Page Two
THE SALEMITE
Friday, October 17, 195r
S(U4iU^/ut
Hook SupAedHA Cou^t
(Editor’s Note: As members of the Salem
College Student Government Association, we
are the affiliate of the United States National
Student Association. This summer, our official
delegate to the USNSA Convention, Margaret
MacQueen, president of the Student Govern
ment Association, voted in favor of the South
ern Declaration, which was passed by our
whole district. The Declaration is in complete
harmony with our position as stated on page
1. We reprint it here as an example of the
approach that should be taken to the problem
of integration in the public schools and as the
type of leadership, which we feel is reason
able and effective..)
£uUUedH. ^mclanaiUm
We are proud of the Southern community.
We are, however, painfully aware of the tre
mendous problem that faces our respective
states in the realm of constitutional desegre
gation of segregated schools.
We are also aware of the great national
problem of establishing democratic race re
lations, but we realize that perhaps in our
community the problem is more acute because
it involves statutory discrimination while the
basic problem elsewhere is basically one of
sociological and policy implementation.
We are in complete agreement with the
USNSA Kesolution on Desegregation which
states that segregation in education by race
is incompatible with human equality. We also
realize that segregation in education is now
unconstitutional and is at cross purposes with
the American way of life and body of law.
Though we are proud of the Southern com
munity’s way of life, we do not feel that 'a
system that denies equal opportunity to some
citizens is either necessary or desirable as a
part of that way of life.
We further declare that until this system
of forced inequality of opportunity is finally
dissolved, the true qualities of dynamic re
gional progress which are the true keynotes
of the Southern way of life cannot come to
fruition.
We are personally opposed and will work
to defeat all actions, legislative or otherwise,
which in effect frustrate and prevent the
obligation and right of local committees to
progress toward compliance with the decision
of the Supreme Court. We do also stand un
alterably opposed to any demagogery or at
tempts to use the highly emotional issue of
desegregation for personal, social, financial or
political gain.
Finally, we are deeply cognizant of the tre
mendous obligation that we as Southern stu
dent leaders personally bear to supply intelli
gent and forward-looking leadership to our
home communities in squarely meeting the
problem of constitutional integration, in work
ing with other students in the South in de
veloping an intelligent program of leadership
in this area, and involving all other students
possible in our local academic communities
and schools throughout the South in meeting
the problem.
Published every Friday of the College year
by the Student Body of Salem College
OFFICES—Lower Floor Main Hall
Downtown Office—414 Bank St., S. W.
Printed by the Sun Printing Company
Subscription Price—$3.50 a year
Editor-in-chief ^...Jean Smitherman
Associate Editor Mary,Jo Wynne
News Editor Nancy Jane Carroll
Feature Editor Erwin Robbins
Managing Editor
Copy Editor
..Susan Foard
..Sallie Hickok
Headline Editor Sarah Ann Price
Business Manager Corky Scruggs
Advertising Manager Rosemary Laney
Circulation Manager Becky Smith
Asst. Business Manager Betsy Gilmour
Columnists; Sandy Shaver, Mary Jane
Tense Racial Issue
Remains Unsettled
Mayhew.
Faculty Advisor Miss Jess Byrd
Typists Irene Noel, Joanne Doremus
Asst. Advertising Manager Lynn Ligon
Southern Author Gives
New Views on Race Issue
Reprinted from the Winston-Salem
Journal - Sentinel.
By H. Clay Ferree
Since the Supreme Court de
cision on desegregation was handed
down in 1954, there has been no
end to speeches, articles and books
on the Southern racial problem,
many of them by Southerners.
Somewhat different is a new book
by James McBride Dabbs, a South
Carolina planter, lay church leader
and business man. In The Southern
Heritage (Alfred A. Knopf. 273 pp.
$4), Mr. Dabbs presents the view
of a thoughtful, conscientious, open-
minded Southerner on race rela
tions.
Thinking Out Loud
In this book he does a lot of
thinking out loud on the facial
problem. In this thinking he tries
to go to the roots of traditional
Southern thought and feeling on
the Negro question, reveal its
“why,” and point out the errors
and fallacies upon which the segre
gation philosophy and practices
have been erected.
In his youth, Mr. Dabbs, a Pres
byterian elder and president of the
Southern Regional Council, gave,
he says, little thought to the racial
question. During his boyhood (he
was born in 1898), the race problem
was pretty well under cover in the
South.
Following the Red Shirt cam
paigns of the late ’90’s, the Jim
Crow laws designed to “put the
Negro in his place” had about all
been enacted. In his native state.
South Carolina, the two races were
living together in comparative
peace, and many seemed to think
that the race problem had been
settled for good.
Two years before his birth the.
Supreme Court in Plessy vs. Fer
guson had enunciated its famous
separate but equal” doctrine which
was to govern interracial affairs in
the South until May 17, 1954. Segre
gation and the master-servant re
lationship was largely taken for
granted. So despite a few contacts
with integration during World War
I in the Army and later as a grad
uate student at Clark University,
Mr. Dabbs gave little serious
thought to the race problem until
much later in adult life.
His first concrete concern with
this issue came when Olin John
ston, then Governor of South
Carolina, called the legislature into
session for the purpose’-of amend
ing the laws to prevent Negros
front voting in the state Demo
cratic primaries.
Disturbed by Move
This move offended Mr. Dabbs’
sense of equity and justice. From
then on he became increasingly
interested in inter-relations. He
began to look at the whole Southern
political and economic structure.
As an active church layman he
turned his attention to the attitudes
and practices of the religious bodies
and experienced something of a
shock when he ran across the dis
turbing fact that some members of
the Christian faith evidently were
willing to give up their church
rather than segregation.
