Newspaper Page Text
Friday, July 19, 1963
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Paje Seyen
Dialogue on Albany, Ca
Continued from page 1
charges of vagrancy or disturb
mg the peace when they set foot
on the streets, then the right of
peaceful protest is most certainly
not a part of the lexicon of de
mocracy in Albany.
Why is Albany a powder keg,
when other Southern, and Georgia
communities are meeting the sit
uation maturely?
There are a number of reasons
For one thing, the people of
Albany pride themselves on their
city, and they mourn the loss of
their reputation as one of Amer
ica’s progressive communities.
They tell you of the air-condi
tioned Negro school, the Negro
swimming pool, the Negro col
lege, and the Negro wealth.
This is no mere alibi. Albany
in its fine history has sought to
meet the needs of its Negro
citizen, even if only in its own
way. The whites resent deeply
the fact that the Negroes do not
appreciate what has been done
for them.
The leading citizens cite with
unconcealed glee the defeat they
administered to Martin Luther
King — a defeat the Negroes
concede. King you are told many
times had made Albany his num
ber one target city, but when he
left, not to return, after exacting
a few promises never kept, this
was confirmation to the white
community of the correctness of
their approach to meeting the
Negro situation.
There was the incident of the
bus boycott which a half year
ago led to the closing down of
sendee, and the leadership uses
this case to prove that the Ne
groes are without leadership and
their demands unreasonable. Af
ter meetings by the white with
the Negro leadership, led at that
time by a young well-liked Negro
physician—Dr. Anderson—a form
ula was worked out which Dr.
Anderson assured the whites
would be acceptable to his group.
He came back almost immediate
ly with a set of demands for in
tegration which the whites in a
huff rejected almost in a state
of shock.
This incident, incidentally, has
strengthened the hands of the
white racists, and has practically
destroyed the one hope for medi
ation — the growth of moderate
groups who see that the city is
heading for tragedy unless the
two camps can meet at some
point to negotiate.
In talking to the white and Ne
gro leadership about the situa
tion, you get all the stock an
swers, but as you probe and chal
lenge, you find that both sides ac
cept the idea of negotiations, but
while the Negroes may be eager
for it, the whites are afraid of it.
Consequently the whites may be
speaking only for the record
when they tell you that there Is
no responsible Negro leadership
who can bring the Negro com
munity along with it.
The Negro leader today is Sla
ter King, brother of the lawyer
whose demonstration in the courts
in defending the youngsters pick
ed up off the streets as "vag
rants” was as superb a perform
ance as any we’ve seen, not ex
cepting the years we spent in the
courtroom covering trials for the
daily papers. The brothers King
are the leaders of the commun
ity ,and these two fine-looking,
conscientious, introspective men
would be a credit to any group.
Whether the rank and file of
the Negro community will follow
Slater King if he accepts less at
this point than their full demands,
we have no way of knowing, but
we are as sure as we are sitting
at this typewriter ■— and every
one without exception finally
agreed with us (at the start you
got only the surface answers, slo
gans, ready prepared rationaliza
tions from both sides, but as you
dug deeper, you got to the guts
of the matter, with mature con
sideration and thoughtful ans
wers) that this extension of the
period in which neither side is
talking to the other is not only
dangerous but almost a certain
path to an eruption.
While we were sitting with one
city official, he signed the docu
ment selling to a private com
pany the city swimming pool,
which has been closed these
many months as well as all other
recreation facilities. The Negro
attorneys are fighting this sale in
the courts, but meanwhile, since
the pools are no longer commun
ity owned, Albany cannot be
forced by law to permit Negroes’
entrance.
This shows the shallowness of
the universally held rationaliza
tion that Albany is ready to grant
rights to its Negroes, but only
under the law.
The Jewish leadership im
presses this on you that if due
process is followed, the people of
Albany, steeped in the Anglo
Saxon tradition of law, will not
resist.
