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PAGE 6 THE SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT May 15, 1963 Voting In Miss. Must Be Shared OPINION POLL This month, I have attempted to get a general consensus of what the men of Morehouse and the women of Spelman think of each other. It is traditional for one to think of a Spelman woman dating a Morehouse man. Many students of both institutions are iconoclasts who break the old tradi tions ; nevertheless, much of it remains. For this reason, I have tried to get unbiased opinions from those who date and who do not date each other. When three of the women were asked, “What do you think of the men of Morehouse?”, the following responses were made: Ann Ashmore, Senior: “Actually, I’m proud of Morehouse men. There are many things they do as individuals or groups that are impressive. They have an atmosphere which is more superior in intelli gence than any other institution in the At lanta University Center. This is due parti cularly to the President of the college who strives to equate them with men from top- ranking institutions of the nation. “Morehouse men express opinions well and are not afraid. If they feel that an inj ustice has been done they petition and get results. They are courteous and discerning in general things. I like them very much.” Fay Jones, Junior: “I do not intend to inflate the ego of the Morehouse man for this is slightly improba ble. I intend only to give a candid opinion of what I think of the average Morehouse man. “I feel that Morehouse men have been built up magnificently. Ironically, they have lived up to the the great ‘build up’. They personify ideal men in character and ideas. Much adverse opinion may be given to men who deviate from the average Morehouse man; however, they are quite few in number as I see it.” Gwenolyn Kenner, Senior: “I have always been fond of Morehouse men as a group. They have the air of conceit that denotes the quality of the institution and the quality of the men who attend the institution. Conceit alone, is not indicative of superlative quality, but I feel that the superlative quality of the Morehouse men, as a group, warrants their conceit.” When four of the men of Morehouse were asked “What do you think of the women of Spelman ?”, the following respons es were made: Madison Foster, Senior: “Anything I say will be a generalization. I do not feel that any Spelman young woman is the epitome of any ideal. I think they posses charm and sophistication, yet at the same time they lack intestinal fortitude to change the status quo that they find so dis agreeable.” Charles Ellerson, Junior: “Inasmuch as my girlfriend is matriculat ing at Spelman, it s apparent that I like Spelman women. However, you are probably i more concerned as to why I like Spelman wo men and what I admire most about them. I like Spelman women for three reasons: (1) they always maintain a sisterly rela tionship with the M’House men; (2) they carry themselves with the dignity, poise, and charm that men admire in women; and, (3) Spelman women seem to be women with a sense of purpose, direction, and ambition which are essen tial for successful living.” Edmond D. Robinson, Senior: “Spelman young women possess a certain finesse and class which I have found in no other college women. There is a certain air of uncommonness about most Spelman wo men which sets them apart from the masses. Truly, Spelman women are queenly and they walk with kings—but too often do they lose the ‘common touch’. Their sense of pride is the envy of most women whom I’ve met.” James Story, Senior: “To me, Spelman young women are some what sophisticated. Naturally, they are charming and appealing. Due to the fact that Spelman is a type of finishing school, the young women seem to be dedicated in the task of finding a husband. “In this respect, the Spelman woman unlike other women; due to the fact that this in stitution—meaning Spelman— produces an atmosphere of uneasiness, pursue the goal of finding a husband with much vigor. If the Spelman women were placed in a more liberal environment, I am sure that a more stable and secure woman would be produced.” C. LeJeune Hickson In Terrell County, Georgia, a cotton oil factory provides most of the county’s income and Negro workers are afraid to register to vote. In Dallas County, Alabama, Negro factory workers earning $23 a week tell the field workers of the Student Nonviolent Coor dinating Committee that what they most need is a trade union. And in the Mississippi Delta, a friend active there says, “We have to start thinking about this eoomomic thing. The people feel that just having the vote is not enough.” The Mississippi Delta is