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EDITORIAL OPINION FROM THE NATION’S PRESS
Compiled by Associated Negro Press
The sit-down are still
the most controversial issue in the South
today and their affects are reflected on the
editorial pages of the press throughout
the nation. Here fire a few samples:
THE TRIBUNE, Chicago
“It is worth noting that the zealots un¬
intentionally brought about this happy
result. A good start toward integration
of the schools was made easier in Nash¬
ville because of public indignation over the
dynamiting of a sehoolhou.se to which a
few Negro children had been admitted
to the 1st grade. The integration of the
lunch counters was furthered by the
bombing of the home of a Negro leader.
A clearer example of good springing from
evil Would be hard to find.”
THE POST. Denver
“When a department store enters the
food dispensing field it comes within the
purview of the historic concept that the
inn-keeper and common vietualer are obli¬
ged to provide shelter and food to the
wayfarer who is willing and able to pay
for them.
However, there is no obligation on Mr.
Wool worth to furnish this service 24
hours a day, or at all. He may close his
food counter at any time, for any reason.
But as long as he keeps it open, he may
not refuse service to anyone.”
THE GAZETTE, Charleston, W. Va.
“The best hope of obtaining civil rights
Q if A The Daddy of the Sit-downs
(in Eiioc I'. Wafers,
AX AXI' FEATURE
Rare headed arid beamed' 1 »
a
dressed Ni9K':y, qian' with a
case strode, a-Udylically; across the
airfifld after alighting from a
plane at Washington's rtew Natl
ional airport. , M , f ,
Con fidently he walked..in to
sparkling new air terminal,
the cafeteria and took a seat at
the lunch counter.
The white waitress looked at
him with alarm in her face, she
conferred for a moment with an¬
other waitress, then approached
the brown faced man with a mixed
gray goatee.
“I’m sorry hut I can’t serve
you,” she informed him.
“Why not,” he asked. “Are you
closed ?”
“No, we’re not closed, but we
don't serve Negroes here.”
“What,” the man exploded with
emotion. “You mean to tell me
that I, an American citizen, can't
get a cup of coffee and a couple
of doughnuts here!”
“No, sir.” she replied somewhat
timidly, obviously overcome by the
rising indignation of the than.
“Who’s in charge here? Where’s
the manager?”
“He’s not here?
“Who’s in charge?
“I am.”
“What’s your name?”
“Why.” She was beginning to
resent the aggressive manner of
this Negro.
“I’m Edgar G. Brown, president
of the National Negro Council,”
he informed her “and in the name
of every one of the 14.000,000 Ne¬
groes in the United States, I’m de¬
manding service.”
“Well you won’t get it here,” the
girl said. She was angry now.
She called a police officer.
“You’re creating a distrubance.”
the cop said.
“I am not. I’m just demand¬
ing sendee like any other Ameri¬
can citizen,” Brown told him in a
rasping voice that sounded like it
came from a nut grater.
“Well, they don’t serve your
here,” the cop informed him,
you had better go along.”
“I'm not moving until I’m
ved. Now if that is
conduct, you make the most
it.”
Brown reached down into
briefcase, took out a book and
gan to read. So started the
non violent sit down
at a jim crow lunch counter
America.
The year, 1941 — III years
Well aware of the value of
licity, Brown passed a note to
Negro passing by and had him
National Adyertlslng Representatives
65 West 42nd street
New York 30, New York
160 W. Washington St.
Chicago 2, HI.
I J* r - R° bert Whaley
Whaley-Simpson Company
Los Angeles 28, California
Mr. Gordon Simpson
Whaley-Simpson Company
San JJ® ™K g ?T^li?omla
-n i , „
-— •- — wfiV — ■ „...ZL
"
for Charleston citizens, in our opinion that
the chance of achieving this hope can be
measured in the interest shown by the
city’s chief executive in working with the
commission — and his inclination to
nudge it occasionally if necessary.”
NEWS AN!) COURIER, Charleston, S. C.
“The white officers and the colored
demonstrators understand one another
bear little hostility. The police realize
the students are being manipulated by
older and shrewder heads. The students
know the police are there to protect the
public — including the demonstrators —
from possible strife.”
DAILY NEWS, Jackson, Miss.
“One of the biggest falsehoods yet
spread is that these “aitdown” strikes by
Negroes at lunch counters across the na¬
tion are spontaneous.
