, while our temperature hangs around 90 degrees in the shade. September is one of our hot months. September makes us remem ber the fleet passage of time for as surely as day follows night, winter will follow summer, so our fishermen turn out stronger in September than they do in spring. They fee’, they have to get in Just one more fishing trip before frost stalks down from the north, giving our countryside the kiss of death. A visit anywhere along the coast reveals fishermen wading waist deep in the pounding surf and casting their fishbalt upon the troubled waters, hoping it will return with one big enough. Any fish is big enough if you don’t have to lie about it. Of course thousands of dedi cated fishermen go out every chance they get, and in any kind of weather, and they stick to it even when the flsh don’t bite. You can see them going out and com ing in all year long, but the run of the mill fishermen like warm weather. Right now everyone is busy trying to catch the ones that got away last spring. Bill Sharpe, publisher of The State, says he’s convinced most fishermen simply fish to kill boredom or to get out with the fellows. He tells of a group that left his home town one hot Friday, with all sorts of gear stowed on top of their car. At the edge of town, a farmer plowing his field, waved languidly and forlornly at them. “Just look atthatdurnedfool,” said one of the ocean bound fish ermen, “just plowing like hell in the hot sun, and 1 bet he hasn’t got a fish in the house.” Many men will do many things in the name of fishing. They’ll risk life and limb, family and friends, and many have been di vorced because of plain old fish ing. Recently a friend tole me of an experience he had on a little river we’ve both fished all our lives. This illustrates what we men will do in the name of fish ing. In the early years he thought he was lucky to get time off from plowing to go fishing once or twice a summer. With the ushering in of the great society, he has become more affluent and now owns a big boat with 60 hors es to take him any place he wants to go. But he has to live in the city and has added on heart trou ble and can only go fishing dur ing that great utopia known to city dwellers as “vacation.” Recently while on vacation he took his oldest daughter for a fishing trip. They went far down the familiar river, probably 10 times as far as he could have rowed a boat back in other years. Then they discovered something was wrong with their motor, and next thing you know, they ran out of gas. Rowing an old skiff was hard work, but paddling a boat big enough to have a 60 horsepower motor was something else. He said he paddled and paddled for hours on end and scarcely seem ed to move. Well Into the night, he got the boat up a creek probably a half mile from a familiar neighbor hood. But there was one prob lem. There was a dense marsh between him and high land and his grown, city born daughter absolutely refused to attempt to negotiate the dense marsh with its needle sharp rushes, water bushes and water moccasins. He had heart trouble, but we Guest Coiunin coastal people are a hardy breed. He made her climb on his back and he simply carried her through that half mile of marsh to high land. Last time 1 talked to him, he was trying to get his boat ready so he could go fishing again. Said he didn’t have a durn fish in the house. Stephenson Urges Moderation (EDITOR’S NOTE: Our guest col umnist is Dr. GllbertT. Stephen son of Warren Place, near Pen dleton in Northampton County. A banker of national stature be fore retirement several years ago, Dr. Stephenson has main tained an active interest in Roa- noke-Chowan affairs since. The following column is text of a talk he made before the Rich Square Rotary Club on Monday, August 9. Its subject is the area’s forgot ten man - the racial moderate.) THE FORGOTTEN MAN By GILBERT T. STEPHENSON During the past century there have been three periodsof special emphasis upon the readjustment of relationships of Caucasians and Negroes or, as I prefer to say, between white people and colored people. The first period was that of the 1870’s, known as the Reconstruction Period, dur ing which the emphasis was upon the civil rights of the recently empancipated colored people. The second period was that of the 1890’s, known in North Carolina as the Fusionist Period, during which the special emphasis was upon the suffrage rights of color ed people. The third period in the midst of which we now are may be known as the Integration Period during which theemphasls Is upon the elimination of the line between the two races In every respect and upon doing so imme diately. During this period, as during each of the preceding periods, the moderate of either race is the forgotten man. Who the Moderate Is The moderate of either race is the man who goes about his own affairs quietly, whose rela tions with members of the other race are friendly and coopera tive, who does not participate In demonstrations, and who does not believe that legislation alone is the solution of the problems of readjustment of interracial rela tionships. Why He Is the Forgotten Man The moderate is the forgotten man now because he is derided by one group and ignored by an other group. 