a classic demonstration that jus tice, like peace, involves compre hensive changes in the social structure. It is the most under developed portion of that under developed nation, the American South. In Batista’s Cuba, one- fourth of all adult males were unemployed, over one-third of the population was illiterate, 1% per cent of the landowners con trolled 46 per cent of the land, the per capita income was under $500 a year. In Barnett’s Missi ssippi, one of every six persons in Febuary 1063 was poor enough to be receiving free Federal food; in the Delta, the figure was one person in three. Leflore County 'in the Delta contains the city of Greenwood, where the SNOC voter registra tion drive is concentrating. The median income for Negro fami lies in Leflore County in 1959 was $1400 (the median income of white families was $5200). Thirty-six per cent of the Negro families in Leflore County earned less than $1000 in 1959; eighty- nine per cent earned less than $3000. Thirty-six white families in the county had incomes of over $25,000 in 1959. The average (income of these 'three dozen families was over $1,000,000 a year. With respect to education, to unemployment, to farm owner ship, the vital statistics of Le flore County, Mississippi bears comparison with Batista’s Cuba. Seven per cent of the work force was unemployed in Leflore County in 1960: white unemploy ment was four per cent, Negro unemployment, 10 per cent. Seventy per cent of the Negroes over twenty-five have not com pleted seventh grade. Five hun dred and fiifty-one white farmers operate ninety per cent of the land in Leflore County, while 1162 Negroes operate ten per cent. Seventy per cent of the farms occupy less than six per cent of the land. Two per cent of the fauns occupy less than six per cent of the land. Two per cent of the farms contain more than one-third of the land. Those hardest hit by poverty and unemployment on the hot, flat fields of Leflore County are the Negro agricultrual workers. In 1960 thirty-nine per cent of Negro workers but only three per cent of white workers were farm laborers, while in the managerial, sales and clerical occupations whites were preponderant to an even greater degree. Liberals have comforted them selves with the thought that in dustrialization will somenow, someday, bring the region into the modern world. This is an over-simple solution anywhere in the South, it is especially so in the Mississippi Delta, where the mechanical cotton-picker threat ens, ultimately, to take jobs away from tens of thousands of workers. Already there are many such expendables, who drift to the towns and swell the lines for Federal food. There axe fac tories in Leflore County, usually branch plants of Northern-owned firms, which employ an estimated twelve to fifteen per cent of the county’s work force, they have produced no discernible liberali zation in the outlook of the county’s work force, nor the county’s power structure. What can change the power structure? Theoretically, votes. Sixty-five per cent of the population of Le flore County is Negro; but in the 1960 Presidential election ony five per cent of the eligible Negroes voted. Here is a great reservoir of votes; the SNCC drive already has resulted in more Negro registrants than the total number of Negroes who voted in 1960. On the other hand, the largest plantation-owner of the county is chairman of the board of directors of Green wood’s largest bank, a power greater than that which night- riders and police dogs can pro vide. Two tentative generaliza tions seem unquestionable: 1. Even to induce Negroes to regis ter, the freedom movement must show the connection between voting and the achievement of other more tangible goals; 2. To produce more than token free dom, the movement must recog nize that it is necessary to change the distribution of wealth as well as to secure citizenship rights. In recognition of the need for a more-than-single-issue pro gram, Negroes in Leflore County are now organizing an improve ment association which will consi der jobs and schools as well as votes. Other localities in the South are feeling their way toward simi lar programs, with local political candidates to present them. Mon roe, North Carolina, put forward such a ten-point program in August 1961, which included: 1. No discrimination in factory employment ; 2. No discrimination by local employment agencies; 3. No discrimination by the local Welfare Agency; 4. Employment of Negroes in skilled or supervisory capacities in the city government. At the recent SNCC confer ence, another such program was discussed, which included: 1. Exemption of food, clothing, medicine and household neces sities from all sales taxation; 