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IS SAVANNAHS ANTI-PICKETING LAW LEGAL?
The enactment of the anti-picketing law
on Friday, May 6, by the city of Savannah
grew out of a desire of Mayor Mingle-
dorff, City Council and merchants of
Broughton Street to break the successful
boycott of stores on Broughton Street by
Negro citizens of Savannah. The boycott¬
ing and picketing of stores by Negroes
have been operating for the hist six weeks
as a means of protesting unfair and dis¬
criminating practices against the Negro,
Some of the merchants claim that their
sales fell off as much as 75 per cent dur¬
ing the Easter season.
Is picketing legal? In the 1940 case
of Thornhill vs Alabama, the United
States Supreme Court outlawed a state
law prohibiting all picketing. Picketing
was equated with free speech and the
court held that it was an activity protect¬
WHY THE SURPRISE?
(From The Southern Observer)
Surprise has been expressed in some
quarters over the fact that writers for
The New York Times and The Washing¬
ton Post-Herald found race relations in
Alabama something less than ideal. That
Negroes in some places feared for their
personal safety and felt that they live
“under a cloud” must be utter nonsense,
some have said Why, the Southern white
man knows the Negro better than any¬
body, they have reasoned, and there’s not
a word of truth in charges that the Negro
feels intimidated. All he wants is to be
left alone by outsiders!
The purpose of this piece is not to say
that the picture drawn by the New York
and Washington writers is absolutely ac¬
curate in eveby detail. It is to say, how¬
DISHONOR ROLL OF AUTO DRIVERS INCREASES
On the cover of The Travelers Insur¬
ance Company’s I960 annual statistical
report on U.S. highway accidents during
1959, Death’s bony fingers clutch a grim
record of death, injury and suffering.
This year's booklet, the B 1th annual
edition, is entitled “The Dishonor Roll.”
In 1959, more than 2,900,000 Americans
added their names to the nation’s roll call
of senseless slaughter, an increase of al¬
most 50,000 over the previous year. They
were added despite the pleadings and
warnings of those who try in vain to halt
the carnage on our highways.
For those who recognize the evil and
battle it with the few weapons at their
command, the struggle often seems a
hopeless one. Each year the grim reaper
emerges victorious, his Dishonor Boll
growing even longer with the names of
men, women and children, drivers and
pedestrians, the careless and innocent
alike.
Since the first automobile chugged
noisily down cobblestone streets, more
than 62,000,000 killed, crippled and
maimed Americans have inscribed their
names on the Dishonor Boll. More have
died on the highways than on our nation's
battlefields. More have been injured than
in all the world’s wars combined.
This roll call of highway fatalities is no
secret document hidden from public gaze.
In newspapers and bulletins, legal and
police reports, in courtrooms and judges’
chambers, the names of the Dishonored
and their innocent victims are made
known to all. And not the names alone,
but the catalogue of their deeds; driving
while drunk, excessive speed, violating
EDITORIAL OPINION FROM THE NATION’S PRESS
Here are editorial expressions on a
number of subjects of current 'interest
though not necessarily related:
W. C. HANDY
COMMERCIAL APPEAL, Memphis
“As work takes many men to cities far
from the regions of their growth. Profes¬
sor Handy’s career led to New York, the
musical capital. He continued to be a
Memphis man, away on business,
HULAN JACK
TIMES, New York City
“He should have stayed self-suspended
until the “final determination” of his
case, as he himself suggested in mid-
January when indicted. Now all con¬
cerned with court action should move
promptly toward that final determina¬
tion.”.
REP. ADAM CLAYTON POWELL. JR.
NEWS AND OBSERVER. Raleigh, N. C
“The apparent poor handling of the
55 We .st 42nd Street
***" York Ml New Y ° rk
1M W. Washington St.
Chicago 2, 111.
____________ _ "
— "
Mr. Robert Whaley
Whaley-Simpson Company
6608 Selma Ave.
Los Angeles 28, California
_
Mr. Oordon Sim pson
Whaley-Simpson Company
700 Montgomery St.
Ban Francisco 11, California
---------------------~
_ jfngfflh _
" '
-
ed by the First Amendment. The court
felt that the safeguarding of picketing,
“is essential to the securing of an inform¬
ed and educated public opinion with re¬
spect to a matter which is of public con¬
cern.”
The May 2nd issue of Time Magazine
reports that Mayor Mingledorff said, “l
don’t especially care if it’s constitutional
or not.”