1. Extremists. Colored ex tremists deride membersof their own race whose relations with members of the other race are friendly and cooperative by re ferring to them as Uncle Toms, referring to the lovable Uncle Tom, the fictional character who gave his name to Harriet Beech er Stowe’s classic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. They even soderide the memory of Booker T. Wash ington, who was a great Ameri can and who was an adornment of his race, by referring to them contemptuously as Nigger Lov ers. 2. Legalists. Legalists of both races - that is, those who believe that Interracial relationships can be readjusted by legislation alone - make no recognition and ex press no appreciation of the fact that the ultimate and permanent readjustment of relationships be tween the two races will be the responsibility of the moderates. The Recognition of the Forgotten Man as the Responsible Man When the demonstrations have subsided and the legislation in volving interracial relationships has been enacted by the legisla tures and interpreted by the courts, the moderate ofbothrac- es will emerge from his ob scurity and assume full respon sibility for establishing or re establishing good relations and relationships between the races. Then he will grapple with prob lems that now are obscured. Problems the Moderate as the Responsible Man Will Face The moderate, no longer the forgotten man but now the re sponsible man, will face two groups of problems. One will arise from the nationalization of interracial problems; the other, from a group of inter-related problems themselves. 1. Nationalization. The read justment of interracial problems no longer Is a Southern problem alone. It is a national and, in deed, an international problem as well. One favorable aspect of the nationalization of the problem Is that it will make the peoples of others sections of our country and of other countries even bet ter understand our problems and, perhaps, be more sympathetic with us in solving them. A pos sibly unfavorable aspect may be that the peoples of other sections or other countries may trytoap- play the same yardstick to our problems as to theirs, disregard ing the fact that conditions may be different. 2. Inter-related problems. Un employment, poverty, lack of training, idleness, restlessness, and susceptibility to extremist leadership are closely inter-re lated problems. People are poor because they are unemployed. They are unemployed because they are untrained for the occu pations that would be open to them if they were trained. They are idle because they are unem ployed. They are restless be cause they are idle. They are susceptible to extremist leader ship because they are restless. All six of these inter-related problems must be tackled as a group and solved together. This will be the gravest responsibility of the moderate converted from the forgotten man into the re sponsible man. Distinctions That Must Be Made In the readjustment of Inter- heard of but for the late Henry noon, September 12, for the pur- Ford, who, ironically, was one pose of organizing a literary so- of the most outstanding individ- ciety. The society was called to ualists and free enterprisers of order by Professor White, who this century. The Roanoke-Cho- noted as temporary chairman wan is also made up of small during the meeting. The first in towns and rural communities, order was the election of offi- We are not isolated. It could hap- cers. They are: Edward Outland, pen to us. It could happen all over president; Howard Revelle, vice the country, eventually. president; Claire Futrell, sec- If it weren’t such an ominous retary and treasurer; Ella Out- move, it would be quite funny, land, critic; Christine Vick, In the first place, it would seem niarshal. It was decided that we rather superfluous to set up such have our regular meetings twice a paper at public expense when a month in the auditorium, the majority of the great metro- — politan dailies have been gearing Mr. and Mrs. Albert Lassiter their operations for some