When you ask a leading city of
ficial about school integration, he
tells you that such suits have
been filed by the Negro commun
ity which will make possible by
1 D6.0 the beginning of school inte
gration. Why so many years af
ter the Supreme Court decision—
also a matter of law — the Ne
groes of Albany still must wait,
draws no satisfactory answer.
There is no difference, neither
visible or otherwise, in the Jew
ish community and that of the
leading white lights towards the
NegTo problem. In fact, the Jews
are so well integrated into com
munity life, that there is no bar
to them anywhere, golf clubs,
boards of the most important
banking and industrial organiza
tions, and elsewhere. Although it
was known that we are the pub
lisher of a National Jewish week
ly, not even one of the non-Jews
we interviewed asked even the
first question about Jews.
The Jews themselves did. They
were most vocal in castigating
national Jewish organizations and
northern rabbis and anyone at all
from outside of Albany for mixing
in with their problems. It cannot
be said that there isn’t some
justification for their position,
even though you interpret — and
they deny this most vociferously
— that it Is dictated by fear or
insecurity. After all this is their
community, they must Live out
their lives there and conduct
their businesses.
The Jews feel no special re
sponsibility as Jews to seek to
ameliorate the situation of the
Negroes, and just could not un
derstand this concept, even though
it was documented for them.
The line of control in Albany
starts with the daily newspaper,
the only one in the city, which
also owns the lone TV station.
When we questioned the city
editor as to why no news had
been published of the hunger
strike, his answer was that in his
judgment this was not news. He
sought to editorialize to me on
the question, but we wouldn’t let
him evade, and pressed him hard.
It developed that he also was
the Associated Press representa
tive for Albany, which accounted
for the fact that no news of the
hunger strike in which my daugh
ter had already gone without food
for six days at that point, had
appeared in U.S. newspapers.
The New York Times man had
been in Albany over the previous
weekend, but he too missed the
story of the hunger strike.
Meanwhile the SNCC leadership
had been contacting daily papers
and TV stations all over the U.S.,
and it became a mystery to me
why the news had not gotten out
until we learned that the police
department denied to each re
porter that there was a hunger
strike.
By now, we were thoroughly
aroused, so we called our New
York office and asked Charles
Roth to notify the New York
Times. We called to our home too
in Indianapolis and asked that
the daily papers be notified. The
Indianapolis Star carred the ac
count of course, but also the de
nial from the Albany police de
partment whom they contacted,
that such a hunger strike had
been going on.
How could this kind of lie be
tolerated, and did this not Indi
cate that something close to cor
ruption was being condoned by
the power structure.
The fact that the Associated
Press was involved in this dis
honesty, (other than the person
in Albany who represented them
must have been involved, for
news of Albany goes first we feel
to a central office somewhere in
the South before going out to all
the nation) is the first Instance
in our entire history of such fla
grant violation of the canons of
good journalism on the part of
the AP.
But even this could not have
kept the lid on in Albany were
it not for the collusion of the
courts — all we must tell you
designed to keep order — even if
it denied elemental rights of jus
tice. Everything in Albany rested
on this one concern — keeping
order. In fact, the clear refrain
ing from any violence on the
part of the police department,
even under severe provocation,
stemmed from this same concern
that if order were disturbed, then
the Negro had a chance to win
concessions.
We spent one entire day watch
ing the court procedure. The
girls and boys charged with va
grancy and disturbing the peace
told their stories — and here we
must applaud the judge fully.
The attorney, the Negro C. B
King, got every chance to present
any motion, challenge any pro
cedure of the prosecution, and in
terrogate and even press the
Chief of Police, who was on the
stand not a few times, and even
though anger was displayed as
Mr. King put the prosecution in
clearly contradictory positions,
time after time, the judge let him
proceed with every consideration.
The only trouble was that when
it came time to pass sentence,
the judge seemed to ignore the
testimony and arbitrarily passed
conviction, which he did in every
instance.