Thurgood Marshall, N A A C P Legal
Counsel, in a speech in New Orleans last
week said “if American citizens can picket
the White House in the nation’s Capitol,
they have the right to picket any other
building in any other city or state.” Mr.
Marshall continued, “these young people
are saying we are not happy, we are not
satisfied. We want everything others
have — including dignity.”
ever, what the Negro reader already
knows: much of what the writers said is
true.
The Negro has many warm friends in
the white race in this region. 11 is tragic
that times and conditions have strained
those friendships in some instances and
made communication almost helpless in
others. But the Southern white who
boasts that he knows the Negro, and that
the Negro does not feel intimidated, is
perfectly satisfied to laze in the shade
with no thought of improving his lot and
measure of freedom and dignity, simply
doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Such talk only indicates just how little
he knows about his colored neighbor.
the rules of the road, jaywalking, failure
to dim lights. These are a few of their
offenses. In an endless roll call the names
are read, and the judgments dishonored given. Then
more often than not, the pro¬
ceed to emblazon their names again on
Ihe shameful record.
It is apparent that despite the statis¬
tical lists, the courtroom scenes, the
newspaper headlines, and the spotlight
of publicity, we continue to ignore this
great and needless waste of human re¬
sources and material values. YVe shake
our heads in sorrow over friends or rela¬
tives listed, children killed, lives blighted.
Then, as in 1959, we add the names of
27,600 men, women and children killed,
2,870,000 injured, maimed and disfigured,
an ever-increasing toll of Dishonor.
What is the solution to this national dis¬
grace? Obviously, no one has found it to
date. Statistics, pledges and slogans have
had little apparent effect on the Amer¬
ican public. None of these brought about
lasting awareness of the needless waste
of lives, the untold suffering represented
by the Dishonor Roll. Each year, more
of us heedlessly forget or intentionally
disregard the messages of our safety ex¬
perts. We refuse to make that personal
commitment to greater care which is nec¬
essary if we are to survive the holocaust
of our highways.
Only through an awareness of the
power of the modern automobile and only
through the desire of each of us to keep
our good names from the pages of the
Dishonor Roll, will vve begin to lower the
deadly toll, and make our highways safe
avenues of commerce and pleasure for all.
government’s case raises all sorts of sus¬
picions. Some of these suspicions may be
allayed if the case is retried and before
a new judge who hasn’t a record as a
Republican politician ”
STATE’S RIGHTS
POST-HERALD, Birmingham. Ala.
If the majority of the people of Ala¬
bama find it serves the public welfare to
abolish certain counties and create new
ones, is that not the business of the peo¬
ple of Alabama?
“If as a last resort against an inte¬
grated school system the people them¬
selves decide to abolish the public schools
and to establish a new system of educa¬
tion, is that not the business of the peo¬
ple of Alabama?”
SCHOOL INTEGRATION
POST-DISPATCH, St. Louis
"Juot as it is the Supreme Court's duty
to interpret the lav .0 it L the Execu¬
tive’s duty to enforce it. The President’s
THE SAVANNAH TRIBUNE, SAVANNAII, GEORGIA
puny <1 :
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Will It Respond With A Spirit of Determination?
Changed Attitude Biggest
NEW YORK, N. Y. Sixty-
eight cities in 13 states have felt
the effects of four Negro freshmen
from the Agricultural and Tech¬
nical College of North Carolina
who could not get a cup of coffee
two months ago in a Greensboro
Woolworth store, Harold C. Flem¬
ing said today in The Reporter,
In his copyrighted article, “The
Price of a Cup of Coffee,” Flem¬
ing says that the trivial issue of
“who perches next to whom on a
lunch-counter stool” points to a
real and growing discontent in the
Southern Negro. “The time is,
rapidly approaching when segre¬
gation can be maintained only by
continuous coercion and the lnJ
tolerable social order it would
create.”. ‘
Segregationist testimonies that
Negroes “doij’t want this r»t4
mixing anymore than we do” arid
the angry accusations by Georgia’s
Senator Richard B, Russell and
Governor Ernest Vandiver
the recent student demonstrations
were inspired by a northern liberal
organization have taken on a
perate quality, Fleming says.
“Quiet, well-disciplined ranks of
Negro youngsters seating them¬
selves at lunch counters, filing into
segregated public libraries, or
marching in eerie silence before
state capitols and county court-
houses offer a powerful rebuttal,”
Fleming comments.