You have read statements time and
again by the professional agitators that
the demonstrations were spontaneous. The
easily seduced liberals swallow this bunk-
rum hookum lineum and sinkerum.”
THE CONSTITUTION, Atlanta
“At a time whin Georgia is struggling
toward a decision on the future of public
schools, we trust the students will reco¬
gnize they have established their protest
and will refrain from unnecessary and un¬
productive repetitions.”
the newspapers. The following
day they all blossomed forth with
his picture sitting forlornly at the
lunch counter reading a book.
With a story and picture in the
papers, Brown moved on to the
second phase of his campaign.
He retained Atty. Belford V.
I.uwsou and filed suit for $10,000
against the Civil Aeronautics Au¬
thority, the operator of the cafe,
the U. S. Department of Com¬
merce, and because no one was
quite sure whether the airport was
in Washington or the state of Vir¬
ginia, he sued both.
Newspapers reported that it was
the first civil rights suit filed in
Washington since 1808 — 73 years
before.
Brown didn’t win his lawsuits,
but the airport capitulated and as
a result of Brown’s sit down the
daddy of those today Negroes eat
in the National Airport in Wash
ington without any difficulty.
Brown wasn’t the first sit down¬
er. That distinction goes to a
fiery Boston editor and scholar;
Monroe Trotter, who in the 1920’s
would plump down in a barber’s
chair or anywhere and abumantly
remain until he was served.
Or maybe it was Fred Douglass
who 100 years ago steadfastly re¬
fused to give up his seat at a din¬
ner table where he was the only
Negro and remained to eat with
gusto if not in comfort.
The first mass sit downs at jim
crow lunch counters occurred in
Oklahoma City in 1968. They
were staged by the youth council
of the NAACP. Though these and
others in Wichita., Kans. were suc¬
cessful, the movement died until
revived last February in Greens¬
boro, N. C.
A similar technique had been
successfully employed as early as
1942 in a campaign against jim
crow counters, dance halls and
skating rinks in Chicago.
Often referred to as “God’s an¬
gry man,” Brown who was killed
in 1954 in a Chicago
accident, was a national
tion. From the time that
as the Negro tennis champion
1921 was barred from a
park tournament in Chicago
cause of his race, he mounted
soap box and began to
He didn’t stop until death
him forever. He w r on the
with the park board, entered
won the tournament, becoming
first Negro to win the city
championship.
From then on it was one
sade after another.
'When Brown walked into the
port that night, ht had u<5
tion of launching a sit down cam¬
paign. But that was the manner
of Brown.
He fought injustice as he met it
frequently without any plan or
forethought. Sometimes he left
j one campaign hanging in order to
launch another. But he was ef¬
fective because he was always
preaching against racial injustice
~ a street corner - in a bar > in
a church pulpit, or from the plat¬
form of a national convention. And
if ho couldn’t get the pulpit, he
would just rise up from his seat
in the audience and sound off.
As a one man crusade he was
a success, perhaps a greater suc¬
cess than any other man as an
individual has been. IIis National
Negro Council existed only on a
letterhead, but it gave him a base
for his operations.
Over a period of 20 years he
1 "'as arrested in almost every major
city of the United States for
speaking on street corners with¬
out a permit, for blocking traffic,
evciting a riot or creating a dis¬
turbance.
He absorbed more beatings from
unsympathetic police and white j
rabble rousers than any man of
his time. He was beaten severely
once outside the capitol by a con¬
gressional doorkeeper from Texas
for refusing to occupy the seat
given him in the visitors’ gallery.
Uis campaigns included higher
minimum wages for domestics, a
drive for higher wages for unskill¬
ed Negro workers in the Interior
Department, a drive for a million
dimes to finance a campaign
against all racial discrimination, a
march on Washington bargain for
civil rights. “We can’t leave such
an important job to a handful of
cheap politicians. We’ve got to do
it ourselves,” he told an audience
at the corner of Broad and South
Sts. in Philadelphia. It never
came off.
He had some bitter personal
enemies. One of them was Chi¬
cago’s Negro Congressman Arthur
W. Mitchell.
In one of his rare speeches on
the floor of Congress, Mitchell at¬
tacked Brown whom he described
as '“a superconfidence man, be-
longing to that group of racket¬
eering so-called race leaders that
always go around with their hands
out seeking money, prestige, re¬
cognition and power for them¬
selves, only at the same time car¬
ing absolutely nothing about the
group.”