In his study of the Southern
attitude, Mr. Dabbs accepts the
guilt complex idea emphasized by
Lillian Smith in The Time Is Now.
He undertakes to show how an
enormous weight of guilt cumula
tive through years of injustice and
discrimination, has fixed itself upon
the South to serve as an uncon
scious urge toward further wrongs
and excesses. He endeavors also
to show how economics and the
struggle for status and security
within the white race have brought
their influence to bear upon the
problem. The role of those com
munity and political leaders who
have exploited the race issue for
their own purposes is also, examined
under the Dabbs microscope.
Fear of Mixing
But the core of the whole pres
ent problem is the strong, almost
fanatic, fear of race amalgamation
or “mongrelization.” This amalga
mation in fact has been going on
for a long time through sexual re
lationships between white men and
Negro women, although miscegen
ation is much less common today
than in slavery and Reconstruction
days.
But the concern of the whites
is with possible alliances of Ne
gro men with white women. The
white South would impose the
double standard. Its women must
be protected from the lustful Ne
gro male. If the white male
wanders off the reservation, that
is a different matter. But inte
gration would bring white and
Negro youth of both sexes into
intimate contact. It would speed
the day when the legal bans against
intermarriage of the races would
break down.
As the author sees it, this fear
has hardened the resistance of
many Southern white against inte
gration.
With factual data and plausible
argument Mr. Dabbs endeavors to
show that this fear is groundless;
that the mongrelization bogeyman
is a mere scarecrow. In areas of
the nation where intermarriage is
legal the number of such unions,
he points out, are, comparatively
speaking, infinitesimal.
Stamp of Sincerity
There are many flaws which
might be picked in the author’s
arguments and theories. He does
not qualify as a sociologist or
scientist. There may be those who
feel that he is just another South
erner who has fouled his own nest
by writing a book that will please
the Yankees and the NAACP.
But The Southern Heritage bears
the stamp of' sincerity. It contains
the quiet, earnest musings of a cul
tured, intelligent Southerner who
loves the South and trembles for
Its uncertain future. More’s the
pity, that, as Ralph McGill has
pointed out, almost all those who
read the book will be persons al
ready basically in agreement with
Mr. Dabbs. It needs to be read
by all Southerners, segregationists
or not, who, in the words of the
author “love the South so much
they want to make it better.” ^
By Susan Foard
Until last week the segregation issue had
centered in Little Eock, Arkansas and in Vir
ginia. But on Sunday morning October 5,
three dynamite blasts wrecked the high school
in Clinton, Tenn. Eleven Negro pupils had
been admitted here since 1956. They, along
with 860 white students, started back to school
Thursday in a Federally-owned school-building
in Oak Kidge, ten miles from Clinton. Damage
from the blast was estimated at $300,000. The
FBI was called in to investigate.
Interviewed in Greensboro immediately after
the Clinton blast, John Kasper was joyous,
calling it “a great victory for the white people
of Tennessee.” Kasper is in North Carolina
to organize a new political party. He hopes
it will keep the “left-wing integrationists” out
of public office. Among these men, he num
bers Attorney General Malcolm B. Seawell and
Governor Luther Hodges. The party is to in
clude Klansmen, the White Citizens Council
and other pro-segregationists. It will be based
on nationalism and will advocate the expulsion
of all Jews and Negros from America.
Events in Arkansas have been moving
rapidly and are by no means settled. Gov.
(Faubus had planned a private corporation to
lease the four high schools and to use state
funds for the segregated classes. But on Sep
tember 12, the Supreme Court condemned
“evasive schemes for segregation”. Then the
two judges of the Eighth Circuit Court of
Appeals issued a temporary order restraining
the school boards from leasing their buildings.
This order was extended to October 15. De
puty U. S. Marshals have also served orders
restraining public school teachers from work
ing for the private school corporation.
As a result, Faubus put into action his
second plan. He has sent 25,000 letters to
people who had written in support of his stand.
These letters ask for money to supplement the
private buildings he has requested from Little
Eock citizens.
Last week the Supreme Court handed down
a joint decision on the Little Eock situation.
This ruling declared that “Law and order are
not to be preserved by depriving the Negro
Ichildren of their constitutional rights . . . The
constitutional rights are* not to be sacrificed
or, yielded to the violence and disorder which
followed upon the actions of the Governor and
Legislature.”
On Monday, October 14, the Supreme Court
rejected an appeal of the lower court orders.
These orders forbade Gov. Faubus from using
the Arkansas National Guard troops to prevent
Negro pupils from entering the Little Eock
schools.
In Virginia Governor Lindsay Almond, Jr.,
closed and took control of nine integrated
schools in Warren County, Charlottesville and
Norfolk. Classes for the 13,000 children were
set up in homes, lodges and churches.
But District Judge John Paul ordered War
ren County and Charlottesville to stop using
public school teachers and public funds for
these private classes. He did not reopen the
schools because this issue is already* before
state courts.
In Norfolk the NAACP was in effect told
to name Gov. Almond as the defendant in its
motion to reopen the schools, rather than the
city council. This was a result of the gover
nors’ closing of the integrated schools, follow
ing the “massive resistance” laws passed by
the Virginia Legislature. The Norfolk city
council has started preparation for a referen
dum on Nov. 11. The choice would be be
tween the opening of the schools on a segre
gated basis as prescribed by state laws or on
an integrate^ basis with an annual tuition of
$60 per child.
^ Elsewhere, in Charlotte, N. C. the state pre
sident of the NAACP, Kelley M. Alexander
urged last week that the Negro parents insist
on an extension of the state’s token integra
tion. He said, “Negro parents realize that
necessary adjustments must be made by school
boards but it should not take a lifetime to
make this adjustment.”