The official Southern attitude
has been — “Throw the book at
a few of them, and the whole thing
will fizzle out; the grown-ups will
put a stop to it.”
“Ironically,” Fleming says, “this
official attitude has done more
than anything else to assure the
solidarity of young and old in
Negro communities. Mass arrests
as in Nashville, tear gas as in
Tallahassee, and student expulsions
as in Montgomery have served
only to unite the students and their
elders in common defense of the
right to protest.”
Fleming points out that in some
parts of the South, the legitimacy
of the students’ demands has been
recognized by a surprising num¬
ber of whites. In several commu¬
nities white students have either
actively participated in the sit-ins
or have supported them by public
statements and editorials in cam¬
pus newspapers. Public officials
have supported the objectives of
the Negro students,, if not their
methods.
In Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh,
Salisbury, Nashville, Knoxville, &
Miami, established or specially
pointed biracial committees are
trying to work out changes
ceptable to both Negroes and
chants.
The liberal position of
Leroy Collins, of Florida,
in a state-wide radio and
vision broadcast that “amounted
an informal sermon on the
indefensibility of
prestige could be of the greatest help in
overcoming the inequity of race-divided
schools. There is still time for Mr. Eisen¬
hower to take a really firm stand for the
morality and the constitutionality of de¬
segregation.”
NORTHERN NEGRO VOTE
FLORIDA TIMFS-UNION. Jacksonville
‘‘One of the most interesting develop¬
segregation,” Fleming says.
Within six days Collins ap¬
pointed a bi racial state commission
for mediation of this and other
race-relations problems. Within
the week, the commission was se-
ting up advisory panels, meeting
with merchants’ associations, and
promoting local biracial commit¬
tees.
“Given enough skill and a great
deal of luck,” Fleming says that
Collins could “introduce a new era
of racial adjustment in Florida
and blaze a trail for less adven-
turous political leaders of
South.”
However, Fleming adds,
and the cities of San Antonio
Galveston 1 , 1 Texas, and
City, Missouri', which have
regated their lunch counters,
“by no meads typical of the
South.”
In the> '“hard-core” cities
South Carolina, Georgia,
Mississippi, and Louisiana,
j“the been used powers, to punish of government and
the demonstrators,” the issue
chiefly between Negro citizens
the state.
Fleming reports that “harsh
lice methods and vindictive
cutions have only succeeded
deepening the resentment and
termination of the protesters.”
cities “where the police and
officials have performed fairly
impartially,” the original
ter of the protest continues as
economic tug of'war between
merchants and the Negroes.”
Although the sit-ins as a
of protest may be gradually
placed, Fleming says that
mos *' enduring results will be
the realm of attitudes.
“The white South has been
on notice as never before
Southern Negroes intend to be
of segregation . . . Negroes
learned from the example of
young people that their
and resources for protest are
greater than they had
Fleming writes.
j Fla. Baptists Give
To N. and I. College
ST AUGUSTINE, Fla—
— The General State Baptist
vention of Florida rqade a
tion of $14,331.95 to Florida
mal and Industrial Memorial
lege during its 81st annual
in West Palm Beach.
Dr. R. W. Puryear,
of the school said that of
$14,331.95 given to the
$9,000 was reported by the
man’s auxiliary, which is
by Mrs. Susie Holley; the
School and B.T.U. Congress
ported $1,012.18 and the
movement reported $331, with
balance coming from the
body of the convention.
Dr. J. A. F. Finlayson is
dent of the convention.
ments, from a Southerner’s viewpoint, are
efforts to diminish the effect of the Ne¬
gro's vote. More Northern cities are de¬
ciding to elect their city officials at large
rather than on a district base, a method
that has been frowned upon by outsiders
who have noted it in the South. Consolida¬
tion and gerrymandering of voting dis¬
trict arc being reported to. aLo. to
blunt the Negro's voting strength.”
By It. W. Gadsden
The consumer cooperative move¬
ment is not a new thing to Amer¬
ica, but it is practically a virgin
field as far as Negro participation
in it is concerned. As noted before,
it covers a wide range of business
activity In a recent year con¬
sumer organizations of all types
were in excess of 50,000 with a
total membership of 22 million,
which transacted a volume of busi¬
ness which was valued at two and
a half billion dollars. The coopera¬
tive movement suggests a way by
which a group of people can lift
themselves by their bootstraps.