In the vagrancy cases against
the college students, the evidence
was so clear that these were chil
dren of fine families, that even
though they were sentenced to 60
days in jail, this was suspended
with the judge urging that they
leave Albany.
The judge played his role as
part of the machinery to keep the
lid on the Negro. Outsiders must
be forced to leave Albany, even
though their activities were law
ful.
There you have it — the police,
the newspapers and the courts,
all of one mind, and with no op
portunity of protest.
Is it any wonder that the Ne
groes are restive under this kind
of iron control. If this one-track
purpose of keeping order were
enforced in order to give time to
the representatives of both sides
to talk out the situation to reach
an understanding, then perhaps
it could be condoned. But no
body in Albany is talking to each
other, and the Negro on the
street — not the leadership — is
predicting an explosion any mo
ment.
In Slater King we met a novel
kind of Negro leader—thorough
ly dedicated to freeing his peo
ple, yet an introspective man who
knew about Israel and Judaism,
who had not the least trace of
any anti-Semitism, and who was
frankly puzzled at the refusal of
the white group to talk things
through. He bore the whites no
animosity, yet he was proud and
resentful of their injustices.
The white leadership of Albany
by this strict control is deluding
itself. Keeping the lid on and
repression gives a false sense
of security, so that the conclu
sion of the construction firm of
ficial we met at the airport was
entirely warranted. The leader
ship does not recognize that time
is running out.
We make a mistake when we
label these people as “bad peo
ple.” They are not. Under any
other kind of criteria, they are
of our finest people.
You must understand their po
sition.
They contend that those seek
ing to give what they consider
excessive civil rights to the Ne
groes are taking people not pre
pared to enjoy and exercise
them and placing in their hands
control of the community. They
see perhaps far greater change
than will emanate when the pres
ent chaos is over, but this is the
way most people react who fear
change.
The Negroes themselves do not
overestimate their readiness for
the rights endowed to every UJS.
citizen. They recognize that most
Negroes need to be regenerated—
but contend that this condition
is traceable to the deadening
effect of the present system,
where jobs, education and free
doms are denied them.
But on the other hand, the
white leadership also recognizes
and talks freely about the poor
white trash. In fact, this is where
the bloodshed will begin — with
these who compete with the Ne
groes for jobs and who like the
Negro have been victimized by
the system. They are uneducated
and resentful, and they unlike
the leadership cannot think deep
ly enough to understand that a
peaceful revolution is in the
making and is the sole hope for
transition without bloodshed.
One must not prejudge the
white leadership. They are the
victims of their own maneuver-
ings. In order to preserve their
way of life, which can be a
laudable goal, they have counten
anced the growth of a system in
which they are now so entangled
that they are unable to extricate
themselves.
Let’s see how this works.
Whenever any efforts at set
ting up a bi-racial committee or
other kind of mediation has been
attempted, these have died aborn
ing. The daily paper, for instance,
whose publisher is a confirmed
supporter of the present regi
mentation, has been a stumbling
block in the way of any attempt
at moderation. That the paper
has not spoken out against the
police state system which now op
erates is ample demonstration of
how once one condones one viola
tion he is inevitably led to con
done worse ones, until all sem
blance of democracy and good
government is wiped out.
Those in Albany who do not
close their eyes to reality cannot
move. The system will destroy
them, and martyrs they are not.
They once accepted, in the name
of retaining order, the need to
sacrifice certain rights of in
dividuals who are Negro, and
now they find that these same
rights of free speech are denied
them and they are powerless to
do anything about it.
Everyone seemed to want to do
the rigid thing. Meanwhile every
thing to invite the very opposite
was taking place. The officials
we talked to recognized the pos
sibility of an eruption, and con
ceded that as long as meetings
between the white and the Negro
were not taking place, a grave
chance of an explosion was being
hazarded.
Albany could wake up In time.
We hope so. It is far behind other
communities In their concessions
to the Negro, but It has a history
of fairness, and Is a thriving In
dustrial center, which means ita
leadership can be effective.
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