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Kltlanta t 7nquirer
Established July, 1960- Published weekly. Editorial, Advertising and Circu
lation offices at 953 Hunter Street. N. W„ Atlanta, Georgia. Subscription
rates, $5.20 for one year, $lO.OO for two years. The Atlanta Inquirer is an
independent, non-partisan newspaper, dedicated to truth and the ad
vancement of the total community. The opinions expressed by columnists,
contributors and news sources are their own. The Inquirer cannot accept
responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials.
Publisher, THE ATLANTA INQUIRER. INC
President, Jesse Hill. Jr
Vice President. Clinton Warner. M.D
Treasurer, J. C. Johnson
Secretary, Clarence E. Coleman
Exec. Comm. Charles Goosby, D.D.S
Editor, M Carl Holman
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily
reflect the viewpoint or policies of the Atlanta Inquirer. We trust, of course,
that all columnists will make every attempt to adhere to the highest personal
standards of ethics and good taste. A variety of points of view are welcomed
in the belief that only thus can the public arrive at enlightened decisions.
National Advertising Representative- Consolidated Publishers, Inc., 55 West
42nd Street. Suite 424 A, New York 36, N. Y.; Telephone PEnnsylvania 6-0022
and 166 W Washington St.. Suite 622. Telephone ANdover 3-6343. Chicago
2. 11l
Good Sportsmanship Is
Not A Northern Monopoly
During the past ten days a Negro basketball player
from Rhode Island University was cheered as he left
the game which he and his teammates lost to a well
coached Oglethorpe University squad. The spectators in the
stands, both Negro and white, came out on a chilly even
ing during the holidays mainly because they happen to like
basketball.
Dave Robinson of the winning Penn State team and
Joe Auer of the losing Georgia Tech team were both
cheered by an Orange Bowl crowd which was thrilled by
the plays they made, rather than by the fact that Robinson
is a Negro or that Auer is white.
Which would seem to indicate that, in the South as well
as in the North, sports buffs, like jazz music fans, remain
a little more civilized in their outlook than are certain
physicians, hotel operators, politicians and—Lord help
us —educators and connoisseurs of clsssical music and
are.
To Make Two Cities One
BY M. Carl Holman
Atlanta said goodby to one mayor this week and welcomed
the first new mayor since 1942 into office.
William B. Hartsfield, by all accounts, travelled a long
way from his modest traditionally-Southern beginnings to
become a master, politician, a tart-tongued apostle of
change in the eyew of some and for others a sleight-of
hand artist at making haste slowly, and honest and nationally
respected municipal administrator woth a show man’s flair
for selling his city.
Atlanta’s new mayor, business man Ivan Allen, inherits
a monetary surplus, a thriving commercial-industrial
governmental center, the advantages and disadvantages of
Atlanta’s partially deserved reputation for being the most
progressive city in the South.
Mayor Allen will be measured in part of the amount of
substance he gives to that reputation in such relatively
safe sectors as new industries, expressways, improved
housing, a rapid transit system, a stadium, efficient big
city management.
But, as the Calypso song puts it. “House built on a
weak foundation will not stand." And that the question of
equal treatment for all citizens is basic, however con
troversial, can be seen by asking so simple a question as:
Where will Negro athletes find hotel accommodations when
professional teams come to Atlanta?
“Good race relations" can only too easily become either
a smokescreen platitude or a half-hearted wish stated
as a fact.
No task available to Mayor Allen is more crucial than
that of actually making one city of what is still, in too
many ways, a city split down the middle. With color
marking the dividing line.
We are sure that Mayor Allen would agree that pledges
are less important now than performance. We wish him
well, and sincerely hope that he will have the courage and
know-how to accelerate the eracing of double standards
in every area of our civic life from jobs to justice, from
health to housing, form education to recreation.
WHAT PRICE SURVIVAL ?
We understand that the Kennedy administration has made
it clear that it has no intention of building or encouraging
the building of segregated bumb shelter.
The spokesmen for the Rancid Right will no doubt see
in thib* every danger from invasion f privacy to race
mixing in its most dangerous form.
Already we can see a stubborn banc of White Supre
macists outside the last available bum * shelter, stead
fastly awaiting the shock wave and th ? deadly rain of
fallout ! as they hold high their banners ir.scribed with the
proud declaration: “We’d Rather Be Annihilated Than
Integrlift •*’ — < ■ ■:♦• - -;- --■" - •" •”’'"’'’'* • • * * * •
The Atlanta Inquirer
I It H
Ip 1
7g} si
AW M yiflw
Will
Finding Funds
For Grady
& Spalding
If the Grand Jury honestly
believes that additional
money is all that is needed
to correct such small pro
blems as may remain at
Grady Hospital and Hughes
Spalding, we’d like to offer
a modest suggestion.