The means are at hand and the
know-how is available. Perhaps the
desire is the only thing lacking.
Closely allied with the coopera¬
tive idea is The Credit Union
movement. It sometimes goes hand
in hand with the consumer co¬
operative and follows some of its
basic ideas: it is democratic in its
operations; members have equal
voice and vote. One notable dif¬
ference is that a member may sub¬
scribe more than one share. It
follows in the main good
rules and is subject to state
federal inspection, depending on
whether it is organized under Fed¬
eral or state laws. In general
makes credit available to its mem¬
bers to meet their needs for con¬
sumer goods and services.
As stated before, the
of credit unions is
Direction
By REDDICK
Certitude, A Major Factor
The “sting” of any task which
we face in life is weakened by our
certitude. It is impossible for any
one to give the best quality of
service to any cause if he does not
believe in that to which he gives
service.
Someone has told a story of a
J little little girl boy who in was her seen carrying The Iit-
j a arms.
] tle for boy the was little seemingly girl to too heavy She
carry.
was asked, “Isn’t he too heavy for
i you to carry? ” Her answer was,
No, cause he’s my brother.” The
same quantity in other contents
would have been too heavy, but
he was her brother. Whatever
other factors involved here, her
certitude of these facts took out
the “sting.”
We assume many tasks today
for social approval or financial
gain. We may have no conviction
at all concerning the real nature
of the task or the ultimate con¬
sequences of such tasks being ac¬
complished. We may only be
moved by the cheers given for us
as we play a role. We should re¬
member that we cover reality with
a mass or distort it by other means
when we play roles. We should
| also remember that realistic “Life is real,”
1 and we cannot be in our
i dealing with facts of life if we
insist on substituting the playing
roles of over realistic living. Our
abilities are useless when they are
blocked and controlled by those
forces which cause them to operate
superficially. Certitude makes the
difference beween a life given for
value and one given for a shadow;
it makes the difference between
life given to success and one
given to failure.
It is quite interesting to note
progress in a Biblical character’s
life as compared before and after
certitude. Matthew 2fi:ti9; Acts
4:18-20. Here is one who insists
that he is a stranger to an idea
when he was questioned by a de¬
fenseless maid. He, a few weeks
later, “Cannot help” but pro¬
claim the same idea, even in the
face f of threats of capital punish¬
ment.
This kind of certitude, accord¬
ing to the “Old school,” character¬
ized the “Old time” religion. It
is true today that if we are un¬
certain, we “blow” about with
every wind. We change our colors
with environments. It is said that
a lizard changes his colors to
whatever color he crawls upon.
This protects him from enemies.
The early Christians were driven
by a certitude that God had a
plan for this world and all peoples,
God had no other method to
change the world than through
and by Christians.
We today must be realistic 1
we would help the cause of
tian civilization. We cannot
this cause by merely playing
SATURDAY, MAT 14, I960
of people of common bond or of
common interests, such as em¬
ployees of business firms, govern¬
ment employees, residents of small
communities and housing sub¬
divisions, and members of churches,
lodges and trade unions.
An attempt was made 25 years
ago to organize Negro teachers of
this county into a credit union,
but lack of vision and passive re¬
sistance, maliciously inspired, de¬
feated it. However, a credit union
was organized at the instance of
some white employees of the Board
of Education, which some Negro
teachers joined. A credit union was
organized at Yamacraw Village,
| j Both of these organizations may
still exist. If they do, more power
to them.
Sethos Temple Shriners of Sa¬
lem, North Carolina, have organ¬
ized a credit union and have re¬
ceived their charter from the state
of North Carolina.
Credit unions of the United
States number 8800 “in a recent
survey and lent a total of two
hundred-eleven million dollars to
their nearly three million mem¬
bers.” These things were done by
—pardon the levity—“human peo¬
ple” like you.
P. S. Permit me to use this
means of thanking many of my
friends for their kind expressions
of good wishes upon the recent
celebration of my birthday.
Between The Lines
By Dean Gordon B. Hancock for ANP
v . vvwvvvv*»*’«*•<** *H ,, f*{**!*‘!*^*H
THE CURRENT CRISIS
It Is Interesting to note tnat
students here and there about the
world are taking a hand at resolv¬
ing the current crises. Negro stu¬
dents in the United States are try¬
ing their hand at resolving the
crisis in race relations.