Later, when Mitchell announced
that he would not be a candidate
to succeed himself, Brown eulo-
TUE SAVANNAH TRIBUNE, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
THE HATE GROUP AND SEGREGAT\ ONIST CONCEPT OF FREEDOM
-•-..... --Ar ....... . -it. A ----------■
Letters to
the Editor #«©
1886 East 82nd Stret
Apartment 49
Cleveland 3, Ohio
May 18, 1960
Mrs. Willa A. Johnson
The Editor
The Savannah Tribune
1009 West Broad Street
Savannah, Georgia
Dear Mrs. Johnson:
It is is appalling that the
City Council of Savannah is
■ying to' deny Americans one
of their basic freedoms by its pas¬
sage of an ordinance 6n Friday,
May 6, 1960 prohibiting mass
picketing. Such action is- a
flagrant misuse and abuse of
legislative authority entrusted
to it by the citizens* ? |) 0 <>,
The Constitution of the Uiiit-
ed States clearly states in >l! Arti-
cle IV. Section II, Paragrraph
1: “The citizens of each
shall be entitled to all privileg¬
es and immunities of
in the several states.” The first
Amendment to the Constitu-
tion states: “Congress
make no law . . . abridging
freedom of . . . the people peace-
ably to assemble and to
tion the government for
of grievances:” Amendment
XIV of the Constitution states:
“No state shall make or en¬
force any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immu¬
nities of citizens of the United
States. .. .” The Savannah City
Council recent ordinance is in
conflict with the
of the United States and there¬
fore the ordinance is impotent,
unrealistic, undemocratic,
unconstitutional.
Municipal corporations
created by the state for
primary purpose of
peculiar governmental needs
gized him in these words:
“It is too had you did not
your office to advance the
franchised, disadvantaged
jim crowed American by
at least one law passed
your eight years in Congress
would benefit one of your
Goodbye, my friend. You
public office unsung, unwept by
members of your race. May
rest in peace in your
$35,000 estate in Virginia, intern-
ed forever, we hope, from
public view.”
Brown was born in Sandoval,
and worked as a lobbyist,
relations councellor, editor
held several government jobs
ing the early days of
New Deal.
Brown is reputed to have
ed large sums of money for
he accounted to no one. By
time he died, he had
lost stature even in the
community and Negro editors
corded his activities sparingly’
with caution.
But whether he was a
a fanatic or a God-inspired man
take your choice — one thing
certain: He was a daddy of
lunch counter sitdowners.
urban areas. They, also, are
to serve as local agencies of
state administration. Cities
obliged to exercise their powers
in such a way as not to
i lie the provisions of the
fional constitution, laws and
treaties. Ad of the express
ana implied limitations
on the tstai.es by (he
tion of the United States
equally binding on tne munici-
pal corfffeUate
The Qfjd$tttution of the Unit
ed StatSk" Is the broad,
j mental, body of law for all the
people- of the nation. Each
of the'fifty states has ,a
constitution, this includes the
State of: Georgia. The state
constitution must c nform with
the Federal Constitution.
~ The 'State Constitution does
three basic things: (1) it de¬
fines the rights of the citizens
of the State, (2) specifies the
j form and structure of the gov-
eminent, (3) puts limits on the
powers of the official agencies
j it establishes since it actually
1 grants no power as does the
Federal Constitution,
Hence, the new ordinance
that was passed by the Savan¬
nah City Council prohibiting
mass picketing is, also, in con¬
flict with the' Constitution of
the State of Georgia as well as
in conflict with the United
States Constitution. The pre-
amble of the state of
Constitution states that its
function is videlicet: "To per¬
petuate the principles of free
government, insure justice to
all, preserve peace, promote the
interest and happiness of the
j citizen, and transmit to poster¬
ity the enjoyment of liber-
| ty.
Woman Gets $47,000
U. S, Research Grant
TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE, Ala.
(ANP)—A $4 7,414 research grant
to study amino acid nutrition prob¬
lems in adult men and women has
i been Watts awarded research to associate 1>r ’ Johnnie at the H '
I -
Carver Foundation and P™feMor
<lf foods and nutHt, °n at Tuske ‘
!* ee lnstitute ' (Amino acid makes
SSC To
Graduate 88
(Continued from Page One)
tion and music will be furnished
by the Choral Society’ under the
direction of Dr. Coleridge A.
Braithwaite.