At present the city, the
county, the Hospital Author
ity and Emory University are
all, in one way or another,
involved in operating a se
gregated hospital set-up.
A segregated system is, by
its very nature, based on
unnecessary duplications,
evasions and exclusions, All
of these, as any good ac-
Guns Are For for Killing
From the Philadelphia Independent
Just a few hours before Christmas, last week, a man in
the prime of life died in an exchange of gunfire with a police
man. No violence had been visited upon the dead man. He
along with three of his companions had been ordered to line
up against a fence for a routine search because their actions
near a State Liquor Store were suspicious.
As the group was complying with the request the dead man
wheeled with a gun in his hand and fired point blank at one
of the two police officers making the search. Fortunately, the
bullet which struck the officer in the center of his chest
failed to penetrate the skin and in self defense the police
man pulled his revolver and shot his assailant to death.
This was a tragic chain of events for the principals in
volved. In cast a somber shadow over several families for
Christmas. It has implanted a memory in the mind of a
young law enforcement officer that might never be erased.
All because a man carried a gun.
Guns are made or killing. There canbeonly one reason
why the dead man had a gun and that is to inflict injury or
death upon someone else However he forgot that dedicated
to the cause of righteousness and those who carry them are
trained to use them-even if it means to kill.
Many of our young people today think that the carrying of
a weapon makes them bigger men but they are mistaken
for such action merely marks them as potential killers. A
man with a weapon will be prone to use it upon the slightest
provocation. The weapon makes him a ten-foot tall bully
and bullies are basically cowards.
One way of avoiding becoming the victim of a slug from a
gun is to be sure you do not carry one. Any law enforcement
officer of citizens licensed to carry a gun will use it if
another person menaces him with a like weapon. Don’t
qarry deadly weapons^they are -made for killing. -
BEAUTIFUL ATLANTA
countant can quickly demon
strate in dollars and cents,
cost the taxpayers money
which could otherwise be
saved or put to better use.
(The Grand Jury might also
have noted that the law suits
which have already been sug
gested as a recourse by some
of those protecting discrimi
nation and segregation at
Grady would also require
additional funds).
In the interest of econo
my, our suggestion of a chea
per, single-track system of
operation is offered absolu
tely free of charge.
A small boy was lunching
for a new place mat pic
turing the nursery rhyme,
“Hey Diddle Diddle". He
gazed at the Mother Goose
scene of the cow jumping
over the moon; then he turn
ed to his mother and said:
“Isn’t that silly—lt would
take at least a three stage
rocket to reach the moon."
LABORS NEW
PHILOSOPHY
From The St. Louis Argus
Mr. A. Philip Randolp,
president of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters has
declared that the civil rights
resolution that came out of
the AFL-CIO convention in
Miami two weeks ago was
the best on this subject the
joint labor unior has adopted.
This should be regarded as
significant, especially since
Mr. Randolph has been push
ing so hard in this direc
tion for so long a period
of time.
In addition to establishing
the new enforcement provi
sions, the resolutions out
lined organized labor’s res
ponsibilities as a democratic
force in the whole field of
•civil rights. It listed the
basic fair practices the
AFL-CIO demands of its
affiliates and set forth a
broad legislative program
aimed at assuring equal
rights for all Americans in
every area of human endea
vor.
The convention said that as
“trade unionists, we insist
on fair practice in unions,
in employment, in housing,
in public accommodations,
in schools, in citizenship
and in every walk of life."
The convention called upon
its affiliates to eliminate
any remaining segregation of
local unions on the basis of
color or race, declaring that
just as we cannot accept the
maintenance of separate
but equal schools, so we re
fuse to countenance the exis
tence of separate, but equal
unions in the ranks of the
movement. It further held
the care should be taken
that contracts not .be per
mitted to have separate lines
of seniority on the basis
of race or religion and that
equal opportunity of the job
be guaranteed all the wor
kers.
The convention further
urged that non-discrimina
tion clauses be written into
all contracts covering pro
motions and conditions of
employment and also that
the apprenticeship training
program be expanded without
regard to ethnic background.
This position of labor
points up a radical change
in attitude particularly from
the top. It has not been too
long ago that Mr. George
Meany, president, smarting
under the stinging tongue of
Mr. Randolph on this issue
asked who gave him (Ran
dolph) the authority to speak
for the Negro. Just a few
weeks ago when the Brother
hood head brought this mat
ter before the executive
council, the body absolved
itself and the union o all
blame in the matter.
It seemed that many forces
were at work at Miami. The
presence of Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt, the Rev. Dr. Mar
tin Luther King, all pointed
toward a new enlightenment
on this grave issue.
Mr. Meany serves on the
President’s Committee of
Equal Employment Opportu
nity, which places him in a
peculair position of ducking
labor’s responsibility in this
matter. We feel sure that
American’s minorities will
watch the implementation of
this new philosophy with
great interest: ‘"
Jan. 6, 1962