Students in Korea and Turkey
are on the march and wherever we
find a crisis we find students ug
to their necks in ways and means
of trying to find a way out. That
at times these students make trou¬
ble for the entrenched forces of
oppression and repression and
suppression is a healthy sight.
It would be a tragedy for the
younger generations, for which
students are the spokesmen, if
they remained passive to the prob¬
lems that vex the Twentieth Can¬
j ary world. There are indications
that more and more the younger
generations must have a say-so
in the matters that pertain to their
future, or their futurelessness,
even the lurid spectre of war.
So long as the younger genera¬
tions are called upon to make the
supremer sacrifices of war then
they should have a part in making
the supremer decisions, upon
which war and peace depend.
We are living in a crisis-torn
world. We are always in the midst
of international crisis. Nation is
rising against nation and devas¬
tating war is always in the offing.
The Apostle Paul spoke about the
change that comes in “the twink¬
ling of an eye.”
Atomic warfare that could
easily mean the wiping of man¬
kind from the face of the earth
could be a matter of the “twink¬
ling of an eye” — the hunch of
some power-mad creature who has
been lifted by circumstances into
some dictatorship.
Religion is fast being ruled out
and power and force are being
ruled in and the prospects are not
assuring. When conscientious souls
mention the brotherhood of man,
as a possibility to save mankind
from itself, they are laughed to
scorn. And the gory prospects re¬
main that the “twinkling of the
eye” of Destiny is always impend¬
ing.
Then there is the explosive
crisis in race relations through¬
out the world with color prejudice
rampant. Incubated for the most
part in the British Empire, and
spread to the uttermost parts of
ANA Asked to Oust Ga.
j Branch for Refusing
j 1 To Admit Negro Members
MIAMI (ANP)—The American j
Nurses Association was asked to
expel the Georgia State Nurses
Association last week for failure
to comply with the National t.sso-
eiation’s policy of admitting ail
qualified professional nurses.
The Georgia association is the
only state group that still refuses
to admit Negro nurses. The board t
of the association has already
voted to ask the House of Dele¬
gates to act at the convention.
The Georgia State Nurses Asso¬
ciation ha: refused to comply with
the principles of the Nurses Asso-
the earth, it is calculated to de¬
stroy hopes of peace on earth and
good will among men.
It is easily the most brutish and
horrid spectre in the world today.
These are three areas where forces
are being engendered to liberate
the world from the threll thrall-
dom of race prejudice, the Church,
the school-room and the athletic
field and we may add the stage.
We must not become too cynical
to note the often silent pressure of
the Church. Some of the loudest
and most insistent voices against
the curse of race ’ prejudice ema- 1 '
nate from the Church.
Race prejudice is largely a mat¬
ter of ignorance, and wherever a
child’s mind is enlightened by
learning there we will find a po¬
tential threat against the curse of
race prejudice.
Even the millions for education
being spent by the Old South will
eventually result in removing not
only the blight of ignorance, but
its concomitant, race prejudice.
When therefore we see students
in many lands becoming articulate
in matters which affect the des-
tinty of mankind, well may we
take heart for it is a sign that
tomorrow will be a better day.
“Watch the student” will become
a potent slogan of tomorrow, and
when the whole student world
rises up and resists the tyranny
of the body and the spirit, we are
going to get somewhere in the
realm of race relations.
The voice of the students is the
voice of a better Tomorrow. The
stir among the students of the
world is a good sign for the op¬
pressed everywhere.
Then there is the athletic field
where Negroes are rising from ob¬
scurity every day to amaze a
startled world. The Negrophobes
of the Old South have tried to
legislate the Negro out of inter¬
racial athletic contests but these
contests going on in other parts
are a great attraction to the de¬
votee of the newspaper, the radio
and television.
Something happens daily when
millions see a Negro knock the
baseball out of the park or snag
a tly ball that “saves the game.”
Students are more responsive
to these things hence the student
revolt. Students and the current
crisis.
ciation’s intergroup relations pro-
Kram, which provides membership
for all qualified professional
nurses in the state nurses associa¬
tions.
YVhen the national group
adopted this policy in 1940 sixteen
state associations did not accept
Negro nurses as members.
As a temporary measure the na¬
tional organization adopted a di¬
rect individual membership pro-
gram for Negro nurses. Since Jan.
L 1954, all state associations
except, Georgia have admitted Ne¬
gro nurses.