Other events of the commence
ment calendar include senior class
day exercises at 12 noon and senior
night exercises at 8 P.M ,
day, May 2b; Junior-Senior Prom,
j Georgia’s State Constitution j
j guarantees freedom of assem-
bly in its Bill of Rights,
'< Article 1, Section I, Paragraph
xxiV, “The people have the
assemble peaceably for
I their common good, and to ap-
pj y those vested with the
powers of government for re-
dress of grievances, by petition
or remonstrate.” (Article 1,
Section XV Paragraph IT “Leg-
Lslative acts in violation of this
constitution, or the Constitu-
tion of the United States, are
void, and the judiciary shall so
declare them'.” Article X'f,
Section I, Paragraph I. “The
laws of general operation in the
State are—First as the Supreme
law: The Constitution of the
United States, the laws of the
United States in pursuance
thereof, and all treaties made
under the authority of the
United States.”
Savannah - s city Council has
attempted to disregard one of
the basic freedoms that our
country was founded upon and
established by our forefathers
and guaranteed by the State
and our National Constitution.
How can freedom loving cit¬
izens of the City of Savannah
and the state of Georgia allow
such an ordinance to go unchal-
| lenged? We have fought ma-
jor wars and many battles to
guarantee democracy, why
should the sacrifices of lives and
property that have been made
to secure our country safe for
freedom and freedom loving
people be taken away by the
City Council of Savannah or
any other legislative body?
Respectfully yours,
William P. McLemore
up muscle, tissue in the human
body.)
The award, to cover a three-
year period, was made by the U.S.
Department J of Health, Education
_ Welfare.
Allocation for the first period
is $17,338. * .^jJ|
$ P.M., Friday, May 27, Wilcox
Gy’mnasium; President’s reception
for seniors, President’s Residence,
7:30-9:00 P.M., Saturday, May
28 ; Senior Breakfast, 10 A.M.,
Adams Hall; national alumni meet¬
ing. 5 p.m., Meldrim auditorium;
and national alumni banquet,
Adams Hall, Saturday, June 4.
Speaker for the National Alumni
Banquet will be John Lawton,
Class ’38, principal of Willow- Hill
High School, Statesboro. Mr.
Lawton is president of the Geor¬
gia of the Georgia Teachers and
| Education Association represent¬
ing more than 10,000 teachers in
1 Georgia. *
i 5)o Strops
By R. W. Gadsden
The consumer cooperative was
not • conceived to begin with as a
get-rich plan as a boycott scheme.
It was designed primarily as a
means of helping people with or¬
dinary incomes to stretch their
earnings so as to have them meet
their needs for consumer goods
to the best advantage to them¬
selves. Once a group determines
the line of consumer goods it de¬
sires to engage in, certain basic
ideas are set up from which there
is^no deviation, such as, one mem¬
bership for each, one man, one
vote, all purchases cash and carry
at prevailing market prices, ev¬
ery member a patron or customer
who receives at the end of a pe¬
riod a dividend, called a patron¬
age dividend, arrived at on the
basis of the amount of purchases
during the period.
A feature that is no less a
basic necessity is the continuing
program of education on the plan,
purpose and operation of a consu¬
Between The Lines
By Dean Gordon B. Hancock for ANP
RUSSIA AT THE BAT
Speaking in baseball terms, we
can easily say that Russia is at
bat. We are face to face with
the summit conference and we are
going up to the same in a weaken¬
ed position for bargaining.
With Russia’s four-ton satellite
in orbit and with the spy-plane
incident fresh in the mind of the
world, we are not prepared to mea¬
sure arms with a nation handled
not by master Negrophobes, but
by shrewd and crafty statesmen.
If we had statesmen the calibre
of our Negrophobes in Congress,
we would run away with the sum¬
mit conference show.
But our emphasis on Negropho¬
bia and lack of emphasis on state¬
craft, is exposing our nation in
dangerous ways. Our immatu¬
rity of statesmanship needs no
better illustration than the recent
blunder of sending a spy over
Russian territory on the eve of
the summit conference.
But spy’s getting shot down
was the crowning indignity of a
serious blunder. To the Great
Ten Commandments handed down
on Sinai, has been added another
by man, the eleventh command¬
ment, “Thou shalt not get caught!
“We were not only clumsy in
sending a spy at a time like this,
but we sent a clumsy spy who
broke the Eleventh Commandment
and got caught. It is becoming
more and more apparent each day
that it is going to take ten-tenths
of American genius to foil the
Russians instead of the nine-
we are trying to use.