time ^i^d Miss Dora Spivey left this to “reporting the government week for Raleigh where they have feels of interest.” positions with the State Institu- Publlsher Mills reports that tion for the Blind. it is also to be a cultural center where local talent will act out Miss Addie Elliott left last internal expression of the com- week to enter the North Carolina munity. There will be federal College for Women at Greens- sponsorship of town meetings boro. where participants will debate '' national politics. Professional From Conway-TheWilsonSo- workers will canvass the Willow ciety met and reorganized Friday Run community so they can tell afternoon. The following officers people what they need, for so far were elected: President, DeWitt they don’t seem to need anything. Rice; vicepresident, Martha Vln- This subsidized newspaper is son; secretary and treasurer, viewed an educational tool ex- Bennie Hedspeth; chaplain, Wll- perimenting in the techniques of son Garris; program committee, reporting social, economic and Miss Spivey, Bettie Jones and cultural aHairs and INTER- Martha Vinson; social commit- PRETING THESE TO THE COM- Sue Wheeler, Lee Brid- - gers and Bennie Hedspeth. racial relationships there are ^ , "! four dlslincllons that should be September 23, 1948 made aud recognised, namely. The Rich Square community that between equality and iden- held Re regular meeting tlty, between separation and seg- Thursday night al the school regkllon, between right andprlv- lh”ehroom and had as their spe- ilege, and between remedy and “■ ^ oers of the school faculty. A three . 1. Equality and identity. Equal- Ity of opportunity means the same Woh>m’e _Sociely ot Christian grade of service; identity of fa- , . . . . cllily means the same facility A band concert, under the dlrec- whethar or not It renders the ^ “'’‘“trl Brown, was tur- same grade of service. If, for ex- hlshed during the dinner hour, ample, one school child has spe- a-, .... clal need for one kind ot school- , Hhrrington, who got his ing - let us say, for economics 1=6 broken m footballpraollee, is (how lo spend moneyeconomlcal- hP«nding two days ly and prudently), dietetics (how " hospital, to provide and prepare nutri- ^ tious, balanced meals), and vo- homemakers cational training (how to pre- America chapter held its first pare for occupations that are open September to him) he does not have equal- , ’ officers for the com ity of opportunity if he is not t?® follows: given training in these courses Marie Benthall; vice because most of the pupils have Cornelia Lassiter; greater need for training In oth- ®®cretaj'y, Emily Jo Hall; treas- Service of the Methodist church. er courses. 2. Separation and segregation. Separation is the voluntary ac tion of the participants; segrega tion is the involuntary require- urer, Janet Miller; reporter. Merle Parker; historian, Mar garet Bolton; song leader, Lou Ella Vaughan. and churches would be inadvis able. ment of such separation. If vol- untarlly separated schools and churches will serve the best in- ^ terests of the two races, then in- ^ ory has there been a time voluntarily integrated schools ZZT n ® tant. Our fire waste is still run ning at an all-time high. If the 3. Right and privilege. A right „“SeL*“ “tf “crbVfed'icM is enforceable by law; aprivilege iBuui.Ba. is within the control of its pos- orr'-oA pTAteTuSu’-;' L^ot Ss Vu’^SaA ‘^ employees and customers and ohi- i . .7 that no one, by legislation or by JhJ'® organlaallin, should have the “ treasurer right to deprive him of thatprlv- D. Snipes, neerp Jr., historian, Clarence Revelle; I. Remedy and cure. In medi- Th^ha-ldgers. Cine an instant pain - killer, for cr, ^ ^ ^ example may retard orevenpre- wm sponsor a flower sTowta vent a permanent cure. Like- fho hieX snow in wise. In the readjustment of In- tober U Mr, f ter-raclal relationships a tern- chalrmm onhecommitteAA^- porary arrangement even though raneementc ar it produces Immediate relief, if ^ not basically sound, may retard, if not prevent, the proper read justment of those relationships. Temporary remedies, under In suggesting a settlement be- pressure or even threats of vlo- tween steel management and la- lence, should be avoided. Only bor, which was accepted, Presi- what is basically best for both dent Johnson was said to have races ever will. In the long run, been neutral. If so, many feel he be best for either race. was neutral in favor of labor. Beads 'n Deeds
Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald (Ahoskie, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 23, 1965, edition 1
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