2. Free legal counsel for all who need it, provided by a de fenders’ bureau whose budget shall equal the budget of the prosecutor's office; 3. A minimum wage law of $1.25 per hour for all workers irrespective of occupation or mode of hire. Such goals may seem alien to non-violent direct action as we presently understand it. In fact, they point to a wider field for non-violent action than any yet entered upon: the winning-over of the Southern poor white through a program directed to his needs as well as to the Negro’s. Meantime the powers-that-be- in Leflore County continue in sublime opacity. A recent edi torial in the Greenwood Com monwealth, the county’s princi pal daily newspaper, was en titled, “A History Lesson.” The editorial began: “South America’s privileged classes should study the history of China. Only the chosen few shared her glory. Her exploited millions remained, in squalor and disease, illiterate and ignorant.” The rulers of Chipa, the edi torial went on, with no mass of free men under them to keep them in check, debauched and ultimate ly destroyed their civilization. In China the ruling minority), at 'last totally weakened by its own ex cesses, was deposed. Side-by-side with this state ment, in the same issue of the same newspaper, a second edi torial appeared entitled, “That’s A Lot of Free Food.” Comment ing on the fact that one of every three Negroes in the Delta was receiving Federal food, the Greenwood Commonwealth stated that “certain Negro groups” had created a problem of “welfare Cheating” by unscrupulous pro paganda about “starving Negro es.” Clearly the privileged classes of Leflore County, Mississippi, have yet to learn their history lesson. The United States pre sumes to attempt the transfor mation of proverty-stricken, cast- ridden, one-party societies else where in the world. Dare it fail to do so in Mississippi? Staughton Lynd Professor of History SNCC News (Cont’d. from Page 1) dollar bond. The others paid two hundred dollars each. Married Freedom Fighters The Rev. and Mrs. Bernard Lafayette - a young couple with three years experience in the civil rights movement - are working for the Student Non violent Coordinating Committee on a pilot project in Selma, Alabama to register Negro voters. Despite the great odds they’re working against, the couple bravely faces the future. They have had previous experience with sit-ins and voter registrat ion drives in Nashville, and Arndt, Leflore, and Coahoma counties. They have successfully registered ten Negro citizens in Wilcox County where, because of terrorism, Negroes haven’t at tempted to vote in fifty years. Murdered Freedom Walker On April 2.3 rd, the body of William Moore, thirty-five year old resident of Baltimore, Mary land, was found in a ditch be side highway eleven outside of Attala, Alabama. He had been shot through the head with a .22 caliber bullet by “persons unknown”. A native Mississippian, Moore was en route from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Jackson, Mississippi where he hoped to present a letter to Governor Ross Barnett urging “decent treatment for all citizens”. Moore had left a letter for President Kennedy in his mailbox in Washington, taken a bus to Chattanooga, and start ed walking carrying signs about integration. SNCC leader, James Forman^ said that the freedom march would continue as scheduled. Albany Mrs. E. L. Jackson, recording secretary of the Albany Move ment, denied charges by a white store owner that his store is being picketed by Negroes' because of his participation in a federal jury that freed a sheriff accused of shooting a Negro. The picketing is against the merchant’s discri minatory practices and not his participation in the trial, Ware vs Johnson. Americus Ralph Allen, a twenty-two- year old white field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordi nating Committee, was attacked and beaten on April 25th. Allen had escorted a Negro woman to the Sdmter County Courthouse to register to vote. Even though Allen knows the license number of the car, nothing is being done about it. Charles Sherred, director of SNCC’s Southwest Georgia voter registration project, wired the Justice Department and Georgia’s Governor Carl Sanders demand ing an investigaton. Wanda Waples Today’s Colleges (Cont’d. from Page 4) many have fled the fight, but most of them have remained to fight it out. “The plaice to light for a principle,” writes Professor Irdell Jenkins, who remained in the philosophy department of the University of Alabama to do just that, “is where it is a living issue, not where it is an ac complished fact, and still less where it has become a mere ob ject ot sanctimonious self-con gratulations”.