Whether America knows it or
not, ’she needs Negroes at the
front in times of peace as well as
in times of war.
Russia is a dangerous opponent,
and her bid for the domination of
the present world is a bold one.
From decimation of domination
is Russia’s dream and we, by our
blunders, are about to make that
dream come true. Hitler’s legions
laid a great part of Russia waste,
with her armies and peoples deci¬
mated. But Russia bounced back
in tremendous fashion, and is look¬
ing the world over trying to decide
what to do with it; while our fal¬
tering statesmanship languishes.
Our Congress is too crowded
with Negrophobe specialists and
has too few honest- to-goodness
statesman. America leads the
world in giant Negrophobes with
Weaver to Keynote NAACP
51st Annual Convention
NEW YORK — The NAACP
51st annual convention in Saint
Paul, Minn., will open with a key¬
note address by Dr. Robert C.
chairman of the Associa¬
tion’s Board of Directors, on June
.
The closing address to the six-
convention will be delivered
Executive Secretary Roy W T il-
in the Northrup Auditorium
the University of Minnesota,
Sunday afternoon, June 26.
Other convention activities an¬
by John A. Morsell, as¬
to the executive secretary,
the annual NAACP break¬
for clergymen to be addressed
Dr. Homer A. Jack, associate
of the American Commit¬
on Africa June 23. and a series
workshop sessions.
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1660
mer cooperative. That it is not
the conventional stock company
is something which has to be driv¬
en home to the thinking of pros¬
pective members, especially in a
community where such companies
have had unfortunate experiences.
A consumer cooperative is a thor¬
oughly democratic organization in
which all members share equally;
in which there are no “big fish”
and no “little fish,” and no highly
paid officials; in which only the
people who actually do the work
are paid. It can be as successful
as the members want it to be;
however, the rules must be fol¬
lowed strictly.
A later development in the con¬
sumer co-operative movement was
that of providing a way to offer
the benefits of the co-operative to
non-members. Where this is per¬
mitted, non-members draw a some¬
what smaller patronage dividend
and the co-operative becomes sub¬
ject to higher taxation.
a startling scarcity of great states¬
men. What we need is more giant
Russophobes and fewer giant Ne¬
grophobes.
With Russia launching four-ton
satellites into space, and with Rus¬
sia shooting our spies out of her
skies, we are in a poor position
for summit bargaining.
When the nations take a look
into space and see our diminutive
satellites trailing Russia’s four-
ton one, they’re not inclined to be
impressed with our space know¬
how. The tragedy of our present
embarrassed position resides in the
fact that with ordinary ingenuity
it could have been avoided.
We had the resources, we had
the scientists, we had the “jump”'
on Russia in that our land had not-
beMi struck by the devastating and
fist of a decimating and destruc¬
tive war. We muffed a groat op¬
portunity to startle and lead the
world; and what have we done
with our great advantage ? We
are like a careless baseball team
that blows a long lead, and must
struggle again to take the lead,
if indeed we can regain it.
By a series of blunders we have
succeeded in bring Russia to bat.
Our outfield is playing dem
against the fence, and well may
they, for Russia seems destined
to run away with this summit
show.
The team that blows too great a
lead should get itself together if
it would win the game of inter¬
national politics and diplomacy.
Time is running out on us and
whether we know it or not, the
time for giant Negrophobes and
pygmy statesmanship is past.
Statesmanship and not Negro¬
phobia is the hope of our embar¬
rassing position. The fight in
America to hold one-tenth of its
in subjection has brought
Russia to bat at the summit con¬
ference.
America’s This South writer great will still let pharaohs believes the Negro that of the go, if V
there would be a resurgence of
moral strength throughout the
world that would disarm
Russia in her attempt at world
In no other way does it seem
to stop Russia. Russia is
the bat and Russia is a danger¬
hitter!
Workshops will deal with vital
aspects, Mr. Morsell said, of the
NAACP program “in relation to
the slowed pace of desegregation
in the South and increasing need
for decisive action in the North.”
This would include, he asserted,
examination of ways to utilize the
Negro’s growing economic power.
Significance of student protests
as indication of the expanded role
of “young people in the fight for
equality” will be another major
concern.
Emphasis, be said, will be upon
“coordination of these techniques.”
The emergence of Africa, the re¬
lation it has to restlessness in the
Aniercian South, will be still an¬
other discussion area for the busy
conferees, Mr. Morsell announced.